ORIGINAL ARTICLE FROM FEBRUARY 2005.
The Panasonic Will has been out of production for some years.

We’re often told that folding electric bicycles are the next big thing, but the technology always seems to be just around the corner, in a container on the high seas or being re-evaluated somewhere far away. In other words, it just isn’t ready.

Why would anyone want a folding electric bike? Sad to relate, there is growing demand – we kid you not – for electric folders that can be carried to the local park in a car boot and toodled around, giving the rider some virtual exercise. A frightening vision of the future if ever there was one: herds of doddery greys ripping up the ozone layer for a bit of fresh air.

But every new technology has its frivolous applications. Somerset is big country and some towns are relatively inaccessible without a car. If we wanted to get to, say, Radstock (not that we ever do), we’d take a folding bike 18 miles on the train to Frome and cycle the remaining eight miles. Actually, Sustrans is working on a level-ish path, but otherwise, think serious hills. An electric-assist folding bike would make a lot of difference.

Similarly, for someone living in the South Hams of Devon, or just about anywhere in the Peak District, this sort of technology would make a Home Counties-style train/bike commute more practical. It sounds easy, but to get our business, and break into the touring/folder, commuting/folder markets, the bike would have to outclass an enthusias- tically-ridden Brompton or Birdy, and to date, there’s no sign of this happening.We’ve seen nothing that can be swung easily onto the train, and/or manage our archetypal 16- mile round journey, but year on year they improve.

WiLL-Power

State-of-the-art in early 2005 is the Panasonic WiLL. Actually, the WiLL has been around for a while, and is  in any event based on the older Porta-Ranger model that was already knocking on a bit when we tested it in 2001.There aren’t many similarities though.The staid Porta-Potty frame has been replaced with one of the prettiest alloy designs you could hope to make the acquaintance of, complete with strangely unmatched wheel sizes – 20-inch rear and 18-inch front.

The power unit is lithium-ion, but this isn’t new either, having first made an appearance in Japan in December 2003, arriving in Europe on the Swiss-made Biketec six months later. Significantly (or perhaps not), Giant came very close to upgrading its Lafree to the lithium system in 2004, but changed its mind. Just to recap, lithium-ion batteries are light, but they need some clever electronics.The Panasonic system has two battery options, one of 160Wh (about the same capacity as the Lafree, but at 1.6kg, less than half the weight), and a smaller unit of 80Wh, weighing just a kilogram. In other words, the weight of the battery is of no real significance in the greater scheme of things.

Panasonic has made the bigger battery available to other manufacturers, but its own folder comes with the one-kilogram job, so don’t expect to go very far.

On the Road

First impression on the road is that the Shimano SIS 7-speed derailleur is missing at least one gear at the top end.This is quite common with Japanese folders, which leaves you wondering how they ride ‘em over there. Do all cyclists wobble along at 12mph? Or is it just the folding bikes that get left in the gutter when bicycles, mopeds, car and trucks roar away from the lights? We’d love to know.

The result of limited gearing is a strictly limited top speed. You can cruise at around 12mph, but even in a knee-spinning emergency, you won’t go much over 14mph with a 61-inch top gear. This is seriously debilitating stuff and leaves the Panasonic floundering in the wake of all but the humblest unassisted folding bikes on the flat. We wouldn’t even attempt to storm the rolling Somerset downs with gears like this. More usefully, bottom gear is low too. At 28 inches, it would be low by any standards, but on a crank-driven electric bike, a gear like this will climb any hill South Somerset can produce, albeit at a snail’s pace. Again, we’re confused. Are Japanese suburbs very, very hilly?

Rolling resistance is acceptable, rather than exciting.The 40psi Cheng Shin tyres are a ‘trad’ design, so don’t expect sparkling performance. Actually, they roll quite well at 50psi, hitting 13.3mph on our test hill, but this is a big bike, and these days we expect 20-inch machines of this size to coast a good 1mph faster than that.

The 107cm wheelbase and handlebar height of 97cm are acceptable, but at 79cm – 94.5cm (plus another centimetre or two for the daring) the saddle height is a shade low. The general impression, from the low saddle, uninspiring gear ratios and lethargic tyres is that the Panasonic would be blown away by most unassisted folders in the traffic light Grand Prix. Not a very good start.

Power Assistance

In common with all the best electric bikes, the Panasonic drive system is almost invisible. The motor is part of the bottom bracket, and more or less hidden by an oversize chainguard. The tiny battery sits above it, but you could mistake it for a bit of frame tube or a water bottle.

The power switch is on the handlebars, offering two levels of assistance, or nothing if you prefer.The ‘Off’ setting leaves you with a typical, under-geared folding bike as one might expect, and ‘Lo’ is too Zen-like to be worth discussing. It sort of whispers encouragement. ‘Hi’, on the other hand, offers quite  perky acceleration, as a torque-sensor engages the motor to match your pedal strokes.This feels exciting, but it’s all over very quickly. Above 10mph in top gear, the motor begins to run out of steam, and by 12mph, your legs are whizzing a shade faster than most of us would prefer, and you’re on your own. Progress continues thus until you confront a steepish hill, which the bike saunters up in one of its higher ratios, only dipping into the 300 watt peak power reserves on the steepest bits. Our meanest, cruellest gradient is 17% (1:6) and the Panasonic rasped gently up in 2nd gear – we never found an opportunity to use 1st in anger.

