Review Introduction

This page will be used to provide readers with an ongoing review of the VOLT e-Bikes that my wife and I have taken delivery of. Initially I will produce an overview and first impressions and then over time and as the mileage increases I will look at specific areas of the e-Bikes and how they are fitting into and contributing to our daily lives. I plan to include in this review some short videos and of course photographs as appropriate.
After a great deal of research the bikes we decided to purchase were the VOLT™ Infinity and the Infinity LS, we took delivery of the bikes on 27th July 2017.
For ease of access the most recent entries will be added at the top of the review so to go back in time simply scroll down.

17th August 2017

About time I added another little update to this review, the VOLT™ Infinity e-Bike continues to roll along without problems and I've been giving some thought to batteries which might be of interest.
It is stated that the supplied battery is good for 1000 full charge cycles, a full charge cycle is charging from zero to 100% of capacity, NOT an individual charging event. If one charge cycle is 100% you could call that 100 "charge units" and that should mean the battery is good for 100,000 charge units. Based on my experience so far I am finding that 10% of the battery charge, or 10 charge units gets me 10 miles. I use a bit more charge if it's very hilly or windy so let's say as a worst case 10 miles takes a rider 20 charge units.
What would this mean in terms of theoretical battery life in total mileage? Well, 100,000 charge units at 2 charge units per mile should in theory allow the battery to power the bike for 50,000 miles. If one were to ride 20 miles a day every day you would cover 7,300 miles a year. At that level of use the battery would theoretically last almost seven years!
Now that's all very well in theory but based on this I reckon these batteries should be good for maybe 5 years which at a current replacement cost of £400 makes the battery "running" cost around £80 a year, the equivalent of maybe a tank of diesel. Pretty darned good.
Today I passed the 300 mile mark and covered 47.4 miles in what was pretty hilly terrain and also with panniers fitted. As you can see this took the battery level down to 40% remaining so I consumed 60% of the available capacity on this ride. Referring to the above this gave me an efficiency score of 1.26% of battery per mile ridden, well in line with my very conservative estimate of 2 units per mile.
With 40% of the battery remaining and at 1.24 charge units per mile this gave me a theoretical remaining range of 32 miles which would have given me an overall range in this terrain and with this setup of 47.4 + 32 = 79.4 miles, well above the suggested range.
Sensibly or not today I set my current speed record on this bike recording 39.9mph (64.2kph) on one of the descents, must have been the panniers!

Good to see that there are now plenty of notices out warning people of the impending arrival of the Tour of Britain cycling race to Northumberland. Depending on the weather I might venture out to see it pass through if I can decide upon a good vantage point, there are plenty to choose from!

VOLT™ Infinity e-Bike ready for the Tour of Britain
So all in all another good day out and the bike continues to perform well. I really must make arrangements to get the spring loaded chain tensioners fitted at some point though the factory fitted version seems to be working fine at the moment, always best to keep things up to date.
One thing I haven't mentioned is a small point in terms of security. I think if you are leaving one of these bikes parked at all it's worth sliding off the Shimano Steps cycling computer and taking it with you. If this isn't fitted I understand that the assistance side of the bike doesn't work properly so that would certainly slow someone's escape if nothing else!

Happy Days!
To see a few photos from today's outing follow this link.
To see a gallery of photos relating to our VOLT™ e-Bikes follow this link.
Odometer Reading: 300 miles.
10th August 2017

Finally a decent day for Lorena and I to set out on the VOLT™ e-Bikes again, this summer here in Northumberland really has been pretty terrible for the most part. Just planning a 25-30 mile roll around the lanes and taking in one of our usual coffee and cake stops. Annoyingly I forgot to pack a couple of carrots for a donkey I've become friendly with so he or she will have to wait until my next visit.

As I've mentioned before a pair of these bikes are just ideal if two riders have different levels of fitness and I'm finding that if I ride along and just stay below 16mph I know that the assistance on Lorena's bike will always be available and we stay together very nicely. As is often now the case when we stop anywhere people are interested in and want to chat about the bikes, there does seem to be a very real surge in interest in bikes like these, it's a shame though that the general infrastructure is so poor for cyclists in general.

It really was one of those very unusual perfect Summer's days today and riding along on the VOLT™ Infinity was just a pleasure, I was almost tempted to set off into the field below but decided to resist it and stick to the road though I'm sure the bike would have been fine. I suppose if I now have any concerns about this bike at all it's going to be around how I am going to take to riding a bike without assistance, this is just such a pleasant way to get around.

