Now the proud owner of a Wisper 905SE City...

[Alex728]

Having consulted with one of the towns best local bike mechanics (the same chap who sourced and replaced the Powacycle spoke at short notice) with regard to service etc I decided to take the plunge and order a Wisper from e-bikes direct..

Despite ordering fairly late yesterday afternoon the package arrived this morning, and I found e-bikes direct staff very quick to pick up the phone and be helpful.

Assembled the machine within a couple of hours - one minor niggle was that there was absolutely no documentation or paperwork whatsoever in the box regarding assembly, but I thought to download and print this last night which was handy..

The frame did have a tag from the factory with all the serial numbers and the even the name of the Chinese guy (Nick) who did the final QA which I thought was a nice touch (they can't be blamed for the lack of documentation as it would presumably be inserted at each country where Wispers are sold in the local language).

I'm still waiting for the charge to complete so haven't had a chance to try out the bike itself but so far I am impressed with the quality of the constructions and things such as the front panel wiring box.. and comparing this with 2007/08 models it confirms there is continuous improvement of the main design..

 

[flecc]

Congratulations Alex, I hope you get years of enjoyment from your new Wisper. The weather forecast is showing some improvements for the weekend so hopefully you'll get plenty of riding time.
.

 

[eddieo]

Good move! they are a great bike

 

[Straylight]

Welcome to the unofficial EA Wisper club!!! (membership, AFAIK, 2 )

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Welcome Alex!

I am delighted you decided to join the growing clan of Wisperers!

We really must start an owners club Straylight!

All the best

David

 

[Alex728]

I built the bike yesterday but put the battery on charge in the evening so it will be ready soon after 12 hour charge, eagerly waiting for this - out of curiosity I put the mains meter on the 230V feed, and it started out at 150W last night and is now at 6W as we approach 12 hours..

have to say even the very robust box the bike came in is impressive (its sturdy enough to use the top of it to keep bike-related tat on) as well as the "free" tools which included some steel spanners with "bluing" treatment normally used on guns, they seem to be very good quality for freebies and looked like something a Chinese soldier would get issued with for maintaining military equipment!

Due to the colour scheme the bike itself has a sort of "retro British" look like an old style gent's bike to it but with modern styling elements and Japanese components..

 

[Blew it]

It's fully charged

Alex,

The Wisper charger consumes 6 watts even when not hooked up to the battery. I've been using a consumtion meter to check the calender ageing effect on various Lithium batteries. To get an accurate w/hr capacity value it's important to catch the charger at the point when the fan shuts off. After that point, although the battery is fully charged, the consumtion meter will continue to add the chargers consumtion to the amount of w/hr's absorbed by the battery.

Have fun with your new bike!

All the best
Bob

 

[Alex728]

First ride today and I am very impressed

This bike is geared a lot higher than the Salisbury (i.e its quite fast even unpowered once you've got the momentum) I am just getting used to the handling and being in different gears to what I normally ride in on the Salisbury. The throttle boost is very welcome, and I have been able to ride up a hill which was very hard work on unpowered bikes and even the Salisbury..

I did find the "low/high" pedelec adjustment "falls between two stools" - low is a bit too low but high can be a bit "fast" in heavy traffic (Although I think I've managed to get the right balance with keeping it on high and easing off the pedals to allow the bike to slow down).

TBH maybe an adjustable pedelec assistance setting would be better for the future.

A couple of minor issues - I found it easy to accidentally knock off the power on the red button when using the throttle - I spent a fair bit of time adjusting the position of this, the brake lever and the gear change lever on the handlebars so that there's less chance of doing this. I do appreciate the red button is also there as a safety feature though.

Another thing I've noticed is that changing the batteries on the rear LED lamp will necessitate removing the whole assembly from the rack as the fixing screws for the red cover are on the rear of the lamp assembly and thus obscured by the metal.

There is another model of this kind of lamp where the fixing screws are more easily accessible which I got from Wiggle a couple of years ago but I haven't been able to find it recently. Otherwise I'm enjoying riding this a lot - easily getting to 15+ mph a lot quicker on this even on hills and have noticed a fair few pedestrians and motorists looking rather surprised at the speed I am going at.

 

[Straylight]

I've found that keeping the pedelec power set to low, and then just using the throttle to increase the power gives me a lot more control, and means I use the brakes far less, particularly in traffic cues etc.

I agree that coasting up to junctions is definately the way to go. You can do this from supprisingly far back, as it generates a lot of momentum at speed.

Glad you're having fun with it It does take a bit of trial and error to get the optimal setup, but then this is all part of the fun as well..