I love the attention to detail Kate, your previous reviews and this one are quite refreshing in that regard. Important details too - you revealed that the battery manufacturer is reputable (Samsung), the motor is brushless (more efficient and reliable), and the inverter doesn't produce pure sine waves. You look at both the pros and cons too which will encourage the manufacturer to try better next time. So many other reviews feel like an infomercial.
Almost every complaint you have about this bike would be solved by getting a brand name mid-drive e-bike. They’re cadence AND torque sensing, can be serviced in far more bike shops, and tend to be a heck of a lot lighter weight than 81 lbs!
I'm more in the DIY side of things when it comes to e-bikes. I'm currently riding a mtb equipped with a Bafang middrive unit. But this one... What a toy, right? And with an inverter it's a camping machine. Nice review, as usual. Keep'em coming! And keep pedaling.
I enjoyed this bike review. Thanks for posting it. Here is a video from Grin Techs' channel about regen braking that I think can give you insight about the cause of that battery error: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gYCj4asp9pE.htmlsi=T8uLRJwNclJDzBuk Your comment about engine noise makes me curious. Nicki's similar comment about ebikes she tested a few weeks ago in SoCal also left me wondering how bad the engine noises of your bikes were compared to a typical ebike or conventional bike with a maladjusted derailleur. We in the audience cannot judge how well your microphone's were picking up the engine sounds. (Honestly, I like the motor to be barely loud enough to be heard 10-20 feet away regardless of whether I am pedalling my conventional bike or I am riding a borrowed ebike. The engine hum is less jarring than a bike bell or the constant "on your left" alerts I commonly hear from faster riders.)
Hub motor e-bikes cannot be fully serviced in most bike shops. Buyer beware: you should only buy something like this is if you are a do-it-yourselfer, or accept that it’ll likely become e-waste several years down the road. If none of the above sounds good to you, get a brand name mid-drive e-bike from a bike shop.
I have a newish folding bike with a Shimano derailuer and Ive found it actually impossible to adjust. It just absolutely wants to skip over 2nd gear no matter how much adjustment I do... which on a bike with small wheels means that anything even remotely resembling an incline becomes monstrously difficult as the chain skips back and forth between 1st and 3rd. Twice now the chain has completely jumped off the gearset because of the violence of the skipping. At the high end the shifting is smooth but the difference between ratios is so small they are almost not worth messing with. On a bike with small wheels I really need more gears on the low end, and I need them to shift smoothly. Not sure if that is a universal problem with Shimano at this point, but it makes me wary of them now when my favorite bikes used to have thier logo.
I just ordered the Mokwheel Basalt step through for my wife. It hasn't arrived yet, but we're looking forward to some off-road adventures. I've got the Velotric Nomad 1 and we know how Nikki feels about Velotric. I've had no problems so far in a year and a half. The inverter looks like a winner except for the $400 price.
The inverter seems like a very nice feature. They seem to have not gotten the gearing right based on what you said about it. There is not much point in having a huge number of gears without a large ratio between lowest and highest.
I want to criticize the 7 speeds at the back. That is very bottom of the range. If you are using the motor to power you then you don't need to have so many gears, however if the motor isn't powering you then you will need as many gears as possible. But it's more than just the number of gears, the very bottom of the range will be heavier with less quality.
Was confused about why the focus on the inverter as a factor for choice of ebike to review? It’s a bike not a power station and really to my mind the biggest issue that is not really feasible for you to test is how it goes over time with a few 1000 miles under the belt.
Maybe because that is the main feature that actually sets it apart from the 10 million other ebikes out there, and easily the most expensive component on the bike? If you buy a truck with a factory lift gate specifically because you need a truck with a lift gate... I guess you should just wait till youve driven it a few thousand miles and then only talk about the 0-60 and the towing capacity and never mention the one thing you bought the truck for right?
