We’ve talked before about the energy density of batteries used for bicycle lighting and bicycle motive power.To recap briefly, the battery in a car is a lead-acid device – big, heavy and full of nasty things, but recycleable and reasonably cheap. Batteries like these offer a theoretical energy density of 35 – 50 watt/hours per kilogram (Wh/kg). In practice, taking into account the weight of the cells, casing and wiring, the finished product rarely exceeds 20 – 40 Wh/kg. To get a decent range from such a low-powered battery, it needs to be very heavy – typically 13.4kg for the Powabyke unit.

Technology has long since moved on to the Nickel- Cadmium (NiCd) battery, with a theoretical capacity of 45 – 80Wh/kg – weight for weight, about twice as useful as a lead- acid battery, but full of nasty cadmium, so something of a hazard to the environment.The NiCd has recently been replaced by its more easily recycleable cousin, the Nickel Metal-Hydride, or NiMH battery, currently fitted to around 50% of rechargeable devices worldwide.These batteries have some odd habits, but they recharge relatively fast, and have a theoretical capacity of 60 – 120Wh/kg, which equates to around 40 – 60Wh/kg in practice. Note that although the worst NiMH performance may look similar to the best lead-acid battery, the capacity is measured in a different way, so NiMH and NiCd actually perform better than the bare figures suggest.They also have a much longer service life.

Li-ion

More recently, attention has switched to various kinds of Lithium-ion rechargeable cells.These promise a massive increase in energy density, with theoretical figures of 200 – 700Wh/kg being bandied about in learned papers, but the reality, for the time being at least, is more prosaic. Our first experience with Li-ion technology was the Powabyke experimental cell (A to B 45), which offered just 30Wh/kg, thanks to some ferociously complex internal wiring and a big heavy casing. In the few months since, we’ve tried some more effective technology – typically 73Wh/kg from the Panasonic WiLL battery featured in issue 46, and 69Wh/kg from the similar battery fitted to the Giant Revive in this issue.

“…the battery is 12% lighter and range is increased by nearly 10%…”

Early lithium-ion cells had a tendency to explode, particularly while charging, but a great deal of research has gone into monitoring systems, and alternative electrode chemistry has made them safer and more rugged. Until now, these monitoring systems for the individual cells (a bicycle battery needs up to ten cells) have been crammed into the charger, resulting in lots of wires and a big heavy charger, but miniaturisation has made it possible for the control systems to be fitted inside the battery itself, and the new Ezee Li-ion battery is the first we have tried of this kind.

Ezee bikes are currently supplied with a large, and quite efficient NiMH battery, with an energy density of 57Wh/kg – one of the best figures around.The new battery looks exactly the same, but inside are the electronics to keep everything running happily, and ten Li-ion cells with a capacity some 11% greater than the old battery. Despite the bigger capacity and the complex electronics, the new technology means the battery is 12% lighter than the NiMH, at 4.4kg, against 5.6kg.This results in an energy density of 82Wh/kg – the best we’ve yet tried.And with most of the electronics in the battery, the charger is lighter and easier to use. On the prototype, the charge rate has been set quite low, giving a charge time of nearly five hours, but if testing proceeds smoothly, the unit may be uprated.

For those already using an Ezee Sprint, the technology is fully retrofittable, so you’ll only need to buy the battery and charger to upgrade an older machine.

What do you get?

The lighter battery is obviously a benefit, but more importantly, range is increased by nearly 10% as well.We completed a run on our standard hilly test course of 29.3 miles at an average of no less than 16mph. Our elderly Ezee Forza has a power-hungry US spec: Keeping the assisted speed below the legal limit, we hit 34.9 miles at 14.7mph. That’s a little better than the Powabyke – which is generally considered to give the best range – but from a battery weighing less than a third as much. One slight disadvantage, hinted at by the high road speed, is that the battery runs more or less at full power until the last few hundred metres, before dying almost without warning.

Obviously the lighter battery and greater range make the technology very attractive. And despite the apparent negative aspects of carrying all the electronics around, the charging system seems relatively foolproof against the others we’ve tried.

Those with an interest in chemistry might like to hear that the first generation Li-ion batteries were mostly built around cobalt oxide cathodes, but improved manufacturing methods have made it possible to use manganese oxide, with manganese/titanium oxide on the horizon.Without getting involved with electrons and ionic transfer, all the consumer needs to know is that these are clean, recycleable technologies, and the raw materials are widely available, so prices are expected to fall by 30% in the next year or so.

Any disadvantages? Li-ion cells have been used in mobile phones and laptops for a while now, but despite plenty of lab work, no one is quite sure what will happen in high power, all-weather applications like electric bicycles. Battery life is currently a subject of debate, as is cost, and capacity improvements. Making some very rash predictions, we think performance could well double within five years, giving an electric bike range of up to 60 miles.The related Lithium Polymer battery promises to double the range again, so electric bicycle range of 100 miles, and electric car or motorcycle range of 200 miles seems realistic, but when? Will the technology arrive in time to soften the ‘peak oil’ blow? Only time will tell, but for now, welcome to the future!

Shanghai Ezee Kinetic. UK distributor 50Cycles

A to B 49 – Aug 2005

Superficially similar to early bikes, the 7- speed has lower, flatter handlebars, more rugged electronics, improved lights and stand, and a rack bungee

Back in June 2003 we tried – and were quite impressed by – an electric bike from China, called the Ezee Forza.The prototype was a bit rough round the edges, but it was reasonably light, smooth, quiet, long-legged and fast. It wasn’t very pretty, and a few things fell off, but we loved it.The Ezee magic was a combination of a lightish and rideable bicycle providing assistance up to 18 or even 19mph – fast enough to overhaul the more sedate kind of moped. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but a completely new sensation for those used to bicycles, or indeed mopeds. On the Ezee you rode fast, and you put in plenty of effort, because pedalling + assistance gave stomping performance.

Unfortunately, 19mph is illegal in Europe, and as most of the sales have been in Europe, the production bike (known as the Sprint) has been detuned. Or at least, we’re told it has, but if our test bike is representative, it remains a speedy beast. Put it this way, it won’t quite see off a moped, but at 15mph there’s a bit in reserve, if you get our drift squire? We’ll say no more.

Whatever the top speed might be, the basic 3-speed Sprint has been joined by a top- end model incorporating a few detail design changes: principally a Nexus 7-speed hub. Has this mature version lost the Ezee magic?

Sprint 7

…power is on the left handlebar and the gear changer on the right… Dead easy…

Apart from the new hub gears, the changes are minor, but useful nonetheless.The centre stand is smaller and lighter, and plastic mudguards save a bit more weight and clear up a few rattles. In both our previous tests we criticised the dynamo lights, but the new machine has a better front lamp and a Sanyo bottle dynamo, which seem to do the business. Elsewhere, the bike has mudflaps front and rear and a better Cateye speedometer (without average speed, unfortunately, and more difficult to see on the new swept-back handlebars).We’re not sure about the revised Kenda tyres, which are knobbly all over, where the old kind were smooth in the middle – essential for low rolling resistance. Like its predecessor, the new Ezee comes with a cheap but effective track pump, plus a range of fittings (including the kind that pumps up footballs, but no Presta adaptor) and a substantial cable lock – nice touches.

The Nexus 7-speed hub is reliable and easy to use. Note the roller brake on the left side

The latest headlight really works, thanks partly to the Sanyo dynamo. Suspension forks, V-brakes and slightly knobbly tyres make up the package

The key changes (for the UK, at least) are removal of the pedal- movement sensor, making the Sprint a nice simple twistgrip- controlled E-bike, which it should have been all along.The power control is on the left handlebar and the 3- or 7-speed changer on the right, according to model. Dead easy.The new bikes also have a more sensitive battery meter, which flicks back and forth rather worryingly as you ride. In practice, the gauge can reveal quite a bit about the battery condition, but it takes some getting used to. In broad terms, you’ll be in the yellow zone after 15 miles, and the red zone after 20. It’s also a useful economy aid, flashing from green to yellow, or yellow to red when the battery is under strain. Backing off the throttle can make quite a difference to range, without seriously affecting overall speed.

Until now, the Sprint came with three gears of 46″, 62″ and 85″, ratios that would be a bit high on a non-assisted bike, but are more or less ideal on a powered one.The new gears span the range 39″ to 96″ in much closer steps.We’ve usually got some sort of grumble with gear ratios, but in this case, they’re absolutely spot on. Hill climbing depends on your weight and how much energy you put in, but we found that 1st gear helped the bike vault up hills of around 17% (1:6), 4th saw it safely up gradients of 12% (1:8), and 7th topped out at 20-something miles per hour, enabling you to spin down the other side too. This sort of bicycle will never stomp up hills like the crank-driven Giant Lafree, but the 7- speed Sprint easily restarts on a 12.5% (1:8) gradient, which should be plenty for most people. If you tow a trailer and/or live in Cornwall or bits of Cumbria, you might benefit from a larger rear sprocket and lower gears, but for everyone else, it’s perfect.

At 15.9mph on our hilly test route, average speed is a shade lower than the 16.1mph we recorded with the 3-speed, but in challenging country it still counts amongst the most blistering performances we’ve seen. Range is 27 miles – more or less identical to the figure we achieved in August 2004, allowing for some gusty headwinds.That’s not quite in the Powabyke class, but the Sprint weighs only 29.4kg, making it altogether more manageable and rideable. Charging is quick and efficient; the little fan-cooled charger achieving a 90% charge in 31/2 hours, although you’d be wise to allow a bit more in practice.

…in challenging country it’s still one of the most blistering performances we’ve seen…

Incidentally, several people (including the importer) have had problems getting the same range as us. Stop-start city traffic will have a deleterious effect, as will heavy- handed use of the throttle, but pedal effort is important too.These bikes do not work well if treated like motorcycles – for best results think of the motor as an aid to pedalling, not a replacement.

It just so happens that Alexander’s headmaster Mr Thomas accepted a challenge to cycle to work while we were testing the Sprint. His daily 23-mile round trip is normally a car journey, and although it’s quite do-able by conventional bike, we suggested going electric for the week, which Mr Thomas was keen to try... As we might have guessed, the dinner-plate saddle did not meet with head- masterly approval, and we replaced it with a standard bike saddle. Even then, the stem was at the top of its range (Mr Thomas is six foot plus - all headmasters are tall, it’s in the genes). Otherwise, the week went without incident, the journey taking 43 to 45 minutes, against 55 minutes on a conventional racing bike. The Sprint battery successfully tackled the daily mileage, charging each night. Would our local headmaster buy one? Well, probably not, but Mrs Thomas thought an electric bike might get her back on two wheels, and the vicar was quite interested...

Our only real criticism of the 2005 Sprint is that awful dinner- plate saddle, which does nothing to enhance pedalling efficiency. Somebody, somewhere must love it, but for anyone used to a conventional bicycle saddle, it’s truly horrid.We should also point out that front tyre removal is tricky, because part of the wiring loom has to come off too.The Kenda tyres are tough and relatively puncture-free, but if you’re nervous about this, a Schwalbe Marathon Plus would make a good investment! We’ve only had to mend two punctures in two years on our own Sprint, and neither required tyre removal.Thank goodness.

Conclusion

We are always disappointed to hear comments of the, ‘that’ll suit me in twenty years’, or ‘isn’t it cheating?’ variety.We’re not quite ready for pensions, and we’re not unfit, but living without a car, in a very car-biased world, we find plenty of uses for our Ezee Sprint. A powerful, long-range electric-assist bike makes light work of towing a trailer full of shopping, or venturing out on the cross-country haul to granny’s house. For this sort of work, the 7-speed Sprint is one of the best options around – a fantastic hill-leveller and practical child carrier.

The 7-speed costs £895.There’s a surprising amount of rubbish around at this price, of which the less said the better.The only real competition comes from the Giant Lafree, which is a little more expensive (£1,099 in 4- speed, suspension trim), but with a definite edge in terms of weight, quality and reliability.

We’re impressed that Ezee appears to have taken on board most of our original criticisms and refined the bike with some care, whilst keeping enough oomph for those who want it.The Sprint is still quite heavy against the class-leading Lafree, but a lighter, longer-range Li-ion battery pack is on its way, and this should be retrofitable to existing bikes. As for reliability, these are early days, but the Sprint looks to us like a de-bugged machine.

Specification

Ezee Sprint £895. Weight Bicycle 23.8kg Battery 5.6kg Total 29.4kg (65lb) . Gears Nexus 7-spd hub . Ratios 39″ – 96″ . Batteries NiMH . Capacity 324Wh . Max range 27 milesFull charge 31/2 hours . Fuel consumption battery only 12Wh/mile battery & charger 17Wh/mile Running costs 6.7p/mile . Manufacturer Shanghai Ezee Kinetic web www.ezeebike.com UK distributor 50Cycles web www.50cycles.com tel 01223 844 166 mail tim@50cycles.com

The Canadian-made EPS power system was introduced as long ago as 1998, but has only just arrived here in Europe. If it looks familiar, yes, it is the same system shown in A to B once or twice on a bike called the Amigo.The manufacturer is now called Bionx EPS (Energy & Propulsion System, if you hadn’t guessed), but the technology is exactly the same, either in kit form, or fitted to a proprietory bicycle, in this case a Miele Tivoli.

Beneath the surface, the bike is seething with technology, but you would never know, because it’s a more or less conventional- looking machine: the rear hub is slightly larger than normal, there’s a discrete streamlined battery box in the frame, and an instrument pod, but no obvious stray wires or switches.

If you’re one of the many readers totally averse to electric bikes, you really should read on.We’re not suggesting this sort of machine will suit every rider in every eventuality, but if you regularly grind your way up a nagging gradient, only to blow away all that hard-won effort braking down the other side, you might be interested, because this is a regenerative system.Yes, you really can recharge the battery by pedalling if you wish, and you can also recharge it by putting the brakes on. In other words, an EPS-equipped bike will recycle some of the energy you put into accelerating and climbing hills.There are a few complications, both good and bad, but more of that later. Meanwhile, we’ll use the Giant Lafree as a reference point, because the Bionx is the first bike that can seriously claim to be a natural competitor. Price is expected to be around £1,000.

Miele Tivoli

We don’t see many conventional bicycles at A to B, so it’s all rather exotic to us. It may be to you too, because these Canadian bikes are quite rare in Britain. An unusual brand, perhaps, but the Tivoli is the sort of hybrid-style, suspended bicycle that most commuters will recognise. It has an alloy frame, 3 x 7 Shimano Acera gear set, straight handlebars, Suntour CR870 suspension forks, suspended seatpost, mudguards and (to us) enormous 28-inch wheels.

The gear range starts with a nice 28″ ‘near Granny’ gear, and extends to a reasonably high cruise of 96″ – dead conventional in other words. It may be our fault, but we found the Acera change rather noisy and crude. Adjustment is critical, and we were unable to completely tune out the odd grunt and bang from both the front and rear mechanicals. Otherwise, there’s little to report.The frame is rigid, the riding position good, the narrowish 700 x 38C tyres cover ground quite well, and the suspension does a workmanlike job of ironing out the bumps. Rather better than the Lafree Comfort, in fact.

The only thing slightly out of the ordinary is weight.Without the battery, the Bionx- equipped Tivoli tips the scales at 19.7kg, which is a bit heavy for a suspension hybrid, but one of the lightest electric bikes we’ve come across. Only the three-speed Lafree Lite weighs less, but a fairer comparison is the 5-speed Lafree Comfort, which has suspension and more gears, and weighs a couple of kilograms more than the Tivoli.Add batteries (3.9kg for the Lafree, and 4.4kg for the Tivoli) and you hit gross weights of 25.6kg and 24.1kg respectively, so Round One goes to the Canadians.

Power system

The direct-drive motor is 221/2cm in diameter, but only 51/2cm wide

As usual these days, energy comes from a nickel metal-hydride battery, with a claimed capacity, in this case, of 192Wh. At the business end, the hub motor is unusually narrow and large in diameter. Its also a bit special.