This steady, but rather tedious progress continues for about three miles, at which point the first of three ‘fuel’ warning lights flicks off (the separate battery gauge still showing four out of five lights, incidentally). At seven miles the second instrument light is extinguished, with the battery still displaying two out of five. Rather disturbingly, the battery meter then goes from half to empty in less than a mile, and by 7.8 miles, both gauges are flashing, indicating reserve. It then changes its mind, and does another three miles before conking out at 10.8 miles. Average speed is a woeful 10.6mph.

This sounds rather dismal against electric bikes that can run for twenty miles or more at 17-18mph, but at 17.3kg, the Panasonic is the lightest electric bike on the market. Not that long ago, we were testing conventional folders weighing that much, so it’s quite a good performance all things considered. And in hilly country, 10.6mph is better than it sounds.

The peaks correspond with power consumption in the different gears. The grey area is wasted power

Charging is excellent. Lithium-ion batteries need clever technology to stop them going pop, and the same mysterious electronics give an uneventful and rapid charge of about one hour 40 minutes – the fastest we’ve seen (Panasonic suggests 40 minutes longer). Mind you, it’s also the smallest battery we’ve seen. Efficiency, both charging and running, is similar to the NiMH-powered Lafree. Power consumption is a nominal 7.4Wh per mile, or 10.7Wh if charging losses are taken into account, as they must be, unless you have your own solar/wind/hydro power plant. Just for the record, there are few powered vehicles (except of course, for the traditional bicycle) that can beat that.

Accessories

Strangely, for a machine with a state-of-the-art alloy frame, and lithium-something-or-other battery, the WiLL is equipped with some frightful accessories. The brake blocks, callipers and cables are cheap and profoundly ineffective.The front manages a best stop of 0.54G, which is tolerable, but even with a mighty heave, the rear brake only scrapes up to 0.22G. If you’re wondering how to interpret these G-force readings, 1.0G is the force of gravity, which is a bit difficult to achieve horizontally. A good stop is 0.7G, a reasonable one 0.5G, and 0.22G is pathetic. In practical terms, the WiLL comes with one functioning brake.

The bottom-of-the-range Shimano derailleur we’ve already mentioned, there are no lights or rack, but the WiLL has a little stand, and a bell. Mudguards are those floppy plastic things, which prove better than nothing, but not much. All a bit disappointing on a machine costing £1,200, give or take an exchange rate fluctuation.

…Why, oh why, oh why, do manufacturers never listen?

Folding

Remarkably good. The electrical bits cause no complications, so folding the WiLL is much the same as any other 20-inch job.The handlebar stem has an elegant catch, rather like a convex version of the Brompton U-clamp (a round bar, in other words). Once released, the handlebars fold down and clip into place, something that always gets top marks in our book.The mainframe hinge is a bit trickier, and you need strong fingers to push back the safety catch, heave the lever, and winkle the locking bar from its lair in the frame. Once done, the bike folds in a trice, and with the attractive MKS FD6 pedals folded (best accessories on the bike), it’s done. As usual, one of the folding pedals is superfluous, so they could have saved a few quid there, and in contrast to the handlebar stem, the frame doesn’t clip together, so the package continuously falls apart.Why, oh why, oh why, do these manufacturers never listen?

Folded size is 41cm wide, 69cm tall (or 67.5cm with the useless saddle stem rear reflector removed), and 88cm long. Folded volume is 249 litres or 8.9 cubic feet.That should be acceptable on all but the busiest trains, but it’s a little bulkier than the Dahon Roo/Sparc and much bigger than Honda’s little Compo, formerly the WiLL’s sworn enemy, but now apparently withdrawn.

Conclusion

We don’t think £1,200 bicycles should have rubbish brakes and indifferent tyres, but the Panasonic WiLL is also the lightest electric bike around, and it narrowly outperforms the other two super-lightweights: the Dahon Roo and Honda Step Compo.

With another gear, lighter, more effective tyres and brakes, and a bigger battery, the WiLL would weigh about the same but go nearly twice as far at a sensible speed. It’s not for us to tell Japanese multinational corporations how to run their affairs, but those changes would make it a jolly interesting machine.

Specification

Panasonic WiLL £1,200 . Weight Bicycle 16.3kg Battery 1kg Total 17.3kg (38lb) . Gears Shimano SIS 7-spd . Ratios 28″ – 61″ . Batteries Lithium-ion . Capacity 73Wh . Range 10.8 miles . Full charge 1hr 40m . Fuel consumption Overall 10.7Wh/mile . Running costs 8.8p per mile . Manufacturer Panasonic of Japan . UK distributor Electric Bikes Direct tel 0870 345 0775 mail info@electricbikesdirect.co.uk web www.electricbikesdirect.co.uk

This article dates from June 2004, and the Step-Compo has long since disappeared. It was a brave effort by the Japanese – a lightish, stylish folding electric bike, but it was soon overwhelmed by cheaper Chinese tat

Not everybody can see the point in owning one, but most people recognise that a folding electric bike needs quite a dose of high technology if it’s going to be portable and rideable. To satisfy these two contradictory requirements, take the most efficient motor and batteries you can find, bolt them to the lightest frame and add the neatest folding mechanism.The Honda Compo is a classic in such company, and naturally enough, it hails from Japan, where space-saving electrical gadgets are very much the thing.

