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Had the bike two weeks now, and a lot of guys helped me out in my first few threads, so thought I'd post a quick review here! First impressions: Very good looking bike, solid and well built, and I haven't seen (m)any other Bosch performance CX bikes with the 500Wh battery for £1700. The wheels it came with are rather mountainbikey and massive, but that's easily changed. It's a big bike, but will fit in the back of a 3 series estate with the seats down without a problem. The weight is also comparatively good weighing in at around 20kg so I can lift it up and down stairs quite easily. It comes with pedals and a bell, so you can go riding straight out of the box. The first ride: The Intuvia is quite a simple display, but easy to read and tells you what you need to know. I really like the fact it has a micro USB output on it, meaning I can charge my phone from the bike (and eliminating the need for a dedicated cycle gps - £200 saved right there.) - I'm a big guy at 110kg, but the bike accelerates well up to the cutoff, and it's fairly easy to ride even without power. I do around 20mph on the flat, and I've been up to 32mph downhill. The bike remains grounded and sturdy. The brakes are excellent, though if you press them too hard you could go over the bike! Overall it felt like a nice bike to ride, but the cutoff was quite annoying especially on big uphill segments where I'd suddenly lose power and need to lower my speed to regain it. Didn't get the 'ebike grin' on road, but I've enjoyed taking it on a few trails since. The experience so far/overall: It's an excellent bike, and feels good to use. The power cutouts are fairly annoying after 120miles or so, but I'll either have to get used to it or dongle it. I think Bosch could do a better job at tailing off power at the high end instead of it suddenly disappearing. I use it mainly in eco, but sometimes switch to 'touring' to do the big uphills. Eco is generally sufficient for the majority of riding, and even if the battery gives up on you, the bike is easy enough to ride home without it. I don't have panniers on it yet, but regularly carry a rucksack with 20kg, so talking a total of 130kg load. I'm a little underwhelmed by the 'fun' factor, but perhaps I just had unreasonable expectations. Some minor points: - The batteries are exorbitantly expensive coming in at £700. The Bosch system is not flexible in allowing other batteries, so you just have to either suck it up or get an aftermarket/2nd hand one and pray. - The battery needs a bit of force to 'lock' into position when putting it in. - The intuvia is removable, which is nice. - The suspension is lockable for road use, though it's not much of a hassle. - The cube seat looks somewhat akin to a torture device, but is actually fairly comfortable Any questions, ask away

Given that the warrantied £2600 Sahel i360 harmony recently listed on here took 2.5 months to sell for an eventual £650~, I'd imagine that £600 for the £849 big bear would be rather difficult to realise on here and that ebay/etc may yield better results for the OP. Genuine interest though [mention=10822]chelle[/mention]. £600~ wouldn't be realistic for me though.

It'd be great to know the kind of price you're looking for. I'd be happy to work my way up, but without having a clue what you want it's difficult to negotiate

Following on from the 'new bike thread' I've managed to get my paws on a 2016 cube hybrid, so will be posting questions/updates on the project etc here. (partly so I can just manage it myself and get some input) I'm planning to use the bike for commuting and a long solo charity tour at the end of the year. Initial jobs to do: Have the following fitted: - new tyres (is tubeless a good option?) - Currently considering http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schwalbe-marathon-mondial-touring-tyre-raceguard/rp-prod83203 - lights/mudguards/rear rack & panniers Fix the range issue: The tour will be the full North Sea cycle route and I'll need to cover the distance in 5 weeks or so. Most of the time will be on eco setting, but sometimes I'll need to use the more powerful assist modes (I have quite severe fibromyalgia) so range needs to be taken into account. I'll unsure of accommodations as yet, but it'll probably consist of a tent for many of the nights. I need to be confident of a 150m~ range @ 150kg fully loaded. I've spent the last week or so messing around with low pressure hydrogen systems in the lab, and I'm unconvinced I'll have anything viable ready for the summer. May just be a case of taking 2-3 batteries and chargers and a lot of negotiation. Mess around with the bosch diagnostics software and see if I can get a nyon system working! May have to pick [uSER=5601]@Martin@e-bikeshop[/uSER]'s brain for this one. final note: I don't really consider myself 'disabled' but anything mechanical or requiring wiring/soldering etc will need to be done by a bike shop or something due to my situation. Anything electronic/software I can do myself no problem.