Before we knew it we had arrived at Craster Harbour on the North East coast which is a lovely spot. The main car park is a little way from the harbour but no such problems for us as we are able to ride straight up to the harbour, and of course also avoid the usual robbery generally known as "parking charges". Indeed, this is one of the hidden and less often mentioned benefits of e-Biking or cycling in general as some parking charges are amazing these days.

After our break in the sun we continued, passing through Embleton, the garden at the Dunstanburgh Castle Hotel look very inviting but sadly time was short so we pressed on towards home.

Once again our VOLT™ e-Bikes performed well and we have no complaints, knowing what we know today we would have no hesitation in buying the bikes again or recommending them to others.
Arrived home with just over 26 miles on the clock and we had been riding for exactly two hours, perfect.
To see a few photos from today's outing follow this link.
To see a gallery of photos relating to our VOLT™ e-Bikes follow this link.
Odometer Reading: 190 miles.
7th August 2017

Both the Infinity and the Infinity LS VOLT™ e-Bikes were out on the road today. Lorena and I took a nice little circular route via the coast taking in coffee and cakes at Eleanor's Byre. Always nice to drop in there and as always there was time for a chat with the folks there, a very pleasant way to pass 30-40 minutes before heading on our way, lots of lovely trinkets on sale.


The bikes continue to perform well, we covered about 18-19 miles today and this is the first time Lorena and I have ever really been able to ride together on solo bikes rather than our tandem, they really are a great way for two riders who have different levels of strength and fitness to ride together which opens up a lot of opportunities.
As I've mentioned before I would have no hesitation in putting panniers on both these bikes and going for a short tour stopping overnight at B&Bs. It would be easy to carry enough clothing and a single charger for such a trip but I think camping would be too much as fitting front panniers to a suspension front fork would I reckon be a non-starter. I've not investigated the possibility of fitting a bar bag to the front and if this were possible I think that would be a really good addition, I might look into that.
Something I want to mention in today's note is the charging process. I have noticed that the charger gets quite warm to the touch when the charge has been on for a while, this surprised me a bit as the charging current is really very low. I decided to quantify this so that I would be able to establish whether this is normal so I checked the temperature of the casing with an accurate IR surface thermometer.

So there you have it, the casing surface temperature near the power light was 54.3 degrees centigrade, I will make enquiries about this as of all the devices I regularly charge this is the warmest and I want to establish whether this is normal, watch this space.
Excellent, I received the following reply from VOLT BIKES via Facebook which confirms that all is well on the charging temperature. Here is the reply: "Hi Quentin, your current reading is safe and normal. The temperature while charging can range from 40-70 °C. Best practice is to place the charger a hard, cool surface like a stone floor for example."
To see a few photos from today's outing follow this link.
Odometer Reading: 164 miles.
6th August 2017


The weather and other things have conspired against me for the last few days but in spite of threatening skies I decided to head for the lanes again today and the VOLT™ e-Bike continues to perform well. Headed out to the small coastal village of Craster (of kipper fame) then to Embleton, Newton-by-the-Sea and on to Bamburgh which was where the bad weather approaching above hit me and I had to take refuge in a bus shelter.
Still occasionally I am finding that the Shimano Alfine Hub Gear does not always engage perfectly which is a bit annoying as it is unpredictable. I decided at about the half way point to try the electronic "Adjust" option on the control menu and tried it on both a +1 and later a -1 setting but neither change seemed to make any difference as far as I could tell. This isn't a massive problem but it's just not quite "right" so I'm going to keep it under observation for a spell. I think say 500 miles should be enough to decide whether it's going to settle in as it starts to wear a little or whether it's worth having it investigated whilst under warranty.


Newton-by-the-Sea - Coffee Stop
As you can see I've now fitted the Shimano clipless pedals which are miles better than the pedals supplied with the bike. I was particularly glad of them when it started to rain as my feet feel much more safe and secure now that I'm not in danger of my feet slipping off the pedals in the wet. Of course you have to be used to clipping in and out of the pedals to use these but that's soon picked up and I feel that these are a whole lot safer.
By the time I was back home I'd covered another 43 miles at an average speed of around 15mph which I'm perfectly happy with. It would be dead easy to use this bike for a short tour lightly loaded and to cover 50-70 miles a day without having to worry about running out of power, today's ride took me around 2hrs and 50 minutes.
The battery was not fully charged when I set off and by the time I returned home the charge level was down at 48% so still enough charge for probably another 40 miles without worrying about running the battery flat. Once on charge the battery was full again in a little over two hours. The meter I use told me that the energy put into the battery to return it to 100% was 0.24 kW-hr which would have cost the princely sum of around three pence. I'm just amazed by how low the recharge costs are, it's almost like using free energy!
I guess if the battery was recharged from almost empty up to 100% that would take about 0.5 kW-hr of energy which would cost about 6 pence. If you take at face value that the battery is good for 1000 full charges that would mean that over it's lifetime the TOTAL charging cost would be £60, now that's impressive.
Out of interest I just popped the battery specifications into an online calculator to check the storage capacity against my charging figures, here is the result.