Honda has been producing folding electric bikes for the domestic Japanese market since April 1998, with the launch of the racy-looking Raccoon Compo.Three years later, the Raccoon was replaced by the lighter, and even more stylish, Step Compo. Export efforts revolved around the simultaneous launch of the Step Wagon – one of those bloated people carriers, the Americans laughingly call mini-vans (you should see the maxi). In America, the Compo is viewed as a Step Wagon accessory, but for the home Japanese market, this compact, cute and reasonably light machine seems to have been aimed primarily at women – not the station wagon kind, but everyday ladies making everyday bicycle journeys. Electric bikes are big news in Japan, with sales of close to 500,000 last year, and – being Japan – a sizeable minority are folding models.

…Mayor Ken’s Wonderful Congestion Charge has created a whole new market…

OK, an electric folding bike is ideal for Mr Macburger’s leisurely circuit of the trailer ark, and Mrs Suzuki’s station commute, but would you or I want one? Demand has apparently rocketed in the UK this year, with several dealers reporting container- loads of bikes pre-sold before arrival. Most are for leisure use, but a growing minority of buyers are, like Mrs Suzuki, looking for a practical rail-link folder, and let us not forget Mayor Ken’s Wonderful Congestion Charge, which has created a whole new market in motorised car-boot jobs in and around London.

In theory, a folding electric bike offers all the storage advantages of a conventional folder, plus the ability to laugh at gradients and headwinds. In practice, most of the current crop are either too heavy, like the ETC, or offer limited performance, like the SRAM Sparc-powered Dahon Roo. A glance at the graph below reveals that nothing quite hits our weight/performance target, but some are getting close.

The Honda Step Compo

Forget those dorky shoppers and frightful frumpy folders of old – the Step Compo is one of the neatest and most sharply-styled small bikes you could hope to find.The general stance is vaguely Birdy-esque, but otherwise the machine is more or less unique. The frame is delightfully crafted aluminium, featuring an oval blue-anodised main tube, hinged at the rear to a silver-anodised monocoque housing the power unit and battery, with two arms reaching back to provide rear wheel drop-outs.The polished alloy saddle stem pops out the top of the monocoque at a rakishly sharp angle.The front end is less satisfactory from a styling point of view, with a rather ramshackle hinge operated by a sort of wand, and slightly naff chromed stem and forks.

Despite this front/rear disparity, the Compo is a real looker.The motor/gearbox assembly is styled along motorcycle lines, but it’s unobtrusive, and the tiny battery nestles invisibly behind the saddle stem.To the untutored eye, this is no more than a bicycle with a slightly unusual frame, and you really do have to look hard to pick out the electrical accoutrements.

STATE OF THE ART: The lightest electric bikes tend to have the shortest range. Note that the best performer to date is also the crudest – the Zap friction drive fitted to the Brompton

…Honda claims the motor will pull to 14.4mph, but this certainly isn’t the case…

Gears come, very sensibly, courtesy of a light and compact Nexus 3-speed hub in the rear wheel. Like the Panasonic power unit fitted to the Giant Lafree and other electric bikes, power is fed into the crank (through what would conventionally be the bottom bracket), so both human and motor output is fed through the gears in the rear wheel.This is the best system for hilly areas, because the motor effort can be geared down, which keeps the motor singing happily, even at low speed on steep gradients.

The styling at the front is less satisfactory

Gear ratios are highish for a small- wheeled bike at 43″, 59″ and 80″, but low in electric-assist terms. Unassisted, the bike nips about like any other small folder, although the extra weight, and a degree of mechanical resistance in the power unit, make the machine feel quite slothful.Turn the key to the green ‘ON’ position and it’s a different story. Unlike the Panasonic Porta-Ranger we tried back in December 2001 (the Honda’s natural competitor), the Compo is a perky little performer, with enough oomph to lift the front wheel in first gear if you don’t take care.This tendency is exacerbated by a short 98cm wheelbase and rear- biased weight distribution (65% of the weight is over the rear wheel). It shouldn’t cause a serious upset, but you do need to take care pulling away, particularly on steep gradients.

Note the aluminium monocoque, power key, hinge and motorcycle styling cues.The battery lives in the box behind the saddle stem

The Honda power consumption graph is quite revealing. The white peaks represent power used by the motor in each gear, while the grey area represent the power drawn from the battery. At low speed, a considerable amount is wasted.

Within a few seconds, you’re up through the gears at 8 or 9mph in top, with the power-assistance starting to fade away. By 10mph, the motor is fading fast, and top whack is a shade over 12mph. Thereafter, you have the choice of cruising gently along at 12mph with the motor making a modest contribution, or taking advantage of the 80” top gear and pedalling on to 14 or 15mph on your own. If you take the high speed option, you need to reach down and fumble with the key, because the motor will otherwise continue to buzz uselessly as you pedal. Incidentally, Honda claim the motor will pull to 23km/h or 14.4mph, but this certainly isn’t the case.

