Well, after looking at various postings on this site, and prompted by the death of motor number 4 on my Currie, I took delivery today of a new Powabyke 24 speed commuter.

 

These are first impressions and should not be taken as a complete and full road test, I'll report in detail at a later date.

 

The bike lives up to expectations in terms of build quality, Robust or what! It's like the proverbial brickbuilt latty! Alloy frame with good welding, ally bars and stem. Seat like an armchair, but a bit old mannish so that may go. Strong motor mount with soundly designed torque washers (brackets) on the spindle. Idiot proof gear selectors with separate levers for changing up and down - a bit of overkill in my view and they may go as well. Funny old rims and tyres that would do justice to a 1950s autocycle and would probably take a Villiers 2f 98cc engine as they did. (The whole package would be better with Villiers 2 bhp as well, it looks strong enough!).

 

Riding it I have to say so far it's not what I'd expected.

 

It's a bit gutless, needs quite a lot of LPA even on modest hills. The motor clicks furiously when coasting downhill, it has the loudest freewheel in the motor I've ever heard. When the power comes in it's just about acceptable at modest throttle openings, but sounds like a knackered coffee grinder at full chat.

 

The upside is it handles well, is comfortable and has very good brakes. Mileage per charge we shall see, I am charging it as we speak and will take the plot out tomorrow.

 

Looking at the documentation I see the motor is shown as 150watts! All I've seen on this forum indicates a 200 or 250 watt motor. If it is indeed 150 watts that explains why it seems feeble.

 

I should say I'm comparing the Powabike to my Currie, which is 300Watts, and my lightweight sports Nano equipped Falcon which is 250 watts. The Currie would go up the side of a house, eats batteries and whines quietly. The Nano is fair at hills, almost silent, I haven't found the limit of the batteries.

 

No such thing as an ideal purchase, eh?

No such thing as an ideal purchase, eh?

Well... Kalkhoff is pretty close...

bw

musicbooks

That Powabyke is regarded as one of the better hill climbers when in the lead acid battery form, but the motor is one of the noisiest. Again it's rating has always been 200/250 watts in the past, but I suppose it might just have been derated for use with the lithium battery, though I very much doubt it.

 

In a sense you are right with your final comment, very very few e-bikes really up to what the public really want in terms of hill climbing, silence and range.

 

The legislators are at least partly to blame for that though.

.

Sounds like you may have a faulty one to me,the motor should be quieter than a currie and should run very smoothly downhill with no clicking noises,i had a sakura which uses the same motor and i used to hit the brakes downhill, because it freewheeled so well and picked up speed beyond the capability of the brakes.

"Looking at the documentation I see the motor is shown as 150watts! All I've seen on this forum indicates a 200 or 250 watt motor. If it is indeed 150 watts that explains why it seems feeble."

 

They are all 200 watt motors, I suspect the manual is incorrect. Thank you for point that out, I will try and find it and see if I can update it!

 

FrankC

 

Powabyke Ltd

"The motor clicks furiously when coasting downhill, it has the loudest freewheel in the motor I've ever heard. When the power comes in it's just about acceptable at modest throttle openings, but sounds like a knackered coffee grinder at full chat."

 

Please allow a couple of weeks for the wheel to bed in. They do get quieter over time! If it does persist after this period, I would suggest having the dealer repack the wheel with grease. Again this should improve performance. Please keep me posted though.

 

Regards

 

FrankC

 

Powabyke Ltd

Well... Kalkhoff is pretty close...

bw

musicbooks

 

Well... the Synergie Mistral comes pretty close too...

Cheap to buy, nice to ride, performs well, is reliable and has a good range.

As an owner of the Mistral.. I'm biased of course:)

.

A few miles later!

 

Well I,ve been out on it today, Down the town twice, 10 miles total, and the motor is smoothing down a bit, but Frank, boy is it gutless!

 

Northridge Way in Hemel is about 1 in 12 or 15 I'd say. Currie romps up at 10mph with a bit of pedaling. Nano 8mph with a similar amount of pedaling.

 

The Powabyke is down to 4mph, me pedaling in an appropriate low gear like Billy-oh! Is this normal?

 

Downhill is ok, gets up to a fair old speed so I guess the motor isn't holding the plot back, and when you get over 15 mph the freewheel quietens off. Strange.

Edited May 8, 200817 yr by Andy Day

I think there could be a problem with your bike. I had a Commuter 24 with lead acid battery and it never fell below 11mph, on any hill I tried. I only ever used the top 3 or 4 gears - the lower gears were redundant. Although the motor is rated as 200watts - the peak is over 700watts - they don't come any more powerful. I should also point out that I'm 19+stone and carry luggage.

Something wrong there Andy. On a gentle slope of that order the Powabyke should romp up at 7 to 8 mph without you pedalling.

