No photos from me but had the chance to demo a few back to back today which might be helpful for anyone thinking of buying one. Bikes were a Lapierre eZesty with Fazua motor, Lapierre Overvolt with the old Bosch motor, and a Haibike hardtail with Yamaha motor.
The Zesty rode a lot like a human powered bike compared to the other two, and was noticeably lighter (top end spec probably helped). Even on max assist it was fairly subtle, augmenting my pedalling rather than launching me up hills. It was very smooth and refined, and there was no drag with the motor off.
I had a lot more fun on the Overvolt. While they both save a lot of energy and time pedalling up hills, the Fazua system didn’t have the same kick to it. The Overvolt made it easy to build up speed and race along flat trails, which I think is what I’d want if I was buying an ebike. The suspension felt great too – hard to say how much was the weight of the bike and how much was geometry and setup, but I wouldn’t have guessed it was fairly low end (RS Sektor I think). Downside on this was a lot of drag with the motor off or past the limiter, you can really feel it resisting the pedals.
The Haibike was really just confirming what I expected with an e-hardtail – I really felt the weight of the motor as it smashed into every bump. The trails weren’t very technical (Bedgebury) and I’ve had plenty of fun riding them on a hardtail before, but it really felt like a dead weight on the back. The motor itself seemed nice enough, it had the most initial boost of the three and putting a bit of pressure on the pedals while standing still felt like twisting a throttle. It pedalled smoothly and had some resistance when it cut out but less than the Bosch.
For my money I think I’d wait for the next generation of motors which hopefully improve the drag and the feel of pedalling. I really like having the full power the Yamaha and Bosch systems offer but the shortcomings were very obvious when the Fazua was so smooth. I wouldn’t have the Fazua personally, but I could see it being the one to win over sceptics and it would be great for a versatile only bike.