With saddle adjustment of 71 to only 96cm, we found higher speed a bit beyond our reach at first. Strangely enough, there’s plenty of stem left when the saddle hits the maximum height stop, so if you buy a Step Compo, we’d recommend doing what we did and drilling out the height stop pin.This enables the saddle to be raised to 100cm or so, which should suit all but the lankiest Europeans. However, a word of warning in best nanny state tradition – beware of making such adaptations if you’re both tall and chunkily built, because with a stem as steeply raked as this, there’s a real risk of over-stressing it, with rather unpleasant consequences. It’s worth remembering that these little bikes are designed for delicate porcelain-skinned Japanese ladies, not hairy barbarians like you.With the handlebars fixed at a lowish 91cm, the very tall may feel a bit ‘bum-in-the-air’, but for some that racy position will be an advantage.

Road behaviour is on a par with most other small-wheeled, short-wheelbase bikes. The Compo is nippy, but easily caught out by potholes, and rolling resistance is a bit depressing.Tyres are the ‘small’ 305mm 16-inch size widely used in the Far East. State-of- the-art rubber in this size rolls quite well on a good surface, but the 50psi Duro tyres achieved only 13.4mph descending our test hill.That’s respectable, but noticeably slower than the ‘big’ 16-inch Brompton tyre, for example, and very slow by 26-inch standards.

The real beauty of a crank motor is hill climbing, and once the going gets tough, you soon forgive the little Honda any slothfulness on the flat. Compared to the Porta-Ranger, and the similarly-powered Lafree, the crank sensor is insensitive, so a little more muscle power is needed before the motor chips in. But pedal reasonably hard in first gear, and the Honda will climb anything South Somerset has to offer. Gradients of 12.5% (1:8) are easy, restarts at 18% a mere trifle, and we just cleared 22%, or 1:41/2, and you don’t see many roadsigns like that outside t’Dales. Serious gradients are quite hard work, of course, but a great deal easier than riding a conventional bike, and faster than pushing one.

A word of warning.The Honda power unit buzzes along quite efficiently on the flat, but if the motor speed is allowed to fall, the power managed only 9.7 miles at consumption will rise alarmingly. Forget to change down on a hill and you’ll be eating batteries. In this a modest 11.8mph…” respect, the fuel-sipping Panasonic is streets ahead.

Another difference to the Panasonic system is the ‘Eco’ setting.The Giant Lafree delivers full power until you reach a hill, when the motor output is ‘capped’ to limit the climb speed. On the Honda, power is unaffected, but you have to give the pedals an extra push before the motor cuts in (thereafter, you can pedal as normal). Forget it – like most economy devices, this one is virtually useless. If you want to ride for economy, avoid straining the motor at low speed, and turn it off once in a while, something that applies to all electric bikes.

Equipment is limited to the centre stand, a bell and a pair of vestigial mudguards that might be useful in a shower, but would leave you very wet in serious rain.

Range & Charging

The Honda Step Compo’s nickel-metal hydride battery is genuinely handbag-sized, weighing just 2.2kg.The problem is a capacity of barely 84 Watt/hours.To put that in perspective, the Lafree has a 156Wh battery and the Ezee Forza 314Wh – almost four times the size. Surprise, surprise, the Step’s bijou battery is lighter, but gives barely a quarter of the range. Riding our usual hilly ‘mountain’ course, the Honda managed only 9.7 miles at a modest 11.8mph. Riding exactly the same course on ‘ECO’ yielded a range of 10 miles at 11.6mph. Honda claims a range of 121/2 miles with normal power and 19 miles on ECO.That might be possible in laboratory conditions, but you’d be lucky to achieve anything similar on the road.

The battery has a neat and fairly accurate 5-LED fuel gauge, but you have to nip round to the back of the machine and press a button to see it. With the range being so limited, the lights pop off at intervals of little over a mile, although the final flashing ‘reserve’ light stays on for almost quarter of a ‘tank’ – more than two miles. In practice, of course, the light flashes away unseen and unheeded until the motor cuts out.When it does, this sprightly little machine starts to feel a bit depressing. The frame is rigid enough, but the ‘stiction’ in the drive makes it hard to pedal, and the limited gear range and rather high gearing doesn’t help either.

We generally recommend buying an electric bike with twice the battery capacity you need on a typical ride. On that basis, the Honda is really only up to trips of five miles or so, which is a bit disappointing. It’s hard to understand why the engineers went for such a small battery, accounting for only 12% of the vehicle weight.Twice the battery would give a range of more than twenty miles (bigger batteries discharge more efficiently too), for a weight gain of only 2kg – a trade-off most people could live with.

Overall running costs, including bike and battery depreciation, consumables and electricity, works out at around 8.5p per mile – one of the most expensive around. Fuel consumption – including charger losses – is just over 14 Watt/hours per mile, which compares rather badly to the Panasonic-powered bikes. (The leisurely Porter-Ranger achieved about 11.5Wh per mile and the much faster, and wonderfully efficient Giant Lafree ST, 10.8Wh per mile.)

The good news is a rapid charge.This comes out at about two hours twenty minutes, putting the Honda amongst the exclusive list of electric bikes that will recharge over a leisurely lunch. Unfortunately, the charger is pretty big (25cm x 10cm x 5cm) and in 240 volt land (that’s almost everywhere except Japan and the USA), the bike needs a chunky 240-110 volt converter too.This pair, plus leads and plugs, weigh almost 2kg, which doesn’t sound much until you realise that on ten to twenty mile trips you’ll be carrying this little lot in a backpack…

Incidentally, to transform the performance of the Honda Step Compo, simply swap the rear 14-tooth sprocket for a 13-tooth, increasing the gear ratios to 46″, 64″ and 86″. This increases the maximum assisted speed to 13mph plus, giving the bike a more relaxed long-legged feel at the expense of extreme hill climbing ability. This simple change results in a higher average speed (12.7mph) and a greater range (10.4 miles). Well worth the effort.