Are you talking about the 10nm spherical particle research done a couple of years ago by a south korean university? (I think it was) The one that showed that the smaller the particles were, the more contact with water was generated? The amount of h2 generated from that was ridiculous. We're not thinking on that scale of reactions or pure silicon but something more like this: http://signachem.com/hydrogen-energy/hydrogen-energy-products/ - Signachem are being very helpful, but there's also the stanford research which could prove useful if that source falls through. Gonna have a play in the university lab this week or so, and see what's feasible. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/november/nickel-water-splitter-111213.html- for the stanford results.

[uSER=330]@Cyclezee[/uSER] Thanks for the video. I didn't know it was an eZee sprint That bike was one of the first things we researched from. (original source http://www.merlin.unsw.edu.au/energyh/hy-cycle/ by the way). It's a similar system, except it consists of a canister of compressed H2, which directly powers a fuel cell (the thing on the back.) The problem with the system is that 1. Those hydrogen canisters are big and heavy (not to mention expensive) 2. Lugging compressed hydrogen around (I believe that canister is 100l) is an explosives risk, and probably wouldn't be welcome on ferries and stuff 3. It provides 738Wh, but still requires a battery to provide the peaks. The system we're considering works in a very similar fashion, but instead of having a canister of hydrogen, it will be produced on the fly. You have a bottle of locally sourced water (any water will do), and a silicide compound (probably silicon + activator with the silicon as small as possible) stored in anything from a plastic bag to a glass jug. You mix the silicide and the water, and you get low pressure hydrogen on the fly! (Can program the lcd or a 2nd lcd on the bike to control the mixing, or just leave it as standard.) This way you cut down considerably on weight. Just out of interest, assuming we made heavy modifications to the bike, how would that affect the motor/battery warranty?

I completely agree objectively speaking. However for me, a semi disabled fat couch potato who's not exercised in 10 years, it's still a big trip. And it's a start, not a finish. To do this in 3-4 weeks living in a tent, whilst raising a lot of money for charity and proving a hydrogen system can provide power to disaster zones/powerless areas, is worth it, for me personally. Planning it is exciting, developing the bike is exciting, and it will give me impetus to get fit in preparation.

[mention=6825]RobF[/mention] Thanks, will take that into account. The other thing I noticed is the Bosch chargers are really heavy, so taking 2 adds another 8kg on it's own. 50 cycles don't seem to be the best at responding to emails, so I may just email Kalkhoff and see what they have to say. I don't see any specific technical limitations to charging on the fly, but if there is, it may be easier to just carry a spare that's constantly slowly charging. [mention=12040]PatH[/mention] Thanks for sharing your setup. That Sparta actually looks lovely, and it's not a brand I've really looked into or considered before. Added to that it has regenerative braking so would be easy enough to fit a recharge system to it. [mention=4665]trex[/mention] As I understand it, the reason batteries are so efficient is scaling. That's to say, a 600Wh battery with charger would weigh around 4kg and possibly take you 100 miles, whilst a hydrogen system of the same output would require 3 components, a fuel cell and cabling, (3.5kg or so), pellets (400g), and around 800grams of water to take you the same distance. The weight of these components is around 4.7kg, which makes it pointless for the average cyclist. (not to mention it's easier to plug in a battery to your mains at home than order silicide capsules). Additionally a hydrogen system is unable to provide the peaks you may need on steep hills, so you'd need a battery too. However when you consider a longer range and lack of recharging facilities, and assuming you can locally source water every 200 miles or so, I think hydrogen comes into its own, as the only thing you would need to carry with you extra is silicide. I'm hoping to do the trip over a 4 week period, and although that's only 140~ miles a day, there won't always be a power source at the end of the day. I'll stay once a week (or every 1400 miles) with friends/hotel to charge my laptop/cameras/batteries, but that's the extent of it. The other advantage is, I could use it at night off the bike to power lights/phone/whatever. Plus, it's exciting to develop new stuff, and may help raise media/fundraising awareness and attract sponsorship! [mention=1876]JuicyBike[/mention] No problem. I'm probably in Singapore from 12-25th October or so (avoiding a few weeks of uni lectures so I can actually get real work done!) so it'll be after that. Will get in touch, thanks. [uSER=330]@Cyclezee[/uSER] Your 1008Wh batteries are beasts! I didn't see anything about weight/charging/cells though; do you have a technical sheet on them somewhere that I missed?

