Having watched this through with fresh eyes - I think we can all agree that those were some slightly flat tyres and I could have done with raising the seat....! Step-through version for me next time! I should also mention that there ARE mudguards but I really helpfully did not mention them or put them on! Sincere apologies to the non-fairweather cyclists among you!
These crossover bikes can be very jarring if tires are inflated to recommended pressure. You really feel it in your bones if caught off guard by a bump. That aside, my non electric crossover bike is so good, the ability to easily ride on gravel or gass and still have a super low rolling resistance is brilliant. Ignor those in the comments who just want to be negative. Slightly deflated tires is a good option sometimes on these bikes.
I wouldn't worry about it you are just doing a review, now if this were GCN🤣 but to be honest I did notice those details but it doesn't bother me, as you can see by my name I commute by bicycle almost every day and use a bicycle to do my errands and sometimes just go for a ride for the fun of it. I will say the tan wall tires-tyres go nicely with the color of the ebike.
just wanted to add, your impressions of the bike might be better for some, I imagine a few people buying e-bikes are not regular cyclists or have not ridden one in years.
The built in/ non removable battery would be a reason for me not to consider this bike. Is this the case with all of their models? Do they have a folding bike?
More videos like this please evaluating budget electrically powered transport. I bought an ebike a year ago and its been a revelation. So convenient and easy to use and very liberating for older people who have mobility problems. I'm 72 years young.
@@Rick-vm8bl I mean budget has always meant "the lower end of the price range for that market". It's up to the consumer to do some rudimentary research into that market.
This will be my Dutch practicality speaking, but I would not want a bike without mudguards/fenders because, just as in the UK, we get plenty of rain. And I would also need a luggage rack to carry my groceries.
It does have mudguards, though apparently they have no idea what a chain guard is. If you go on the web site they also supply both rear luggage rack (plus a carrier to fit on it if you want) and what looks like a front rack you can fit some sort of basket on to. The fully kitted out version looks pretty good.
Loved the dip into cheap ebikes - I loved the idea of of an battery that cant be stolen unless the whole bike is taken BTW. A lot of homes/workplaces now have access to an outside plug possibly through an open window. For only £1000it's cheap enough to be a great car replacement for short commutes even if only on dry days.
@rivergladesgardenrailroad883 Kindly don't be so simple. It's becoming endemic on this platform with regard to undiscerning battery hugger fanbois. Of course the e-bike batteries self ignite! And probably a more sensible idea if battery stays on bike so you have the bike frame to grab when chucking out the burning battery. Now, kindly pay attention, in future it would be a shrewd idea were you to engage your brain before attempting to make dismissive comments about topics you know very little about. For your edification lithium ion cells do self ignite. LiFePo4 cells can self ignite too, depending on SoC and loading, not forgetting ambient temperature. Suggest you do some research prior to posting in future. Trust that is now crystal?
Depends what you are looking for in a bicycle. This one is just for recreation/sport, like a sportscar. These kind of bikes do nothing to encourage the creation of a cohesive, omnipresent cycling infrastructure to get from A to B. As a Dutchman I am looking for a daily driver, comfortable, utilitarian bike, that is not over-engineered, and easy to maintain. This forward-leaning seating position is terrible for comfort and safety (eye-contact with traffic around me), no decent panniers to carry anything. Used to pannier on the back that can take the load of a person. That would make for a useful electric bike, not just a fun one.
Guess the question with an unbranded Chinese bike is how safe is that battery. The branded bikes seem to be okay, but the unbranded ones are becoming a real fire risk. Does the battery on this bike meet any British or European safety standards?
It's not unbranded: it's a Fido. I couldn't find any claims about manufacturing standards on their site, but the frame battery is not user-removable, so it's like buying a phone or electric toothbrush, rather than most e-bikes which have a separate battery. But there was no mention of certification for the separate battery that they do sell, just a warranty.
Battery paranoia getting out of hand because of fear mongers. I charged a phone so battery swollen that the back started coming off for nearly a year before it wouldn't hold a charge and I was forced to replace it. There's more gasoline fires, candle fires and cooking fires each year, but the haters of progress and the lovers of oil companies paint batteries as a fire epidemic.
Interesting review. I think it would have been better to mention the non-removable battery at the very start. For a lot of people that is both unexpected and a show stopper.
