My Very First A-Bike Plus Well, after much eager anticipation, my brand new A-Bike Plus that I ordered last week Tuesday arrived yesterday (It was ordered from the A-Bike Plus website, so it is an original) As a matter of fact, I had been dreaming about the A-Bike Plus that when it finally arrived, I opened the box like a child that had just received his christmas present.
Here is what came in it -
-The A Bike Plus (ofcourse)
A Pump ( a bit smaller that I thought it would be)
-A seat cover (took me a while to realise what it was - and I nearly chucked in the bin!)
Anyway, a bit about why I ordered the bike:- I haven't ridden a bike for close to 25 years or so as I drive most times, but a change of circumstance causes me to now catch a bus to the train station (about 1.5 miles each way) and then catch a train to Central London where I work. The buses seem to have a mind of their own i.e. they never come on time when I go to work and in the evenings they don’t seem to come at all (meaning I have to trek back up a hill - phew). I first of all thought of getting a Go-Ped electric scooter but realised that they were illegal on the roads. So after investigating and looking around on this site, I chose the A-Bike.
So back to me receiving the bike, as it was raining heavily last night, after quickly reading the manual in 3 mins - my bad), I decided to quickly go for a spin. I soon realised that I needed to pump up the wheels, so returned home (duuh - well it does say that in the manual). So I went for another ride. To be honest, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I could never cycle straight. Each time I pedalled, the bike would want to go left. And I really had to put a lot of effort in it. I thought maybe it was my physical build - I am 6ft 3in and also weigh 100kg ( i think) which is about 15Kg over the acceptable weight of the A-Bike Plus, although they did say that it had been tested to a higher weights.
Not wanting to give up, I gave it a few more goes. And then decided to fit the so called re-enforced seat - although its actually a seat cover with some gel in it. Well, it didn’t make much of a difference, even after changing the seat height. And then I eventually gave up.
I've currently got a sore backside and my 'crown jewels' also feel like the last time an ex-girlfriend gave me a kick down there (ooh-yaah!). So much to my disappointment I wasn’t able to ride to the station this morning - my wife wouldn't let me anyway as she says she doesn’t want to become a young widow, so the bike is staying at home for the moment. I think I am too large for the bike, and the moment I start pedalling (or trying to anyway, then it puts stresses on the bike itself, and that was even going down a hill - I had to walk up the hill with it in the end). Also, the bits of plastic at the end of the handle-bars dont appear to have been secured properly - one of them actually came off and this was only having ridden it for less than 10 minutes - maybe a bad build?
But its not all bad news. I still like the A-Bike Plus concept (well, I should do as £200 + is a lot of money, and I am not one to return goods that have been supplied in good faith. I let a kid near my house ride it, and he thought it was extra cool.
So here comes plan b - to convert the A-Bike Plus into an electric version. This is something that I always had in mind anyway as I needed something electric to go up the hills from the station etc and would still not break highway rules. I've seen the electric conversions on this site and managed to contact the guy that advertised his electric kit on You Tube (i.e.
EABike@hotmail.com). I managed to speak with him - he is Chinese and doesn’t speak English, so it took a lot of effort explaining what I needed. Eventually, we chatted on MSN - and I had to use Google translator to translate English to Chinese vice versa. We agreed on a price and the total included shipping, batteries, motor etc (i.e a complete kit) came up to £165 (most of the expense was on the shipping costs from China, so the cost of the Kit is probably about £80 or so).
So I am waiting for the electric kit to arrive, once it does, then I'll continue from there. It shouldnt invalidate my warranty because I am not actually screwing into anything - mainly bolt ons.
I think Sir Clive really wants to give a thought on the design of the next A-Bike i.e. an electric version (i.e. there is already a copy of such) on this forum. I really cant see any other way of enjoying An A-Bike Plus if it takes that much effort to get it to go. Either that or I need to go to the gym and loose my excess flab.
Will update you in a few days when the kit arrives from China. Here are pictures of my bike though.
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- My new A Bike Plus
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- seat cover, to be placed on seat (or worn as a Cap - if you have a very tiny head!)
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- Seat remains the same from A Plus MkI so not reinforced
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- My new A Bike Plus
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