[Closed] GTech eBikes

My mum bought a Pendleton ebike from halfords for about 750 quid. She absolutely loves it and at 70 means she can ride to the local supermarket up a hill she would otherwise have taken the car.

I don't think the average person really requires 250 Watts of bosch power when pootling around town..

Actually answering the OP's question. He seems to be the only person here who owns one, and has given his opinion.
Your replies a disgrace TurnerGuy

joins explicitely to give a glowing review after several iffy ones - I'd trust that.

joins explicitely to give a glowing review after several iffy ones - I'd trust that.

Thing is there weren't any iffy reviews. Aaracer rode one around a car park and said it seemed ok. And a couple of bike shop types had worked on one and not been impressed with the build quality. But no one has actually owned and lived with one untill hoverboys input. And reading his post it doesn't really look like something a Gtech employee would write .

And reading his post it doesn't really look like something a Gtech employee would write

I have to say I read his post and wondered if anybody was going to out him as a Gtech employee!

Either way, I think there's an interesting perspective between cyclists and non cyclists on this - it may be that he's being totally honest and his expectations are lower, the power makes more difference as he's not putting the same amount in himself, and he's never ridden a decent bike.

It weighs 16Kg!!

My 3spd ute/cargo bike weighs 25kg, and the only motor is an ageing lard-arse. Can still wind it up the hills with another 10kg of groceries

The only Gtech thing I can comment on is a rechargeable vacuum/sweeper. It's great, has proved effective and reliable and the charge lasts ages.

OP, Maybe join the pedelec forum for some advice? http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/

[quote=dmorts ]Had a thought about the GTech bike specifically. It weights 16kg and has a single gear (don't know ratio though). You could easily get a geared non-electric assist equivalent that weighed 10Kg.
So, some of the GTech's motor power is used just to move that extra 6kg around. Therefore in reality, what's the net gain of the power assist?
First you could look at both bikes being in the same gear. Then you could add in the mechanical advantage of the gears of the non-electric assist bike
My hypothesis is that the net power gain given by the motor of the GTech will be minimal when compared to a lighter, non-electric assist, geared bike.
eBikes with gears would be different and make much better use of the motor power.
EDIT: although with the rider weighing 75kg upwards, the difference of 6kg might be minimal

Well you seem to have made the first point I was going to make with your last sentence - 6kg is <10% of the typical load, it's really not going to make much difference to how the bike performs. Meanwhile for a typical Gtech owner even 100W would double their power output (I've no idea how much it does have, I guess 250W, which will mean they'll be going up hills at 15mph which they'd otherwise be walking - so much for no net gain).

As pointed out I'm the only one on here apart from the newby, and I've already stated my connections and why I got to have a go on one. The net gain of the motor is significant - it was quite fun, press gently on the pedals and whizz off. I've not ridden any other e-bikes, but I think you and others are also making a bigger thing of the gears than the reality. I was surprised just how high geared it is, but I reckon that makes sense given that you don't actually need to shift down gears for most hills - the motor will push you up them in that gear with you pushing no harder than you have to on the flat. There is no "mechanical advantage" to gears for the majority of the riding most people will do on a Gtech, I'm sure the motor efficiency is fine with the available gear.

So, as already pointed out, you're way, way off the mark here.

I note that I'm not suggesting it's a fabulous bike, and it probably wouldn't suit most people on here, but for the typical owner and as cheap bikes go I expect it's fine - nowt wrong with V brakes (and the ones on the bike I tried worked fine) and from experience the dodgy bit with cheap hybrids tend to be the gears...

Hoveboy, yesterday

[img] [/img]

Just noticed this:

Therefore I think the Gtech bike will probably be too big, as I'm taller than him and would think 20" frame is too big for me

That pretty much answers any question as to whether the bike is suitable. I would say not, at face value (of course depending upon your methods of sizing.)

You should have probably read my reply that the sizing was fine for me at 5'9" (and is fine for its "owner" who is a female a couple of inches shorter). It's not sized like a 20" performance MTB which would be for 6ft+ riders.

OK, my hypothesis of normal lightweight bike vs. The GTech is probably wrong then. Also I now realise I misunderstood this

The single gear is quite high, which will probably suit a non-cyclist not into pedalling fast

[quote=dmorts ]Also my dad said it was easy to pedal with the power off, because I asked what he'd do if it ran out battery.

I'm kind of surprised by that - but then I didn't try it power off, and I guess that on the flat there's probably not any noticeable drag, and it seems that people who don't ride bikes much tend to like quite high gears even for unpowered bikes - so it probably feels fairly similar to any other cheap bike. So he's probably right. Of course I could be wrong about the gearing, it was just a car park test and I suppose on the open road the gearing might not feel anywhere near so high - I expect it's plenty high enough for an average person to go 15mph almost anywhere though, which is all you really need on an e-bike.

Of course I could be wrong about the gearing, it was just a car park test and I suppose on the open road the gearing might not feel anywhere near so high - I expect it's plenty high enough for an average person to go 15mph almost anywhere though, which is all you really need on an e-bike.

No, I think you're right. If you were going to choose a single gear ratio it would make sense to be a higher gear. The power assist then kicks in to help the initial setting off and get you up to cruising speed*

Also bear in mind my dad only had a brief test ride, seemingly similar to yours. So the gearing might not actually be as easy as he thinks.

*the public hire bikes in Copenhagen are like this, my only eBike experience

HUb gear ebikes do not use the bikes gears at all so it makes no difference if you have a single speed or 30 gears to the rear wheel torque from the motor

Thing is there weren't any iffy reviews

hmmm...

the range was a bit poor.

Serviced a couple, they are pretty awful. Build quality on the frame looked bad. Power seems to be On or off, lack of gears was frustrating.

The G-Tech we had in for service was rubbish. Poor build quality and the test ride was not pleasant due to lack of gears and low power.

The Bosch motors seem to be very unreliable. We've seen several where the BBC or motor bearings have just eaten themselves requiring new motors. One of my friends is on his 4th in less than a year. Plenty of stuff on the Internet about it as well.

The underlying bike doesn't look up to much.

Do they come as standard with Air-Ram technology?

I've read a bit on the pedelecs forum.

The general consensus for the GTech Sport/City eBike is great zipping about on the flats but can struggle on steep hills and in general hills really sap its power. I get the impression there are alternatives that would deal with hills better.

[i] I get the impression there are alternatives that would deal with hills better.[/i]

Something like..
[img] [/img]

I run a market research company. I'm nothing to do with Gtech.

Thanks to the couple of people who were pleasant and kind and recognised that I was only writing my thoughts and experiences on the bike I own.

I am now, of course, leaving this site, never to return. Some of the responses on here were disgraceful.

****ts.

🙁 🙁