Cracking review of a good, solid, though slightly flawed econobike, Imogen. I like your crisp, clear, professional presentational style, you cover all the key points and highlight good/bad very well. Why on earth no mudguards? We have rain in the UK, and the idea of travelling between lectures and turning up, let's say, "marked" on ones trousers would not win any style awards. Madness not to put on £10 worth of plastic guards. Would be good to know about lights, and why not indicators? I enjoyed this video. All bikes should have bells by law, for safety reasons. Thank you.
Bikes have to be sold with a bell (by law IIRC). it doesn't have to be fitted. The safety gain of a bell is pretty minimal - but they are useful for warning pedestrians in a relatively polite manner. If you want actual safety gains from a noise-generator then you need a decent horn loud enough for motorists to hear.
@@xxwookey A fair point, however you're presuming vehicle drivers are vigilant enough to see a bicycle and rider and take the appropriate action to avoid a collision. Some drivers admit to not seeing a motorcycle so what chance do cyclists have? It may be that some drivers have an eye/vision defect and can't reach the standards required by DoT. These drivers should lose their license straight away and not be permitted to return to the roads until they undergo remedial treatment as in surgery for cataracts, say. There again we know about bicycle couriers in London who take silly risks to deliver a package. Who's to blame in a collision under those circumstances? We know too about fatal collisions involving e-scooters ridden by stupid, risk taking and perhaps not very "road aware" youths. Obviously they are competing, albeit unknowingly, for a Darwin Award. Perhaps we'll see an updated and more comprehensive cycling proficiency test? With wearing protective kit and clothing and lights. And compulsory insurance to reduce the costs to the taxpayer. All doable.
I think next time you do something like this it could be good to partner with a cycling channel - GCN for example. It was nice to see but I wondered about the quality of the components and that charging point down at the crank where it gets all muddy and horrible…. Surely there is a better example out there. For 1k you could also just buy a decent quality light bike that is a lot to cycle.
The non-removable battery would be a deal breaker for me. Recently replaced my 6 year old Electra Townie Go! battery for AUD$1000 but meant my $3500 6 year old eBike didnt have to be sent to landfill ☺️
@@ecopennylife The reasons you gave in your original comment are why I decided on buying an e-bike with a fully removable battery. It's a full Bosch system but hopefully it will last for at least the 1500 charging cycles that Bosch claim on their website. Anecdotally from reports and RU-vid videos the built-in Battery Management System (BMS) can fail first. And sometimes only individual cells in a battery may need to be replaced to bring it back to near full capacity again after several years. We shall see. That's all in the future and I only have it two weeks so far!
Don't see many gravel bikes with flat bars and a kick stand, price is okay but not being able to remove the battery thats a deal breaker for me. I'm already riding regular pedal bicycles if my battery runs down I just have a candy bar or power bar and good to go. I know e bikes help those that can not ride a normal bicycle, I see this bike as a causal riding and errand bicycle.
You are quite correct in your assessment. I'm 60 and my knees are bad... Cycling was done for me - until I was gifted (for said 60th b'day) - an e-bike. Suddenly, I can ride again and it's a wonderful feeling. There's another upside, as well. Places that were too far to walk may now be reachable without having to abandon my hard-to-find parking spot and struggling to find one at the destination.
@@MarcCoteMusic Nice to hear that. Im 62 I got knee and joint issues as well, but I'm still able to ride a regular bicycle, I also walk half marathons, I imagine an e-bike will be in my future one day. I just find them heavy, but I see them every time I go out for a ride, I might also get one of those stand up electric scooters, I ride the train quite often, I like how they fold up and I'm usually only going a short distance from the station. For my 62 Birthday I wanted to ride 62 KM, I ended up doing 76.7 km. I found compression tights-leggings really help with my bicycle riding and walking.
There's the Reise and Muller Delite which is coming in at over €8'k for some models. I just bought a Cube Kathmandu for €3,5k This Fiido is a nice runaround but it has a small battery and probably low nm torque so not suitable for hilly areas or carrying larger loads or people.
I couldn't find their business / formal address on their website as an accountability check, and since things like CE markings are self-certified anyway (it's unlikely their bikes' safety has actually been tested by a govt standards agency) suggest any ul or ce marking is a moot point.