If you were to delve inside most electric hubs, you’d find a fast running direct current motor (or its more efficient cousin, the brushless ‘Hall Effect’ motor), driving the hub through gears and a freewheel.The helical gears tend to be noisy and inefficient, but they’re needed to bring the motor speed down to a practical level.The freewheel allows the bicycle to be pedalled normally without pointlessly spinning the motor – some are quiet, but cheaper units can make quite a racket.

…we have a simpler, lighter, quieter and more efficient system…

The Bionx has a Hall Effect motor, but it has been configured to run very slowly, which has allowed the engineers to eliminate those noisy gears and drive the wheel direct.With no gears or brushes, there’s no friction, so the freewheel can go too. With no freewheel, the motor can be programmed to run as a generator, putting power back just as easily as it takes it out.

All brilliant news so far – we have a simpler, lighter, quieter and more efficient system. However, as Professor Pivot likes to point out, the opportunities for regenerating power on a bicycle are rather limited, because most of the power consumed in climbing and accelerating is lost through wind and rolling resistance.The other small problem is that electric motors are never really comfortable running slowly, and when you’re inching up a hill with a system like this, the bicycle wheel (and thus the motor) is revolving very slowly indeed. Anyway, that’s the theory, plus some cautionary small print to stop you getting too excited. How does the Bionx actually perform on the road?

There are four buttons in the handlebar-mounted pod: an on-off switch, another for setting the odometer and other things, and the two power controls: ‘+A’ and ‘-G’.There are four power steps and four regeneration steps, with a neutral position in the middle. Prod the +A button and power increases, press -G and it reduces, or starts to regenerate if you go far enough.The liquid crystal display includes a speedometer (only in kilometres, the swine), a resettable odometer, and a regenerate/power meter. There’s also a very effective backlight and an alarm. Being a pedelec, the Bionx doesn’t have a throttle control, because power comes in only when sensors register pedal effort. Quite right too.

Ever since we began grinding, whining and occasionally smouldering up hills on these machines, we’ve grappled with describing power-assist sensations. In this case, you start to pedal and – without a sound – there’s a gentle push, rather like sitting behind a powerful but silent locomotive.The power meter confirms that something is going on, as the onboard computer matches the assistance to your pedal effort. Just once in a while, it changes it’s mind, and you feel a gentle nudge. Otherwise, you’re only really aware that the ground is moving by more rapidly than normal. In heavy traffic, it’s impossible to tell that the motor is doing its stuff without checking the meter, but on a quiet road, those with excellent hearing may detect a tiny hum at full power. Subtle stuff.

Clever stuff. A metal plate screws to the bottle cage braze- ons, providing a quick release base for the battery, which is locked in place. It can either be charged in situ or removed

On the flat, or gentle gradients up to about 7% (1:15), the bike glides effortlessly up to a maximum of 20mph with just a whisper of power assistance (rate 1 or 2). On steeper hills you need full power (rate 4).This is a useful 480 watts, but you still have to make good use of the gears because the motor is only really chirpy above 12mph, and rapidly wilts below 6mph.Thus a 12% (1:8) hill might need the 2nd chainring, and 17% (1:6) will probably need the 1st. At very low speeds, there’s a gentle vibration from the motor, but it’s still near silent.

Obviously steep hills are not its forte, but to be fair, our test bike is a US/Canadian model, electrically ‘geared’ to give a top speed of 20mph (don’t they have hills?). European production bikes will be reconfigured to assist below 15mph, which should boost hill-climbing torque by nearly a third. Either way, the Lafree’s crank motor wins on gradients.

Regeneration

Stop pedalling, and after a decent interval, the computer silently turns the motor off. If you so wish, you can now turn the motor into a brake by setting one of the four regeneration levels with the -G button, or by touching the front brake lever, which gives a higher braking force. Actually it should be the back brake lever, but we’ve dutifully reversed the cables for British use – the levers will have to be reversed for production. The effect is slightly noisier than power – a gentle vibration, rather like poorly set brake blocks rubbing on the tyre.With a bit of experience, you learn to (for example) dial in a low background braking level on a long descent, then gently touch the brake lever for extra stopping force on the corners.The trick is to avoid using the conventional brakes, and if you enjoy playing these sort of games, ‘driving’ the Bionx is very satisfying. If you don’t, just preset a power level, ride as normal, and the computer will do its best to smooth your progress.With eight buttons and levers to play with, it’s more like piloting a space shuttle than riding a bicycle, but that’s progress. And we should point out that power-assist involves only two buttons… it’s the derailleur that gets us really confused.

Watching power funnel back into the battery is very satisfying, although really high rates tend to be short-lived. Plummet down a 17% gradient with the electric brake full on, and speed will stabilise at about 20mph, at which “…don’t get too point you will be generating 200 watts or more. excited about the perpetual Sadly, 100 watts is more realistic during a typical  stop, and at low speed, even though the braking effect might feel quite fierce, the output is actually pitifully low. Don’t get too  motion idea. Results depend on the territory, and getting the best from the system is quite an art.You’ll be lucky to salvage 25% of the outgoing power, even under ideal conditions. Still, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick.

…don’t get too excited about the perpetual motion idea…

If you’re feeling really enthusiastic, you can keep the electronic brake lightly engaged on the flat and recharge the battery with your muscles.Why on earth would you want to do that? Bionx craftily claims that this gives your body a better work out, which is true enough if you’re looking for a workout, and more sensible than loading the bike down with weights.We tended to regenerate and pedal on those long, gradual descents that are too shallow to get up any real speed.You know the sort of thing. On the flat, even a modest 50 watts is quite hard work, but serious athletes will no doubt be pounding round the block, putting away enough energy to run the telly for the rest of the evening.

One rather unlikely side effect of this system is that you hardly ever use the brakes, except when coming to a halt in traffic. If you suffer from rim wear and smouldering brake blocks, this characteristic alone might sway you.True, there isn’t enough oomph in the battery to power all the way up that alpine pass, but you won’t need to touch the brakes going down the other side, and the battery will be nearly full again at the bottom.

How are we doing against the Lafree? Well, the Giant has a very efficient motor, but it doesn’t regenerate on descents, so it’s Bionx again.

Range & charging

With so many variables at work, range can be pretty much whatever you want it to be, depending on the level of power, and the amount you’re able (or willing) to regenerate.We’re usually quite brutal in our testing regime, but the Bionx responds best to a gentle touch. so we opted for power rate 1 or 2 where the undulations were generally upward, and regeneration rate 1 or 2 where the going was easier. Hills of 10% and above demand full power to keep momentum up.

As you ride, the power gauge moves down the scale with alarming speed, but the motor continues to run for long after the gauge has given up and gone home. It’s hard to put a precise figure on the range because downhill runs keep restoring the status quo, and the computer gradually turns down the gas, rather than cutting the motor off.

Blast along on full power without a care in the world, and range can be as little as ten miles, but 15 miles is easy with a bit of care, and if you work hard at your regeneration, 22 miles is possible. Obviously, the battery will last all day if you don’t use it much (Bionx claim up to 50 miles), but then you wouldn’t be averaging 14.3mph in hilly country – a respectable rather than blistering pace.

The detuned European model will certainly go further, although quite how much further is hard to judge.We’d hazard a guess that 25 miles should be within reach on our hilly test route, but you might do better.

Charging is satisfactory rather than exciting.Weighing less than 400g, the little charger is almost pocket-size, but still manages to fill the battery in five hours, turning off thereafter, so there’s no point in leaving it connected.

At 7.2p per mile, running costs are almost identical to the Lafree, but we can’t say for sure until the price of the bike and spare batteries has been fixed. Range is about the same, but speed (from this US model at least) is quite a bit higher. Charging time is slowish, but the charger is more portable. Sounds like a draw.

…the prospect of everlasting wheel rims might be tempting too…

Conclusion

We tend to use electric bikes for slogging up steep hills with trailer-fulls of rubbish, so we’d be less likely to opt for a low-key, low-torque machine like the Bionx. On the other hand, if you commute through rolling hills and you want a conventional bike with a subtle boost, this Rolls-Royce system could be for you.The prospect of everlasting wheel rims might be tempting too.

There’s no need to buy the Tivoli, as the Bionx will also be available as a kit, but you’ll need a donor bike with plenty of derailleur gears, because hub gears are incompatible with the motor.There’s no price yet, but we’d guess at around £700, which would put the Bionx kit at the top end of Heinzmann territory. It’s not as powerful, but it’s much, much more sophisticated.

Does it outclass the Lafree? That all depends where you live and how you ride.We only had a chance to show the Bionx to one dedicated Lafree enthusiast, but she was absolutely delighted with the riding position and the quiet, effortless power.There is no distributor in the UK as yet, but the company is open to offers from aspiring importers, and hopes to have direct and/or dealer sales established very soon.

Specification

BionX Miele Tivoli £1,000 approx .Weight Bike 19.7kg Battery 4.4kg Total 24.1kg (53lb) . Gears Shimano Acera 3×7 . Ratios 28″ – 96″ . Batteries NiMH . Capacity192Wh . Range 22 miles Full charge 5 hours . Fuel consumption Overall 12.5Wh/mile . Running costs 7.2p per mile Manufacturer BionX (EPS Inc) www.bionx.ca mailr.guimond@bionx.ca fax +1 819 879 0084 tel +1 819 879 0041 ext. 235

Technological developments often arrive unexpectedly. No offence intended, but we were surprised to see Dahon taking (and still, to date, holding) the honours for lightest production folding bike, and we were equally surprised when a lithium-ion Powabyke Shopper turned up on our doorstep.

For those unfamiliar with such things, Powabyke build reliable, if rather lumbering electric bikes, and the 24-inch Shopper is probably the least exciting of the lot. Lithium- ion batteries were expected to revolutionise traction applications a few years ago, but they didn’t, largely because charging complications made the larger batteries liable to set afire, resulting in some high profile conflagrations. At least one manufacturing plant has burned down, and computers, cameras and electric bikes have exploded – notably the EV Global Mini E-Bike, 2,000 of which were recalled in America.

Without getting too technical, Li-ion batteries don’t like being over-charged, over- discharged or over-heated. Make a mistake (let’s face it, we all make mistakes) and the battery is liable to tip over the abyss into thermal meltdown – the sort of thing that used to happen to the engines on the Star Ship Enterprise. As lithium reacts violently with water, the only course of action at this stage is to run away as fast as possible.

…This is neither the most fashionable nor effective of bicycles…

Problems are rare with individual cells (in digital cameras, for example), but a 36 volt electric bike like the Powabyke needs ten large 3.7 volt lithium cells, and each one must be charged, discharged and monitored for temperature individually.This sort of thing needs a lot of control circuitry, but as usual the Chinese have driven down prices, which are now low enough for Powabyke to offer a Li-ion battery pack and charger as an upgrade option. If all goes well, it will soon be available on new bikes, and the intention is to offer a retrofittable upgrade on older models too.

So why bother? It’s all about energy density, or the amount of energy available in a battery of a given weight. Powabyke uses old-fashioned lead-acid batteries, which deliver around 30 watt/hours (Wh) per kilogram. In the 1990s, nickel-cadmium batteries became available, supplying 50 Wh/kg, and a few years later, nickel-metal hydride did better still, at 70 Wh/kg.Today, lithium- ion batteries with a capacity of 130 Wh/kg are coming on stream. Comparing like with like is a bit difficult, because different types of battery are tested in different ways, and casings, wires and electronics tend to level the playing field a bit, but weight-for-weight, lithium-ion should be at least two or three times as effective as lead-acid.The 36 volt lead-acid battery fitted to the Shopper weighs 14.1kg, and its Li- ion replacement, 6.4kg, despite being assembled into the same heavy casing. As we shall see, it goes further too.

Powabyke Shopper

First a quick look over the Shopper. This is neither the most fashionable, nor effective of bicycles, but it’s cheap (£539 single -speed, or £595 with a basic 6-speed derailleur), well equipped (battery lights, rear rack, front basket and mudguards), and it offers a low step-thru height of 37cm. In other words, it’s just the job for those who’re finding it difficult to get their leg over, but still want to ride to the Post Office and pick up a bit of shopping on the way home. If you can remember where you were when nice Mr Chamberlain met Herr Hitler, you will be in the target audience.

Complete with accessories, the 6-speed Shopper weighs some 25.9kg. Heave the 14.1kg lead/acid battery on board, and you’re looking at 40kg overall, which just happens to be the legal ceiling for electric bikes. Another gram and you’re nicked.

By comparison, the class-leading Lafree weighs from 22.2kg complete with delicately- crafted NiMH battery, and the chunkier Ezee Forza 25-29kg in NiMH form. Equipped with the new lithium-ion battery, the Powabyke still weighs over 32kg.

At 31″ to 62″, gearing is severely limited.That’s a reasonable bottom gear, but 62″ is only good for about 12mph at the top end, so your typical Powabyke Shopper will be passed by just about everything else on two wheels. Speed is not the object with this sort of machine, of course, but the lack of gearing makes it difficult to provide much human input when cruising along under power, because the motor runs up to about 14mph. That’s fine if you don’t want to pedal, but it will have a serious effect on range if you were hoping to. And sitting still in November means dicing with frost-bite, as we can testify.

Generally speaking, progress is noisy and slow. If you pedal with the motor turned off, it makes a loud tick-tick-tick noise like the cheapest sort of freewheel (presumably that’s exactly what it is) – turn the motor on and it whines loudly. Either way, progress is relatively laboured. But we don’t mean to be negative – the Shopper does what it does very well, and is currently Powabyke’s biggest seller.

Charging & Range

The banks of lithium- ion batteries fill barely two-thirds of the standard battery casing.The wiring is hugely complex - each cell having to be monitored individually

Powabyke claims the lithium battery will give a ‘non-pedalling’ range of 25 miles, and they’re dead right, because we managed 25.1 miles at 13mph, which is not half bad. Actually, it’s the furthest we’ve gone without pedalling by a fair margin. It’s a bit difficult to find the pedal-assisted range with a bike like this because long- distance rides are neither pleasant nor practical at 11mph. A reasonable guestimate for a more sensibly-geared bike would be 40 miles or even more.

The charger is as big as a dinner plate. Note the multicore computer cable and terminal plug for connection to the battery

Hill-climbing is a bit limited on the prototype, because Powabyke has restricted peak power to 250 watts, claiming that hill climbing is unaffected.Well, yes and no.We managed a 7% (1:14) gradient, but were disappointed to fail 10% without pedalling. Of course, the gears are so low that modest pedalling allows you to twiddle up 12% (1:8) or more without too much effort, provided you’re not in a hurry. Actually there’s plenty of grunt available – we’ve tested the lithium battery pack to 650 watts on another bike without meltdown, so it obviously works. And Powabyke promises that whatever output is chosen, hill-climbing will be the same as the conventional bike.

The charger is effectively ten little chargers in one, so it’s as big as a dinner plate, as noisy as a vacuum cleaner, and it weighs 2.6kg – definitely not a portable device. Charging is quite rapid – about 31/2 hours from empty to a full charge.Thereafter the power to the battery is cut off, but don’t leave the charger connected overnight, because the roaring noise doesn’t let up and it consumes an astonishing amount of power on standby. Look at it this way: charging the battery consumes a reasonably modest 600Wh, but leaving the charger plugged in for the rest of the night would add another 1,000Wh.

…at 26kg without a battery, the Shopper might be the wrong machine…

As the capacity of the battery is around 430Wh, charging is clearly a rather inefficient process, but we’ve seen worse, and the chargers are bound to improve.We should also point out that because of the way capacity is measured, those 430 Li-ion watts are much perkier than other types – think of it as a very big battery.

Conclusion

Powabyke expects to sell Lithium-ion versions of its everyday bikes for a premium of less than £150. If they can do this, the technology suddenly looks very attractive, because this battery will not only extend your range but give more charges. Lithium-ion batteries are claimed to recharge 1,000 times, against 300 or so for lead-acid. However, we think lithium-ion batteries only really make sense on a lightweight bike. At 26kg without a battery, the Powabyke Shopper might be the wrong machine to put it on.

