Five of the six electric bicycles have bad brakes – Göteborgs-Posten

Five of the six electric bicycles have bad brakes. Two brands can not handle water and moving too fast to get the bike to be.

Sales of electric bicycles is growing big in Sweden. But among the slightly cheaper models on the market, there are many shortcomings, shows a test Testfakta done on behalf of us.

A major problem is the brakes. Four of the six bikes in the test do not pass the EU standard for brakes, according to which tests with a total weight of one hundred kilograms. Would you test the bicycles promised maximum weight the results are even worse, and another cycle have failed.

– The type of brakes used on these elcyklarna are made for standard bikes. On electric bikes that are both faster and heavier it is enough not to, says Ernst Brust, CEO of the German laboratory Velotech who carried out the brake tests.

All the tested bikes are equipped with coaster brake rear and hand brake in the form of the rim brake or roller brake front.

– Among electric bicycles that have disc brakes we do not see these issues as often, says Ernst Brust.

Exactly how braking requirements for e-bikes look like under Swedish law is somewhat vague . But there is a general requirement that the bikes should be safe.

– If they do not comply with the standard indicates that they do not meet the legal requirement. This is something we may need to look at, said Carl Axel Sundstrom on the Work Environment Authority, which together with the Transport Agency is the regulatory authority for electric bicycles.

The worst braking performance in the test may Batavus cycle. It may fail for both the brake and handbrake. But Mats Douhan, CEO of Vartex selling Batavus contest the results.

– Our bike is tested in the Netherlands and approved in accordance with current standards, he argues.

There is also a legal requirement that elcyklarnas engines will stop providing power when you come up to 25 km / h. At higher speeds would elassisten off. But elcykeln from Off Course continues to provide motor assists up to over 30 kilometers per hour. In the legal sense, it is classified thus as mopeds, and when should it should be registered and the driver have a driving license. Otherwise, the cycle will not run in traffic.

Martin Franzén, CEO of Off Course is surprised:

– We have seen that with a new, fully charged battery may initially come up in 27, 5 km, but it is within the allowed margin of error. We will examine it tested the bike carefully to see what happened.

The cycle of Ecoride is the only one with okay brakes both when testing with a hundred kilos and with maximum weight cycle. But it has instead problems with water tightness. When the laboratory gives the bikes a shower that corresponds to a rainstorm, an error message appears on the display and Ecorides elassisten does not work properly.

Neither Benelli withstand water resistance test. Where the water enters the display and the cycle can not start.

The battery charging time is another weakness of several bikes. Benelli promises 4.5 hours of charging time, but takes over twice as long to load fully. Off Course, indicating a charging time of 6 hours, takes over 10 hours to charge fully.