I just watched Harry's Garage latest drop zero emissions rubbish and had to come here for a bit of common sense. Harry seems to think a fleet of Corolla hybrids will suffice because Toyoda talks sense and reducing CO2 a bit will be plenty. As a farmer he should know better. You guys need to sort him out ....please. Maybe a joint road trip to Norway to talk to a country that has already pretty much achieved the UKs goals. Put him on a an ebike at some point also. This might be a job for Imogen or any one of your more forthright "facts at their fingertips" presenters.
Tis good value. I think the weight is about normal for an ebike, I certainly wouldn't want one which is any more than that... I'd def prefer a gravel, I'm mostly an urban rider, but will occaisionally head for tha hills!
most city cycling prefers at least a gravel bike imo. road quality and potholes hate a fast roadbike tyre. such a shame about the non-removable battery. number 1 deal breaker.
Until the arrival of e-bikes, almost no bikes had any suspension, apart from in the tyres and maybe the seat, yet very few people ever complained about it.
As a newbie on his first e-bike, I cannot claim to be an expert but... It seems to me a 250 watt motor just isn't enough unless you only need a mild assist in any driving conditions. Or you weigh no more than around 50 kg, I suppose, which might be the case for Imogen. My e-bike, an inexpensive straight-from-China model has a 500 watt hub motor and even that will struggle to haul me up a moderately steep hill here in town. Of course, I'm 193 cm and weigh close to 100 kg, but even so... there are a lot of people much heavier than I around. With my bad knees, there's no way a 250 watt motor would be enough. Indeed, for mountain biking, I can't imagine anything less than a 750 watt motor.
As a 62 year old with dodgy knees I must confess I simply cannot agree with you. I live in a hilly area and carry heavy loads (25kg+) frequently. My bike is an ageing 250W rear hub motor model and It gets me, it's overweight self and my gear up all of the hills around us, no problem. I do of course assist it, but it is a breeze compared to a non-powered bike. I you either cannot, or expect not to have to put any effort in yourself, then you need an electric moped, not an e-bike. Incidentally even a 250W motor will get a person of your weight up a steep hill with no pedal assistance, but it will need to be geared correctly and would of course do so slowly, but it would do it.
Anything over 250 watts is not considered a legal e-bike in the UK. There are proposals to take this up to 500watts, but there will still be a 15.5 mph limit with assistance, but with a twist and go capability. Having ridden a top of the range 250w, I found it more than adequate, although I like my exercise. If you want more that two thirds of a horsepower, perhaps contemplate an electric motorcycle. I’ve been eyeing up some 120 mph models, but I’m a 70 year old nutter!😂
The maximum power allowed for road legal pedal assist E-Bikes in the UK is 250W. They also must not be assisted above 15.5MPH (if you can pedal faster unassisted that's fine). Except in a few very special cases you cannot have a throttle. Your 500W bike could be siezed and you could be prosecuted for riding a "motorbike". Of course, unless you flagrantly break the rules, particularly throttle only riding and assisted over 15.5MPH, you are very unlikely to be detected.
the E-Bike for almost everyone... is a standard Giant or Gazelle city bike. Easily repaired, loads on the market so plenty of spare parts, no problems with guarantees, comfortable to ride, and with a removable bloody battery.
I'm always on the look out for an eBike but as I've said I will never fix another puncture on air filled tires that will have to wait a bit longer. I've seen a lot of innovation in some areas on bikes just not the tires. When I see tires similar to tires from the SMART Tire Company, Bridgestone, and others coming on to eBikes I will seriously look at my options.
@@matt45540 Nah...like I said I will wait until they come with eBikes. I have an eScooter at the moment which doesn't have air filled tires so I am good. I've had a bike with so called puncture proof tires and they were the exact opposite because they got punctures, so I sold the bike. I will never fix a puncture ever again.
Hub-motor e-bikes lose power and efficiency on the hills. The steeper the hill, the worse they get. Mid-drive e-bikes solve this problem by using the bike's gears as a transmission for the motor too, and on average get about twice the range for the same size battery. The range this thing has is unacceptable IMO, because it'll mean too short a service life for the battery pack.
I'm not sure where the 19mph limit came from? Imogen is correct in saying 15.5 mph is the maximum speed an ebike motor can assist up to but you are free to peddle the bike unassisted as fast as your legs can power a heavy bike!
