Do you have experience of FAZUA Evation?

[Roger Wilkinson]

I'm expecting in the next year to succumb to an Ebike for road, so am trying to keep up with all developments and look at all possible choices. Recently I came upon the FAZUA Evation system. It seems to be a bit heavier than the Ebikemotion rear hub system, but has the advantage of being able to remove the battery in a few seconds thus creating a normal road bike. From pictures I have seen this BB motor design requires made-to-fit chainsets. Naturally, the bikes I've seen come with the dreaded 50/34 chainsets which I abhor, so I'm wondering if there are alternatives.
If anyone has experience of the FAZUA Evation I would love to know what you think of it.

[stodd]

You can remove the battery in a few seconds on almost all ebikes. The FAZUA allows you to remove the motor as well (all together with the battery).
Not my kind of riding though, so no experience of the device itself.

[Cugel]

I'm expecting in the next year to succumb to an Ebike for road, so am trying to keep up with all developments and look at all possible choices. Recently I came upon the FAZUA Evation system. It seems to be a bit heavier than the Ebikemotion rear hub system, but has the advantage of being able to remove the battery in a few seconds thus creating a normal road bike. From pictures I have seen this BB motor design requires made-to-fit chainsets. Naturally, the bikes I've seen come with the dreaded 50/34 chainsets which I abhor, so I'm wondering if there are alternatives.
If anyone has experience of the FAZUA Evation I would love to know what you think of it.

The ladywife has a Focus Paralane2 e-bike with a Fazua system in it. I've ridden myself a time or three so you can have both our perspectives.

We chose this bike mostly because of the Fazua design. There are many e-bikes that are similar road-bike style of similar weight but with different systems, notably the rear hub motor and built-in battery of those bikes from Orbea and Ribble. The Orbeas and Ribbles are only marginally lighter than a bike with the Fazua system, by the way - perhaps a 1 kg difference (more or less) for bikes with a similar spec of frame, groupset, wheels et al.

But the hub-motored bikes tend to have built-in batteries that are harder to remove and have to be charged in-situ. The Fazua motor/battery unit drops out of the frame with a button press and can be charged anywhere you like, without having to carry the bike up the stairs or whatever to the charging point. In addition, the Fazua road bikes can be ridden as an ordinary bike about 3kg lighter (the ladywife's Paralane2 becomes 11kg, with its mudguards on).

The Fazua motor operates via a gearbox in the frame BB that has strain gauges in it which, along with the speed sensor, mediates how much power the motor gives you for a given pedalling effort you make. The profiles of this relationship can be changed - although when I last looked only a dealer could do this with software available only to them. This may have changed, though. In practice the default profile suits the ladywife perfectly, as she still has to pedal hard to get lots of assistance so the bike is still a proper bike, not any kind of moped.

The figures given are the standard 250 watts and 15.5mph limit before the motor cuts out. The torque is up to 60Nm, which is a bit more than Orbea and Ribble hub motors but a bit less than a full-beef BB motor (although the latter are significantly heavier, especially with their larger battery). In practice there's a "red" option which will briefly give 400 watts - useful for the brief 1 in 4!

In practice the ladywife can do a 40 mile 1000M + climbing ride before the battery is near zero charge. On the few occasions I've used it (just for fun) I estimate I could get more like 60-70 miles from one charge over a similarly lumpy route - but I'm a lot fitter (for cycling) than she is so use less assistance. The longest actual ride I did on it was 45 miles with a club over a bumpy route, with at least a third of the battery charge left (reading half but the charge indicators aren't linear).

The chainset is a 50/34 but has a chainline 5mm more out from the BB than a standard road chainset, due to the needs of the gearbox in the BB. I haven't had it out but read that its an octalink of some kind. The wheels used on The Focus Paralane also have a wider OLN dimension to keep the chainline centred on the cassette. The standard used is the boost standard often found on MTBs. The wheels are DT Swiss with hubs using that standard. This does limit wheel choice to boost-standard wheelsets, then (148mmX12mm at the rear; 110mmX12mm at the front). Focus say the Fazua gearbox needs this chainline and that the boost axles reduce wear and cross-chaining because they keep the chainline centred on the cassette.

