Hi Jimod, I am with you, however Anthony and his nutty friends Love off-roading and the ability to chuck their bikes about without the encumbrance of a battery on the frame. TBH when I tried it out for the first time I was seriously surprised at the difference having your battery on your back made. I know it sounds insane but the bike felt lighter and more nimble and I didn't notice the extra weight on my back.

 

Of course for serious off roading your legs become the battery suspension too!

 

All the best

 

David

Edited June 9, 201114 yr by Wisper Bikes

Speaking purely for myself, no. I like Marmite.

 

If I were to liken it to a food, it would be fried calf brains for me. But you could easily make it into Marmite

 

mmmmmmm, fried calf brains! Yummy!

 

David :o

Put it this way. We have all waited and waited and waited for this kit to arrive. Personally, it disappoints in that the battery postion looks wrong however its appearance is comical in my opinion. Worse still is the lack of information from the supplier re' my spin test. It's disappointing however I'll move on....but without a DaaHub fitted.

 

Regards

vectra

 

That's a shame Vectra, do you prefer the seat post position? As soon as I have had a definitive answer from Dapu I will let you know, unfortunately Dick Lai my manager who deals with Dapu is away due to death in his family, but as soon as he get's back next week I will make sure you get your answer.

 

All the best

 

David

 

I'm surprised anyone would want to wear the battery on their back, especially off road. It looks like it could snap your spine in an accident.

 

Backpack batteries for off-road e-bike use are commonplace, and the rougher the territory, the more they are used.

 

Also the Team Hybrid e-bike stunt team used backpack batteries on their crystalyte motored BMX bikes, leaping and jumping all over the place with them.

Last point re battery positioning. To balance an electric bike it is important to get the weight of the battery as far under the rider as possible. The higher and further back a battery is fitted the worse the bike handles, hence the positioning of batteries on the vast majority of serious purpose built electric bikes is behind the seat post tube, not on the rack. Seat post fitting is good as it puts the down force from the battery into the seat post tube exactly where the weight of the rider is but the height of the battery makes the bike feel less nimble. For optimal handling and control it is best to mount the battery onto the seat post tube as low as possible hence the position of the DaaHub battery on Eddies bike and the reason he loves the feel of the bike.

 

All the best

 

David

Keep up....

 

 

Oops, sorry about that, i missed it.

Oops, sorry about that, i missed it.

 

Well what do you think? Did video help at all. I have always riden on power as most e bikes are so awful without it...But know I have a bike that is possible to ride without assistance....

 

You need to try some bikes, your getting frustrated over nothing..... I am 30 mins from Gatwick. and you can try the DaaHub and a KTM Bosch bikes (here soon) Then 25 mins on a bus and you are at Battersea and "E bikes direct" and 50 cycles are about an hour away from there....just a thought:D

David,

 

You talk about serious off-road use, how will the hub motor stand up to proper downhill abuse on mountain trails, single track downhills, jumps, berms, roots, rocks, holes, drops and the like?

Nice bike Eddie. Someone at work had just got a similar Specialized bike (though not quite in the same league as yours) and I do like its clean, sleek look. With that Deore groupset, quality hydraulic brakes and DT Swiss wheels, I bet you feel like you're riding the BMW of hybrids! And all weighing in at only 12.5 kilos. I'm envious.

 

I can't say I'd even give the battery position a second look. It's small enough to not draw attention to itself in my opinion. It probably takes up as much room as my rear suspension does inside my frame. I like they way it matches your red and black colour scheme too.

 

That spin down test looks like your front brake is catching the wheel though and if you can hear some noise then that just confirms it. You should be getting about twice the spin down time that you are seeing, not that it will make any difference to you if you are getting over 20mph on the flat! It must be quite some motor to achieve that speed.

 

It looks like the market is improving all the time. Long may it continue I say!

Thanks Caph! it is truly a smashing piece of kit.....

 

will get the brake sorted and shoot vid again... it is a metal on metal sound, you dont notice it when riding

Well what do you think? Did video help at all. I have always riden on power as most e bikes are so awful without it...But know I have a bike that is possible to ride without assistance....