I took it to mean that the bike is capable of that speed, but legally you're not supposed to exceed 15.5mph. What's not clear is whether the bike is artificially limited for the UK
@@SminkyBazzA yer, ebikes in the UK are legally limited to assist up to 15.5mph. but above that you can peddle it under your own power as fast as you can so long as you stay within the speed limit if the road, just the same as a regular bike.
Buy cheap, buy twice. The spec and quality of components on bikes, plus the build quality, really does matter. That's why serious cycle commuters generally have very nice, and expensive bikes.
The chainring is too big, 52 tooth. That will make even small hills, hard work, even for a ebike. The cassette is 11/36, so a 42t chainring would be much better for this.
You could always do your own research. There again you could contact American importers and read American magazines for a wider opinion. The reason being that you'll be wanting a warranty and that could be tricky. Hope that helps.
Did you make that comment using your 'made in China' pc, laptop, tablet or mobile phone phone? Connected to the internet by your made in China router. Time to grow up.
@@ratbert1 No, my laptop was not made in China and neither was my Internet router because there are many other countries who make these. However, since I want to use an iPhone, I’m stuck with that. I am willing to pay more for devices not made in China.
@@johnpoldo8817 Everything you own will be partly made in China. Most electrics are made with parts produced across 20 - 60 countries. Manufacturing is truly a global network. The Iphone has inputs from over 30 countries!
@@tbone5654 Yes, I know. My strategy, right or wrong, is to buy big ticket items such as EVs, EV batteries, computers, etc outside China, knowing well that components inside may come from China, but at least the end product profits doesn't help finance CCP military.
Lots of cyclists in Oxford but very poor cycling provision. Sharing the bus lane during rush hour with a bus up your arse is not fun. City centre is clogged up with tourist buses. Far too many colleges provide underground parking for their staff, so lots of cars.
It's £1k! Why are these Chinese bikes of unknown provenance quite so expensive? If the battery catches fire in my hallway, who do I approach for customer service? If the battery was removable, I may at least have a fighting chance of whacking it outside. Not so much with a bike. The bargepole market must be buoyant.
I think it was already determined years ago that regen has no real use for e-bikes, the kinetic energy is so much less compared to heavier and faster electric transport
It would only add 5-10 in most normal cases. Which is nice but very difficult to do. Cars don't have the ability to regenerative brake below a certain speed and most bikes are spending more time traveling below that certain speed.
Doesn’t look like a man electric bike… apart from the wide frame battery storage and all the controls. A quick glance for a few feet away and it’s obvious it’s an electric bike. Nice looking bike though.
This e-bike cannot be fully serviced in most bike shops, so is more likely to become e-waste than a brand name bike with a Bosch or Shimano motor. Disappointing to see it promoted on a theoretically pro-environmental channel.
Great video but could I please ask why you are riding on the incorrect side of the road for the majority of the time? We cyclists are hated enough as it is!
Sometimes these come software locked to 15.5 mph for the UK market and a special mode needs to be entered to unlock them. Having said that even if it’s not in the manual it’s generally easy enough to find the unlock process on the internet so something of a grey area.
I am not sure why you featured this bike. Heavy, difficult to charge, dependant on a built in battery and surprisingly expensive. Destined for landfill when it goes wrong so not very eco either…
There should be far less focus on cars on this channel and more on alternatives such as bikes. Although EVs are head and shoulders above ICEVs in many respects they are still an extravagent use of energy as regards personal transport, and even worse in respect of road space in towns and cities. I'm not happy with car-obsessed Quentin Wilson being part of this Channel to be honest; we should be aiming for curtailing car usage not stimulating it; the disfugurement of our cities, towns and contryside to accomodate ever more usage is a tragedy.
@@jamesengland7461 Fanatical? That's absurd. Why do some people need to project an extremist characterisation on what is essentially pragmatic and logical? I'm not anti-car, I just think cars should be used a one of many transport tools according to the context. Its overuse in the urban context - not its use - blights society. The evidence is outside your window!
I think that depends on what value you give to attaching a few hundred pounds worth of electric support to a bicycle. I think an OK non electric bike comes in at around £350 adding the parts integrating them does thst justify £650?
