Touring with ICE’s automatic e-trike

[DGG1941]

My 7 month old Adventure has now clocked up 1100 miles, (600 in the Surrey Hills and 500 on tour from Dunkirk to Düsseldorf (https://davidggalloway.wordpress.com/du ... hine-2024/) and thought some feedback might be of interest. As this is to be my forever trike (as was its predecessor!) it was specced with full suspension, a Shimano motor, two batteries and Enviolo’s Automatiq gearbox. (Wealth warning: these machines do not come cheap!)

The trike arrived sight unseen and was therefore approached with curiosity and a little concern - how will I get on with an automatic given my love of derailleurs, and Rohloff and Pinion gearboxes? Not to mention having a trike with a wiring loom and two apps to control it.

The headline answer: what took me so long.

The Enviolo website goes on about how it’s always in the right gear. And so it is; but most significantly I am no longer aware that I have gears! It’s quiet, changes are imperceptible and it changes gearing under load without complaint. Whatever the conditions, you just pedal.

The only downside is that low gearing is limited (a Rohloff allows an additional 5 lower gears), and while this is not an issue when power is available, cycling without the use of the motor would be tough on hills.
Initially I kept adjusting the cadence on the app to see if a different setting was better on hills etc, and then decided that I just need to stop fussing and enjoy the ride!

Comments on the motor.

Good: it’s powerful and can fly up hills; the power when starting (adjustable via the app) allows rapid starts; and the transition between on and off as you go through the 15mph limit is seamless (apart from the obvious reduction in power). And there are indicators to let you know that the battery is running low - a red display with about 6 miles left, then dropping to minimum power before turning off. At this point the battery still has sufficient power to work the gearbox and lights for some distance.

Not so good: it’s noisy enough to let you know that it’s working and the clutch is clunky as power is turned on and off. Of course you tune this out eventually, but it’s quite a contrast to the silent Neodrive in the rear wheel of its predecessor.

Bad: the small display that sits atop the right hand handlebar is intuitive and helpful apart from the ridiculous attempt to indicate how much power remains in the battery - 5 little squares which turn off one at a time, instead of a percentage!
And there’s no USB socket - what year was this designed?! So I fitted a 12 to 5 volt converter to the lighting circuit to solve this, but as that circuit is limited to 2 amps, I only run daytime lights off it.

Range: on tour where it was mostly flat (with headwinds) I ran the motor on Boost all day (my 82 year old knees need help on a trip like this) and typically managed 35 to 40 miles before swapping to the second battery. In the Surrey hills on Trail (the middle of the 3 settings) I can get 40 miles over 3250 feet of ascent.

This is my third trike from ICE (the first was a 2002 Explorer which took me across the States), and is an absolute delight to own and ride. Next year’s trip is already under consideration!

[UpWrong]

Thanks for the review. I've heard Chris Parker say that the Enviolo Automatic is what he uses for real.

[Skids]

Hi David,

I'm glad you are liking your new trike with its automatic gears. I have to admit that I'm tempted although as you say I think it is best combined with an electric motor.

Your previous trike is still going strong and I am enjoying the higher ride height as I get less mucky riding in the winter when compared to the Q NT.

[DGG1941]

Hi Simon, good to hear that you’re enjoying the trike and that it’s going well. Yes, starting without the motor when fully loaded is not particularly easy with the gearing that the Enviolo allows. I would have been tempted if ICE offered the electrically operated Rohloff but that only works with the Bosch motor so is not on their list.

That said, I’m not going back to conventional gears, the auto box is a joy and it will be interesting to see how widespread this type of system becomes over the years.

David

[daddypaddey]

I was particularly interested to see you previusly had Neodrive. What did you think?

I have an HP Scorpion that has Go Swiss drive which has reliability issues [didn't most of them?], and have a choice of replacing it with either Neodrive or Steps EP8.

What are your thoughts?

[DGG1941]

My feeling is that they would both do a good job and I would struggle to decide if I was faced with the choice! The few reservations I had about the Neodrive seem to have been addressed in the latest version (sensitivity to heat and difficulty disconnecting the cable from the rear wheel). So I would probably make my decision around flexibility for future upgrades - the EP8 would allow a Rohloff in the rear wheel, while the Neodrive would allow a Pinion gearbox to be installed up front, an arrangement that I had on my previous trike and was delighted with.

That said, the Neodrive has the obvious advantages of:
- being quiet & being able to recharge on hills - only important if doing a lot of mileage between charges
- having the weight over the rear wheel for better traction
- a decent display showing percentage power remaining
- the ability to take the LCD control unit with you when you leave the trike, thus immobilising it; with the EP8 the on/off button on the battery is fairly obvious.

While the Shimano is:
- inherently more efficient (I believe) since it is optimised for a cadence around 70 rpm, regardless of road speed
- has an excellent app allowing you to specify how and when you want the power applied; I particularly like being able to set the launch power to maximum, even if the power delivery is set to Eco
- a huge MTB following with a lot of feedback on the internet - and which hopefully ensures that Smimano continues to focus on development and support.

And a final thought: it’s interesting that ICE moved away from offering the Neodrive motor to its current Shimano based models.
Anyway, good luck with the decision, a nice one to have I hope!

[daddypaddey]

Thanks, that is very helpful. Until I started having the problems witht the Shimano turning itself off and on I was firmly in the 'big mainstream supplier will always be there' camp, though we said that about Rolls Royce and they went bust [showing my age here].