Hey guys, thanks for your well thought out responses and apologies for the delayed response. Since posting the initial post I've done a lot of research and groundwork for this, and decided the logical thing to do is get a bike for now, and prepare a specialist bike for next summer. So for now I'm going to buy a woosh or something similar, and see below for the project! For those interested in the summer project, I considered two forms of power, namely solar (like guim did with the spare battery) and Hydrogen. We decided that a trailer and solar power was not appropriate for the route I'm taking, so have further researched the Hydrogen option. The bike will be powered by a standard 612Wh battery and motor, and the hydrogen system will be fuelled by a fuel cell and silicide canisters to provide the power. Water will be in a separate bottle, and mixed with the silicide capsules to provide H2 for the fuel cell. This will provide a constant energy flow which when pedalling hard will power the motor and charge the battery, and when on hills etc will be supplemented by the battery power. The weight of the entire system (batteries+fuel cell+capsule+water) is around 5.5kg. An extra battery will come in at around 3kg, and extra capsules will come in at around 600grams. If there is no water source imminent, each capsule will also require about 800 grams of water. Range for 1 battery+ 1 capsule should be 150-200 miles depending on terrain. I also need to lose around 10kg for more optimal range. We're still in the preproduction/concept stage, but things are coming together surprisingly quickly. The other plus side is we should raise over £30,000 for charity with this trip. (If any manufacturer is interested in sponsoring a trip to a full/limited extent or helping with engineering, please do get in touch. We already have computer hardware/software engineers committed so be aware of this) Exciting times, and really enjoying planning and funding it. Really helpful post thanks. Could you give me a link for the Bosch, or is it one of the 'rose' machines you get from googling your signature? Thanks! I don't want to waste your time, so I'll say at the outset that I'm not going to make a decision on the model to purchase right now/until I have all the data. That said, I'd absolutely love to try out some of your bikes and have a look around the workshop to get a feel for it from a manufacturer perspective! If you are happy for me to do this, let me know and we'll set it up. Thanks for the helpful post

I used to love cycling as a kid, but have fallen into driving laziness as I live in Manchester now. Was down staying with my mum in Cambridge for a month and ended up hiring a [normal] bike for the whole time, and thoroughly enjoyed my various 15-25mile outings. However lack of fitness and being a fatty precludes me from being able to do truly long distances on a standard bike. (I'm fairly strong so handled the shorter rides, but then again Cambridgeshire is pretty flat) Therefore I'm looking into long range ebikes, for 1. Commuting into university, 2. Doing longer tours. 3. Hopefully doing the entirety of the North Sea Cycle Route ( http://www.northsea-cycle.com/ from Norway to the UK at least) next summer. I realise I'll need a spare battery or two, so take this into account So, I'm 6'2, and weigh almost 18st/120kg. Got quite a lot of strength for the shorter journeys, so can certainly contribute to the pedaling. An extra 2-3 batteries and gear will easily add another 20kg to that. There's so many available that I'm confused, but I've generally been looking at the Woosh Sunbear/Bigbears and the Kalkhoff S11's. Budget isn't the biggest consideration, but if the Sunbear will do the job as well as the Kalkhoff, I'd obviously rather spend less I'm decent with electronics and stuff (though not so strong mechanically) if a custom made battery is the best option. Thanks!