The retro-fit battery and charger kit is expected to sell for £200, which makes sense if you want to upgrade a cherished Powabyke. But be warned, for technical reasons the control circuitry on an older bike may not allow the Li-ion battery to discharge fully, so you may not get the full benefit.

Now that the technology has been tamed, it seems inevitable that lithium-ion batteries will start to appear on lighter, smarter bikes (Powabyke clams to have a 25kg model in the pipeline). In theory, at least, this battery would give a really efficient electric bikes a cross-country range of 55 miles, with a recharge time of only 31/2 hours. In all fairness, the Powabyke Shopper is unlikely to be at the vanguard of the coming revolution, but it has broken new ground, nonetheless.

Specification

Powabyke Li-ion Shopper estimated cost £750 . Weight bicycle 25.9kg battery 14.1kg total 40kg Gear System Shimano 6-speed SIS . Gear Ratios 31″ – 62″ .Manufacturer Powabyke tel 01225 443737 mail sales@powabyke.com web www.powabyke.com

8.30am in February - another frosty school run

As regular readers will have gathered, we’re quite fond of our Giant Lafree. Other electric bikes have come and gone – some pausing only long enough to expire, explode or disgrace themselves in some other way, but the Lafree goes on and on.

Like all best friends, it’s thrown the odd tantrum and had the occasional sulk, but in two years and 3,600 miles, it’s never let us down. After a few early mods (see Lafree at 2,000 miles, A to B 37), we have hardly touched the bike.Two punctures and two broken valves in the first few months showed up faulty tubes, but the replacements haven’t been disturbed since.The same is true for the Nexus roller brakes, which bedded in during the first weeks, but haven’t been adjusted since, and the chain, which has been oiled only once.

With the arrival of the slightly faster Ezee Sprint in August 2003, we decided to increase the top speed of the Lafree by reducing the sprocket size by one tooth, from 21 to 20.This had the effect of increasing top speed by about one mile per hour in favourable conditions, but reduced the mileage per charge by about 10%. For lighter cyclists this may be a useful mod, but not for those towing trailers and/or tackling steep hills.

…the princely sum of £1. Not bad for two years ‘motoring’, eh?

In October, after a period of prolonged and heavy rain, the handlebar-mounted power switch started misbehaving. Removing the cover showed that water had found its way inside, but a few days drying out with the cover off cured the problem.The switch detente involves a spring and tiny ball-bearing that’s easily lost.When putting the cover back, a blob of grease will keep the ball in place and help to prevent water getting in.We certainly never suffered a recurrence of the problem.

The power switch is vulnerable in very wet conditions, but a blob of grease seals it

Two months later, one of our two batteries appeared to fail, but on inspection, the cells seemed OK.The Lafree charger features a ‘refresh’ button, that very gently drains, then refills, the battery to keep the 20 internal cells in ‘sync’ with each other.We had ignored Giant’s advice to refresh every month, resulting in some cells being empty while others were almost full – a very confused battery.We decided to perform a ‘super- refresh’, by individually draining each cell, then recharging the battery.This really works, and may be worth trying if you suffer similar problems, although the battery remains the weaker of the two. Strangely enough, a mileage test revealed that both were capable of ‘as-new’ performance, but the weaker one sometimes fails in service after seven or eight miles. It may be that these problems stem from over-use of our solar charger, which fills the battery quite slowly, but we have no evidence to prove this, and the gentle charge may even be beneficial..

Battery problems aside, snow and ice did nothing to halt the Lafree in its second winter. In favourable weather, Alexander rides to school on our Brompton trailer-bike, but when it’s too cold or too wet, the Lafree pulls the trailer. It’s on these sort of wet or bitterly cold mornings that a reliable electric bike proves its worth.

In late May, the charger failed, cutting off before the battery was properly charged. Talking to other high-mileage owners, this problem is not unknown, and Giant says a batch were affected and the chargers should now be reliable. In practice, with our reduced mileage, the solar panels covered for the broken charger for some weeks.

Since then, all has gone smoothly. In our first year, the playschool run boosted weekly mileage to 40. Over the course of this second year, we’re averaging about 30 miles – mainly short trips to town, and usually with the trailer attached, but a few longer day rides of 30 to 40 miles.The big question will be over battery life – our batteries have reached around 200 charges each, and although the theoretical life is considered to be 1,000 charges, we’re expecting to do a lot less, but time will tell.

The Maxxis tyres are probably good for 5,000 miles, so they’ll soon be due for replacement.We’ll probably do the chain at the same time. Running costs make interesting reading: in 3,600 miles, we’ve used about 29Kw of electricity. More than a third of this has come directly from the sun, at zero environmental or monetary cost, and the rest from the grid, for the princely sum of £1*. Not bad for two years ‘motoring’, eh?

Do we still love the Lafree? You bet. And so does almost everyone who has tried it – two out of three recent visitors going straight home to buy top-of-the-range 5-speed STs, which tells you something about the bike’s pulling power. It’s an A to B classic.

*Putting it another way, we’ve ridden for two years on the energy needed to heat a typical living room for an evening. In petrol terms, it’s the equivalent of just over half a gallon – half the annual consumption of the family mower.

Giant Lafree Comfort £1,099 . For UK stockists, call 0115 9775900

The Sprint

The production Sprint is broadly the same as the Forza prototype we tried back in June 2003, so won’t dwell too long on the detail. Beneath the skin there’s a new power controller with larger and better cooled something- or-others, and the charger has been slightly derated to reduce overheating in that department. The headlight has changed too – it’s bigger and altogether sexier- looking, but just as feeble in practice, although a better dynamo works wonders. And in place of the bargain-basement trip computer there’s now a decent Cateye or Sigma. Also standard is a chunky centre stand, a bell, and – nice touch this – a plastic track pump and cable lock.

The seat height was a bit limited on our prototype with saddle adjustment of only 86 – 96cm, but there’s now an optional taller seat pillar, giving a height of 91 – 101cm.This comes at no extra cost, provided it has been ordered with the bike. Rather confusingly, there’s also a bigger frame, to be sold as the ‘20-inch Sprint’, which does much the same as the tall pillar without the option of reselling the bike to a short person.

The Sprint weighs 29.2kg (lighter than all but the Lafree) and the light, rigid frame now comes in a swish dark grey rather than polished alloy, but the efficient motor, nickel-metal hydride battery and suspension remain unchanged.

…we averaged 15.7mph… the fastest we’ve ever seen…

On the negative side, the rear mudguard still rattles, the saddle is big, ugly and not conducive to effective pedalling (we’ve fitted a racing saddle to ours – a great improvement), and the battery gauge and power control systems are a bit odd, of which more below.

The ‘hall-effect’ brushless motor on the Sprint is strikingly efficient. Peak power consumption is only 500 watts, but most of those watts emerge as impressive pulling power, rather than heat. On the open road, with sustained gentle pedalling, the Sprint can easily hit 18mph, and cruise for mile after mile at 16mph, consuming rather less than 250 watts in the process. It has only three hub gears, but the ratios are perfect and the gear range is all you need with such a powerful motor.

Average speed is very impressive. On our hilly range-finding course, we averaged a blistering 16.1mph, making the Sprint easily the fastest electric bike we’ve seen, although at 27.9 miles, range was a little less than we achieved last year. Perhaps that isn’t surprising.

Both the Sprint and Rider are impressively well equipped - note the front suspension, dynamo lights and good solid mudguards. Only the front hub motor marks this out as a Sprint

Ezee’s neat little fan-cooled charger gives a full charge in just over four hours, then reverts to a slow trickle charge. It’s worth remembering (and this applies to most chargers of this type) that the trickle charge is around ten times slower than the ‘late for work’ rate. In other words, if the charger cuts off after, say two hours (not uncommon), the battery will only be half full, but a further 25 hours at the slow rate should fill it right up.The only thing to watch is temperature – if the battery begins to get warm, disconnect it.

Thanks to the impressive range, and replacement batteries at a relatively modest £200, the Sprint costs only 6.4p per mile to run – the cheapest NiMH electric bike on the market.

Euro-farce

Like most manufacturers, Ezee has become embroiled in the electric bike Euro-farce, sending German-style pedal-sensor machines (pedelecs) to mainland Europe, and hedging their bets with twistgrip throttle plus pedal-sensor for the UK.We’re confident this is legal here, but if the European Parliament says it isn’t, so what? As we understand it, there’s some perfectly good British legislation still on the books that says it is – we didn’t fight wars for this sort of nonsense, jack boots in Whitehall, Magna Carta, etc, etc.

…perfectly good British legislation…we didn’t fight wars for this sort of nonsense…

The Rider - the primary difference is a bigger, heavier lead-acid battery. Note the unuseable battery lock below the frame tube

With some bikes, this pedal-assist / power-on-demand debate is of little relevance, but for the Ezee Sprint, it really matters, because these bikes have a powerful motor controlled in a rather crude way by the pedal sensor. If used in pedelec-mode, the bike won’t help you pull away (awkward on hills), then blasts off on full power after you’ve pedalled for a second or so. As long as you keep the pedals turning, there’s no way of cutting the motor (except by partially applying the brakes) and when you stop pedalling, the power keeps coming for a second or so. It’s less of a problem on long rides in open country, but inefficient, annoying and frankly dangerous, in busy town traffic. Still, that’s a problem for the Germans. UK bikes can be controlled independently with the twistgrip throttle, but the motor still whacks in as soon as you pedal.We’d recommend disconnecting the pedal movement sensor altogether – you may disagree, but don’t buy The one until you’re happy with the Sprint hub controls provided. motor – impressively

With twistgrip control alone, the efficient, but needs Sprint is transformed.You can ride without decent controls power (quite pleasant, if you can live with that dinner-plate saddle), or feed in just the number of watts you want when you want it.You can accelerate smartly out of steep side roads or on to busy roundabouts with full human power to the rear and full bike power to the front, or just troll along without pedalling if that takes your fancy. Freedom, control, safety and economy. ‘Up yours, Delors’, as The Sun might say.

Conclusion

At £850, the Sprint costs more than we’d hoped, but it’s streets ahead of most other bikes in the £800-£900 price bracket.Who in their right mind, for example, would choose a Neanderthal TGA Electrobike or an Easybike, over the Sprint? More serious competition comes from the top-of-the-range Powabyke Commuter at £845, but even here, the tables are just as one-sided – the Commuter has no front suspension, a heavy lead-acid battery, noisy old-tech motor, ten hour charge time, steel frame, no lights, no trip-computer, and so forth… For the same money, the Sprint is lighter, faster, more comfortable, better made and better equipped. In a desperate search for suitable metaphors, we’ll turn to the plains of Africa.The Powabyke is a bit of a hippopotamus – big, heavy, ugly as sin, but good for a few miles once you get it up to a canter.The Sprint is more like the wildebeest – a little classier, undoubtably better looking, and much faster, with impressive acceleration.

An easy choice? Well, not quite, because we’ve yet to mention the Lafree – arguably the gazelle of the electric bicycle world.The Lafree Comfort is £250 more expensive than the Sprint, but the basic model is only £50 more, and it has a track-record of quality, efficiency and reliability that will take some beating. For much the same money, would you choose the light, delicate base-model gazelle or chunkier top-end wildebeest? From what we’ve seen it comes down to sex, or rather, the sex of the purchaser.Women generally fall in love with the gazelle, can be persuaded to ride the wildebeest, but would rather crawl than get acquainted with a hippo. Men tend to vote the other way.

Rider

Superficially, the Ezee Rider is identical to the wildebeest (sorry, Sprint), with the same generous component package, but it costs only £690, and the technical spec is cruder and simpler.The neat NiMH battery has been replaced with an old-fashioned lead-acid pack, which is almost twice as large and weighs a back- breaking 13.8kg (slightly more than the Powabyke battery). Obviously an off- the-shelf purchase in China (it’s strangely familiar), the battery pack doesn’t align with the Ezee battery lock, but it’s hard to imagine someone trying to steal it anyway. An additional complication is that the larger battery necessitates a taller and more upright saddle stem, so shorter people may find the 91cm minimum too high.

In place of the Nexus hub gears, the Rider makes do with a 5-speed Shimano SIS derailleur bolted to a cheap and cheerful DC motor, and the rear Nexus roller brake is replaced with a conventional V-brake.This lot pushes the gross bicycle weight up to 37.5kg – 8.3kg more than the Sprint, but a few kilograms lighter than its main competitors.

Most bikes at this price have useless gearing, but the gear range on the Rider is 45″ to 89″, almost identical to the hub-geared Sprint.We’re told that new bikes will be fitted with the Shimano Megarange system, giving an even lower 37″ bottom gear.

With a fresh battery the Rider will bowl along at 18mph on the flat, the motor singing a cheerful rhythm with the pedal strokes in pedelec mode. It’s only really when you come to a hill that the lack of quality begins to show.The cheap derailleur has be used with care to avoid clicks and crunches, and below 10mph the motor’s effectiveness begins to wilt, despite battery-hammering power consumption of around 700 watts.

…you’ll know right away whether this blend of performance and efficiency is for you…

The 45″ bottom gear helps you do your bit, but that’s not the point surely? In practice, an electric bicycle of this kind (we’re including almost everything below £700) would struggle a bit in, say, Devon, or the Lake District, although it would make light work of nagging East Anglian headwinds, provided the hills were of the rolling kind. Shallow gradients are eaten up at impressive speed (often 14mph or more), but the bike will only just climb a 10% gradient on its own, and on steeper hills, the rider has to work increasingly hard.We cleared 14% with some fairly serious effort.

Range is much as you might expect from a large lead-acid battery and relatively inefficient motor. As on the Sprint, the fuel gauge has three LEDs – green meaning OK, occasional yellow means you’re climbing a steep hill (if you hadn’t noticed), continuous yellow means you’ve more or less had it, and red means the motor is about to conk out. In this case, the yellow light came on at 20 miles, with the motor cutting out at 25.6 miles – an average speed of 15.3mph.That’s seven miles less than we achieved with the original Forza last summer, but slightly faster.The range is better than it sounds, because the battery managed several more gentle miles after a rest.These figures are from a UK-spec bike with pedal sensor disconnected. Mileage would be at least 10% less with the sensor in place, although the dangerous aspects don’t apply to the same degree, because the Rider motor cuts in and out in a much ‘softer’ fashion than the Sprint. If you can’t, or don’t want to pedal, the Rider will maintain 15mph+ without pedal-assistance for about 18 miles, provided the country is of the undulating kind.

Fuel consumption is 19.4Wh/mile with charger and other losses included (and a good deal higher with the pedal-sensor system).That’s fairly typical, as is the running cost of 5.8p per mile. A 90% charge takes 71/2 hours, but typical of lead-acid batteries, a full charge takes quite a bit longer at a slower rate, to a total time of 10 to 12 hours.

Conclusion

The Rider is heavier and less efficient than the Sprint or Lafree, but at £690 it slots into a completely different price bracket. Up against such monsters as the Viking, the Oxygen Atala, or the 21-speed Powabyke it emerges unscathed, although the margin is less clear cut, especially against the Powabyke.The Sprint is lighter (but not by much), unarguably faster, and with similar range and running costs. It all comes down to accessories, and in this department the Rider wins without question, offering the same package as its more expensive brother.

These bikes remain relatively untried: our early sample has done something over 1,000 miles, marred by control unit and charger failure early on.These should now be sorted (but bear in mind our general warning about NiMH chargers).You’ll either love or hate the Ezee bikes and you’ll know right away whether this blend of performance and efficiency is for you. Idiosyncrasies aside, we still rate the Sprint second only to the Lafree, and in our book that makes it one of the best electric bikes around.