Folding

The Honda makes a neat and compact folded package. Off the stand and with the saddle stem removed, it’s even smaller

How long have you got? The easiest way to fold the Step Compo is to put it on the neat little centre stand, and release and fold the handlebars, mainframe and pedals.The VP-116 pedals are reasonably compact, but a bit cruel to fingers, and nails in particular. Fold One is a less-than-a- minute job, producing a package of 186 litres or 6.6 cubic feet. which is much much smaller than the Porta-Ranger and well into conventional folding bike territory.The wheels need to be strapped together (a strap is supplied) and the package sits very tidily and securely on the stand. Folded like this, the bike would be welcome on most train services, but you’ll need the arm muscles of an all-in wrestler to hoik 18.7kg on board.

…the Honda Compo is a stylish and effective electric folding bike…

If you have another minute to spare, removing the saddle stem and strapping it between the wheels reduces the volume to 158 litres, which we’ll call Fold Two, and lifting the stand reduces the volume to 130 litres (4.6 cubic feet).With the stand up, the package tends to fall over, but this lower, slightly longer Fold Three package will go almost anywhere a Brompton will go. And that’s seriously compact.

Last but not least, if you have five minutes to spare, the Honda has a clever trick up its sleeve, for not only is this a folding bike, it’s a separable one too. As tricks go, it’s a bit long-winded, involving no fewer than 26 illustrations in the helpful (but entirely Japanese) handbook. Basically, you start by whipping out the battery, unfastening a quick release on the left handlebar, twisting and removing the left twistgrip and brake assembly and putting it in the battery box. Having relocated both the front-rear cables to the rear, you fold the handlebars as normal, open the frame hinge and press a little release button, which rather alarmingly allows the hinge to fall apart.This leaves you holding a 2.2kg battery, a front section weighing 4.2kg, and a much larger rear portion with all the electric and drive gubbins, weighing in at 12.3kg.The process is grease-free and relatively quick and foolproof.Whether it would be any use is another matter, but clever, nonetheless.

Honda also supply a neat soft bag affair to carry the bike at Fold One plus the stand. This comes complete with shoulder straps, or a front strap and rear castors – much easier, but for smooth surfaces only. A neat touch is that the seat tube drops into a steel subframe fixed to the castors, so the bike stays upright and most of the weight ends up on the wheels.You might not want to wrestle the bike into the bag very often, but it’s obligatory on the Shinkansen and pretty useful on the Routemaster to Little Cobblington. The usefulness of the bag is limited by the gross weight (20kg, including 1.3kg of bag) and the usual folding bike Catch 22 – what do you do with the bag when you ride off?

Conclusion

On paper, it’s easy to dismiss the Honda Step Compo. It’s heavier than most (but not all) conventional folding bikes, and slower than a full-size electric bike, with about half the range. Even amongst folding electric bikes, some of the crude Zap friction-drive conversions we’ve seen do much the same thing for little more than half the price.

On the positive side, it folds well, it’s pleasant to ride, and it’s a stunning looker. If style is your thing, whether on the commuter run or cruising those hilly Sustrans leisure routes, you might well be tempted by the Step Compo.

With a high-tech lithium-ion battery, higher gearing, and a few grams shaved off here and there, we think the bike would be greatly improved. Meanwhile, a spare battery will increase the range to 20 miles, for about £150. It will also reduce the need to carry the heavy charger on longer day rides.

We think the Honda Step Compo certainly does have a place in the great scheme of things. It isn’t cheap, but if you can live with the limited endurance, it’s a stylish and effective electric folding bike.

Specification

Honda Step Compo £1,095
Weight (bicycle) 16.5kg (battery) 2.2kg (total) 18.7kg (41lb)
Gears Nexus 3-speed
Ratios 43″ 59″ 80″
Batteries Nickel-metal hydride
Nominal capacity 84Wh
Maximum range 9.7 miles
Fuel consumption 14Wh/mile
Full charge 2hr 20m
Running costs 8.5p/mile
Test Duration 60 miles
Manufacturer Honda web www.honda.com
UK distributor 50cycles tel 020 7794 5508 mail fiftycycles@50cycles.com web www.50cycles.com

This article was first published in June 2004. Ezee has more or less gone out of business now, and big heavy electric folding bikes like this are very much a thing of the past

We have to be honest; most electric folding bikes are horrible.Without being so cruel as to name names, we’d have to admit that half of the bikes we’ve tested are either complete rubbish or close to it.

Part of the problem is the conflicting design constraints discussed elsewhere, but that doesn’t explain everything.The fact is that the Chinese are churning out cheap rubbish and greedy middlemen are flogging the things in the UK for mouth-watering mark-ups, without even test- riding them. How does 250% profit sound?

The Shanghai Ezee Kinetics Co, run by Waiwon Ching and his son Ken, is a bit different.Working from a small factory in Shanghai, and a European office in France, the pair are determined to break the ‘pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap’ pattern and introduce a decent range of Chinese bikes.