Looks like my estimate based on the readings I've been getting when charging is pretty close. So a full charge of 0.432 kW-hr would cost about 5.1 PENCE!
To see a few photos from today's outing follow this link.
Odometer Reading: 145 miles.
4th August 2017

My trusty steed is still performing well. As you can see the VOLT™ e-Bike is just as home on the supermarket run as out on the open roads and cycle tracks. The load limit on the rear rack is 20kg which is plenty and riding home with the shopping you don't even notice the added weight. The additional high security chain which can be integrally locked to the ABUS frame lock is ideal for these quick park-ups outside a shop.


It still surprises me a bit that the sophisticated electronics of this bike don't allow you to immobilise the bike by making it impossible to turn on. The fact is that even without a key the bike can simply be turned on and powered up by pressing the On/Off button, surely an additional security opportunity missed?
31 July 2017

Forecast not too bad today but always the risk of showers and again very windy. Had to get to a destination 20+ miles away so decided to take some more exercise and make use of the VOLT™ Infinity e-Bike. One of the major advantages of the e-Bike technology is that because it allows you to ride with slightly less effort (if you choose to) your range for day-to-day journeys is much greater as long as you have the time and like being out in the fresh air. The major advantage is that you have the capacity to carry stuff around to your destination which opens up many more possibilities. I decided to take the scenic route to my destination so today's trip finally came to just under fifty miles, the scenery in some parts was great.


Heading Towards Alnmouth
Because of the location of the battery for jaunts like this I've attached a one litre Sigg water bottle to the top of the rear rack. The bottle is enclosed in a neoprene cover, I use it for camping, which means that the luggage strap holds it perfectly well though the main advantage of the cover is that it keeps drinks cool for ages, anyway it seems to work well enough for this purpose, here is a better view taken later.

1 Litre Sigg Bottle in Neoprene Cover
As many folks will be aware the cycling infrastructure, if it can be called that, in the UK is absolutely rubbish. As I approached Alnmouth a signpost directed me down a track I would not normally have used as it really was pretty grim. However, as I'm trying the VOLT™ Infinity out as a robust bike I decided to follow the track and see where it took me, as you can see the surface is just terrible, and yes, this is marked as an official cycle route.

I'm pleased to report that the front SunTour suspension fork coped perfectly well with this surface and the suspension seat post did a good job of smoothing things out a bit without feeling bouncy. Of course this was never going to be a smooth ride but the main thing was that the bike coped with it easily, with panniers mounted though not fully loaded.
When I arrived at my destination I had covered 26.9 miles and the battery was showing that there was 78% of it's capacity remaining which I thought was good. I've found that for me at least, with the assist setting on the ECO setting and in 5th gear, I'm rolling along at around 15mph and at that speed there is still a little assistance from the motor but very little if any is required on the flat. I've noticed that the motor cuts off at 16mph so slightly above the 15.5mph I was expecting but this must be within spec and it works very well.
Based on my observations so far it seems to me that as a rule of thumb I am using about 10% of the battery capacity for every 10 miles that I cover. Based on this, as I'm currently using the bike, I am confident that the battery would be sufficient to last 80-100 miles which really is very good, better than I had expected.
At my destination I completed the jobs I'd travelled there for and set off home later in the afternoon. By the time I got home again I had covered 48.1 miles. To test the accuracy of the odometer I also carried a Garmin GPS device which I know to be accurate from previous tests. When I arrived at my destination the Garmin had recorded 47.2 miles so a difference of just under a mile over 50 miles. For the purposes I want this bike for that is accurate enough, it must be possible for this to be properly calibrated but as far as I am aware this is not something the end user can do.
In any event the distance recorded will vary with different tyres, tyre pressures, rider weight, luggage load etc. so it's not really worth worrying about, it's a guide. At the end of this 48.1 miles of riding the battery meter was showing a healthy 58% in reserve lending more weight to my theory that I could get up to 100 miles on a single charge, here is the evidence.

