← Back to context

Comment by gglanzani

4 years ago

Using my Stromer ST1X — which lacks the top of the line motor of the ST3 and ST5 — I can bike at 45kph at any battery % above 30.

I am probably 140kg with bike, battery, laptop, clothes, and stuff.

Outside the cities I can go in the bike lane, and I am absolutely twice as fast as most bikes.

I live in the Netherlands, so everything being flat helps.

13 comments

gglanzani

Reply
tda  4 years ago

I recently sold my ST2. I could get only 30-60km on a full (1kwh) battery at max speed (46 kmh). But then why would you go below max speed om a 7k bicycle? I got rid of it because it was also very expensive in maintenance, and because cycling on the road slightly slower than cars really sucks (a few too many encounters with aggressive cars). The stromers are near impossible to ride without assist, think because of the regenerative engine. When the battery was empty or I had one of those weird error 18 things I could go abou 17kmh with a lot of effort. I got a vanmoof bike instead niwy, so much nicer. 30kmh, easy to pedal past assist speed cause of light front wheel motor. Lightweight, 500wh battery is pretty ok (also same 30-60km range). Lots of repairs (under warranty) though, build quality is subpar. My 30km commute is 65 minutes now on my vanmoof, where it was 50 minutes on a stromer.

  • gglanzani  4 years ago

    I don’t have the ST2, but 30km on a full battery seems off to me :)

    • tda  4 years ago

      That was worst case, I ride in all weather conditions. 7 Bft headwind in winter would deplete the battery from full to 0 on my way home. Also it was difficult to get to max speed witb strong headwind, but 40kmh was always achievable

  • jacquesm  4 years ago

    How was the Stromer reliability wise?

    • tda  4 years ago

      I had my share of controller issues, where the bike would give an error. Removing the battery a few times usually solved it, but somehow the magnetic connector is too sensitive. Worse is that it is really easy to improperly connect the charger, so sometimes it would not charge at work Depending on wind and temperature that would give me a ton of range anxiety. Especially as cycling on a stromer without assist is very very hard. So all in all it was ok, I rode 13k km and it mostly worked. But when it didn't I really hated it.

      The €250 travel charger is only 80W, so a full charge takes 12 hours. I ended up writing a script to poll the api to make sure the bike was actually charging when at work.

      That is why being able to use the bike as normal when off/dead battery was a primary criterium for me. The bike I have now has a cheap little hub motor on the front wheel, and it lets the wheel spin freely when the bike is off.

      A final remark, I used my Stromer ST2 exclusively for commuting. Just not practical in the city, only in between cities. I use my regular ebike for almost all trips, so I get a lot more value from it.

      5 replies →