You could presumably fit another octalink chainset with different rings. With the Focus Paralane2, there's the problem (as with many ordinary road bikes) that the "brazed-on" front gear hanger won't allow the front changer to drop much more than for a 50 ring. You might get it down enough for a 48t ring; or you could leave a gap between the cage and the ring, which some do without the chain always dropping off the big ring.

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Personally I feel the Fazua design is a very good compromise between slightly lighter but less powerful (and more awkward to repalce) hub motors with built-into-the-frame batteries; and heavy BB motored bikes of a bit more torque and larger batteries. Fazua bikes seem most like ordinary bikes, both in how they look and (more importantly) how they ride. It feels like any other good road bike whether under power or not. The difference in feel is: magically more powerful legs; a low centre of gravity that makes the bike feel very stable and planted, especially down fast bendy hills.

Cugel

[Roger Wilkinson]

Many thanks for a most informative post. I appreciate it.

[Cugel]

You can remove the battery in a few seconds on almost all ebikes. The FAZUA allows you to remove the motor as well (all together with the battery).
Not my kind of riding though, so no experience of the device itself.

Not really the case that the battery in the down tube of Orbea, Ribble and similar e-bike designs can be removed "in a few seconds". Several minutes, more like, as a retaining plate has to be removed then the battery disconnected and wriggled out. The manufacturers don't recommend battery removal unless you need to change a defunct one or do some maintenance on the battery or its compartment.

They are removable but not in any easy way, then. You wouldn't be wanting to take the battery out every time so it could be carried somewhere to charge it, for instance.

Batteries attached to down tube like a bottle cage are easier to remove, as are those carried on the top of a rear rack. But even those need a bit of a fiddle to remove.

In neither case can you easily remove the motor. With the Orbea/Ribble models, the back wheel has to be swapped for a non-motorised version and the various connectors disconnected. In practice, you can't remove a BB motor and the bike still work as a bike as there'd be no chainset to pedal with.

That is one major advantage of the Fazua system. The battery & motor are removable in, literally, 3 seconds. The bike still works (very well) as an ordinary bike if you do so.

Cugel

[stodd]

Not really the case that the battery in the down tube of Orbea, Ribble and similar e-bike designs can be removed "in a few seconds".

I still think it's true you can easily remove the battery from almost all e-bikes. However, what you point out is very important, because many of the bikes of the kind the original poster is interested in do not have this valuable feature.

[flieger114]

After a good deal of research I purchased a Boardman bike with the Fazua system a couple of months ago. Main reason for doing so was the fact that the battery and motor pack can be very easily removed. The system on bikes such as the Ribble do not allow for easy removal (it is not recommended). With regard to chainsets I did find that the 44 tooth ring was a bit too high for me so swapped it for a 40. This is easily done any chainring with the correct BCD measurement will fit. I am very pleased with the bike, I live in a hilly area and it has made a significant difference to the rides I can do.

[ChrisButch]

Cugel - do you happen to know which model of e-Paralane you have? There appear to be no less than 9 different specs, with £6k difference between the cheapest and most expensive!

[Cugel]

Cugel - do you happen to know which model of e-Paralane you have? There appear to be no less than 9 different specs, with £6k difference between the cheapest and most expensive!

The ladywife's Focus Paralane2 was the cheapest carbon-framed model at the time - a 9.6. As far as we could see, the only difference in the 9.7 - at around £1000 more - was the groupset! Ultegra rather than 105. Otherwise - same frame, same wheelset, same other parts. As the 105 works just as well as the Ultegra.....

At the time the list price was £4600 but Wheelbase at Staveley, where she bought it, had a Black Friday 20% off everything so it was £3680.

The aluminium framed versions are less expensive but don't seem to have the various fancy design aspects of the carbon frame - which in it's non-e version gets very good write ups. I've ridden it for 20 hilly miles without the motor and battery in and it does indeed go very well indeed - that combination of quick response to the pedal thrusts, especially up hill; but also with a surprising degree of "compliance", especially at the back end.It's indistinguishable from a very good "sportive" bike: very racy but with a taller front end, longer wheelbase and less twitchy steering.

They are expensive, these racy bikes with a Fazua motor in. I suspect it's partly because the adapted-models of frame it's found in are themselves already a bit up-market as ordinary bikes.

Cugel