This evening I plugged the battery into the charger and it was fully charged after 1.5hrs, 0.2kW-hr of energy was put into the battery. As previously, making the calculation based on 1kW-hr costing around 12p, that means that it cost me about 2.4p to recharge the battery, that was the electricity cost of my electrical helping hand for almost 50 miles of riding. Now I could have ridden the same distance on a road bike and not spent my 2.4p but the point is that I arrived home not having beaten myself into the ground and having been able to haul the stuff I needed for this trip with me as well as work hard at my destination. For me at least, even as a relatively keen cyclist, the e-Bike has it's place and frankly I'm staggered just how low the energy cost is.
In the latter part of my return journey there were a couple of occasions where following a gear shift the selected gear did not seem to have perfectly engaged but reshifting corrected this straight away. I suspect this may well be an initial "running in" adjustment that may be required but I will keep an eye on it and see how it progresses, I am confident that this is not a serious fault.
Well, it looks as if the next time I'm out I will complete my first 100 miles, I'm impressed so far. It's worth mentioning that riding an e-Bike if you are already a fit cyclist you will not get less fit, you will stay fit. The e-Bike allows to to work as hard as you want and helps you accordingly based on how hard you work and how much help you "tell" it you want. I think the e-Bike is an excellent way of cycling at a slightly lower intensity than one might be tempted to do otherwise whilst still being able to cart stuff around with you and enjoy all the health benefits of cycling.
I can already easily see why this e-Bike would actually make me use a bike for many journeys that I would otherwise have used the car for, you just have to adjust your thinking in terms of longer journey times but for journeys below say 10 miles using one of these bikes is a no-brainer, you can completely ignore the charging costs. To put those costs into perspective the 2.4p energy cost of my 48.1 mile bike ride is about the cost of boiling 2 litres of water in a kettle.
II think there are probably many families where getting rid of a second car and getting one of these VOLT™ e-Bikes instead would make extremely good financial and health sense.
To see a few photos from today's outing follow this link.
Odometer Reading: 98 miles.

29 July 2017

Out around the local lanes again this afternoon heading towards Bamburgh and the coast. Once again I enjoyed riding this bike as it does feel very robust and even though the tyres are large heavy affairs when compared with the 23-25mm road bike tyres I am used to they do perform well on the very poor roads and roll surprisingly well on a decent flat road surface.


Looking towards the Northumberland Coast
It's worth me mentioning that I'm used to riding road bikes fairly quickly and my average speeds on the e-Bike are slower than I am used to and this is something that regular cyclists may find hard to fathom. This is because my average ride speed on a road bike is always well above the 15.5mph maximum limit that e-Bikes are limited to in terms of when the motor assistance cuts out and above that speed it's all human power that keep you rolling. This means that on the e-Bike when I reach my "normal" riding speed of >15.5mph I am now riding an unassisted bike weighing 20kg plus luggage which is not built for speed but for enjoyment, hence my lower average speeds.
This is not a problem because for me because this e-Bike is primarily for convenience, comfort and enjoyment and I also wanted the ability to carry luggage comfortably on day rides from our motorhome, without having to work excessively hard whilst purely sightseeing. On a road bike you are generally limited to what you can push into your pockets, with this bike I can pack whatever I want, extra food, drinks, spare clothes, small stove, shopping, camera equipment, telephone, even a laptop if I wanted to - without being concerned about having to flog myself on the hills if I don't want to, help is only ever a button push away.
A word about the luggage I'm using:

