Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)1. Plastic chain guard cracked/disintegrated within first few hours of use. Have gotten pants leg caught in chain once, not a big issue for me. Very easy to break off and get rid of part when it fails, which it will. Believe I could put a good one on if I wanted to. Note that they responded to my initial review and say they upgraded the chain guard.
2. Included front fender is kinda cheap looking. It will last and has a cool shape though, so you might like it. Regardless it has sketchy hardware and loose attachment. The "Euro" fenders listed on Amazon fit on it no problem though, though in my case I partially mounted the front one onto the rack. Mounting their fender to a rack would probably make it functional and worth keeping. They say the fender is a freebie in their response to my first review, but with a front suspension fork I don't really know of a way to get a fender to mount securely, and their hardware sure doesn't.
3. Rear clip 'rack' of limited/no utility (great for carrying a newspaper other than if it rains?), BUT, an ordinary cheap wire basket (looks nice if you get one with black wire coating) can be securely attached to their rack with black cable ties (available in military spec if you're really serious about it). Carrying larger loads would make the bike top-heavy in the rear with this setup. Note they say they (now?) offer two rear rack options, which I may take them up on.
4. Have installed a front rack from Amazon, albeit with some creative cable-tying (military spec a really good idea here) for the upper connection. Not sure where to find a front rack to install as intended with a front suspension fork, if anywhere. Note you could put a basket on top of the front rack I picked.
5. Heavy steel construction, gives it mountain bike cred, but the Montague folding mountain bike (which can take a Bionx system and built for the military originally) weighs 29lbs by comparison and also has dual disk brakes, which is great on any bike and I'd have to agree with the buying guide I read that disc brakes are just about essential on electrics.
6. Saddle is good quality but standard style, I always get gel. Also the grips are relatively firm. Thudbuster or similar seatposts still a good idea even with the (firm) rear fork, and due to design a Thudbuster will not work for shorter riders, and I had to saw an inch off the bottom of mine with a pipe cutter.
7. Tires need extra long stemmed tubes due to unusual wheel shape. Either get the tubes with long stems (any bike shop will have them, it comes with Schraeder and most long-stemmed tubes are Presta, kind of odd). Tried to install the 5x thick tubes with regular stems and it wasn't possible to use my hand pump, but I could probably get away with them if I went with a CO2 cartridge pump.
8. Rider plus cargo weight of 250lbs: Tested on some of the steepest hills in Cincinnati (in Riverside). Unable to climb the extreme hills even while pedaling in any gear, but a realistic extended climb city street (Ravine) was able to pull the hill, though it required modest pedaling. Many hills in San Francisco would be impossible for higher loads, but for a 150lb rider even SanFran probably wouldn't be a problem, though with greatly reduced range. BTW that trip up Ravine only went twelve miles RT due to a mile of steep hill climbing. Ridden on level ground throu New Orleans it went all day twice, exactly 20 miles, and a breeze to pass other bikers all day long.
9. No fun pedaling manually if you run out of juice, and going up hills you'll probably be walking it, and you need to get used to the charge indicator lights winking out progressively faster. You also lose the headlight that runs off the battery.
10. Well designed controls. Easier and no hassle compared to an LED display digital controller. They responded to my review and say they have a new controller, maybe a good thing if they add more features but ease of use of my setup is a decided advantage.
11. Only seven speeds makes the 'mountain' part of the bike unrealistic except for the more fit and/or relatively lightweight bicyclists. By the way, the manual says that if you're not pedalling while going up a hill you could shatter the driveshaft.
12. The mounting of the motor makes this bike far superior to the BIONX (and I bought the largest BIONX motor available, more below). A wheel-mounted system doesn't provide the torque to climb hills unless you're in the 150lb range. Same get-up-and-go on level ground but on hills with my 500 watt Bionx the power provided not doing much more than compensating for the bike's added weight with the system.
14. Kickstand bent and then broke, odd they'd skimp on this with a hollow rod when it's built like a tank otherwise. And I wasn't putting undue strain on the kickstand either.
15. Good luck getting most bike shops to touch an electric bike for now. Outside of places like San Francisco or Portland electric bike repair can be difficult to find and usually inconvenient. Most shops wouldn't even touch this one, another had to be convinced the repair, a new REAR deraileur, was entirely separate from electrical systems. If they don't work on electrics they probably won't do anything with a (rear) wheel mount system like Currie, but with this one you're more likely to find someone who'll fix a nonelectrical issue. Note that this situation should improve with electric's popularity.
16. If you don't already know, NEW YORK bans electrics, some states requiring licensing AND insurance, others are just like the Federal standard everyone hawks.
16. Battery is removable, my bad here. I thought I read the whole users manual. Otherwise this would be a big design flaw. Good secure hold with the key system holding in place.
17. It requires the larger and more expensive DC-AC inverter if you want to charge it from a DC source. WalMart/Target grade will not work, especially not anything at Target.
18. Electric quit working entirely in a severe downpour, then worked fine again after being allowed to dry.
19. Gear shifting mediocre compared to the 2004 Dahon Matrix mountain bike I toured on, or the internal geared seven speed I once rode. I think I'm spoiled and will want a really good one.
20. I bought a second battery, and they're switching to 10 amps from 8, which they claim will give longer range. They sent me a 10amp battery for my 8amp bike and said it would work. Turns out though now while the indicator lights come on the motor has quit working after trying this. Apparently a goof by their customer service, and I probably should have known better. Repairs in progress, should mean replacing a fuse somewhere, and I'm going to try and get a solid kickstand rod or have one made. Considering they chose otherwise heavy duty construction, I figure they were looking for anything to cut ounces so they went with hollow, (could this explain the odd choice of wheel rim design?).
21. Batteries take 8 or more hours to charge as opposed to 2-3 with Bionx.
22. Will be repairing the battery and other issues with this bike, then probably sell it to pay for a similar chain-drive motor and mount that on my Montague with BIONX, and for legality install a master switch where only one system could operate at once. electric-bikes.com has two examples of this system, in addition to every other kit out there. That said, this bike could accommodate most front OR rear hub systems, unlike almost all E-bikes out there.
OVERALL VERDICT: If you know what you're getting into this bike is still worth considering. Superior to the popular Currie ones. Lack of disc brakes, lead battery, difficulty changing tires, and poor quality, from reading their reviews, means don't buy a cheap Currie system. Probably better overall, with the great motor engineering minus a few annoying defects/oddities, to the Currie lithium bike. Currie's lithium version (the XB) has optional dual disc brakes, and their system does use a gear to increase the power, so that aspect would give it more power than the Bionx, but probably not as much as the R Martin. Some low-end Currie model reviewers noted getting good hill-climing, and some even complained about excessive power from a stop. I dropped this bike once getting used to electric but this has adequate, even fun acceleration, never excessive. Calling R Martin for a copy of the owners manual before buying would be a good idea. Lesser known but similar motor designs are out there on electric-bikes.com, but if you want lithium, torque, and dual disc brakes out of the box this bike fits the bill.
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