.

Something wrong there Andy. On a gentle slope of that order the Powabyke should romp up at 7 to 8 mph without you pedalling.

.

 

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ive just got rid of a 5 year old one, battery at least 2 and half years old and it had as much power and speed as the spec says for a brand new one....heavy..in fact a tank !!!

Definitely something wrong. I used to go up a 1 in 15 on my old Powabyke on my morning run into work and it stayed in top gear, and the speed stayed right on 15mph. It was as if the hill wasn't there.

Well I,ve been out on it today, Down the town twice, 10 miles total, and the motor is smoothing down a bit, but Frank, boy is it gutless!

 

Northridge Way in Hemel is about 1 in 12 or 15 I'd say. Currie romps up at 10mph with a bit of pedaling. Nano 8mph with a similar amount of pedaling.

 

The Powabyke is down to 4mph, me pedaling in an appropriate low gear like Billy-oh! Is this normal?

 

Downhill is ok, gets up to a fair old speed so I guess the motor isn't holding the plot back, and when you get over 15 mph the freewheel quietens off. Strange.

 

Sound like you have a similar problem to me (gutless performance).

 

I purchased a brand new Powabyke Euro 3 months ago, performance was poor to say the least. I suspected the battery, but having nothing to compare this issue to, and when the dealer said performance was never going to match the claims of Powabyke!!! I decided to buy another battery (independantly), to compare (from ebay - 150231009112).

 

This totally rejuventated the bikes performance inline with the stated claims for performance- so I suspect your problem (like mine), is connected to the battery.

 

So very pleased with the bike now albeit after a sickeningly disappointing start!

 

PS. Oh yes I get that loud freewheel noise too.

Edited May 11, 200817 yr by pete22

have you demended an exchange if not good enough

 

what have you done with the duff battery ?..hope you are just not going to sit on it without demanding ex change or some similar compensation or it just makes it easier for them to not compensate or exchange the next time

Progress?

 

Well I've given the thing a chance, and I'm now moving things on. I've spoken to Powabyke, and they conceed with provisos there may be a problem, but have quite rightly refered it to the dealer for the next stage. I've contacted the dealer, (Janes of Edlesborough near Dunstable), the first person I spoke to tried the "they are all like that sir" response, but sensing I wasn't having any of it passed me on to me to the Powabyke expert. He is going to contact Powabyke to get some spares in, (Wheel, pcb and twistgrip) so he can perform a diagnostic by a process of elimination. I shall call him tomorrow and mention the battery situation, thanks Pete22! I don't know why the dealer doesn''t have a rig which enables the insertion of an ammeter or wattmeter, as an electronics engineer I'm not in favour of a poke and hope repair process, you learn nothing.

 

I have to say I have been more than happy with the response and service of Powabyke and Janes of Edlesborough so far, but I will get a resolution!

Not familiar with this bike but is there a chance one of the hall effect sensor wires has been severed. This would give a noisey lower powered affair!!

 

Paul

Well I've given the thing a chance, and I'm now moving things on. I've spoken to Powabyke, and they conceed with provisos there may be a problem, but have quite rightly refered it to the dealer for the next stage. I've contacted the dealer, (Janes of Edlesborough near Dunstable), the first person I spoke to tried the "they are all like that sir" response, but sensing I wasn't having any of it passed me on to me to the Powabyke expert. He is going to contact Powabyke to get some spares in, (Wheel, pcb and twistgrip) so he can perform a diagnostic by a process of elimination. I shall call him tomorrow and mention the battery situation, thanks Pete22! I don't know why the dealer doesn''t have a rig which enables the insertion of an ammeter or wattmeter, as an electronics engineer I'm not in favour of a poke and hope repair process, you learn nothing.

 

I have to say I have been more than happy with the response and service of Powabyke and Janes of Edlesborough so far, but I will get a resolution!

 

Im hoping Peter at Janes has a euro in stock so they can switch the battery over to see if that is the problem, otherwise then I would think it would be the motor wheel. I will speak to Janes tomorrow to see what they have in stock.

 

Regards

 

FrankC

Powabyke Ltd

I heard from Peter Janes today, he tells me Powabyke are sending out a complete bike for spares and diagnostic comparisons, which is excellent service. Lets hope it result in a solution.

Sound like you have a similar problem to me (gutless performance).

 

I purchased a brand new Powabyke Euro 3 months ago, performance was poor to say the least. I suspected the battery, but having nothing to compare this issue to, and when the dealer said performance was never going to match the claims of Powabyke!!! I decided to buy another battery (independantly), to compare (from ebay - 150231009112).

 

This totally rejuventated the bikes performance inline with the stated claims for performance- so I suspect your problem (like mine), is connected to the battery.

 

So very pleased with the bike now albeit after a sickeningly disappointing start!

