Heybike’s Bike alpha bike is an affordable and all-terrain boat with an affordable disappearance

I tested a number of electric bikes in my time here at Techcrunch. And I have never been so tempted to hang on to one as I did it with the new Heybike alpha.

This robust, fatty and all-terrain bike is worth the price of $ 1,699. The Alpha checked many of my boxes, including those I didn’t even know I had. For example, I knew that I would like an electric bike with a pedal help and an accelerator, but I did not know that I would like an electric bike with a pedal aid, an accelerator, accelerator, accelerator, accelerator, accelerator, accelerator, accelerator, And A manual gear lever. Perhaps the most dreamy part of the driving of the alpha was the engine halfway through a torque sensor, which led to a more natural driving sensation. This, and the battery life that seemed to last forever.

It was not all the roses and rainbows. I have some complaints about the application, the bicycle configuration and the disproportionate horn. But in general, it is an excellent electronic bike, that you want to take it in all-terrain adventures or use it in the city to make your weekly shopping for merchant Joe.

And then there is the question of how long this bike will remain affordable. Heybike is a Chinese manufacturer and its bikes are made in China. With prices, even at the recently lowered rate, these bikes should cost more for American consumers.

A bike with an affordable afford

The Alpha is the first of Heybike with its Galaxy Edrive system made in the house, which uses a half-motor engine of 500W Mivice next to a 680Wh battery, which offers smooth driving.

Most of the other electric bikes I have tried are built with engines mounted in the wheel hub, which makes a design simpler and more affordable. A mid-term engine is located near the pedals, and if you can get a bicycle like that at a decent price? Take it. Because not everyone wants to buy a Bafang conversion kit and build their own cheap intermediate market.

Even in the fifth and the highest level of pedal assistance, the alpha is fluid and easy to control, giving you the impression of pedaling a traditional push bike. There is nothing jerky in acceleration.

However, there are disadvantages in mid-term. If you are the type of rider who likes to look heavy at the accelerator, then the Heybike alpha is probably not for you. A company spokesperson told me that Heybike does not encourage the use of the unique accelerator, especially at the start of a trip, as he could damage the engine and drive the train.

And with the Alpha, you cannot start a lap with the accelerator. You must first pedal and build up to at least 5 miles per hour before the accelerator begins. When you use the accelerator, the speed adjusts according to the level of assistance to the pedal on which you are. Although even at the highest level, the top speed when using the accelerator only reaches 20 miles per hour. That said, you can push it up to 28 miles per hour during pedaling.

I did not find that gas constraints was too much a problem. Of course, there were these occasional moments by driving in the chaotic streets of New York when I wanted the rapid getaway that a sensitive accelerator provides. However, I found that the pedal assistance was sufficiently reactive.

And with 105 nm of couple, it was also powerful. I rarely found myself withdrawing it from the first level. The addition of the Shimano Altus 8-Gear Shifter helped to increase this power. The gear lever allowed me to throw it up to a high speed on a flat terrain and bring it back to a low speed during the climbing of the hills; This meant that I could keep the pedal assistance at 1 to save on the battery.

And although I am on the subject of the hills, it should be noted that the Alpha inclined have manipulated like an absolute champion, once again due to the mid-term engine.

Long live the alpha battery

ULPH certified batteries allow up to 60 miles of range on a single load, although I would not be surprised if they were exceeded. After having removed the battery to load it once (which ended up being an event that I will describe below), I took the bike on several trips to the neighborhood and mounted on various hills, probably driving for a total of 22 miles. The battery life on the screen half-money LCD has not dropped below 100%.

It could have something to do with the Galaxy Edrive, which seemed to have a regenerative braking system that provided power to the battery every time I braked. Heybike says that its galaxy system provides more than 8% of the additional beach compared to batteries of the same capacity.

More notes on robustness

Alpha could probably double as a cargo bike for riders. It comes with a rear grid which was more than sufficient to attach three grocery bags, although I could have just as easily attached one of these large food delivery boxes.

It also has a total payload of 400 pounds. It is the same amount as the Pedego cargo bike that I tested last year, which is the price twice and also twice as heavy. Heybike alpha is not exactly a small bike that can be easily nestled in an apartment in New York, but with its aluminum alloy setting, it was not Also heavy or clumsy at 71 pounds.

And while the 26 x 4 inch fat tires are perfect for crossing the roots of the gravel and trees, they are just as good for handling the nests of the hen and the unequal road surfaces of New York. Not only the tires, but the rebounding inflatable fork suspension took most of the strokes of some of these roads and allowed me to jump and deactivate the sidewalks.

The drawbacks: configuration, quality concerns, and wow, what a horn

The alpha was not without challenges. On the one hand, there was a decent quantity of configuration involved during the delivery of the bicycle, which required trained folds on a manual of instructions from the QR code.

If you are not used to gathering pieces of bicycle (which I am not), you are likely to be mistaken. I had the help of two charming colleagues from my office, but when I hit the road, something was still felt. I took him to a bicycle store where the mechanic rocked his head empathetic and made some adjustments, including the handlebars that I had not installed in the right position.

I also had a hard time removing the cover from the low tube battery. It wouldn’t stand out! I tried to look for an educational video on YouTube, but all I could find was an ASMR video for the deletion and installation of the 16 seconds of 16 seconds from Heybike. In the end, I had to open the blanket and I found that someone seemed to have screwed this lock in the wrong direction, hampering the release of the metal cover. I screwed him up on the right track so that he could click properly.

But then, more battery cover drama. After a few rides, the blanket started out halfway halfway halfway. I put him back, struck a bump, and he returned. Thinking that I probably spoiled myself by playing with the battery cover, I stuck it in place and called it one day.

Another descent vote for the alpha was the horn. My God was noisy. Imagine trying to bother someone by shouting “Hooonnnkkk” aloud. This is what the horn looked like. It was so aggressive that I was embarrassed to use it to alert pedestrians or other horsemen when I passed, for fear that I will not scare them. It had become useful when I wanted to symbolically switch the cars that entered the cycle path.

The application was also not impressive. This could turn off the bicycle, but it couldn’t activate it, because the bicycle had to be in progress to connect to the application via Bluetooth. The application could also turn on and extinguish the front lighthouse (which was very shiny, by the way), as well as recording and sharing all travel data. Personally, I think that electric bike applications are not worth using if they give you live follow -up, flight and alarms.

There are not many colors to choose. In fact, if you want a step, you get it white. And if you want a step frame, you better be satisfied with black.

A final note on the addition of turn signals: they worked well, but I almost did not remember using them.

Heybike Alpha: Better if you are at hand, always good otherwise

Overall, I thought the Heybike Alpha was a solid driving, especially for the price. Usually a bike with Alpha specifications will cost you $ 2,000 to $ 4,500, so it’s a pretty good deal. Although this problem with battery cover has raised red flags on quality problems, and if I had led it longer, I wonder what other problems could have occurred.

The affordable price could be based on poor customer service, based on online opinions, although I cannot personally talk about it. All I know is that it was one of the fastest and easiest fat electric bikes that I had the pleasure of riding.