waterzap99
New Member
Not my first ebike. But first review. I have ridden bicycles all my life. That was the way to get to high school, undergratute and even graduate school. That said, I have only ridden a few ebikes. Other than the PIM, I also have a Polaris Appex. Same drivetrain, just some different components.
Firstly, and most important to me. All the parts that make this an electric bicycle, the battery and controller, motor, wiring harness, cadence sensor and display is available for sale on the PIM website. I believe the parts fit all the bicycles in the PIM lineup as well as some of the old Polaris bikes. They also have some very well made YouTube videos to show how to fix things and explain the working on the bike. Except for these ebike specific things, everything else on these bicycles are regular bicycle parts. Bottom bracket, chain, derailleur etc. Unless PIM stops selling parts, I see no reason I could not keep this bicycle on the road for many, many years. I am pretty handy, and for me, the one thing above all else that influences my buying decision for anything like this is getting parts.
Now on to the bicycle. The bike looks great. Everyone that has seen the PIM or Appex likes the way it looks. Very attractive, beefy and strong looking bicycles. All the components are brand name top notch quality. The brakes are excellent, 180mm Magura hydraulics, and they also have a shut off feature. If you pull the brake, the motor shuts down. I know the PIM and the Polaris are basically the same bicycles, but the PIM headtube looks to be slightly taller than the Polaris. The handlebars on the Polaris is also a bit wider than the PIM. Personally I like the shorter handlebar on the PIM. I find the Spank Spoon 785 on the Polaris a bit wide.
I like the seamless battery integration. More than once people asked me where the battery is. Even people that ride bicycles a lot don’t immediately recognize this as an ebike. Small details I consider “cool”. The battery connector is connected to a cable that clips on to the battery vs a slide in connector. There is no way you can get a bad connection from shaking or riding rough trails. Again speaks to the durability aspect of this bicycle.
The bike has a top speed of 25mph (750W hub motor), and I can vouch for that. You can go slightly faster downhill, but you run out of gears and just pedal air around 25-26 mph with the PIM, while the Appex has a slightly larger front chainring. I think the smaller chainring of the PIM is a bit better fit for this bike, seeing these they really are made to only go up to 25mph. What you loose in top speed you gain in a bit of oomph on the hills.
Power levels on this bicycle takes a bit of getting used. There are 3 regular power levels. +1, +2 and +3, and two unique levels. -1 and -2. You get ascending assist from -2 to +3.
Level +3, you are basically just moving your feet and the bike powers ahead. +1 I think is really the mode that most people will be on most of the time. -1 and -2 are the Active Trail levels -1 gives a bit of assistance going up hills, no assistance on level ground and 500W regen downhill. -2 is very little assistance on hills, I think almost nothing, nothing on level ground, and then 1000W regen on downhills.
This bike has regen when you backpedal on any of the power levels. The backpedal regen also feels stronger than the -1 or -2 downhill regen. You can feel the bicycle slowing down and REGEN starts flashing on the display screen. You don’t even always have to backpedal all the time. I have found that just one backpedal rotation, or even part of a full rotation puts it into regen. If you then don’t move your foot, it will stay in regen for a bit. On level ground backpedaling can bring you to a stop. Not quickly, but you can stop. I have ridden all around my neighborhood without using my brakes with just pedaling to speed up and backpedaling to slow down.
Practically you could probably cruise around the whole day on -1. Getting assistance on the hills, while getting regen on downhills, and then use the+ 1 to +3 modes if you really have to get somewhere fast. I can really see this being useful for Police and security services who can use -1 and -2 to patrol around at low speeds for most of the time, all the while charging the battery or depleting it slowly, and then switch to +3 if they need to get somewhere fast. Not sure how far or long you can go on -1, but it’s going to be quite a distance.
The backpedaling can make up for the other quirk in the bicycle which I have seen in reviews. When you stop pedaling, the motor will keep on going for a second or so. However if you want the motor to stop, just backpedal a bit. The motor then goes into regen and you start slowing down. You can also pull the brakes, which will also switch off the motor and put it in regen mode. I guess the reason for this delay is if you are pedaling, and then just stopping for a second to go around a turn, you do not want the motor to suddenly cut out mid turn. For me that extra second the motor stays on is a non issue.
Realistically, you can get around 25 miles with the standard 264 WH battery (bigger batteries are available soon). The bike is heavy, but I have pedaled it around without any assist and it’s not difficult. Just a bit slow.
As far as nitpicking a bit. The bicycle has no attachment points for water bottle cages. Maybe under the lower tube would have worked? Though with the front shocks you might run into the issue of the wheel banging against the water bottle. So not an easy solution to that. It does look like the bicycle has mounting points for a rack, and I will look into that. Does come with a stand though.
