Last weekend at the peak oil conference I came across a booth that had an optibike on display. The company was presenting something completely different and I'm unsure what their connection was with the optibike.
Hey, this is an expensive bicycle no doubt about it. The 800li is $9000 and 400li is $5000 ... oofda!
With that out of the way, I didn't get to ride it, but I took several long careful looks at it.
The frame is one of these newfangled Y frames. Most of the time this means there's no place to put the batteries. On triangle frame bikes the batteries can be mounted in the middle of the triangle, but on Y frame bikes the middle triangle doesn't exist and instead has suspension pieces in place. I've never ridden a Y frame bike but I suppose the suspension makes for a smoother ride. In any case the point with the optibike frame is it looks very very solid and ruggedly built.
Interestingly they have the battery pack inside the frame. Look at the frame carefully. The vertical part of the Y is extra thick, and that is where the battery pack resides. The bottom end is removable and you can extract the pack.
Now, where's the motor? It's part of the bottom bracket / crank / pedal system. Again look carefully and you see that the bottom bracket housing is extra large. It's a combined motor/bracket/crank/etc system. This means the motor power is before the gearing meaning you get mechanical advantage connected to the motor.
They're claiming it has excellent hill (eh, mountain) climbing ability. The people showing it discussed how it easily climbed over the mountains on the San Francisco Peninsula. I live near those mountains and, ah, climbing from Palo Alto to the peak is 10+ miles of continuous steep grade. It's impressive to find a bicycle which can do that.
I was under-impressed by the lighting and dashboard. For e-bicycle lighting I figure there's a big battery pack, so why should I limit myself to the puny dinky lights common to bicyclists. But optibike installs a NightRider lighting system and while that's high end for regular bicyclists it's still on the puny side. The rear light is even worse. There are lots of lighting modules designed for cars or motorcycles which can be reused on an e-bicycle, they're much brighter, etc. And heck you could borrow a turn signal & horn system from motorcycles to mount on the e-bicycle. Given that this is a premium priced bicycle why did they skimp on this?
The dashboard I'm similarly underimpressed over. The cycleanalyst is excellent and why don't they use something like it? Even the BionX kit has a great dashboard. Again we have here a premium priced bicycle and why did they skimp on this?
The battery pack has an issue which I don't like. It's a common desire to remove the battery pack so you can take it inside for charging. We've had many on this forum say they can't bring their bike inside (e.g. they'd have to carry it up some stairs) and they'd prefer to carry just the battery pack inside to charge leaving the bike outside. But it appears the pack is very hard to remove from the bike which would stop you from easily carrying the pack inside for charging.
opti how they call it on TF forum /which is in fact more Opti than TF forum/ is out of reach of average user.
It is rather sad feeling to pay 6000 dollars and have halogen lights and home-made dash with toggle switches. For the price you would expect high end double LED bike lights or top of the line HID lights with multifunction back-lit display.
On one hand Optibike brags about low centre of gravity on another it offers heavy 2-nd battery attached to seat post??? it must be special very heavy seat post to hold such a weight from swinging around. As you said there is simply no room for battery on Y frame except inside frame.
For less than 6000dol you can have top frame and top components and money left for the best hub kit in the world.
mc
CM
I am very disappointed with the report on the Opti. I have been thinking about getting one as you know I like the bottom bracket drive system. The Merida I have uses a similar system and it works very very well. My Merida may not be an Opti but it does use the gears which does in fact help it climb some awesome hills. I have looked at the Opti for some time. I guess I should be glad I did not buy one as I would have felt like they ripped me off. If I am going to spend that kind of money on an e-bike it better have top of the line parts for every aspect. Like miro13car said, you could have top of the line everything and have money left over if you put it together yourself. I know I could build a fantastic e-bike for about $4000.oo and I don't think having someone else put it together is worth even another $1000.oo let alone $5000.oo more. I am sure I could build a bike to easily compete with the high end Opti for that much money.
I think I just scratched Opti off my Christmas list.
Well I guess I will just have to build it and see. It may take a little time but I now have a new project.
Grandpa Chas S.
Once I was younger (when the ships were wood, and the MEN were steel) and I saw a top-of-the-line Rolex that had solid 14K gold links (not plated) and diamonds for numbers. I pondered this oddity for a while, and then came to a conclusion that I often see reinforced as the years go by.
Clearly the telling of time was a minor function, the REAL purpose was status projection. The wearer was saying (or TRYING to say, as I got a different message) that "We just met, but before you learn anything else about me, I want you to know that I am SOOO successful, I can afford to spend $20,000+ on something as banal and pedestrian as a WATCH!!"
(By the way, this proletarian wine has a suprisingly insouciant bouquet, with a presumptuous nose, and a mature yet playful after note. Clearly its a refreshing end after the bold and intrusive palate, don't you think?)
If Optibike can turn a profit and stay in business, I'm all for it. The world can use wealthy early adopters (does the $100K Tesla really NEED that much range or top speed?, although, I SUPPOSE people who bought Exxon and RJ Reynolds tobacco stock at the 1987 low ALSO need a way to show their neighbors that they're doing their part to help the polar bears die off a little slower....).
As for me, I'd rather buy a Cyclone kit (it also uses the bikes gears) a Ping lithium pack, and with the few other thousand dollars left over, buy some Ford stock @ $2/share and some silver commodities. (within my IRA of course, to defer capital gains taxes)