 

PS. Oh yes I get that loud freewheel noise too.

 

 

 

To Pete22 - If the dealer said to you "nothing wrong", and you had "nothing to compare this issue to", when did you decide something was wrong? What prompted you to buy a battery "(independantly)" of the Powerbyke dealer network? What was the eventual outcome? Did you get a refund?

To Pete22 - If the dealer said to you "nothing wrong", and you had "nothing to compare this issue to", when did you decide something was wrong? What prompted you to buy a battery "(independantly)" of the Powerbyke dealer network? What was the eventual outcome? Did you get a refund?

 

 

It's often said that there is no such thing as an ideal purchase, that the promise of whatever we buy rarely lives up to our expectations or the stated claims.

 

So was this the case with my Euro? I had nothing to compare it to and the dealer did say three times that the bike would never live up to the stated specification. He did say that the batteries were often poor to start with, but after a couple of charges it would gain in power (never happened).

 

After using the bike for a week I decided that something must be wrong. The Euro comes with a bank of 10 leds with which the battery can be monitorered easily by the user and on even a modest gradient, there was a reduction in the number of leds displayed - say from 10 to 6, and this after a full charge and a 2 mile journey

 

So what should I do? Go back to the dealer again, he'd already said three times "nothing wrong". Had he sold me a duff battery? Who knows? In the worst case if I demanded a new battery I'd probably get the same battery back and be no further forward.

 

So I decided to buy a replacement battery from an independent supplier, I felt I had nothing to lose. Either the dealer was right and I'd gain a useful spare, or the dealer was wrong and I'd have a powerful proof.

 

The rest as they say is history!

Happy with my Commuter

 

Shame about your problem with the bike.

Ive had no problems with mine so far.

Peformance was fine with the old lead acid battery - Ive ridden it everywhere in top gear even up Portsdown hill and several other hills around the Portsmouth area. Performance is good with the new lithium battery too.

The only annoying thing about the bike is the ridiculous freewheel noise - makes me feel kinda embarrased at times! Is there a mod to stop this? I hate it!

If I had known about the new Powabykes coming out I may not have bought the Lithium!

Hi Griswold, I know Portsdown hill. I'd end up pushing!

 

You are right about the noise, on the Nano I can creep through Hemel town centre and no-one looks twice, they assume it's a normal bike. The Powabyke makes people turn round and do a double take, to the point where I have taken to parking it and walking the final hundred yards or so.

Edited May 14, 200817 yr by Andy Day

to the point where I have taken to parking it and walking the final hundred yards or so.

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having had one and read a lot about them i used mine for purely a functional bike to get from A to B, pleasure not included, i found my 5 speed undergeared and clumbsy and awkward to maneuver( not as hard as i found spelling that wrongly)..it was like riding a tank, i almost handed over the money for a 21 speed one and that was as bad if not worse....but at the end of the day it was a workhorse that went on and on and on and on.reliable even after being under 3 foot of water after the floods...maybe the new ones will be prettier, less of a tank and just as functional,im looking forward to seeing them..

It's often said that there is no such thing as an ideal purchase, that the promise of whatever we buy rarely lives up to our expectations or the stated claims.

 

So was this the case with my Euro? I had nothing to compare it to and the dealer did say three times that the bike would never live up to the stated specification. He did say that the batteries were often poor to start with, but after a couple of charges it would gain in power (never happened).

 

After using the bike for a week I decided that something must be wrong. The Euro comes with a bank of 10 leds with which the battery can be monitorered easily by the user and on even a modest gradient, there was a reduction in the number of leds displayed - say from 10 to 6, and this after a full charge and a 2 mile journey

 

So what should I do? Go back to the dealer again, he'd already said three times "nothing wrong". Had he sold me a duff battery? Who knows? In the worst case if I demanded a new battery I'd probably get the same battery back and be no further forward.

 

So I decided to buy a replacement battery from an independent supplier, I felt I had nothing to lose. Either the dealer was right and I'd gain a useful spare, or the dealer was wrong and I'd have a powerful proof.

 

The rest as they say is history!

 

Thanks Pete22. How do the LEDs perform now?

 

[Quick edit: and did you change the forks on it - as I did? I found that made a huge difference to the quality of the ride!]

Edited May 15, 200817 yr by Mrs Marple

Thanks Pete22. How do the LEDs perform now?

 

[Quick edit: and did you change the forks on it - as I did? I found that made a huge difference to the quality of the ride!]

 

I use the bike mainly for going in and out to university. My longest journey to date however was 15 mile round trip, and all the lights remained on. I'm careful to keep the battery charged after every trip.

 

When I bought my bike 3 months back, there was an free offer of suspension forks with new bikes. I finally got round to fitting them a month ago. They made a huge difference to the quality of the ride, smoothing out all the bumps!