We tested the Ezee Forza back in June 2003 and were suitably impressed.The electronics needed some fettling, but the basic concept – quality alloy frame, nickel-metal hydride battery and fast, efficient motor – proved perfectly sound.The bike has gone on to reach nearly 2,000 miles on long-term test and continues to work well. Mr Ching has now launched a folding bike called the Quando, and we had a brief look when father and son passed through the UK earlier this month.

Like the Forza, the Quando has a nicely-engineered aluminium frame, NiMH battery behind the seatpost and a powerful brushless hub motor. Unlike its big brother, the wheels are 20-inch, the frame folds, and the motor is in the rear wheel, rather than the front.The disadvantage of this layout is that you can’t fit a geared hub – one of the Forza’s best features.

The Quando’s rear-mounted motor is compact, but it leaves little room for gears. Note the band brake.

We’re not very happy about the Ezee dual power control system.This has been brought about by confusion over whether UK electric bikes are legally allowed to motor along without the rider pedalling (they probably are allowed at present).The Ezee system features a torque sensor on the crank that brings the motor up to full power a second or two after the rider starts pedalling. The motor can also be more precisely controlled with a conventional twistgrip throttle, but this does not have a safety switch to prevent accidental power application when standing still.

We’d like to see a simpler system, where a crank movement sensor feeds power to the twistgrip, rather than squirting 36 volts straight into the motor.We only dwell on this because the Quando is the most powerful folding electric bike we’ve seen, so precise control is important, both for safety and fuel efficiency.

The rear suspension pivot and polymer are under the battery

The bike also has a single 53″ gear. If you can picture this, the rider starts pedalling and one second later the characteristically smooth, torquey brush-less motor cuts in, propelling the bicycle forward at a cracking pace.Within a few seconds, you’ve passed 12mph, leaving the 53-inch gear behind – further acceleration relying on the motor alone. On full throttle, the power continues to arrive smoothly and cleanly right up to (or a shade over) the 15mph legal limit. At this stage the bicycle stops accelerating and relaxes into a quiet cruise. Hills of up to 10% are simply ironed out, but steeper gradients will slow the motor to varying degrees. For example, our, ahem, 83kg rider (not Jane, incidentally) slowed the bike to 11mph on a 7% (1:14) gradient, 7mph on a 10% gradient, and the bike even managed a restart with reasonable enthusiasm at 12.5% (1:8)… all without turning a pedal. Anything steeper, and you need to provide some modest assistance, the absolute limit depending on how heavy and how fit the rider is. Our steepest local hill is about 18% (1 in 6), and we cleared that relatively easily, so an enthusiastic rider in the North Yorkshire Dales should do a lot better.

 …with one fairly low gear and oodles of power, this machine is more moped than bicycle…

Brakes are somewhat low-tech for such a speedy projectile – a nondescript caliper on the front and a rather noisy and ‘wooden’ band brake on the rear. Stopping requires quite a heave on the levers, producing a brake force of .33G from the back, which is just enough to lock the wheel (but not in reverse – see page 11).That’s adequate, but the similar .33G brake force from the front caliper brake is some way short of the power we would normally expect.

The Quando has suspension – a Moulton-style sliding fork at the front and a polymer bungee at the rear. Both units work well enough, but the front suspension can bottom- out with a nasty crash on rough roads, and the rear has no damping effect, so the bike tends to pogo up and down a bit when you’re pedalling fast, which you usually are.

Saddle height is a bit limited too, at 84cm – 94cm.That’s too high for some of the grey- market customers it might appeal to and too low for taller folk. But this is a prototype, so we can afford to be generous – these are relatively minor faults. Like the Forza, the Quando is fully equipped with mudguards, a stand, a chunky rack, bell and trip computer.

Range

The handlebar hinge is well engineered, but there’s a bit of play in the pivot bush

With one fairly low gear and oodles of power, this machine is more moped than bicycle, so range is less than it might have been, had we been able to test the bike in our normal ‘flat-out, plus typical pedal-power’ mode.That said, 15 miles is a good result in hilly country and with hardly any assistance from the rider. Average speed is around 141/2mph, which really isn’t bad when you consider that it’s difficult to pedal above 12mph and the motor only runs to 15mph…

Fuel consumption (including some losses in the charger) is close to 30 watt/hours per mile, but this high figure is hardly surprising when you take the performance into account. Back in June last year, with the same battery pack, a slightly less powerful motor, and more suitable pedal gearing, the Quando’s big brother consumed 18 watt/hours per mile, giving an excellent range of 33 miles.With the torque-sensor disconnected and a choice of pedal ratios, we think the Quando could easily exceed 20 miles, even on our hilly test route.

With the rocket boosters empty, the bike is still quite pleasant to ride. Despite a little play in the handlebar hinge (very common this), the frame is rigid enough to make pedal effort productive and the 53″ gear is a reasonable compromise.

The folded. Quando could pass for a conventional 20-inch folder

Recharging proved a bit of an unknown quantity because of a suspected charger fault, but the figures suggest four hours or more to reach a 90% charge (the Forza took five hours) and the rest of the night on a slow trickle charge to top right up. The charger is the same light, compact fan- cooled unit supplied with the Forza (see A to B 36).

