I've had this bike for about a month now and thought I'd share my thoughts about it. The Danish made Biomega OKO is designed and marketed as a commuter bike and in that I think it excels. The bike features include; 41# carbon fiber frame, 26” x 1.95” wheels and tires, 350W front hub motor, Shimano Deore hydraulic disk brakes, Shimano Alfine 8-speed hub sifter and a Gates carbon CDX fiber belt drive with 3 levels of power assist. I was really drawn to the aesthetics of the bike as it has integrated fenders and looks really slick with the internal shiftier, cable routing, battery and belt drive. It appears to be a very high quality bike from the smooth tapered axle nuts and cables running thru the frame and general fit and finish.
The bike is really fun to ride and accelerates well even with just the lowest power assist. It shifts really smoothly thru its 8 speeds and I don't feel that additional gears are warranted or needed in the area and style I like to ride which is in Central Texas, mainly on bike paths and city streets with few gentle hills. I wanted an internal gear hub bike with the Gates belt system partly because of the ease of maintenance and the ability to ride with long pants on if I want, without worry of getting them oily from a chain drive. That has worked out just fine so far as I have only been riding in long pants. The bike stops on a dime and the brake feel and action seem top notch. The bike is advertised with a top power assisted speed of approximately 15 mph with the 250W motor, 20 mph with the 350W motor (which this one is). I've fairly easily been 24 mph on it over a long flat grade. I can easily cruise 18-20 mph on it if I want. I had wondered if I should have found a different 28 mph bike but now realize that for me, I don't have any business trying to go that fast at age 64 as the pain of a higher speed mishap is much greater than any high speed thrill. The bike seems agile and stable even at top speed which was a concern of mine after riding previous ebikes. I was concerned that the relatively light weight of this ebike would be a negative at speed, but after riding it this long realize that it is not a concern. I really like the shifter as you can move it to any gear even at a standstill, which is handy when you come to a stop but forget to downshift. Simply click a few times to the gear you want and take off. No clanging, grinding or whatever. The bike has no suspension, but I'm ok with that as I've never had a bike with suspension anyway. Some say that carbon soaks up the little road imperfections better than steel or aluminum, but I cannot speak to that. It may, but it's still an un-suspended bike. I like the integrated battery as it looks smooth and would be difficult for thieves to quickly remove and steal. On the downside, I'll need to bring the bike indoors (which I do anyway) in extremely cold or hot weather to maintain the longevity of the battery while charging. The bike has no display to speak of. It only has a left hand mount switch with three buttons: On/off, + and -, and green lights to indicate power assist level, and red lights to indicate battery power level. This works fine for me. I thought I'd miss a display with all the speed, trip indicators, gps, etc. But I sometimes just open my phone to an app I have, set it and go. I can get most of the info I want, top speed, mapped ride, avg speed, miles driven, etc from it. Not near as complete and convenient as a display but works well for me. On the other hand, there's not a display to tempt some punk thief and nothing to distract me while riding.
Modifications:
After riding it a while I realized that I'd need to make some modifications. First off, the saddle. The stock Biomega saddle although it looks nice, was brutal! I fiddled with it a while and then replaced it with a Sella Anatomica H series saddle. Night and day improvement!
I added rubber Ergon style grips for additional comfort. I added a Biomega made rear rack to which I will attached a yet to be purchased bag to hold spare tube, tools and water, etc.
I added front and rear Biomega winkie style lights for better visibility.
I added a rear mount red light made by Bike Spark. I really like this light. USB chargeable, it comes on and off automatically with movement. It has three blink pattern choices and best of all, when you decelerate the light comes on full solid red like a car brake light. It can mount horizontally or vertically so can attach almost anywhere.
I added a left hand mirror.
The one thing I wish I could modify that I have not yet been able to do is to raise the handlebar up ¾ – 1”. Seems my hands tire too easily even though for the most part I ride in a upright position. I'm guessing this is due to the weight of my upper body onto my hands. The handlebar post as configured cannot be raised. I think I'm going to try to find a machinist that can manufacture a spacer that will allow me to raise it up. I'm not too sure how easy this would be to do and to match the aluminum anodized finish on the stem, but I'm going to investigate this. An alternative might be to find a new handlebar that is configured such that it would in essence do the same thing.
