Thoughts on selecting a new e-bike

[CDinFrance]

Warning - long post

Thoughts on selecting a new e-bike

I have been interested in e-bikes since I saw my first one. I was in Berlin in Sept 1998, and in the main Mercedes-Benz showroom on the Ku'damm, they had a "Hybrid Bike"

Mercedes-Benz Hybrid Bike

I was fascinated, and started researching the subject. There was not really much out there, and a lot of bikes and kits were pretty basic.

Just after Sept 11, 2001, I thought, "what am I waiting for", and flew from Geneva where I live to the IFMA show in Cologne, Germany. Extraenergy had a test track set up there, and while I was a bit rushed, I got to try several bikes. There were a lot of pretty bad e-bikes in the trial, but on the advice of someone from Extraenergy, I tried the Yamaha Easy Super, and was totally convinced.

Yamaha Easy Super - ExtraEnergy.org

I think the Easy Super was a standout for the period, and probably as good as the new Kalkhoff models. I commuted (9 Km each way - rolling hills with a 100m height differential) on this bike from Nov 2001, to Nov 2008, when it was sadly stolen. I replaced the battery after 5 years, but other than that had no problems.

So, I am back in the market, and doing my research. I am an urban cyclist and prefer a step through frame, as I think they are easier to get on and off of and therefore safer in traffic.

I have not quite finished my research, but have decided on the following criteria:

- Step through frame
- Removable battery - (It can go down to -10 here, and my bike is always outside)
- Ease of riding without assistance
- Gearing - (I don't need 24 gears, and prefer an internal gear hub for city riding)
- Support and service

Price and battery duration are not really on my list, as I think any new bikes will cover my 16 Km commute on a full charge. Most of the bikes on my short list are also roughly the same price.

I am very familiar with crank drive after 7 years of riding, and while I understand the issues and advantages of a constant motor speed, I really don't like the way they ride with no power - very sluggish.

I have a 3-speed classic Dutch bike which I really like:

Gazelle Toer Populair, Classic Dutch Bike, Amsterdam Bicycle

I would use it every day if my ride was shorter or flatter.

So I guess I am looking for something just as comfortable as the old Gazelle, but with the power to flatten the hills, reduce some of the muscle stress, and shorten the commuting time.

I am also looking to see what bikes may be a bit ahead of the curve, just like the Easy Super was in 2001. My personal impression is that there a trend towards more normal looking power assisted bikes, and of course manufacturers would love to offer a standard and an electric model that use a lot of the same parts. Personally I think there is also an attempt to make the new E-bikes a little less geeky looking. both to attract a more mainstream buyer, but also so that they can pass more imperceptably, and not get remarks from friends.

So here we are in Jan 2009, and I am just waiting for better weather to try out some bikes I have selected. Here is my short list:

Villiger (Trek) - Levantina

Villiger: LEVENTINA E

- I have always liked the quality of Villiger, and the addition of a Bionx motor and 40V battery looks exciting. I

am a bit concerned that all the weight is in the rear, but want to try it out.

Gazelle Orange Innergy

Gazelle Innergy, Premium E-bike. Electric Bicycle, Pedal Assist Bicycle.

- As mentioned above, I have always liked Gazele bikes, both for the build quality and the ride. The Innergy seems to be the best balance yet between a normal bike and an e-bike. The weight is also well distributed between front hub motor and rear battery. Unfortunately there have bee serious teething problems with the electronics, but Gazelle assures me that these have now been fixed, and there have been two major software ugrades.

Kalkhoff Jubilee

Kalkhoff - my bike... Vollgefederte und sportgefederte Trekkingbikes, Citybikes und Offroadbikes

- I have ever seen a Kalkhoff, but believe the reports that these are very well built bikes. - I need to see if I can get one near where I live...

Wattworld E-move City

E-Move City - www.wattworld.ch

While I am a bit concerned about the viability of this startup company, the Swiss almost never build bad products. Apart from that, this ike seemes to tick all the boxes.

I will report back on my trials, but have to say at this point that I think the Gazelle seems to have a bit of an advantage for 2 reasons. First, my confidence in the brand and esthetics of the design. Second, the excellent chain cover and internal Nexus gearing that makes it almost maintenance free.

Any comments or suggestions?

Craig

 

[flecc]

Hello Craig

Regarding the riding quality of the drive through gears system, I'd suggest you try at least one of the bikes with the Panasonic system, since these are far easier to pedal without power than the old Yamaha system.

You might be disappointed with the steep hill ability of all those hub motor bikes, though they will generally perform well on the flat and moderate hills. After having the Yamaha with it's drive through the gears advantage, the only makes in your list with that on some models are Gazelle and Kalkhoff. With Kalkhoff it's not their F and Jubilee models as those are are front hub motor. It's the Agattu C, Pro Connect and Tasman models with the Panasonic system which are gear drive. We don't know anything about the Panasonic hub motor in the Kalkhoff Jubilee yet as it's a very new design.

The Gazelle Easy Rider has the gear drive Panasonic system exactly the same as the Kalkhoff, and of course the superb Gazelle quality you like, so this could be the better choice than the hub motor Innergy if the steep climbing is important.

The BionX motor is very sophisticated, but the 250 Watt version for Europe is only average for steep hill climbing, the original 350 Watt being much more capable, but those have to be imported from Canada or the USA. It's as well to be aware that the BionX lithium battery is very expensive when it comes to replacement time, though it is proving to have a better life than average

Yamaha have returned to the e-bike market now with a drive through the gears motor very like the Panasonic system fitted to the Kalkhoff bikes. So far it's only appeared for Europe in the Hungarian Olimpia Bicycles Gepida bike which you've probably seen on the ExtraEnergy site.

I'm afraid I don't know what motor the Wattworld bike uses so know nothing about it.

Hope this is some help.
.

 

[CDinFrance]

Thanks, I will certainly try some of the Panasonic models.

Question about the Bionx - do 40.7 volts make the 250 watt motor more powerful? A Swiss review suggests that this new bike has an assist that is somewhere between the Bionx PL250 and PL250HT, but I am not really sure what that means.

 

[flecc]

Question about the Bionx - do 40.7 volts make the 250 watt motor more powerful? A Swiss review suggests that this new bike has an assist that is somewhere between the Bionx PL250 and PL250HT, but I am not really sure what that means.

That might be misleading, resulting from the way the voltage is listed. On all bikes with nominal 36/37 Volt lithium batteries, the fully charged Voltage is typically about 40.5 to 41 volts. Under load it starts to fall and when the battery is emptied on the bike, the voltage is down to around 32 Volts.

The 37 volts that's normally shown results from 10 x cells of nominal 3.7 volts each, so the 40.7 Volts could either be the fully charged voltage of that, or that this version has 11 cells in it's battery instead of 10. There's no way I can tell which, but if it's 11 cells, it will be 10% more powerful.

The assist level differences more likely result from differences in the controller software.
.