These are Ortlieb panniers which clip perfectly onto the fitted rack and are very easy to remove, we normally use them on the front of our tandem. They are therefore smaller than the usual rear pannier but I find them perfect on this bike for what I want to use them for, they are the Ortlieb Front-rollers and they are 100% waterproof, they work perfectly with this bike and I've been using them for local shopping trips.
I found the fitted pedals very slippery in the wet and I am going to change then for a single sided clipless pedal by Shimano so that I can clip in if I want to but also use a flat pedal if I want to, say when in a town where there is lots of stopping and starting. The pedals I am going to fit are the Shimano A530 with SM-SH51 MTB cleats and I ride in a pair of Shimano MT3 touring shoes which allow me to clip in to the pedals but also I can walk around easily in them, the shoes are also incredibly light. For the summer I may at some point invest in a pair of Shimano SD5 sandals which would be great for warm weather but they also allow you to ride clipped in to the pedals.
No problems at all today with the bike, it was very windy and I have to confess that it's lovely to have that helping hand when you just want to take things that little bit easier, when I get back on my road bike I'm going to miss that gentle push! The motor when running makes a smooth whirring noise which I don't find at all intrusive.
So how is the battery power going so far and what kind of range will I get? In a word, great! I have now covered 50 miles since the battery was charged and I'm finding that my habit is to ride when on the flat without any assistance as the bike rolls well and I just don't need it. When into a headwind or a slight uphill you do really feel the 20kg weight of the bike and I then switch into ECO mode and I find that is generally perfectly adequate for the speeds I want to travel at. If I hit a steep section of road I have used NORMAL to avoid having the motor straining and it's excellent, I have never used the HIGH setting at all.
As you can see below riding as I do, with panniers and with a rider weight of around 80kg, I have now covered 50 miles and there is still 44% of the charge remaining in the battery. Based on this I am confident that I could cover well over 70 miles on a single charge and on flat roads with little wind I think I could get up to between 80 and 100 miles. As per the manual I wish to avoid running the battery right down if I don't need to so this evening I put it on charge to see how long it took to return to a full charge after reaching this 44% level of discharge and after riding 50 miles.


Here is what I found when I recharged the battery. The battery capacity was at 44% when I started charging and the charging current showing on a plug-in meter I have was 0.75A. It took just under 2 hours (1hr 57 minutes) to return the charge to 100% and my meter indicated that 0.24 kWh of energy had been supplied to the battery. If we use a UK average figure of 12p per kWh of electricity that tells me that the approximate cost of my electrical helping hand for 50 miles of riding has been around 3p, I call that a pretty good deal. To only have to charge the battery for 2 hours after 50 miles of riding really is better than I had expected.
Anything I really don't like about this VOLT™ e-Bike yet? No. If I was a drinker I might even be tempted to pop in here to celebrate 😃

To see a few photos from today's outing follow this link.

Odometer Reading: 50 miles.
28 July 2017

Out around the lanes today, both the Infinity 2018 and the Infinity LS in use and this was the first time my wife had used her bike. The roads around here are pretty poor and in the early part of our ride we were caught in a heavy shower which caused us no problems at all.The large robust Schwalbe Marathon tyres were reassuring and made light work of the roads and the front suspension worked well.

We both found the bikes comfortable and everything worked exactly as we felt it should. The motors are smooth and powerful and electronic Di2 shifting coupled with the Shimano Alfine hub gear really is an excellent combination. As with any bike, and as per the manual it is far better to select the appropriate gear before starting an incline rather than shifting under heavy load and a lower gear also avoids the electric motor straining on a steep incline in a high gear. This is all common sense, is in the manual and is no different to what one should be doing when riding any geared bike, electric or otherwise.

There are a number of steep little segments on the route we took today and these bikes just made them a breeze. On the subject of breezes it was also windy with gusts of up to 20mph, again these bikes made short work of them, avoiding windy days when going out for a bike ride is a thing of the past.

We made our way to a nice little cafe near the coast called Eleanor’s Byre (cake and coffee of course) and chatted to a couple we met, all made for a very pleasant interlude. Here are the bikes parked outside, the integrated wheel locks provide peace of mind even when somewhere where theft would be very unlikely.



A most satisfactory first "proper" ride. First thing this morning I also went out to the local supermarket on my bike and put the shopping in the panniers I’d fitted, great way to avoid using the car, just no problem at all. Including the run to the shops and this ride out I covered around 25 miles and at the moment the battery stands at around 75%. This suggests that for me, using the assistance as I am, I would comfortably be able to cover 60-70 miles on a full charge. As a rider I’m reasonably fit but I weigh around 80kg so if these figures prove to be accurate I will be very happy with that kind of range for this e-Bike, it will suit our needs perfectly.

To see a few photos from today’s outing follow this link.

Odometer Reading: 25 miles.
27 July 2017

Successful trip down to CJ Performance Cycles Ltd to have the few minor issues I previously mentioned sorted out which took no time at all and after a short test ride I was soon on my way. The method we have chosen to use to transport our bikes is to use an Altera Strada tow-ball mounted e-Bike carrier which works really well.

The bikes are held very securely and the rack tilts to allow access to the back of the vehicle even with the bikes loaded. The reason I selected this carrier was because of it’s good load-carrying capacity and because of the extra space between the bikes which means that there is no contact between the bikes when both are loaded and no need to turn the bars. The rack can be removed and popped in the back of the vehicle in a few seconds for added security.