Specification

Ezee Sprint £850 . Weight Bicycle 23.5kg Battery 5.7kg Total 29.2kg (64lb) . Gears Nexus 3- spd hub . Ratios 46″ 62″ 85″ . Batteries NiMH . Capacity 324Wh . Max. Range27.9 miles Full charge 4hrs . Fuel Consumption Pedelec 14.4Wh/mile . Running costs 6.4p per mile

Ezee Rider £690 .Weight Bicycle 23.7kg Battery 13.8kg Total 37.5kg (83lb) . Gears Shimano SIS 5-spd . Ratios 45″ – 89″ . Batteries Lead-acid . Capacity 432Wh . Max. Range Pedelec 27 miles Motor-only 18 miles . Full charge 10-12 hours . Fuel Consumption Pedelec 19.5Wh/mile Motor-only 30Wh/mile . Running costs 5.8p per mile . Manufacturer Shanghai Ezee Kinetic Technology web www.ezeebike.com . UK distributor 50Cycles web www.50cycles.com mail tim@50cycles.com tel 020 7794 5508

A little under three years ago, Giant revealed the Lafree Lite, raising the stakes in the electric bicycle world overnight.This quietly understated machine was quite simply Light Years ahead of the opposition. At 22.2kg, it was lighter than almost everything else, yet it was well equipped, and offered a reasonable 20-mile range. Crucially, it was also a really nice bicycle to ride, either assisted or with the motor turned off. A year later, the Lite was joined by the Comfort – £200 more expensive, but complete with decent brakes, automatic halogen lights, front suspension forks and a suspension seatpost.

…it seems Giant didn’t so much choose the 5-speed option as jump ship…

We were less complimentary about the Comfort, principally because it weighed an extra 3.1kg.Those reservations didn’t stop us buying one, though, and 3,000 miles later, we’re still delighted with our load-carrier, winter school run transport and shopper.The bike continues to do well and – incidentally – has run almost entirely on solar power since early March (see A to B 36 and 37).

One mild criticism has involved the gearing: 3-speed Nexus hub on the Lite and 4- speed Nexus on the Comfort. Both hubs have the same 184% range, giving a bottom gear of about 45″. In practice, that’s low enough to climb most gradients and haul some impressive loads, but we’ve been defeated once or twice. Long 16% (1 in 6) slogs are just manageable, but not with a trailer in tow.

Enter the 5-speed

SRAM 5-speed hub. Note the all-enveloping chaincase and the gear adjustment can be checked through the little perspex dome

It seems Giant didn’t so much choose the 5- speed option, as jump ship for one of the few suitable replacements, as Shimano has given notice that production of the 4-speed Nexus hub is to cease.We have mixed feelings about this – the 4- speed was a heavy and rather unsophisticated lump, but it forgave all selector ‘click box’. Gear sorts of abuse and was particularly well suited to electric drives, which can put out a lot of power, sometimes whilst you’re in mid gearchange…

There are two suitable replacements; the recently back-in-production Sturmey Archer 5-speed, and SRAM’s P5, latest version of the elderly Pentasport. In the event, Giant went for the German hub rather than the home product (like most Giant bikes, Sturmeys are now made in Taiwan), perhaps because the SRAM offers a whopping 251% range, against the Sturmey 5-speed’s 225%.That’s much broader than the 184% of the Nexus 4-speed, and the SRAM weighs a whopping half a kilogram less as well.

…the clunky change can make the Lafree slower in town than the old model…

We’ll get straight to the downside – like the Sturmey, the SRAM is a fine piece of engineering, but it can’t deal with the rider pedalling, or motoring, through changes. Against the relatively slick Nexus shifting, the SRAM is ponderous and slow. It rarely misses a gear, but you can’t start pedalling until you hear a click from the back wheel signifying a complete change, and this takes an age.The pause is longer changing down through the gears, but still evident with upward changes. If you rush it, the hub simply refuses to do the business. First gear is a particular problem, especially when a steep gradient takes you by surprise – in other words, just when you need a low gear in a hurry. By the way, Giant claims that the change improves with use…

The new frame is both lower and more rigid than the old design.These chainguard/motor/battery mouldings are more difficult to refit than they look

The clunky change can make the new Lafree slower in town than the old model, but we soon got used to treating it as a wide-ratio 3-speed, using gears 5, 3 and 2, which saves a bit of time. In hilly country, things are very different. On really steep hills, where the 3- or 4-speed bikes would be struggling, the 5-speed has a ratio and a bit left in reserve. How useful this is depends on where you live, and how you expect to ride the bike. As with the Honda Compo, but more so, there really is no practical limit to the hill climbing ability of the 5- speed Lafree.

Top gear is a shade low, at 79″, against 80″ for the Lite variant and 83″ for the 4-speed Comfort. Heading down, the ratios are 64″, 50″, 39″ and 32″, which would be reasonably low on a conventional bike. Overall, that’s slightly undergeared, so we’d be tempted to reduce the size of the hub gear sprocket by a one tooth, giving a top ratio of 83″.You could go further and give the ST a nice fast ‘overdrive’ top, but that would be illegal so, of course, we wouldn’t dream of recommending it…

If all this talk of percentages, ratios, inches and sprockets sounds confusing, all you really need to know is that the 5-speed Lafree offers unsurpassed efficiency. Compare the power consumption graph on page 18 with that for the Honda on page 28, and it’s immediately obvious that the Lafree’s Panasonic drive is not only fundamentally more efficient, but the extra two gears help it to run closer to peak efficiency for more of the time.The system also cuts out when you pass a preset pedal cadence, so there’s no need to turn the motor off when riding above 15mph.The SRAM hub feels efficient too, helping to make the ST one of the most pleasant electric machines to ride unassisted.

Adjustment is probably the easiest we’ve seen on any hub or derailleur system. Thanks to a little transparent window on top of the ‘clickbox’, you just twiddle the cable adjuster in Gear 3 until two cross-hairs are in alignment. Other manufacturers please note.

Other changes

An occasional criticism of the Lafree was the relative flexibility of the step-thru ladies frame, although frame flex is less important on an electric bike than a conventional bike, because you’re less likely to be heaving on the handlebars.The new 5-speed addresses the problem with a beefier 6cm mainframe tube in place of the older 4cm x 51/2cm oval design.The bike certainly feels a lot stiffer, but there’s a 300g weight penalty, even after the lighter gearbox has been taken into account.

For the time being, the 3- and 4-speed Lafree will continue in production in both ladies ‘step-thru’ style, or gents, with a traditional top tube, but the 5-speed will only be available in this step-thru form. Bad news for gentlemen is that when stocks of the 4- speed hub have been exhausted, only the base 3-speed model will be available with a full frame. However, the new design is probably just as stiff, and there’s no top tube to get your leg over. At 40cm, the step-thru height is unusually low, against nearly 47cm on the old model.

Giant has also added a few grams by fitting a full chainguard, but it’s hard to understand why.The old guard was light, simple and must have done a reasonable job, because our chain is in fair condition after 3,000 miles.The new one is made from four plastic mouldings, bolted, screwed and clipped together in the most confusing manner imaginable.The bits don’t fit together very well, and ours rubbed on the wheel on arrival – it took five minutes to fix the problem and an hour to reassemble the bits.The chain will last for ever, but you’ll need a modest tool kit, an even temper and plenty of time to get the wheel off by the roadside.That’s a shame, because one of the Lafree’s primary selling points was easy wheel removal, compared to other electric bikes.

Another small, but significant change, is to the automatic lights, where the duplicate Nexus sensor has been omitted.When we tested the Comfort (see A to B 31), we found it interfered with the light sensor in the Lumotec front light.This odd mismatch has now been cured, leaving a front light that goes on and off according to ambient light levels as intended. If you ride through a tunnel, or into a glade of trees at dusk, the lights will come on.We’d rather it happened in brighter conditions, but it is a superb system nonetheless.

Range

The Lafree sips fuel where others slurp - note the low peak consumption and the very small amount (the grey area) wasted by the machine’s control systems

Just to recap, all the electric bikes we test (or at least, those that are up to it) are ridden on our long established course across the hills into Dorset, given a brief (and usually insufficient) two- hour charge and sent home again. Back in 2001, the Lafree Lite managed 20 miles at a rather leisurely 12.8mph. The following year, the slightly higher geared 4-speed Comfort managed only 18.5 miles, but at a much more impressive 14mph.

…It’s the most efficient electric vehicle we’ve seen, and the best hill climber..

With marginally the lowest gearing of the three, and five well spread ratios, it seemed logical that the ST would do better, but we were still surprised to achieve 20.1 miles before the ‘low fuel’ warning light began to flash, and a total mileage of 22.9 at a reasonable 13.2mph. In terms of fuel efficiency, that’s easily the best we’ve seen – 6.8 watt/hours per mile based on the nominal battery capacity, or more realistically, 10.8 Wh/mile if charging losses are taken into account.

If you think 23 miles isn’t far, remember we’re riding fast in hilly country. On a more leisurely 30 mile jaunt with Alexander in the child seat, the ST came home with two ‘fuel’ lights still glowing out of five. On the ‘ECO’ setting, we’d say 40 miles would be quite within reach with care.

Charging rate is better than most; our two-hour top-up providing a 52% charge, giving (in this case) a range of 9.9 miles at 13.3 mph.The charger is the same light, compact unit provided with Lafree bikes since their introduction, and the total charge time of 3 hours and 50 minutes is unchanged.

Running costs come out at 7.9p per mile, which is the same as the 4-speed Comfort, the £50 extra purchase cost being offset by the improved running efficiency. Incidentally, we’re assuming a replacement battery cost of £195, but Giant tell us dealer prices may vary, so it could be worth shopping around. An up-to-date running cost comparison chart can be found on our website.

Conclusion

The Lafree ST is the heaviest Lafree yet and, at £1,149, the most expensive, none of which sounds very good. But it’s only marginally heavier, and it only costs fifty quid more than the 4-speed Comfort. In the credit column, it’s the most fuel-efficient electric vehicle we’ve seen, and the best hill-climber, which is quite a rare feat. Our only real doubt is over the gearbox – we’d certainly recommend trying it against the cheaper 3- or 4-speed bikes before making a decision. But gearbox and chainguard niggles apart, the rigid frame, smooth looks and overall efficiency make this one of the best electric bike yet to reach these shores. It’s one of the most expensive, but we think most users would consider it a price worth paying. (For more background on the Lafree, See A to B 27 & 31)

Specification

Lafree Comfort ST £1,149
Weight Bicycle 21.7kg (48lb) Battery 3.9kg (8lb) Total 25.6kg (56lb)
Gear system SRAM P5 hub
Ratios 32″ 39″ 50″ 64″ 79″
Batteries Nickel metal-hydride
Nominal capacity 156Wh
Maximum range 22.9 miles
Two-hour range 9.9 miles
Fuel consumption 10.8Wh/mile
Full charge 3hr 50m
Test Duration 200 miles
Running costs 7.9p per mile
UK distributor Giant UK tel 0115 977 5900 mail info@giant-uk.demon.co.uk

Thompson Euro-Classic - £350

We mentioned in the last issue that electric bike prices were falling.This time we’re looking briefly at the new bikes available for less than £500. If you’re wondering why such cheap electric machines are popping up, it all comes down to China’s massive two-stroke motorcycle problem and attempts to reduce pollution by getting commuters back on bicycles – albeit electric ones.There are now 300 companies producing these electric ‘scooters’, with sales of two million last year, and a prediction of three million in 2004. Such vast economies of scale help to make exports cheap, so these well-equipped bikes with vestigial pedals are now setting forth to conquer other markets.

Thompson

Euro-Classic £350 . Euro-City £400 . Euro-Tourer £450

David Henshaw

If you’re not in the electrical business you probably haven’t heard of Thompson. It’s a large family-owned electrical goods wholesaler with premises in Worcester and interests as diverse as toasters and washing machines.Tony Thompson and son Carl have fingers in all sorts of import/export pies, but sell mainly to market traders and discount electrical shops in the UK. In the dim and distant past, that would have placed Thompson firmly at the tackier end of the business, but with almost everything now being made in China, Thompson’s goods may well be sourced from the same factory as the classier Comet or Dixon product sold on the High Street.These days, nothing is quite what it appears.

Thompson Euro-City - £400

Tony got into the electric bicycle business quite by accident whilst sourcing vacuum cleaners in China, as one does in the electrical trade. He happened to look out of the factory window and saw dozens of little electric bicycles scurrying about, and the vacuums were soon forgotten. Once the deal had been done (new brushless motors and Japanese Panasonic batteries thrown in), Thompson found itself one of the biggest players in the UK market, selling 1,200 in the first year.They investing a further half a million pounds, and are now predicting sales of 3-4,000 in year two and 5-6,000 in year three. If you’re importing a bottom end electric bike, be prepared to quake in your boots – Tony is close to retirement, and he expects to go out on a high note.

The Thompson message is value Thompson Euro-City – £400 for money, and the Chinese have thrown in a surprisingly high spec.The range comprises three machines: the Classic, City and Tourer, plus the more expensive and moped-like Duo, of which more another day.

All the bikes feature brushless DC motors.To cut a long story short, brushless motors have no wearing parts, so they’re reliable, quiet and efficient. And they’re usually designed to pull away from a standstill without destroying themselves, unlike the earlier, cruder breed of DC motors, which tend to cut in at walking pace, giving no assistance from a standing start.The bad news is that the switching function of the brushes is reproduced electronically, and electronics have a tendency to go pop when overstressed. Thompson say the control system is extremely reliable.

Otherwise, these are technically very simple machines – six 6 volt lead-acid batteries feeding, er, 36 volts into a 200 watt motor (up from 150 watts last year).They’re all as ugly as sin, but who cares? They’re practical (all have lights and indicators) and very very cheap. Last year’s headline retail price was £300, but to hedge bets against the tangled Euro-legislation fiasco, the Thompsons have wisely added a ‘pedal-assist’ switch to the bikes for an extra fifty quid. Call it insurance, guv.

Legal Complications

We’d better recap on the legal maelstrom. For twenty years, British power-assisted bikes, like US machines, have been available as ‘pedelecs’ – where the motor only cut-in when you turned the pedals – and ‘E-Bikes’, which you didn’t need to pedal, but could if you wanted to. In Euro-land, meanwhile, the E-Bikes were generally illegal, and Brussels is now trying to bring us into line.

The different types have similar power outputs and (more importantly) identical top speeds, but to put it in tabloid terms, Herr Kraut is telling us to turn our pedals and trim our waistlines, when we’d rather follow the free-market Yanks and decide for ourselves whether to stay trim and slim, or grow fat and lardy. More seriously, many older and/or partially disabled people really need that freedom to choose.

Thanks to lobbying (by disabled riders, amongst others), our civil servants tried to negotiate a compromise, but the situation remains in complete chaos, with contradictory UK and European law in place simultaneously. At the ever helpful Department for Transport, the main man has retired with a headache, leaving minions who simply don’t have a clue.Their current advice is to wait and see what the courts say…

If E-Bikes are banned (all bets are off at the moment), and gran is seen coasting on her Thompson, but spots the old ‘blues ‘n twos’ in the mirror, she need only flick to Pedelec mode. (‘But I was pedalling officer, honestly.’) If no-one’s looking, she can put her feet up, and go on her way.The affair is developing into a classic Euro-farce, but fifty quids worth of switch does at least give the end-user some insurance should the legislators turn nasty. Just to add to the confusion,Thompson is poised to put the E-Bike version back on the market, and why not?

Ride & Equipment

Thompson Euro-Tourer - £450

Equipment levels are pretty good. The lights take a direct feed from the battery and are thus pretty powerful – more moped than bicycle.When the power’s turned off, the lights draw power from the motor, which usefully functions as a crude generator when coasting. There’s also a functional electric horn, indicators of rather dubious daytime value, a rear rack, stand, and front suspension forks throughout the range.The 18-inch wheeled City also has a rear coil spring, which absorbs largish bumps, and all the Thompson Euro-Tourer – £450 bikes can be fitted with a useful front basket for £7.99, and/or a lockable rear top box for £14.99. A spare charger – useful for topping up the battery at work – costs £29.99.

The only real problem is that these bikes are single-speed and low geared, with short cranks. As far as the Thompsons are concerned, their bikes are aimed exclusively at older people who wouldn’t (or couldn’t) pedal if they were being chased by a family of Grizzly bears.We won’t argue with them (the Thompsons, not the bears), because they know their market and they’ve already sold a thousand of the things. All we will say is that everyday cyclists looking for a bit of assistance will be driven mad by pedals that are only really useful below 7mph.This inability to add much oomph of your own will make a big dent in the range too, but we’d guess at 15 to 20 miles, provided the territory is reasonably flat.