 

You need to try some bikes, your getting frustrated over nothing..... I am 30 mins from Gatwick. and you can try the DaaHub and a KTM Bosch bikes (here soon) Then 25 mins on a bus and you are at Battersea and "E bikes direct" and 50 cycles are about an hour away from there....just a thought:D

 

That's very kind of you eddio but it's not quite as simple as you might think. I don't have a car, I'm miles from anywhere, getting to an airport has complications, the exchange rate is going down, etc etc boo hoo !! But I have been and looked to see whether I could fit the battery above the back wheel as shown and on the off road bike it is possible, so who knows, but what ever I do buy and if it's as good as the Sanyo re drag I will shout it from the rooftops.

Thinking about the best place to fit an ezee battery to my mountain bike I identified the best place as under the downtube - even though it is a big battery it actually fits, it's as low down as it can go and didn't look too obvious. Nobody seems to have considered this option for some reason. The only trouble is I have to get an adapter mount made that fits my water bottle mount holes. One day I will do it and you can all have a view.

 

As for the wheel resistance issue then remember that bearings need time to bed in. I noticed this on my sons skateboard where the new bearings did not spin so freely as when they were worn in.

 

My view on the new Daahub kit is that the battery angle is a bit unusual and what I would do is supply some plastic spacers that can be attached to the battery to fill in the gaps in the lower sections of the triangle to make it look more complete with the frame tubes. Just a thought.

David, many thanks for replying to the points raised in the thread (and also for sending over the diagram) its appreciated. However, the battery mounting still sucks no matter how you dress it up...two years to develop? Surely in that time you could have come up with a second on bike mounting arrangement and not a 'universal' one...Also as for handling and feel, well that may be important for those of us considering the Tour de France or the next local club race meet but for every day commuting or leisure riding it matters not one jot, a rack mount position is perfectly fine and more sensible.

 

So one cheeky question: Do you sell the kit without the battery?

 

......................So one cheeky question: Do you sell the kit without the battery?

 

I too would be interested to know that.

The battery mounting also contains the conroller so it would be better just to buy yourself a dapush motor and controller and do the rest yourself.

 

David is right about the position of the battery. The lower/middle of the bike the better and makes a lot of difference to the way a bike handles even for commuting. I wouldn't want a battery hanging off the back of my bike anyway.

The battery mounting also contains the conroller so it would be better just to buy yourself a dapush motor and controller and do the rest yourself.

.

 

Have googled 'dapush motors' but cannot find a supplier of motors only. Have you by any chance got a link.

 

Oiseaux

I must admit I find a lot of the hijacking of the topic regarding looks etc are becoming a 'drag' :)

 

Eddio can you give us a bit more info on how it deals with hills and have you established a range yet? Where are you based. I would love a go. Have any niggles been come up yet?

Some of the comments above must be enough to make David weep...what a bunch of Luddites!lol

 

I will keep on saying this, the bike is so nicely balanced with battery where it is! what is this nonsense re racing bikes/tour de France etc.... battery high on rear rack is probably the worse position possible, and you want to go back to this! I am astonished.....

 

But I agree a simple rack mount conversion should be available for the doubters......

I must admit I find a lot of the hijacking of the topic regarding looks etc are becoming a 'drag' :)

 

Eddio can you give us a bit more info on how it deals with hills and have you established a range yet? Where are you based. I would love a go. Have any niggles been come up yet?

 

I am in Streatham S/W London. So Far hill climbing is better then my other Ebikes. I just double click thumb throttle (locks speed - like cruise control) and use the wonderful XT gears to ride up....

 

no range yet, I had to 2 brief rides the evening I got it. then fully charged part charged battery, and had 2 local rides yesterday. Just trying it out for speed on the flat (22mph) and on local obstacles (hills) that it coped with very well(16 stone and not fit at all) niggles? maybe cable management could be neater (have ordered some 10mm Velcro tape) lack of manual as I cant sus out controls (David is on to this)

 

I did not expect it to climb as well as it does with smaller battery, so this was a nice surprise. but this is because the donor bike is so nice I guess....