26 July 2017

Pouring with rain today so my bike won't be going anywhere on it's bike rack but will be going back to the shop tomorrow if the weather is Ok. On the positive side I've been contacted by Volt™ HQ this morning and I've found the after sales service and communication I've received so far to be excellent, I have no doubt that these initial niggles will be resolved quickly. I was advised by VOLT™ that once available a spring loaded chain tensioner for the Alfine hub would be fitted to replace the existing manually adjusted tensioner, they can't really say fairer than that. Wy wife's Volt™ LS seems to be working perfectly!

This afternoon I decided to take a close look at the frame locks that are fitted to these bicycles, on the face of it both bikes are fitted with ABUS frame locks, one might think they would be the same but this is not the case. The Infinity is fitted with the ABUS Pro Tectic 4960 lock and the Infinity LS is fitted with the ABUS Pro Shield 5850.

Checking the specifications of these locks they are similar but there are subtle differences. The most important difference is the security rating of the two locks, the 4960 has a security rating of 7 and the 5850 has a security rating of 9! So the more expensive Infinity model appears to have a frame lock fitted which has a lower security rating that the less expensive Infinity LS, as far as I can see both locks would fit either bike, price-wise the 4960 is, unsurprisingly, less expensive.


25 July 2017

Collected the e-Bikes today from CJ Performance Cycles Ltd and popped them onto the bike carrier bought for the purpose with no problems, the folks in the shop in Cramlington were very helpful and all went well on the journey home. Unloaded once home and spent quite a bit of time inspecting the bikes, reading through the manuals and generally familiarising myself with them. Everything seemed pretty straightforward and I will go into things in more detail in future updates.

One thing that really did surprise me was a crucial, but unknown to me, difference between the Infinity and the Infinity LS. I knew that the LS was 8sp and the Infinity was 11sp and my understanding was that apart from that they were identical in terms of specification, same CPU, motor, hub etc. However, it transpires that the 8sp Infinity LS has an automatic shifting option but the more expensive 11sp Infinity does not have this feature. Scrolling through the menus on the Infinity the option to adjust the automatic shifting is present but evidently disabled in the 11sp version as once this option is selected nothing can actually be changed. In the manual it mentions that auto shifting is available in the 8sp version but buyer beware, not on the 11sp.

Time to take the bike for a road test and sadly this was disappointing. My first impression is that this will be a nice bike to ride but as soon as I started to push some power onto the pedals it became apparent that there was something rubbing towards the rear end. I did not notice this when I span the wheels in the shop but since then I have inflated the tyres to my preferred pressure which is higher than the pressure they were supplied at. I knew that various electrics were routed within the rear mudguard so decided that I should stop and investigate rather than risk any damage, I was homeward bound, after less than 5 minutes.

Close inspection revealed that the rear tyre is making contact with a cable clip installed inside the rear mudguard, I think the cable supplies the rear light. You can see the round clip securing mount on the left and inside just see the 2 metal bits of the clip itself which hold the cable. My initial impression is that the general mudguard clearance at this point is very small and that the clip/cable reduces it to virtually zero, as it stands at the moment it is zero, hence the rubbing.



I'm not sure whether this is going to be a simple adjustment, I suspect not, as it looks to me as if the tyre size is too large for the available clearance, once clips and wiring are added and I could imagine this very small tolerance being a real problem when riding on wet and dirty roads where you tend to pick up leaves etc, it's hard to see how things would remain clear for long. The tyres are Schwalbe Marathon GreenGuard 700x38C "e-Bike Ready". These tyres are available in the following sizes to my knowledge, 700x38c, 700x35c, 700x32c, 700x28c, 700x25c so the tyre fitted to this bike is the widest in the range. My gut feeling is that a narrower tyre would resolve this problem and provide a much better working clearance, as far as I know all the available sizes are specified as "e-Bike Ready" for up to 50kph e-Bikes.

Riding the bike I also noticed that the front mudguard is sitting at an odd angle and is pointing off to one side, a small matter but a detail which is not as it should be. To test the lights I took the bike out in the dark later in the evening, another small irritation discovered. The front lamp was not correctly aligned so I gently angled it little further downwards, no big deal I didn't think. All seemed fine until I applied the front brake. the front suspension fork compressed slightly as expected but what was not expected was that as a result the front light ended up pointing skywards, ideal for aircraft, not so good for being seen by cars. Tried realigning it but the same immediately happened again.

I'm afraid it's back to the shop, it's a shame it's so far away, hopefully just minor teething troubles. I guess I will know more when I get out for a decent length ride.