Wheel size varies according to model (the Classic has 24″ wheels, the Tourer 22″, and the City 18″), but the fixed gear ratios are all 48″.With a taller seat pillar, longer cranks and larger chain ring, all these bikes could be made reasonably pedallable, but we doubt it would be worth the trouble.Thompson could have specified all these parts, of course, but they’re adamant that their market sector won’t pedal, so that’s that.

After a short ride on each, there isn’t a lot to add: the 200 watt brushless motors are quiet and pull well (the 150 watt is rather feeble), top speed is around 12 or 13mph (15mph is the legal maximum), the pedals are more or less there for show, and the suspension works quite well, although not well enough to prevent things crashing around in the noisy top-box. Brakes are barely adequate to hold back a 40kg machine, so you need to exercise some care, especially in the wet. Hills are a problem because of the limited pedal-assist, but the 200 watt motor is capable of surmounting a 10% hill at a modest speed. Incidentally, there will be a larger 250 watt motor for next year, and brushless motor watts are nice big efficient ones, so that promises to be fairly perky.

Brainy types may already have gathered that the expensive Pedelec mode is next to useless except on steep hills, because it only lets the motor cut in when it senses pedal input, but you can only realistically pedal at low speed. Just ignore it.

F2 Motorcycles

E-Bike Retro £399 . E-Bike Cruiser £499

Peter Henshaw

I enjoy cycling – not just a particular bike, but anything with two wheels and a set of pedals. At least, that’s what I used to think until I rode the E-Bike Retro. It’s slow, hard work and wobbly.

But then perhaps I’m missing the point, which happens to be a rock bottom price tag of just £399. Thompson apart, this is the cheapest electric bike in Britain. Powabyke used to be the price leader, but they now start the thick end of £200 more than one of these. So is this the breakthrough for electric bikes? If so, it’s about time, because as many detractors will point out, you can buy a bargain basement 50cc scooter for the price of a Giant Lafree or top end Powabyke. A fairly unpleasant, low-tech scooter, but a scooter nonetheless, with weather protection, a 30mph top speed and no need to pedal.

The Retro looks tiny, like a cheap child’s bike, an effect heightened by the bright yellow and blue battery case which sits on the rear rack. Start riding, and it feels like a child’s bike as well. Even with the seat stem at the top of its travel, my stubby 30-inch legs felt cramped and uncomfortable, so only the seriously short need apply.There’s only one gear, and it matches the pedal-twirling 48″ of the Thompsons, so even with the right size legs, cycling more than a couple of miles would be a fair old challenge.

Except that most Retro owners won’t be doing anything so rash. According to David Angel of F2 Motorcycles, who lent us the test bike, the typical buyer is a short senior citizen who wants to nip down to the shops with as little pedalling as possible. And here the Retro delivers, after a fashion.The modest 150-watt motor is clamped to the frame, and will trundle the bike along at an estimated 10mph without pedalling.We didn’t have time to test range, which the maker says will run to 18 miles at 13mph.

With or without pedalling, riding the Retro is not a very pleasant experience.The combination of the high-mounted battery and a less than rigid frame make for a distinctly wobbly ride.This is magnified by the soft and squashy (35-45psi) 22″ x 1.75″ Cheng Shins, which squeak and squeal reluctantly around corners. Almost every component underlines the low price – the plastic brake levers and steel cranks – and paint was starting to flake off the test bike. Mind you, the Retro is quite well equipped, considering. A front basket, battery-top rack, chainguard and rear stand are all part of the package. Good value then, but perhaps the Retro’s strongest suit is the fact that its low price tag will attract crowds into the showroom.Then they’ll hopefully spend a little more on a better bike.

The Cruiser

If they do, then this is it, because the E-Bike Cruiser, though just £100 more than the Retro, is in a different class. It shares many of the same components, and it’s still a no-no for six-footers, but this one has been designed as an electric bike, and it shows.

…the Retro has nothingin it’s favour but price…theCruiser is streets ahead…

Instead of the small 24 volt battery sitting on the rack, there’s a substantial 36 volt unit styled into the main frame.That partly explains why the Cruiser weighs 40kg, 25% more than the Retro, but it also makes the bike look more professional and all of a piece. It certainly feels nicer to ride, more solid and stable than the Retro – the lower battery mounting and a more solid frame probably do the business, though it wears exactly the same squishy Cheng Shin tyres.The ‘Wixing’ brakes are made of dubious stuff, and no more effective, but somehow this E-Bike feels more trustworthy than its entry-level cousin.

Once again, it comes with a single, breathless 48″ gear, and anyone with a leg of 30 inches or over will find it a non-starter. But for others, the Cruiser has its charms. (The stickers actually call it a ‘Commutabike’, but who are we to quibble?) Instead of an afterthought bolt-on, the 180-watt motor is incorporated into the rear hub. Better still, the brushless hub is astonishingly quiet. Apply throttle from a standstill, and the Cruiser glides gently away with Rolls-Royce aplomb – after the squawking and whining of older DC motors, this is heaven. Performance is gentle and sedate, which is somehow in keeping.The maker claims 20 miles at 13mph, though once again, we didn’t get the chance to test it, and 10mph seemed a more realistic speed on the flat.

F2 Motorcycle’s E-Bike Cruiser

There’s something else that sets the Cruiser apart, and makes the extra £100 well spent. It is very well equipped: a colour-coded top box, a rear rack and front basket to take care of the shopping.There is suspension at both ends: admittedly, the impressive looking braced front forks have about half an inch of movement, and there’s just a springy seat post at the back, but it’s suspension nonetheless. A three-LED display shows the state of the battery, and a front light is part of the package too. Like the Thompson bikes this works off the battery which might be illegal, but who knows with Britain’s Mad Hatter electric bike legislation? There is even a three-LED rear light set into the top box, but strangely enough it isn’t connected.You also get a chainguard, skirt guard and rear stand as part of the deal.

I was impressed by the Cruiser.The £399 Retro has nothing in its favour except price, but for just £100 more, the Cruiser is streets ahead in style, equipment and function. If you’re on the short side, and aren’t too bothered about gears, this might be the affordable electric bike you’ve been waiting for.

Conclusion

These very cheap bikes cost a little more to run than their more expensive cousins (we’ve estimated 5p-6p per mile) because with limited pedal input the range per charge and battery life is reduced. But the potential is huge – older folk, those who simply can’t pedal, tubby middle-aged types banned from driving who won’t pedal, and everyone else making the sort of short car journey a Thompson or E-Bike could do with ease. If granny’s legs go all wobbly, or you’re up against the ‘can’t pedal, won’t pedal’ mentality in the pub, just throw back: ‘electric bike, no need to pedal, three hundred and fifty quid’. Then sit back with a grin on your face.

Thompson Electrical tel 01905 763376 web www.thompsons-online.co.uk F2 Motorcycles tel 01295 712900 mail david@f2motorcycles.co.uk web www.f2motorcycles.co.uk

Regular readers will know that we purchased our Giant Lafree primarily to undertake a regular play-school run. Barely three miles away, the school was some 50 metres higher than A to B Towers – a gentle climb riding solo on a spring morning, but a serious challenge towing a trailer into an icy headwind in February.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the Lafree proceeded to change our lives, just as the train-friendly nature of the Brompton had done almost a decade before. Overnight, the school run went from drudgery to almost unadulterated pleasure: faster and more consistent under all conditions.That’s not to say that the daily dollop of exercise wasn’t there, but the amount you got was more under your control. If you feel like a bit of a workout, you can turn the power off or (more usually) do the muscle-thing plus power and arrive when the neighbours were still strapping their kids into the car.The Lafree door-to-door journey time was a consistent 12 minutes, which compares well with a car over this sort of distance.

Talking of cars, an unexpected bonus with this sort of bike is the ability to drop someone off at the station. If one of us is travelling by train with Alexander, and doesn’t want a bike at the other end (or to lock one up at Castle Cary), one adult rides to the station on a Brompton, while the other tows the trailer with the Lafree. At the station, the Brompton is folded into the trailer for the haul home, and the exercise is repeated later in the day to bring everyone home. It’s an easy, quick and economical solution, but only really practical with a power-assisted bike if hills are involved.

Inevitably, the Lafree has found all sorts of other uses too – mainly absorbing the hard slog of ten- to twenty-mile cross-country jaunts, and carrying A to B magazines to the post office, but also for those nip-to-the-shop journeys where the consistent speed and load- carrying abilities are welcome.The trailer hitch (previously fitted primarily to the ‘mountain-drive’ Brompton) hardly ever leaves the Lafree these days.

We’ve covered 2,000 miles in ten months.With the benefit of hindsight, were our earlier test reports (A to B 27 & 31) fair? We’d say a little harsh. After initial bedding-in of brake rollers and chain, day-to-day maintenance has involved no more than occasional brake adjustments and tyre pressure checks.We’ve had only two punctures in the year, which is better than average on our thorny country roads, and the chain has been oiled only once, despite daily use in all weathers. Apart from adjusting the bearings on the Nexus hub and tightening the clamp on the sprung seat post (both bedding-in adjustments), everything else has survived without so much as a tweak.

Failures have been rare: both the inner-tube valves were faulty, snapping off during routine maintenance, which meant new tubes.We chose car type ‘Schraeder’ valves, as they’re compatible with our other bikes, which meant drilling the Presto-equipped rims to suit.

Removing the front wheel pulled the wires from the rather tacky connector block on the Nexus hub dynamo – a fault which inevitably only became apparent after dark and proved impossible to fix until daylight. Otherwise, the auto-lights have been superb, although the front continues to turn on a little late in the evening.Throughout the winter, we kept it on all the time, leaving the more reliable rear light switched to ‘auto’.

The Esge stand is much better than the original

Despite trudging back and forth in all conditions, from well below freezing with two inches of snow and black ice, to a 32C furnace in July, the power system has worked well.The only fault on the bike has been dirty battery contacts, but a gentle clean solved the problem and it never recurred.The battery charger has fared less well, telling us with increasing regularity that the charge was complete when it clearly wasn’t. The charger was eventually replaced under warranty at eleven months.

Upgrades and Adaptations

Upgrades have been few and far between. An Esge dual-leg stand proved to be an excellent purchase, as the original simply wasn’t up to the job. Fitting a decent stand has made a rack-mounted child seat practical, so we could now tow and carry up to three children, should that, ahem, ever be necessary.The Esge is one of the best stands on the market and available in several sizes. Inevitably we ended up with the wrong one, so our advice is ‘buy long and cut to suit’. If you find the stand too short (the rear wheel should be just clear of the ground), it’s possible to drill and tap the legs to accept steel feet – a neat solution.

…enthusiastic cyclists faced with heavy loads or daunting hills will come to love this bicycle…

A Brompton pannier mounting solved luggage carrying (see A to B 35) and we fitted an oversize reflective rear mudflap to reduce mud spray over and into the trailer.

We’ve also found a second battery invaluable.This extends maximum range to a shade under 40 miles (30% less with a trailer on tow) and provides useful insurance on those mornings when you discover that the battery wasn’t plugged in the night before…

Any downsides? Range could be better, but it’s adequate for most things.We’ve also noticed that the bike is a bit sluggish on colder mornings, but aren’t we all? Incidentally, in cold weather, it’s a good idea to charge the battery indoors and fit it just before departure. One of the many automatic systems shuts the charger down below 0 C.

A common question is how often should the battery be ‘refreshed’? This option gives the battery a gentle and complete discharge before restarting the charge process. Giant suggests refreshing the battery every month, when something odd happens, or when range begins to suffer.We have settled on a regular refresh charge every two or three months, which seems to have kept things running nicely.

NiMH batteries are claimed to have a life of 500 to 1,000 charges. In the first nine months, our primary battery was charged 115 times and the spare 30 times, giving a mileage per charge (not all full charges, of course) of 9.3 miles. At this rate, we would expect the battery to fail at a little under 5,000 miles, or two and a half years. Continued observation will be difficult because of the solar charging system (see page 19), and also because Alexander has moved to the village school, which is well within walking distance.

There’s only one adaptation we would like to make to the Lafree – more gears. It’s a pleasant bike to ride unassisted, but a bottom gear of 45″ is just too high.With the trailer attached, the maximum assisted gradient is barely 1 in 7 with quite a bit of effort – lower gearing would make load-hauling much more practical.With the assistance of Sturmey Archer, we’re fitting a 5-speed hub and will report back in A to B 38.

The Future

So what will become of the Lafree? An interesting question.The bike is bound to see less use, but we may try some longer solo rides while Alexander is at school.Wells is 14 uppy-downy miles to the west and Sherborne, 13 equally hilly miles east – both would normally be a serious trek for a visit to friends, swimming baths, museum, or a concert, but safely within spare battery range for the Lafree. Are we getting lazy? The truth is that in the eight years prior to the arrival of the electric bike, we visited Wells once and Sherborne two or three times.Those young, carefree days when the sun always shone and every journey had a following breeze are pure fantasy.Today, with electric assistance, these towns have become relatively straightforward destinations.

An advantage of the growing Lafree population is that we now have friends and relatives nearby with the same bike, so it’s possible to go visiting without a charger or spare battery, and still top-up the battery for the journey home.

If you’re looking for gutsy muscular assistance, a Giant Lafree probably isn’t for you, but more enthusiastic cyclists faced with heavy loads or daunting hills will come to love this anonymous-looking bicycle just as we have.The Lafree has broken through into the cycling world in a way that other electric bikes have failed to do, and – like the Brompton – it’s fast becoming the transport professionals preferred car-free mode of transport. It isn’t cheap, but the Lafree is still the best electric bike there is.We recommend it.

For further information, contact Giant UK tel 0115 9775900 web www.giant-bicycle.com

Imagine an electric bicycle with scooter- quality lights. It also has direction indicators, a brake light, full instrumentation, mirrors, and even a radio! The lights work directly off the main battery supply, so there’s no need for a dynamo, while a U-lock and sprung forks are part of the deal too. It comes in a range of bright, cheerful colours and as icing on the cake, costs £70 less than the cheapest Giant Lafree.The Viking is all of these things, but does that make it worth buying? First impressions are certainly good – what with the indicators and massive headlight, plus that fully-equipped dashboard, the Viking looks like a serious commuter machine, not a bicycle with an electric motor tacked on.The first misgiving comes when you learn that drive is by a friction roller directly on the rear tyre.

Regular readers will know that A to B is no fan of friction drives, which either slip in the wet or wear the rear tyre rapidly, or both.The Viking claims to get around this with a twistgrip-device that varies the force with which the roller acts on the tyre – lots of force in wet, slippy conditions, not so much in the dry.This seems to work, and in fact there was no slippage powering up a steep hill on a wet day, and that on the ‘dry’ setting.What you can’t do is lift the roller clear of the tyre altogether, so despite the motor having a freewheel, there’s always some friction to pedal against.

But even though the friction drive works, it still places the heavy motor and twin lead-acid batteries high up, raising the bike’s centre of gravity. As any Giant or Yamaha pedelec owner will tell you, the best place for weight is as low as it can be. So anyone unused to the weight of electric bikes needs to take care when mounting up, especially as the Viking has a substantial crossbar to get your leg over – this is no stepthrough machine.

…save a little more and buy a Giant, or keep five hundred quid in the bank and ride a Thompson…

The instruments will keep you entertained.