Some way to incorporate lights would also have been nice. Maybe an upgrade kit could be offered. There could be a work around using wiring from the battery, but I have not looked into that.
All in all, I really like it.
Firstly, and most important to me. All the parts that make this an electric bicycle, the battery and controller, motor, wiring harness, cadence sensor and display is available for sale on the PIM website. I believe the parts fit all the bicycles in the PIM lineup as well as some of the old Polaris bikes. They also have some very well made YouTube videos to show how to fix things and explain the working on the bike. Except for these ebike specific things, everything else on these bicycles are regular bicycle parts. Bottom bracket, chain, derailleur etc. Unless PIM stops selling parts, I see no reason I could not keep this bicycle on the road for many, many years. I am pretty handy, and for me, the one thing above all else that influences my buying decision for anything like this is getting parts.
Now on to the bicycle. The bike looks great. Everyone that has seen the PIM or Appex likes the way it looks. Very attractive, beefy and strong looking bicycles. All the components are brand name top notch quality. The brakes are excellent, 180mm Magura hydraulics, and they also have a shut off feature. If you pull the brake, the motor shuts down. I know the PIM and the Polaris are basically the same bicycles, but the PIM headtube looks to be slightly taller than the Polaris. The handlebars on the Polaris is also a bit wider than the PIM. Personally I like the shorter handlebar on the PIM. I find the Spank Spoon 785 on the Polaris a bit wide.
I like the seamless battery integration. More than once people asked me where the battery is. Even people that ride bicycles a lot don’t immediately recognize this as an ebike. Small details I consider “cool”. The battery connector is connected to a cable that clips on to the battery vs a slide in connector. There is no way you can get a bad connection from shaking or riding rough trails. Again speaks to the durability aspect of this bicycle.
The bike has a top speed of 25mph (750W hub motor), and I can vouch for that. You can go slightly faster downhill, but you run out of gears and just pedal air around 25-26 mph with the PIM, while the Appex has a slightly larger front chainring. I think the smaller chainring of the PIM is a bit better fit for this bike, seeing these they really are made to only go up to 25mph. What you loose in top speed you gain in a bit of oomph on the hills.
Power levels on this bicycle takes a bit of getting used. There are 3 regular power levels. +1, +2 and +3, and two unique levels. -1 and -2. You get ascending assist from -2 to +3.
Level +3, you are basically just moving your feet and the bike powers ahead. +1 I think is really the mode that most people will be on most of the time. -1 and -2 are the Active Trail levels -1 gives a bit of assistance going up hills, no assistance on level ground and 500W regen downhill. -2 is very little assistance on hills, I think almost nothing, nothing on level ground, and then 1000W regen on downhills.
This bike has regen when you backpedal on any of the power levels. The backpedal regen also feels stronger than the -1 or -2 downhill regen. You can feel the bicycle slowing down and REGEN starts flashing on the display screen. You don’t even always have to backpedal all the time. I have found that just one backpedal rotation, or even part of a full rotation puts it into regen. If you then don’t move your foot, it will stay in regen for a bit. On level ground backpedaling can bring you to a stop. Not quickly, but you can stop. I have ridden all around my neighborhood without using my brakes with just pedaling to speed up and backpedaling to slow down.
Practically you could probably cruise around the whole day on -1. Getting assistance on the hills, while getting regen on downhills, and then use the+ 1 to +3 modes if you really have to get somewhere fast. I can really see this being useful for Police and security services who can use -1 and -2 to patrol around at low speeds for most of the time, all the while charging the battery or depleting it slowly, and then switch to +3 if they need to get somewhere fast. Not sure how far or long you can go on -1, but it’s going to be quite a distance.
The backpedaling can make up for the other quirk in the bicycle which I have seen in reviews. When you stop pedaling, the motor will keep on going for a second or so. However if you want the motor to stop, just backpedal a bit. The motor then goes into regen and you start slowing down. You can also pull the brakes, which will also switch off the motor and put it in regen mode. I guess the reason for this delay is if you are pedaling, and then just stopping for a second to go around a turn, you do not want the motor to suddenly cut out mid turn. For me that extra second the motor stays on is a non issue.
Realistically, you can get around 25 miles with the standard 264 WH battery (bigger batteries are available soon). The bike is heavy, but I have pedaled it around without any assist and it’s not difficult. Just a bit slow.
As far as nitpicking a bit. The bicycle has no attachment points for water bottle cages. Maybe under the lower tube would have worked? Though with the front shocks you might run into the issue of the wheel banging against the water bottle. So not an easy solution to that. It does look like the bicycle has mounting points for a rack, and I will look into that. Does come with a stand though.
Some way to incorporate lights would also have been nice. Maybe an upgrade kit could be offered. There could be a work around using wiring from the battery, but I have not looked into that.
All in all, I really like it.
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