 

It is a very nice bike and set up, I doubt my opinion on that will change. I can now keep up with my son on his 8kg road bike...watch out you Lycra's! Coming to get you! lol

 

EDIT:

 

NRG there is absolutely nothing insecure regards battery fitting? It is very very strong and sound arrangement. Many think a suspension bridge dont look right either. Purely good design accomplishes these kinds of results.....Simples

 

as for the nob obsession, luckily for you mental health advice still free under the NHS

 

You dont like it buy something else.....again simples

Edited June 10, 201114 yr by eddieo

Some of the comments above must be enough to make David weep...what a bunch of Luddites!lol

 

I will keep on saying this, the bike is so nicely balanced with battery where it is! what is this nonsense re racing bikes/tour de France etc.... battery high on rear rack is probably the worse position possible, and you want to go back to this! I am astonished.....

 

But I agree a simple rack mount conversion should be available for the doubters......

 

Why? Whats so astonishing about it? Or is it astonishing that the current arrangement looks odd, vulnerable and potentially weak and looks like a large black Phallus? Maybe thats my paranoia but I like rack mounting, to me it seems more secure, less obvious and can be easily hidden with the introduction of some panniers...now thats astonishing!

 

I'm sure David can take the comments here and BTW Eddie I hope you really enjoy the bike, its a very good choice of donor bike and is one of the models I'm looking at.

Edited June 10, 201114 yr by NRG

EDIT:

 

NRG there is absolutely nothing insecure regards battery fitting? It is very very strong and sound arrangement. Many think a suspension bridge dont look right either. Purely good design accomplishes these kinds of results.....Simples

 

At least a suspension bridge is supported at both ends.

 

as for the nob obsession, luckily for you mental health advice still free under the NHS

 

You dont like it buy something else.....again simples

 

Weak. It is indeed but luckily I don't need it! Your last point is spot on...

David,

 

You talk about serious off-road use, how will the hub motor stand up to proper downhill abuse on mountain trails, single track downhills, jumps, berms, roots, rocks, holes, drops and the like?

 

Absolutely no problems at al Tim. We have been hammering our test motors now for over a year, getting them to do things that they certainly were not intended for including long climbs at very high current, fast rough descents and high drop offs and we have not had a problem. Next year with the introduction of the 30mph DaaHub Extreem version for off road only this was most important as all the stresses will be increased dramatically.

 

All the best

 

David

I've followed this with great interest, as I'd like to electrify my Cannondale. I agree with the school of thought that says battery low down and in the middle is good (as do Kalkhoff, seemingly). Having a bunch of stuff high up at the back is bound to have an adverse effect on handling - even low down it still would (think heavy panniers on a bike compared with nothing - tail wags dog).

 

However, I can't fancy the location that Wisper have come up with as it seems to be exerting far too much leverage on a relatively small area of seat tube, and tubes can break....(bitter experience).

 

Cytronex is neat, but gets away with it due to being small and, as a result, low capacity.

 

I'll be very interested in progress reports from Eddie as time goes on though, and whatever, I hope it continues to be as satisfactory to you as it is now.

 

Cheers

Absolutely no problems at al Tim. We have been hammering our test motors now for over a year, getting them to do things that they certainly were not intended for including long climbs at very high current, fast rough descents and high drop offs and we have not had a problem. Next year with the introduction of the 30mph DaaHub Extreem version for off road only this was most important as all the stresses will be increased dramatically.

 

All the best

 

David

 

Hmm, now there's a tantalising tit bit !!

The Cytronex battery position is different as the weight is almost carried parallel to the downtube rather than mostly at right angles. I think the weight of the batteries are similar anyway despite the capacity difference. I expect wisper have tested the mounting to destruction so doubt you are likely to get a failure. However I agree this is not an elegant engineering solution due to the battery clamp having to accommodate two positions.

Edited June 10, 201114 yr by HarryB