On the move, once you’ve sorted out the complication of juggling three twistgrip controls (throttle, friction roller and gears) the Viking goes pretty well, surging up steep hills like a Powabyke, though there is a two-second gap between twisting the throttle and power coming in. In the meantime, the instrument set keeps one entertained, with a speedometer, clock, battery condition and current meters. And the radio (complete with tiny speakers set into the mirrors has an autoseek function and actually works quite well (in Banbury, at any rate).

too much weight, too high up

But behind its showroom appeal, the Viking is far from practical.The bicycles bits (Shimano SIS 6-speed derailleur, unbranded 40psi tyres and brakes) look and feel cheap, considering the bike costs almost £800. Luggage options are limited to a small rack on top of the battery box – again, high-mounted weight, not good news.The mountain-style front ‘mudguard’ allows water to spray right up to your chest and the indicators, which look so impressively large, house just a single LED apiece. Be warned: lights of this kind are not up to current European or British standards and should not be relied upon as turn indicators. Traffic is more likely to be alerted by the loud ‘beep’ that accompanies their flashing than that tiny LED.The multi-LED brake/rear light is very effective though.

The makers of the Viking (it’s from China, of course) claim an improbable 50-mile range, but the more honest (or, perhaps, heavier) dealer who lent us the bike said 15-20 miles would be more realistic, making full use of the power. He also pointed out that in six months, he hasn’t had to buy a single spare part, and he has sold plenty of bikes, so the Viking seems reliable at least.

But if you want our opinion (based admittedly on a short ride) then no, the Viking is not worth buying. Despite all the goodies, it feels like a pretty basic electric bike, and at £799, we’re not sure it’s worth £500 more than an entry-level machine. Save a little more and buy yourself a Giant, or keep five hundred quid in the bank and ride a Thompson…

Thanks to F2 Motorcycles tel 01295 712900 for loaning the test bike

We’ve talked about the evolutionary aspects of electric bicycle development before. And, love ‘em or loath ‘em, the early years of this new century provide a fascinating opportunity to observe transport evolution in progress. Broadly speaking, electric bikes have split into two groups; the heavy Chinese bruisers, personified by the Powabyke, and the newer gazelles of the genre – light, agile pedelecs, such as Giant’s Lafree.

This month, we’re riding the Ezee Forza, a fascinating hybrid from a small Chinese company that might turn out to be an evolutionary dead end, but might also herald the demise of the 40kg dinosaurs. Manufactured in Shanghai, it’s relatively cheap, but it also offers much of the sophistication and performance previously found only on the most expensive machines.The result is something quite new: decent equipment, light alloy frame, NiMH battery and hub gears borrowed from the Lafree concept, but with a down- to-earth Powabyke-style front hub motor and a potential price tag of around £650.That would put the bike head-to-head with the mid-range Powabyke, but with weight and performance closer to the gazelle evolutionary strand.

Enter the Forza

The Forza has an alloy frame and upright riding position broadly reminiscent of the European-designed Giant Lafree.There’s even a similar characteristically curved frame tube, but unlike the Lafree, the tube curves down towards the wheel. Another difference is the slightly garish polished alloy frame, against the Lafree’s understated enamelled version, and some humungous chunky welds, where the Lafree looks delicately crafted.

…not the lightest on the market, but close, and it offers a lot more performance…

Without the battery, the Forza weighs an acceptable 23.6kg (52lb), putting it mid way between the Powabyke Commuter (27.6kg) and the relatively sylph-like Lafree Twist (18.3kg). But unlike either of these machines, the Forza offers suspension – well, suspension forks and a bouncy seat pillar anyway – so it should really be compared with the Lafree Comfort, which weighs 21.4kg without battery.There’s only a couple of kilogrammes in it, so we’re obviously looking at a fairly skillful weight honing job.

Factor in the battery and the Powabyke weighs close to 40kg, the Forza 29.4kg, and the Lafree Comfort 25.3kg.The Forza isn’t the lightest on the market, but it’s close, and it offers a lot more performance, as we shall see.

Riding

Typical of Far Eastern electric bikes aimed at Germany and the USA, the Forza has a saddle as broad and flat as a dinner plate, with modest height adjustment of 86-89cm, even before the suspension post has sagged under those decadent western buttocks.We did manage to twiddle the saddle up to 96cm by ignoring the ‘max’ warning, but for those lucky enough to sport a slimline Euro-bot, and lovely long legs, this sort of thing is a bit of a joke. It will also more or less guarantee knee damage, should you put any great effort into the pedals. Forza tell us that production versions will come in two frame sizes.

The suspension forks and seatpost are not of the best quality, but they do a manful job, coping with most road conditions. Actually, a fair bit of the resilience seems to come from the chunky 26″ x 1.95″ Kenda tyres, which are knobbly on the edges and smooth in the middle, in true ‘mountain-style’.The bike would go further and faster with narrow high pressure tyres, but it might not be so comfortable.

Brakes are a bit of a mixture – V-brakes at the front and Nexus roller brake at the rear. Under perfect conditions, the brakes are well matched, achieving brake force of .75G (front) and .35G (rear). Our concern is that these two very different systems would react differently to wet or icy conditions – something to watch.

Under way without power, the three-speed Nexus hub feels somewhat over-geared at 46″, 62″ and 85″, but with the motor engaged, the ratios are about right. Noise levels are low by hub motor standards – much quieter than the Powabyke, but a little noisier than more expensive designs, such as the Heinzmann.

Thanks to the confusion over the legality of throttle-controlled electric bikes in the UK, Ezee provided us with a bike that could be used in either pedelec (ie, only when pedalling) or full throttle-controlled electric mode.We should also point out that our bike is very much a prototype, and final control specification has yet to be decided.

The pedelec mode proved most unsatisfactory, switching straight to full power after a second or two, and staying there for a while after you stop pedalling.The brakes are fitted with over-ride switches to cut the power, but in practice, this sort of thing is useless in heavy traffic and can take you dangerously unawares during a tight U-turn, for example.

In throttle mode, the bike proved much more controllable, although once the rear- mounted key is turned to the ‘on’ position, there’s no safety cut-out, so inadvertent use of the throttle will set the front wheel spinning.This should be sorted on production bikes, so it would be unfair to dwell too long on this.

The Forza has an unusually large NiMH battery, but at 5.8kg it's one of the lightest. The saddle tips forward for battery removal

Safety grumbles aside, once you’re on the move, the throttle gives a nice progressive response and the motor pulls cleanly from a stand without fuss, getting into its stride from around 8mph, and proceeding with some enthusiasm to 16mph, or as much as 18mph with a fresh battery.

Er, isn’t that illegal? Well, yes and no.When 90% of motorists choose to pass our 30mph-zoned gate at 40mph+ and the police have no intention of stopping them, we’re not going to criticise an electric bicycle doing a modest 18mph are we? Unfortunately, Ezee tell us production machines destined for Europe will incorporate a 15mph speed limiter. Perhaps the EC would like to do the same for cars?

Range

The front hub motor is compact, economical and powerful, and the NiMH battery – although tiny by Powabyke standards – offers an impressive 324 watt/hour capacity in a particularly lightweight package.This battery/motor combination results in a cracking top speed, plenty of mid- range torque, and considerable  endurance.  We completed our 17.6-mile ‘mountain’ course in a record-breaking time of one hour seven minutes, thanks to some superb hill climbs, including a long 12.5% (1 in 8) stretch, cleared at a steady 9mph.The biggest problem with a powerful motor is holding it back, particularly on a bike with only three gears – the technique is to use full throttle until the bike begins to slow, then change down to second and throttle back until you crest the ridge. On full power, the motor will try to storm the hill at a ‘late for work’ pace and the battery will suffer.The problem with hub motors (as opposed to crank-driven systems) is that on really steep hills the motor is working more slowly (and less efficiently) than it would like, so a good general tip is to engage first gear, throttle back further still, and do a little more work yourself.The practical limit in this case is about 17% (1 in 6).

…only two come close…the Powabyke Commuter and the Dawes S-Drive…

Having reached our destination without the slightest hiccup or falter, we turned straight round after a nice cup of tea (thanks gran) and did it all again in reverse. Average speed continued to hover around the 15mph mark (yes, that’s the legal maximum for power assistance), until 26 miles, when the first of two low fuel warning lights popped on during a steep hill climb.The indicator has three lights – green, yellow and red, but green stays cheerfully illuminated until the battery is almost exhausted and red never makes an appearance. By 31 miles the yellow light was permanently on, and the end came quite suddenly at 32.8 miles, covered at a cracking average of 14.8mph with excellent fuel consumption of 9.9Wh per mile. Battery replacement will probably cost in the region of £200, giving an estimated running cost (note, we now include 2p per mile for cycle consumables) of 5.8p per mile.

…the Forza is in a class of its own in terms of speed, range and rideability…

How do the figures compare? Running costs are amongst the cheapest we’ve seen, and about the same as the Powabyke. In terms of range, most electric bikes can scrape up to twenty miles these days, but only two come close to the Forza – the Powabyke Commuter did the same mileage at a slightly lower 14.3mph average, while the long-range version of the Dawes S-Drive (now discontinued) managed 48.9 miles, but at a rather lethargic 13.4mph.

In motor-only mode, the Forza managed a shade under 20 miles on a flattish circuit – about the same as the Powabyke again, and exactly as claimed (35km). If you don’t think that’s remarkable, remember that the Powabyke has a monster 13.4kg battery, but the Ezee battery weighs just 5.8kg… And the average speed (on a wet and blustery spring day) was a consistent 15.5mph for most of those 21 miles, falling to 12mph or so on modest hills and 9mph on a 10% gradient.When the battery eventually expires, the Forza is surprisingly easy to pedal, thanks to a much more rigid frame than the Lafree. Standing out of the pedals is easy on this bike, which is fortunate, because you’ll be doing plenty of it with a 46″ bottom gear. Ezee tell us that production bikes will have the Nexus 7-speed hub as an option – worthwhile if you expect to tackle hills unassisted. But even in three- speed form, the Forza is in a class of its own in terms of speed, range and rideability.

Charging

A good equipment package - decent rack, 3- speed hub, dynamo lights and full mudguards

With a 324Wh battery, charging is never going to be quick, but the large battery has been paired with a powerful charger – a neat little fan-cooled unit measuring 19cm x 10cm x 5cm and weighing 1.1kg (half of this in the generous three-metre leads). A 90% charge takes exactly five hours, after which the charger reverts to a low top- up rate till morning. Fast chargers can be inefficient, and this one manages only 50% efficiency, so the process generates quite a lot of heat, consuming 600Wh over the five hours (and 16 watts per hour thereafter). Chargers of this kind should not be left connected for too long – we would suggest a maximum of 15 hours.

Equipment

Possibly the broadest package of any we’ve tried, although not necessarily the best componentry.The Forza has a useful rear rack complete with traditional spring-thingey, chainguard, substantial but not overly heavy centre stand, basic but acceptable trip computer and a dynamo lighting set.

Front suspension and dynamo lights - all part of the package.

The trip computer works well enough, but if you push the buttons in the wrong order it’s possible to erase everything, which is a bit annoying. It’s also a bit short on functions, offering only speed, elapsed time and mileage, but no average calculation, which looks a bit mean. On the other hand, it’s simple to use and easy to read, and it’s the first standard trip computer we’ve tested, so top marks.

The dynamo lighting system is based on rather crude copies of European products – a shaky-looking bottle dynamo, a neat but remarkably ineffective front lamp, and a workable, but old- tech rear lamp.The dynamo slips and whines for a mile or so until it warms up (and fitfully thereafter), the lamp bulbs look and perform twenty years pre- halogen, and the wiring looks vulnerable at the rear, but it all works, and it’s part of the package.

Conclusion

Our prototype Forza has one or two minor niggles, such as a noisy rear mudguard, and some glaring faults in the control software, but everything else performed well, from the fast compact charger to the lightweight battery and quiet efficient motor.

Weight – both of the battery and the bike – is particularly low, resulting in reasonable economy and sprightly performance.We’re quite convinced that with a few tweaks, the Forza could be a very effective machine indeed.

Should the big manufacturers be worried? If the Forza can sell for less than £700 in the UK, Giant will be under some pressure, but the sheer quality of the Lafree will probably keep it in the top spot. For Powabyke on the other hand, machines as good as this could mark the end of the line.The Forza is (much) lighter and will probably be cheaper. It also looks better, and it offers an impressive list of accessories, from lighting to suspension. Cost, performance and range are about the same, but the Forza recharges in almost a third of the time.Which would you buy?

Specification

Ezee Forza £650
Weight Bicycle 23.6kg (52lb) Battery 5.8kg (12.8lb) Total 29.4kg (64.7lb)
Gears Shimano Nexus 3-speed hub
Ratios 46″ 62″ 85″
Batteries Nickel Metal-Hydride
Capacity 324Wh Max. Range Pedelec 32.8 miles Motor-only 19.9 miles
90% charge 5 hours
Fuel consumption Pedelec 9.9 Wh/mile Motor-only 16.3Wh/mile
Running costs 5.8p per mile
Manufacturer (no UK distributor yet) Shanghai eZee Kinetic Technology mail sales@ezeebike.com web www.ezeebike.com fax +86 21 58224040

I love my Powabyke. In eighteen months, nothing has bent, dropped off or ceased to function. Actually that’s not quite true, but I’ll come to that in a moment. It powers up hills and impresses bystanders with astonishing acceleration. It’s not exactly sophisticated, but has a certain brutish charm. However…

The other day, I was bowling along an undulating back road in rural Dorset, wind behind me.Very gradually, I caught up with an elderly chap on an ancient sit up and beg. Easy, I thought – with my 21st century electric bike I’ll just shoot past him with a casual wave of the hand. Except that as I drew alongside, I found that my legs couldn’t spin any faster, and we were just beyond the 15mph limit, so I couldn’t expect any electric help either. Anyway, we eventually struggled past, only for him to click into the highest ratio of his long-legged Sturmey Archer, re-pass me (without a word) and disappear over the horizon. I never saw him again.

For me, this is the 5-speed Powabyke’s only major failing – with a 36-tooth chainring, the standard gearing covers 33-65 inches – fine for climbing the side of houses, but not so good for making progress on the flat. A to B got to work, but found that the standard chainring and axle are of an odd splined pattern.The crude, but effective answer, was to bolt a 40-tooth chainring behind the standard ring, giving a modest but useful 11% increase in speed.The five gears now cover 37, 42, 51, 60 and 72 inches. It’s still too low for my liking, especially on an electric bike, where the whole point is to use battery power to support higher gearing and thus more speed with less effort. Our upgraded 5-speed now has more relaxed cruising at 15mph, but the only long-term solution is to splash out on a proper gear system. Powerbyke also produce 21 and 24 speed Euro variants with more practical ratios, but they’re quite a bit more expensive.

…if they were made in Russia, peasants would use them for ploughing…

Re-gearing has transformed the 5-speed bike. This was accomplished by bolting a larger chainring behind the standard one - a cheap and effective solution

There’s another Powabyke peculiarity. It’s heavy, weighing in at around 39kg, or halfway between a bicycle and a moped! Much of that weight is down to the good old-fashioned lead-acid battery. Stagger indoors with that under one arm, and you’re liable to do yourself a mischief. Still, there’s any upside to everything – if you forget your keys, the battery could come in handy as a small battering ram.

But maybe that’s part of the bike’s charm.The Powabyke is a solid, low- tech sort of machine. If they were made in Russia, peasants would use them for ploughing when the collective’s tractor broke down. In motorcycle terms, it’s a cross between a Ural and a Harley-Davidson. If that doesn’t make any sense, think of the Powabyke as one of the older pre-yuppy Volvos; the ones made of cast iron with massive rubber bumpers.

It’s easy to see where this avoirdupois comes from. Quite apart from the battery (which incidentally, has a pleasing resemblance to Flash Gordon’s raygun) the bike is engineered on massive dimensions – more Forth Bridge than Millennium Bridge. Almost everything is made of steel: even the mudguards, for goodness sake!

The Upside

This very solidity encourages a confidence that may or may not be misplaced. I’ve taken mine down rocky bridleways more than once, and it works surprisingly well. For a start, the Powabyke has two-wheel-drive (pedals to the rear, hub motor to the front), while the power delivery is so linear that you can feed it in gently with the twistgrip – just what you need to ease over obstacles.That’s backed up by tyres that are quasi-mountain bike in their size and chunkiness. In fact, the power delivery is so delicate that it’s possible to trickle the bike up hills at walking pace, while you stride along beside it – a useful trick if the battery runs low on the road.