Folding

Like most 20-inch bikes, the Quando folds into a large package, but the operation is easy enough and the result is very neat, all things considered. Dimensions are 38cm wide, 90cm long by 66cm high.That comes out at 226 litres or 8 cubic feet. Not minuscule, but perfectly acceptable by non-assisted 20-inch standards (the archetypal Dahon Vitesse measures 190 litres, for example). In terms of weight, the Quando is a very different animal. It’s lighter than some folding electric bikes, but at 25.7kg (20.2kg with battery removed), still way outside our folder viability zone (see graph, page 26). Once again, improved gearing and range would make a lot of difference.We think 25.7kg is a lot of hardware for a 15-mile ride, but probably acceptable with a 25-mile range.The bike would be capable of this with the right gearing.

Conclusion

Some people wouldn’t choose the Quando if it was the last bicycle on earth. But for others, it’s the dream machine they’ve given up hope of finding. If you’re old or infirm and you need a bicycle that can easily haul you home when you can’t manage another pedal stroke, this is one of the best options available. As a boat tender, the bike would cope with steep, unpaved climbs from remote harbours and carry back provisions on its substantial rear rack. The Quando would also suit a commuter in a hilly city, storming up gradients that leave conventional cyclists puffing and blowing.There are smaller electric folders available, of course, but this machine folds well enough to carry in most car boots, by train, or by boat, assuming reasonable stowage space.

The price remains a bit vague for the time being, but the target is £650 – cheaper than the much less effective Bliss or Powabyke folders. If the makers can achieve that, they have a guaranteed winner.

Specification

Ezee Quando (estimated price) £650
Weight (bicycle) 20.2kg (battery) 5.5kg (total) 25.7kg (57lb)
Gear ratio 53″
Batteries nickel-metal hydride
Capacity 324Wh . Range 15 miles
90% charge 4+ hours
Fuel consumption 30Wh/mile
Manufacturer Shanghai Ezee Kinetic Technology
fax +86 21 58224040 mail sales@ezeebike web www.ezeebike.com
European enquiries Ken Ching mail kenching@ezeebike.com

This review was published in February 2004. The Bliss has long since disappeared, and electric bikes have changed a great deal. Interesting historical item though!
Sooner or later, someone will produce a practical folding electric bike. Unfortunately, the Bliss isn’t it, but intriguingly, we think this dog’s-breakfast of a machine points the way to the future.

The Bliss

The Bliss is a dumpy little aluminium 305mm (16″) wheeled folding bike with a central frame hinge, and fold- down bars, producing a relatively compact folded package.Whatever its dynamic qualities, (or lack thereof), it’s a cute-looking little machine, sold – rather absurdly – in City,Touring and Extreme (ie, off-road) versions. Unusually, it features full suspension and a relatively state-of-the-art electric drive system. At 22.9kg (50lb) it’s extremely heavy by folding bike standards, but a clear leader amongst folding electric bikes, which just goes to show how impractical these machines still are.

With a height range of 64cm – 98cm, the standard saddle stem (there are alternatives, apparently) provides a reasonable adjustment range, and thanks to a rigid alloy frame, the front end of the bike is quite solid. Unfortunately, the handlebar stem is tall and flexible, an effect made worse on our sample by a poorly-machined and wobbly hinge.

The protruding suspension arms can be a nuisance

For these reasons, you wouldn’t want to pull on the bars, so gears are important.The Bliss has gears, but the 6-speed Shimano SIS derailleur is the sort of dodgy equipment fitted to cheapo children’s bikes, so most eight-year-olds would sneer at the 29″-58″ ratios.That’s neither low enough nor high enough to make any sort of sensible progress. Fortunately, power-assistance lends a hand up hill, but the motor is geared to give a top whack of only 11mph, and with a 58″ top gear, human power tops out soon after.Yes, 14mph is attainable, but 12mph is more realistic. Incidentally, one Bliss owner has fitted a slightly more realistic Sachs 13-21 tooth gear set (with some machining), giving a 62″ top gear – a small increase, but a transformation in terms of practicality.

Rolling resistance is so poor that higher gearing doesn’t give the benefit one would expect. A combination of wide, squidgy 16”x1.95” low-pressure tyres, tight bearings, wonky rims (causing binding brakes), and a strange friction-box movement sensor on the crank, combined to give a non-result on our test hill. In other words, it failed to complete the descent, the first bicycle ever to fail.

Looking rather desperately for the positive, the rack looks quite solid, and the dinky front suspension forks work rather well, although without damping, so watch out for motion- sickness. On the other hand, the rear suspension is virtually immovable, and the width of the brutish rear frame forces you to ride with a bow-legged gate. Suspension is largely unnecessary anyway, because the squidgy tyres wallow cheerfully through most road shocks.They’re rated at 35psi, but 36- spoke, deep section rims mean it’s a bit of a wrestling match getting air into them.

Folding

We won’t dwell overlong on folding, because it’s a dismal affair.With the saddle stem removed and plonked in the middle, the Bliss makes a package of around 52cm wide, 57cm tall, and 75cm long. Much of the width is caused by the handlebars and suspension forks failing to come together.

Given the short wheelbase (yes, it’s prone to wheelies in the lower gears), it hardly seems worth folding the Bliss at all. Any other grumbles? Well, the VP112 folding pedals are years out of date and positively dangerous, and there’s no securing strap, so this ungainly 22 litre (7.8 cubic foot) package has to be held together as you heave it into a car boot, for example.

