Cube Acid One 500 initial review - and a question...

[AaronR]

First off, I've taken the plunge and invested in a Cube Acid Hybrid One 500, dull black colour scheme as the lairy green had sold out every where

https://www.cube.eu/en/2018/e-bikes/mou ... lack-2018/

Purchased as an alternative to a car/motorbike for my 60 mile a day (round trip) commute

Negatives first....

Despite what the Cube website would have you believe there are no mountings on the rear stay for a pannier frame, I've had to use a seat clamp with M5 bosses to get panniers on the back

Somebody at Cube must have been in a rush to fit the grips because they don't align (picky I know!)

And final negative is that it's a struggle just to get a 500ml drink bottle in a bottle cage

On the plus side........

Fitted some 700c 38mm Schwalbe Marathon GT tyres which give a good ride, and very quiet

Feels ponderously heavy to wheel in and out of the house (given that my other ride is a steel framed 1*10 cross bike, normally loaded for weekend touring this is an easy comparison) but once riding the weight disappears completely, even when riding at speed it is well balalnced

Managed a whopping 14 miles on it so far, first four were just playing up and down the same hill to see how the different levels of assist 'felt', then a 10 mile round trip real world ride... switched off assist where possible, only used lowest level of assist for hills, and without breaking a sweat it put my average speed for the whole ride up to just under 15mph

From its initial not quite full charge the first four miles 'play' took a worrying chunk off the indicated range available, but after the 10 mile ride it has gone back up? Can only attribute this to Bosch somehow predicting range based on use over last X miles/time/riding style

All this means that providing I plan my luggage (packed lunch and a fresh shirt) to keep loading to a minimum I should comfortably be able to leave the charger at work and let my employer cover that cost

Questions then! Is there any benefit (Bosch battery, motor, controller) to be had by switching assist off when I know gravity or my pedalling alone will take me above the magic 16.5mph? or can I just leave it set on lowest level of assist?

I've read and digested the Bosch website, and gleaned that stop/start riding will reduce range, high levels of assist will do the same, heavy loading, etc, but are there any positive tips to get more out of it? Would I be better to start pedalling away and switch assist on once rolling to ease start up strain on battery/motor?

[stodd]

The meter going back up is probably because you hit the battery hard with the hill test, and then it slowly recovered a bit. On more basic kits (such as mine) the charge meter is based on the voltage available from the battery and I often see effects similar to that. I don't know if the Bosch has more sophisticated metering. I also see the meter going down significantly on a hill with the motor working harder, then recovering almost immediately on the flat.

I doubt you will get any extra from turning off the assist when it isn't assisting anyway.

You may well get more authoritative answers (if you haven't already tried) on the Pedelecs forum: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/

[kwackers]

Can't speak for the Bosch, but a couple of things I've found out on my Bafang.

It's all about the wind. Doesn't matter how much assist I use, I just get to work quicker and the amount of battery left is entirely indicative of how windy it was.
As mentioned above if you 'hit it hard' then when it gets a chance to recover the meter will pick up a bit.

When 'outrunning' the motor, it still spins but takes barely any power since its not under any load. On long straights when I don't want any assist I usually turn it off but only because I want to make sure I'm the one putting in the effort...

Because it's a commute I ride it on a fairly high assist all the time - and sometimes it seems to forget about the 15 mph limit...

[Shurm]

I have the same bike and I commute to work on it, I just leave mine in turbo mode as when I do need assistance I want it quickly to get back up over 15mph when the assitence will end again. On the flat I'm always over 15mph so the assistance isn't kicking in I don't think you would gain anything for continually turning any assistance off, my range on the bike has been excellent even leaving it in turbo mode all the time.

When I took it in for its first service they gave me a print out which says how much assitance you've had mine was about 20% of the time and I have been using the bike a lot for mountain bike riding on local hills so I was pretty happy at that to say I was new to cycling as well.