All good fun, but the Powabyke’s bottom line is it’s sheer usefulness.We don’t have a car, so the bike is generally used for the hilly 12-mile round trip to Yeovil, which of course is well within its 20+ mile range. Anna has found it saves a good ten minutes on the trip (compared to pedalling) and she arrives fresh to teach her yoga class. And she gets wafted home despite carrying a load of yoga equipment and shopping. Only two things bother her.That monstrous weight makes the Powabyke difficult to park and almost impossible to haul up steps. And if you’re not used to motorcycle-style twistgrip throttles, you can get caught out if your hand slips and the power cuts in unexpectedly.

…a few brief moments of joy as cars, scooters and motorbikes flounder in your

We’ve strapped on a couple of ancient panniers, but the sturdy rear rack takes useful loads as well – it’s an awkward shape though, with rounded sides that make it difficult to use stiffer, more capacious panniers.The bike is surprisingly comfortable, thanks to the sit-up riding position and suspension seatpost.There is also a ‘mountain-style’ version, which is much the same, but without the mudguards – don’t even go there.

As to riding technique, in theory the Powabyke can be ridden without pedalling at all, once the power comes in at around walking pace. In practice, this is too slow and boring. So I tend to use power and pedalling all the time for maximum speed and acceleration. At the traffic lights, full power from both man and machine gives (relatively) blistering acceleration, and a few brief moments of joy as cars, scooters and motorbikes flounder in your wake – doesn’t last long though.

I mentioned earlier that nothing had gone wrong with our Powabyke, which isn’t strictly true.The most serious fault happened last week, when part of the plastic headstock cladding cracked and broke off, allowing the battery to jiggle around in the frame.All Powabyke batteries do this to a certain extent over potholes and cobblestones which is annoying, to say the least.Anyway, the plastic surround finally decided enough was enough, allowing the weighty battery to leap around even more.That disturbs the contact between battery and motor… so power cuts out unpredictably. Some strategic use of sticky tape and rubber mounting (old inner tube) has improved matters, but it’s still not ideal.

The battery is seriously heavy and tends to jig around in the frame...

The only other failure came when the single fuse blew, for no apparent reason. I stuck a new one in (a standard 20 amp glass type) and all has been well since. Mind you, that was after riding the Powabyke six miles home without power, which on a 39-kilo bike is no joke.

Apart from a few scrapes and the odd patch of rust, the finish has stood up well, while the chunky tyres have shown negligible wear, and look good for plenty more miles.

This isn’t a proper A to B road test, so I haven’t accurately measured the recharge time, but we just leave it on overnight and the bike is always raring to go next morning. Needless to say, the bike gets charged in the garage – it’s more than my hernia’s worth to heave the battery indoors. Mind you, this low-tech approach does make it cheaper to replace – Powabyke offers a subsidised exchange scheme which nets you a new battery for £80.50. Ours still seems in fine fettle, anyway.

And finally, the 5-speed Powabyke is cheap, at £645 for the 26-inch wheel version we’ve got – there’s a 24-incher for fifty quid less.That makes it £250 cheaper than the (admittedly more sophisticated) Japanese opposition. Reflecting that price, the brakes and gears are cheap items of doubtful lineage – still, they do the job, so what more do you want? Yes, you can keep your NiCd batteries and bleeping electronics, I prefer the rustic Best wishes to Peter & Anna, who are getting married in March charms of a Powabyke.

Powabyke Euro 5-speed £595 – £645
Weight 39kg (85.8lb)
Manufacturer Powabyke tel 01225 443737 fax 01225 446878 mail sales@powabyke.com web www.powabyke.com

Those who’ve followed the electric bike story in these pages, will probably have noticed the genre evolving into two distinct families – the cheap and cheerful, usually Chinese, hub motor machines, and the more sophisticated crank motors, primarily Yamaha or Panasonic based.The latter tend to be lighter, quieter and more like conventional machines to ride.They used to cost more too, but with the crank-drive Giant Lafree E- Trans now reduced to £650, and a few Chinese jobs bolstered with knobs and whistles, and put back in the window for £900+, the price distinction is becoming increasingly blurred.

The Oxygen Atala is a new (to us, at least) crank-drive machine aimed at the middle ground. Prices for these conventional-looking bicycles range from £699 for the steel-framed Avenue to £790 for the aluminium Distance.

How, what and why?

Atala, we’re told, has been making bicycles in Italy since 1926, long before Generalissimo Mussolini began wrestling with the railways. By the 1990s, the company had introduced an electric model, which appears to have sold mainly on the Italian market. Around 18 months ago, Atala was sold to Oxygen, a US company, and the brand began to go global.

The Distance is a conventional bicycle – nothing flash, but a nice ordinary layout: derailleur gears, rear rack, and so on. Park your bum on the slightly frumpy saddle, and you’ll feel at home, as will most day-to-day cyclists. Unusually for a crank-drive electric bike, the bottom bracket is conventional – the motor being a simple bolt-on unit driving via a neat one-way clutch and a separate chain to a small inner chainring. Everything else is completely normal, apart from a third apparently unused chainring on the left side.This houses the crank movement sensor that tells the motor when to start and stop.

With the ignition switched on, any movement of the pedals brings the motor to life, providing some extra oomph. But if you’ve ridden anything equipped with a motor as sophisticated as the Panasonic crank-drive you’ll be disappointed by this system, because it contains a number of fundamental flaws. Firstly and most worryingly, the motor will fire up whichever way the pedals are turned.Thus you can entertain your friends by whizzing along whilst pedalling backwards, but you must also remember not to idly swing the pedals whilst waiting at the lights, or the machine will leap forwards. Not very pleasant.

The battery pack is heavy and poorly located

Another flaw is that the power arrives in timed chunks for a set period every crank revolution.The length of this ‘on’ phase can be set to three different levels, but in practice the low levels serve little practical purpose. On ‘high’, the chunk lasts for around a second, so if you pedal at a cadence of 60rpm, power assistance is more or less continuous. On the flat, it works quite well, but on a hill, your cadence drops and so does the power assistance. Change down a gear and power returns, but by this time you’ve lost forward momentum – the result is a downward spiral, slower and slower, with less and less assistance until you find yourself dragging a load of useless batteries up the hill on your own.

The motor is vulnerable. The plastic housing contains unprotected electronics

When the British importers saw the machine in action, they quite rightly insisted on a secondary hand-throttle – outlawed in most of Europe, but legal here through some Machiavellian chicanery.The hand-throttle offers two settings: ‘economy’ (full power but with a gentle ‘soft’ start), and ‘boost’, giving instant power.The cadence measuring thingy can’t be turned off, but put it on ‘low’, and you can safely ignore it.

Batteries are perhaps the most disappointing part of the set up. Our Oxygen is powered by four 108watt/hour lead-acid gel batteries, giving a capacity of 432 Wh. Production bikes will be fitted with a 216 Wh battery (half the weight and half the range), or a 456 Wh battery with slightly greater range than the model we’ve tested. This sort of thing is hardly state of the art and the location of the 12.8kg (28.2lb) battery pack over the rear wheel leaves much to be desired.

…electronics are mounted above the motor, right in line with spray from the front wheel…

For example, if you stand in front of the bike and wiggle the bars, the rear end wags like a dog, with clear signs of bending in the frame. And who can blame it? In normal road use, the bike feels fine and can be ridden hands off without problems. But make a sudden deviation, and the batteries will try to pass you on the inside… Gross weight is 35kg (77lb), but the bike feels heavier, because the unladen weight distribution is an astonishing 22% front, 78% rear. In other words, if you can’t lift 27.5kg in one hand, you won’t be able to swing the back of the bike around. Whip the battery pack off (the batteries are in two panniers strapped together across the rack), and you’re left with a better balanced machine weighing 22.2kg (48.8lb) in total.

Most of the electronics are housed in the front of the left pannier, with two of the four batteries.This is a vulnerable position at the best of times, particularly as you have to reach in and unplug the motor cable from the circuit board to plug the charger in.The delicate bits and pieces are only protected from prying fingers and the ravages of fresh, muddy or salt water spray by the canvas pannier.

Other electronics are mounted above the motor, right in line with spray from the front wheel, and shielded only by a plastic cover.This works fine until one of those autumn days when global warming deposits several inches of rain on Somerset. Out and about on the Oxygen, we hit 30cm of unexpected standing water. Splosh is followed by splutter, then a pathetic and repetitive beeping sound. Power disappears, and the warning lights go into a frenzy. Clearly the bike is trying to tell us something. Fortunately, all is well the next morning, but this is obviously not a machine for all-weather rural commuting.

On the Road

The Oxygen is a machine of marked extremes. Although the battery packs and electronics are rather crude, the motor is extremely quiet… probably the quietest electric drive we’ve seen. So unless you’re in the habit of riding right into the library, no- one will hear you coming.There’s a temptation to deliberately stop pedalling, just to experience that rarest of experiences – mobility in near silence. No creaking as your short fat hairy legs rub together, and no infernal combustion, just a gentle sigh from the motor and a soft swish from the tyres. Delightful.

There’s always a downside. In this case, the motor is both under-powered and horribly inefficient at low speeds, so it’s vital to change down a gear or two if the motor speed falls. Maximum continuous power is claimed to be 160 watts.We’d say that was about right, with a peak of some 250 watts. But the power being drawn from the batteries exceeds 700 watts at low motor speed, so it’s a seriously inefficient device.These dramatic peaks should never happen in practice, because the motor runs via the crank, so when you change down a gear, the motor finds life easier too. But on steep hills, you soon run out of gears, despite the Shimano Megarange system, which provides a 36-inch bottom gear – hardly a crawler gear, but low enough to winch you up modest slopes.

Despite the inefficiency, first gear will tackle quite impressive gradients – about 17% (1 in 6) with modest pedal effort, or 11% (1 in 9) with the motor alone, albeit at a nominal 3mph. A glance at the power chart reveals that the bike couldn’t keep this up for very long without something expiring, but it’s nice to know the capability is there.

The Oxygen needs to be driven with care because the motor is so quiet there’s no indication of stress. A crank cadence meter or an ammeter would give a useful guide to the strain on the batteries and motor.

When the batteries do eventually give up the ghost, the bike is as easy to pedal as any other conventional machine with fairly weighty panniers on the back.Well almost – the Oxygen has an unusually upright seat pillar, putting your bottom rather close to the crank. As a consequence, you find yourself choosing between a high saddle or pedalling gently to avoid knee damage.

Stopping is taken care of by Promax V-brakes, and they’re atrocious.They work reasonably well in the dry, but a few drops of rain turn the friction material to a sticky goo with the stopping characteristics of liquid Teflon.The rear brake will just lock the wheel, but the front incorporates a pressure limiter – a safety feature in the dry, but cutting braking effect to almost nothing in the wet. A simple change of brake blocks might cure the problem, but it needs looking at.

The Oxygen is unsuspended at the rear, which is unfortunate, because most of the weight is over the rear.The front suspension forks have a rather sticky, faltering action, offering minimal travel.

Range

We normally deal only with motor assistance, on the basis that pedalling is good for you, so everyone should jolly well do some. But we know from readers’ letters that some people buy these bikes because they’re unable to pedal, or have very limited endurance.The Oxygen is quite a good choice if you’re looking for a motor-only machine – the wide range of gears allows for fairly sprightly progress on the flat and slow but steady hill climbing. Either way, progress in absolute silence will no doubt give you lots of pleasure, although range is bound to be limited.We managed 12 miles on our ‘easy’ course – mainly flat, but with a few short sharp gradients of up to 9%. Speed on the last few hills fell to a snail-like 3 or 4mph, with an overall average of 11.7mph. Not very exciting, particularly from a machine with a Powabyke-size battery (expect at least 20 miles from the Powabyke without turning a pedal).

…the wrong motor, drawing too much power from the wrong sort of batteries, mounted in the wrong place…

In practice, range is more dependent on an internal cut-out which reduces power on hills by about 75% once the motor has been working moderately hard for 25 minutes or so.This tends to do its stuff at the most inconvenient times, such as pulling out into rush- hour traffic, or climbing a 15% gradient. Once the cut-out has begun to operate, progress on hills more or less evaporates.

The real test is our pedal-assisted ‘mountain course’ run, but on this occasion, the cut-out caused us to abandon the ride after only six miles: At four miles, a 9% gradient caused a momentary cut-out, but two miles further on, as we made a start on the long 12% climb into the real hills, power-assistance disappeared and we reluctantly turned back. To be fair, after a five minute rest break, the motor is back on song, but a stiff 17% gradient cuts the power again.

To find the range, we head back into easier country.There are three ‘fuel’ warning lights, typically out of sight on the side of the left-hand pannier, beneath the ignition key. After nine miles the first is extinguished, and at 15 the second has begun to flash, while assisted speed is clearly dropping. Speed continues to slide until at 19 miles, with the fuel gauge still apparently on half full, it’s all over.That’s a reasonable range, but the average speed of 10.9mph makes the Oxygen one of the slowest bikes we’ve seen. Fuel consumption is 20Wh per mile – an extremely high figure for such a feeble machine.

With a reasonable range of gears, pedalling home won’t leave you gasping. Unless, of course, you bought the bike because you’re unable to pedal home, in which case you’ll be disappointed…Typically for large lead-acid batteries, charging is painfully slow. From flat, the tiny charger takes no less than 11hrs 30 minutes to squeeze 377Wh into the batteries.That’s rather less than the nominal capacity of 432Wh, implying that the battery is not being run right down (no bad thing), or it’s failing to charge up properly (not so good).We didn’t try the two-hour range, but you’d be lucky to get more than three or four miles out of the bike after a leisurely lunch. You won’t be disappointed with services provided by https://www.ecomamagreenclean.com/. An annoying feature of the charging system is an alarm that chirrups into life when charging is complete.This would drive you mad if it started beeping at 3am, which it would for a regular commuter giving the bike an overnight charge. Speed aside, the charger is a 14cm x 6.5cm x 7cm pocket-size plug-in device, weighing only 290g. Lead length is a useful 190cm (75″).

At 4.5p per mile, running costs are typical by electric bike standards, thanks largely to the ease with which replacement lead-acid batteries can be obtained and fitted.You should be able to find similar batteries for about £80 a set by shopping around.

Conclusion

The Oxygen has the wrong motor, drawing too much power from the wrong sort of batteries, mounted in the wrong place.You wonder how Italian engineers manage to get things so wrong (see also the Aprilia Enjoy, A to B 28).We can live with high power consumption if the trade-off is oodles of macho wheel-spin, but the Oxygen is also one of the weakest performers we’ve seen… a rare achievement.

On the positive side, the bike will climb serious gradients, even without pedalling, provided you’re in no hurry, and that the stressful bit doesn’t exceed that 25 minute window. It’s also remarkably quiet and looks broadly like a conventional bike – features that may well be at the top of your priority list.

Specification

Oxygen Atala Distance £790
Weight Bicycle 22.2kg (48.8lb) Battery 12.8kg (28.1lb) Total 35kg (77lb)
Gears Shimano SIS Megarange
Ratios 36″ 50″ 61″ 68″ 76″ 86″
Batteries Lead-acid Gel
Capacity 377Wh
Maximum range Motor only 12 miles Pedal-assisted <19 miles
Full charge 11hrs 30 mins
Spare battery £82
Fuel consumption 20Wh/mile
Running costs 4.5p per mile
UK distributor Pedal & Power tel 01244 671999 mail sales@oxygenworld.co.uk

At first glance, the Aardman office looks like that of any other medium-sized company – perhaps a high-tech engineering works of some kind. But inside, things are a little different.Well, for a start, the staff are predominantly young, they’re all terribly nice, and they’re also terribly busy. In this factory, the staff are clearly on a mission.The canteen is different too…Where your average engineering company might have picked up the odd award for widget-fettling, Aardman has an impressive array of gongs, including a small group of Oscars, all displayed with delightful nonchalance across from the baked spuds and soup de la jour.