Get the feeling we don’t like it? The problem is that we know folding bikes rather well, and this simply isn’t a good folding bike.The Bliss appears to be designed in China to appeal to overweight overly- wealthy Westerners who want something to chuck in the car boot – all shiny alloy and go- faster coil springs, but a functional disaster area. If you have very low expectations of folders (or electric bikes, for that matter), you might be happy with something like this, but if you’ve ridden something better, you’ll be extremely disappointed.

…If you have very low expectations… you might be happy with something like this…

The Drive System

This is the neat bit.The brushless DC motor measures only 130mm in diameter, and 100mm in width. So if the engineers at Pashley, Brompton or Dahon are reading, yes, this sort of thing could be squeezed into the front wheel of your folding bikes. At a rated output of 180 watts, it’s not particularly powerful, but the peak power of 288 watts at 8mph is useful enough, and combined with the low gearing, gives the Bliss a capacity to climb just about anything, albeit at a fairly sedate speed. The motor doesn’t so much buzz or whine, as emit a pleasantly high-tech harmonic, just like state-of-the-art Millennial machines are supposed to do.

Speed control is switchable to avoid the legislative morass. In ‘pedelec’ mode the bike cranks gently up to full power when you pedal, but the ‘e-bike’ mode is much better, providing full control via a sensitive and responsive twistgrip throttle. As is so often the case, we tested the pedelec mode and never used it again, so if we were buying the bike, we’d dump the friction box straight in the bin, Euro- regs or no Euro-regs.

Elsewhere, the battery box is claimed to contain a Nickel-Metal Hydride pack of 192Wh, 216Wh, 240Wh, or 312Wh, depending who you believe. Our test equipment suggests a true figure of 170Wh or even less, making the claims look a bit naughty.With a range of 11 miles at a rather lethargic 10mph, overall fuel consumption (including charger losses) comes out at 19 watts/mile. That’s one of the worst figures we’ve seen, but it’s probably not the fault of the motor – most of those watts are being absorbed by the tyres, the wonky wobbly bits, the see-sawing suspension and so on. If pedalling isn’t your style, the Bliss will motor for about seven miles, provided you keep clear of hills (it won’t quite climb a 10% gradient). We should point out that the manufacturer claims the bike will climb a 10% gradient without assistance, and run for 20 to 30 miles. These claims are clearly as inaccurate as the battery capacity.

The battery includes a multi-LED fuel gauge, but you can’t see it when on the move, and it’s pretty useless anyway, zipping up and down the scale according to throttle position. When stationary, it gives some useful data – the 1st light goes out at three miles, the 2nd at 4.5, third at 5.7 and forth at nine miles. As the battery conks out two miles down the road, the remaining half dozen LEDs are superfluous. The good news is that the battery weighs only 3.8kg (8lb 6oz), and a full charge takes less than three hours, after which the charger maintains a safe ‘trickle’ charge.

If you’re thinking of buying any electric bike, always test ride it with the power off for at least a kilometre to make sure you can get home with a flat battery. Riding unassisted, you realise just how unpleasant the Bliss really is – pedalling is a bit like treading treacle.

The way Forward…

Now, we must apply a bit of imagination. Let’s take an ordinary Brompton or Dahon, costing £250-£500. As standard, the bike might weigh 11kg or so, and be capable of a good 15mph cruise on the flat and reasonable progress in mildly hilly country. It’s a good compact folding bike, but not really up to 600 foot ascents.

Now factor in a decent NiMH battery pack, Bliss-style brushless motor and a few other bits, and you have a bike weighing about 17kg, that folds well, nips along at 15mph on the flat, but can also climb gradients of 10% with relative ease, and much steeper hills for short periods. Bring all these elements together and you’d have a viable machine.

Conclusion

We’re told that the Bliss is selling well to motorists evading the congestion charge. That’s great news, of course, but we still think it’s a poor purchase. Electric bikes dwell in a fairly well defined viability envelope – step outside it and they cease to serve any purpose.The best are light enough, free-running enough and efficient enough to thoroughly outclass their non-powered equivalents, but the Bliss simply cannot compete with a human-powered folding bike. In other words, you really would be better off buying a conventional Dahon (a third of the price) or a Brompton (anything up to the same price, but faster, lighter and a sheer delight to ride).

The Bliss costs £700, and to be perfectly honest, we wouldn’t recommend buying one if it cost half that. If you can live without the fold, the far superior Giant Lafree costs about the same to run, because it goes further and faster on a charge. Are there any better electric folders around? In a word, no, because most of the alternatives are heavier and even cruder. If you really want one, go for a Heinzmann-powered Fold-it or Brompton.This option is expensive, but you’ll have a proper folding bike with decent equipment and a near 20-mile assisted range.

Specification

Bliss £699
Weight Bicycle 19.1kg (42lb) Battery 3.8kg (8lb) Total 22.9kg (50lb)
Gears Shimano SIS 6-spd
Ratios 29″ -58″
Batteries Nickel Metal-Hydride
Estimated Capacity 170Wh
Maximum Range Pedelec 11 miles Motor-only 7 miles
Fuel Consumption Pedelec 19Wh/mile Motor-only 30Wh/mile
Full charge 21/2 hours
Running costs 7.5p per mile
UK distributor Bliss Bikes tel 0870 241 8446 web www.blissbikes.co.uk mail sales@blissbikes.co.uk