For the philistines amongst you, Aardman Animations began life in a quiet way back in 1972, before making it big with the plasticiny ‘Morph’ in 1980, and finally rocketing to national then international stardom with the much loved Wallace & Gromit.The company has gone on to produce many award winning television advertisements and has entered into a partnership with US film-maker Dreamworks.The result was Chicken Run – the company’s first feature film.

…a number of subscribers, including Dave Sproxton… the Executive Chairman.

So what has all this to do with A to B? Well, it just happens that Aardman is based in Bristol, home of Sustrans, and a city sharing equal billing with York as the UK’s cycling capital. Perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that amongst 60 or so Aardman employees there are a number of A to B subscribers, including – most usefully – Dave Sproxton, who happens to be one of the founders, and now the Executive Chairman.

Making lateral connections, as creative types often do, Dave wondered whether electric bikes might benefit the company. Aardman has two studios – a smallish place on Bristol’s fashionable dockside and a much larger studio some nine miles out of town, or thirteen if you take the motorway, which you generally do, because Bristol is one of the most congested cities in Europe.

Put the blame where you will – car-centric national policies, car-centric local policies, a tram system that never left the drawing board, Railtrack’s spectacular implosion, John Prescott’s tummy, and so forth.Whatever the reason, Aardman suffers like every other business in the city, and the bill runs into millions of pounds every year…

Why Not Go West?

So why doesn’t this thrusting young company simply up sticks to its big studio at Aztec West, an industrial development bordering the US-style Cribbs Causeway retail park, way out of town by the freeway? Sorry, the M5 motorway.

According to Operations Manager Tony Prescott, Aardman intends to maintain its presence in the centre of Bristol because it’s a great place to be. Also, many of the staff live within walking or cycling distance of the urban studio, including (usefully, once again) Dave, the Executive Chairman. Lesson Number One for more conventional medium size companies – a ‘green’ minded MD can have a big effect.

..Aardman keeps three vehicles… All very useful in their way, but overkill for the toothbrush…

For Aardman, delays can be very expensive. Just imagine you’re producing the last few frames of a feature film, with the Dreamworks executives drumming their corporate fingers in L.A. and you urgently need a tin of Humbrol ‘signal red’ enamel and a toothbrush.You either put the production on hold, or send a ‘runner’ to the nearest hardware store, which tends to work out cheaper. Hence the runners – usually youngsters starting their film careers.

Aardman Animations keeps three vehicles – a Volkswagen Transporter for big things like cameras, a Peugeot 106 and a Citroen Berlingo van. All very useful in their way, but overkill for the toothbrush, and – according to 25 year old Jay (currently runner-in-chief) – the vehicles are next to useless after 4pm, when traffic can lock solid for hours.

Jay - currently Aardman’s runner-in-chief

The obvious solution was a bicycle, but Bristol is a hilly place, runners are not necessarily as fit as the name implies, and time is money. Perhaps an electric bike would provide a cost-effective answer?

In early May 2002, A to B entered the picture, helping to arrange a demonstration of the top machines. Choosing the best electric bikes is pretty easy: 1) Powabyke (rugged and cheap to run, but heavy and agricultural), 2) Heinzmann (solid in a teutonic sort of way, but a little stodgy), 3) Giant Lafree Comfort (light, quiet, efficient and just-like-a-bike-to- ride).The Aprilia looks good, but is a complete disaster, and now that Yamaha has thrown in the towel,there’s really little else up to commercial use.

In June the three bikes arrived for a two week trial, and Aardman invited staff to try them out.Those who climbed aboard soon found themselves smiling.The bikes were used for private errands too, including popping out for sandwiches – even popping home.

A Testing Time

Powabyke

What were the results? The Powabyke was criticised for its weight and top-heavy feel, with several lighter members of staff finding it disconcerting on corners. (Macho types approved of the rugged MTB looks though). Some people also had problems with the controls – juggling 24 gears, two brake levers and a twistgrip throttle is tricky, even for an experienced cyclist.The Powabyke’s lack of suspension caused problems too.The Bristol docks are a maze of cobbled yards and monstrous potholes that ‘rattled the battery to hell’, according to Tony. In the end, the Powabyke proved too complex for beginners – if bikes like these are to succeed in a day-to-day commercial environment, they obviously need to be novice-friendly.

Heinzmann

The Heinzmann was rated somewhere in the middle – no frolicking battery to worry about, but nothing particularly positive to write home about either.The two-hour recharge is a considerable bonus, but it was assumed that a ‘pool’ bike would require a spare battery, so the recharge time – for Aardman, at least – was less critical than one might imagine.

Giant Lafree

Far and away the biggest hit was the Lafree, the Aardman staff being ‘simply bowled over’ by the bike’s quality and effortless performance. According to Tony Prescott, ‘The Giant had the biggest grin factor’, and that was that. The simple controls (hub gears, no twistgrip throttle) were widely appreciated, as was the upright riding position, the understated appearance and quiet, effective motor. Perhaps the most important feature was light weight. At 22.2kg, the Lafree Twist is light enough for most people to carry up a couple of steps – something that’s bound to happen sooner or later on city centre deliveries.

A commercial application is quite different to a private purchase. Running costs – usually top of the list – were not really an issue for Aardman, because against running a van, even the most expensive electric bike comes cheap.The primary factors on Tony Prescott’s mind were convenience, ease of use, speed and availability. From the trial, the Giant seemed to be the best.

…Day-to-day commercial use can throw up all sorts of issues that were not envisaged…

Where to now?

These are still early days. Aardman is currently arranging to purchase a Giant Lafree and continue the trial in more realistic circumstances. Day-to-day commercial use can throw up all sorts of issues that were not envisaged at the start. Much depends on the attitude of the staff, but some are seriously considering electric bikes of their own, so that battle may be half won. Others are less sure. Jay, who obviously knows a thing or two about running, is sceptical that a bike will handle heavy packages. He makes another very good point that could only have come from the man at the sharp end:What if he rides a few miles to fetch something small, then gets a call to keep driving, to pick up something bigger? This obviously happens – easy with a van, but requiring a wasteful journey back to base if he’s on the bike.

When we visited one September morning, Jay was making a couple of typical runs – two miles for some cider(!), then nine miles out to Bradley Stoke to return a spade after a location shoot…Yes, that’s right, one garden spade.The trip takes more than half an hour by van, and could easily have been matched by bike, although a spade is at the top end on the practicality scale.

Aardman has no plans to transfer staff between the two studios by bike, although we tried this run and did it in less than half an hour in ideal conditions.The longer motorway trip should be quicker, but can easily take longer, depending on congestion. For these cross-city journeys, a conventional bicycle would cost a lot of staff time, but the electric bike comes close to matching the car, at much reduced cost.

The real test will come as the winter unfolds.Will staff still be willing to jump aboard a bike when it’s raining or freezing, or both? Whatever Aardman decides to do, the traffic will still be there, and the city will continue to seize up after 4pm. One suspects that archetypal problem-solver Wallace would have taken one look at the hills, the one-way streets and the never-ending congestion, and invented the electric bicycle.

We first saw the Giant Lafree Twist Lite (not to be confused with the Lafree, full stop) back in October 2001, and tested it a couple of months later. Unusually, we jumped straight in and rated it ‘possibly the best electric bike on the market.’ Why?

Our enthusiasm might have had something to do with the Twist being amongst the lightest electric bikes around. It’s also the quietest we’ve tried, arguably the most attractive, and probably the most efficient… On the negative side, it’s fast, but less powerful than some, and it has only three gears, which further compromises hill-climbing, but taking everything into account, we reckon it comes top overall.

A few months down the line, Giant has created a deluxe job, taking the no-nonsense Lite, and adding a pile of components to produce the Comfort – aimed right at Yamaha’s Easy Plus. Is it worth the extra over the Lite? And is it better than the Yamaha? That’s of purely academic interest now that Yamaha has quit the European electric bike scene.

So What’s New?

We thought the Lite was one of the best equipped bikes around, which must have made Dutch readers fall about laughing.The lights aren’t top quality, but they work, and the package includes a rack, chainguard, Axa wheel lock, side-stand, galvanised chain and decent mudguards. OK, it costs £869, but it’s a bike that smells of quality.

The Comfort shares the same frame and drive system, but accessories are joined by suspension front forks and seat post, Shimano roller brakes (instead of perfectly adequate Tektro V-brakes), a Shimano Nexus 4-speed hub, and ‘automatic’ lights.

Whether you feel these part numbers are worth an extra £200, depends how you view the individual components.

We’re not Shimano hub gear fans.The 4- speed offers no extra gear range over the 3- speed fitted to the basic Twist Lite – indeed, at 184%, the range is slightly less than the simpler, lighter and more efficient SRAM 3-speed. So what’s the point? With comparatively little power available, the closer ratios do help to keep you on the move, but don’t expect the 4-speed to climb steeper hills or go any faster, because it won’t.What this bike really needs is the good old Sturmey Archer 5-speed, which offered 226% range from a cheaper, lighter gearbox.With the Giant factory being just down the road, Sturmey’s new owner Sun Race might pick up the contract…We certainly hope so.

Likewise with the Shimano Nexus roller brakes – they’re somewhat vague in operation, with a little residual friction and quite a lot of metal-to-metal noise. On a more positive note, there isn’t enough friction to seriously compromise the Comfort’s 15mph roll-down speed, and the brakes are progressive and apparently fade-free. Shimano claims a degree of anti-lock sensitivity thanks to some internal widgetry – all we can say, after trying our best to provoke disaster, is that in dry conditions a panic stop doesn’t quite lock the front wheel and just locks the rear.That’s close to perfection, but don’t try the same trick on a slippery surface, because it’s not that clever.

The suspension components – Post Moderne springy seat pillar plus RST front forks – are hardly state-of-the-art, but they work well enough, absorbing small kerbs and other tedious lumps and bumps, leaving a silky ride under most road conditions.Within a very few miles, the seat post needed fettling to prevent the saddle rocking from side to side, which is not unusual with these devices. However, adjustment is quick and easy and should last for some time once the bearings have bedded in.The post can also be locked out if you feel like an unsuspended ride.

The saddle to ground height on our large framed model varies between 98cm and 108cm, or a centimetre or two less with the suspension compressed.This effect – where the saddle to crank distance varies as you ride – is common to all suspension seat posts and a few other types, and it’s not very satisfactory. Set the saddle at the correct height for efficient pedalling, and you’ll fall off at the traffic lights. Set it while stationary and your knees will be bent under way.There’s no easy answer, other than fitting a proper suspension system.

…is there really any point in suspension if compliance in the forks does the same thing for free?

Strangely enough, although the front forks seem to do their work very well, we couldn’t spot them sliding up and down on the road.What they do – and it’s a term that will be familiar to drivers of certain elderly sports cars – is ‘shimmy’, or vibrate back and forth on bumps.You don’t really notice when you’re riding, but is there really any point in suspension if compliance in the forks does much the same thing for free?

Auto Lights

The lights had us foxed for a bit, but the design is quite logical. At the rear there’s a conventional- looking LED light, featuring an optional ‘automatic’ setting. Once on auto, the lamp is controlled by movement and light sensors, so it only comes on whilst under way in the dark… Damn clever these Chinese! When you stop, the light only stays on for five or ten seconds, but tiny movements and vibrations are enough to keep it lit at the traffic lights – you have to keep very still to outwit the movement sensor. So as a general rule, the light looks after itself, turning on in the evening when the first motorists are reaching for the sidelight switch, and staying on for as long as you need it. If you’re working on the bike in a dark garage, the lamp gets very confused, but that’s what the OFF switch is for.

The front system is completely separate, comprising a Shimano Nexus Inter-L hub dynamo and light sensor, plus Lumotec Oval halogen lamp.This doesn’t work quite so well – firstly, it has to be pretty dark for the auto feature to kick in, and it won’t start unless you stop, if you get our drift, so the light won’t come on as you ride through a tunnel, or under trees, which seems to be the whole point with an automatic system. Come to that, it won’t start unless you pull away with care, because rapid acceleration – such as spinning the wheel – shuts the thing down.The good news is that the Lumotec lamp is superb, producing the brightest and broadest spread of light we’ve ever seen from a dynamo.

The lights fitted to the Comfort are powerful, but we’re not convinced about the merits of automation.Yes, it’s a great idea if you can rely on the lights to pop on when required, but pretty dangerous if they don’t.To catch on, automatic lights will need a single idiot-proof handlebar switch – this system is too complex.

On the Road

The front dynohub - note the roller brake and ‘mock’ brake disc

Having tested the Lite only six months ago, we won’t dwell on detail. Suffice to say, the Comfort is similarly upright, with widely appreciated swept-back bars, and it offers an excellent top speed of around 16mph, plus modest hill-climbing and world-beating economy. Despite a virtually handbag-sized 156Wh nickel-metal-hydride battery, range is around 20 miles – cutting edge stuff efficiency-wise.

If this all sounds too good to be true, there have been criticisms of the Panasonic drive system fitted to these Giant electric bikes. Crank-drive motors require some strange techniques: If  you pedal fast – normal procedure for maximum  power one might think – the power assistance fades away, because power output is chosen to match a modest leg speed in each gear. Faced with a hill, it’s sometimes necessary to change up a gear rather than down, which takes some getting used to, and can leave the impression that the bike is less powerful than it is. For maximum power, think low pedal cadence – once you’re in tune with the system, the Comfort will climb just about anything with modest effort on your part.

The Comfort differs from the Lite in a number of respects. Obviously the ride is greatly improved, as (arguably) are the brakes. Perhaps one of the disadvantages of these Compared to the Lafree Lite (see A to B 27) the 4-speed Comfort provides a less ‘peaky’ human/electric power graph, but the overall range is unchanged sort of upgrades – as motor manufacturers have discovered – is that better equipment encourages faster driving/riding, which tends to cancel out the perceived safety benefits.The Comfort certainly feels pretty secure, and we definitely found we were riding it fast.Whether you think Dutch roadsters should be roaring up hill, blasting down dale, and weaving through traffic like cycle couriers is another matter.We found it rather fun.

…we’d blow the extra two hundred quid on a second battery,giving a 37 mile range…

The gearbox is fiddly to adjust and has to be just so, or changes can be accompanied by nasty noises. Ratios are a little closer, and slightly higher than before.The Lite offered 44″, 59″ and 80″, while the Comfort gives 45″, 56″, 68″ and 83″.The new third gear and higher top make a surprising difference to speed and endurance: the Lite ran for 20 miles at 12.8mph, while the Comfort managed only 18.5 miles, but at a cracking 14mph.A lower first gear would improve hill climbing: a 13% slope is easy, but 18% is hard going.

Conclusion

We loved the Lafree Twist, and we love the concept still – they’re smashing bikes. But is the Comfort better? The deluxe bits cost an extra £200, plus the weight penalty of 3.1kg. Not much? Well, yes and no.Where the Lite broke all records for an electric machine at 22.2kg (48.8lb), the Comfort weighs 25.3kg, or 55.6lb.You pays your money and takes your choice – in this case, our estimated running cost of 5p per mile for the Twist, increases to 5.8p for the Comfort.You might consider 0.8p a small price to pay for the improved ride… the choice is yours.

Our view is that the cheaper Lafree Lite still narrowly pips the Comfort in the ‘best electric bike’ category – we’d blow the extra two hundred quid on a second battery, giving a 37 mile range. But the Comfort certainly grows on you. Everyone who tried it admired and enjoyed the bike, including the sort of young professionals who wouldn’t normally consider a bicycle – if Giant can crack this market, they have a winner on their hands.

Specification

Lafree Twist Comfort £1,069
Weight bicycle 21.4kg (47.1lb) battery 3.9kg (8.5lb) total 25.3kg (55.6lb)
Gears Nexus 4-speed
Ratios 45″ 56″ 68″ 83″
Batteries NiMH
Voltage 24v
Capacity 156Wh
Maximum range High power 18.5 miles
Two-hour range High power (from previous test) 10.3 miles
Full charge 3 hours 50 min
Spare battery £195
Overall running costs 5.8p per mile
UK distributor Giant UK tel 0115 977 5900 mail info@giant-uk.demon.co.uk web www.giant-bicycles.com