From what I can gather, Biomega doesn't have much of a presence here in the USA. I'd be interested to hear from others outside of this country to learn of their impressions of this bike. From the few I talked to about this bike, they say that Biomega isn't that interested in this market here, and concentrate more in the European marketplace. One dealer told me that 'they won't put any money in marketing here'. Don't know what the reality is, but it seems like a really nice machine worthy of consideration. That's about it for now!
The bike is really fun to ride and accelerates well even with just the lowest power assist. It shifts really smoothly thru its 8 speeds and I don't feel that additional gears are warranted or needed in the area and style I like to ride which is in Central Texas, mainly on bike paths and city streets with few gentle hills. I wanted an internal gear hub bike with the Gates belt system partly because of the ease of maintenance and the ability to ride with long pants on if I want, without worry of getting them oily from a chain drive. That has worked out just fine so far as I have only been riding in long pants. The bike stops on a dime and the brake feel and action seem top notch. The bike is advertised with a top power assisted speed of approximately 15 mph with the 250W motor, 20 mph with the 350W motor (which this one is). I've fairly easily been 24 mph on it over a long flat grade. I can easily cruise 18-20 mph on it if I want. I had wondered if I should have found a different 28 mph bike but now realize that for me, I don't have any business trying to go that fast at age 64 as the pain of a higher speed mishap is much greater than any high speed thrill. The bike seems agile and stable even at top speed which was a concern of mine after riding previous ebikes. I was concerned that the relatively light weight of this ebike would be a negative at speed, but after riding it this long realize that it is not a concern. I really like the shifter as you can move it to any gear even at a standstill, which is handy when you come to a stop but forget to downshift. Simply click a few times to the gear you want and take off. No clanging, grinding or whatever. The bike has no suspension, but I'm ok with that as I've never had a bike with suspension anyway. Some say that carbon soaks up the little road imperfections better than steel or aluminum, but I cannot speak to that. It may, but it's still an un-suspended bike. I like the integrated battery as it looks smooth and would be difficult for thieves to quickly remove and steal. On the downside, I'll need to bring the bike indoors (which I do anyway) in extremely cold or hot weather to maintain the longevity of the battery while charging. The bike has no display to speak of. It only has a left hand mount switch with three buttons: On/off, + and -, and green lights to indicate power assist level, and red lights to indicate battery power level. This works fine for me. I thought I'd miss a display with all the speed, trip indicators, gps, etc. But I sometimes just open my phone to an app I have, set it and go. I can get most of the info I want, top speed, mapped ride, avg speed, miles driven, etc from it. Not near as complete and convenient as a display but works well for me. On the other hand, there's not a display to tempt some punk thief and nothing to distract me while riding.
Modifications:
After riding it a while I realized that I'd need to make some modifications. First off, the saddle. The stock Biomega saddle although it looks nice, was brutal! I fiddled with it a while and then replaced it with a Sella Anatomica H series saddle. Night and day improvement!
I added rubber Ergon style grips for additional comfort. I added a Biomega made rear rack to which I will attached a yet to be purchased bag to hold spare tube, tools and water, etc.
I added front and rear Biomega winkie style lights for better visibility.
I added a rear mount red light made by Bike Spark. I really like this light. USB chargeable, it comes on and off automatically with movement. It has three blink pattern choices and best of all, when you decelerate the light comes on full solid red like a car brake light. It can mount horizontally or vertically so can attach almost anywhere.
I added a left hand mirror.
The one thing I wish I could modify that I have not yet been able to do is to raise the handlebar up ¾ – 1”. Seems my hands tire too easily even though for the most part I ride in a upright position. I'm guessing this is due to the weight of my upper body onto my hands. The handlebar post as configured cannot be raised. I think I'm going to try to find a machinist that can manufacture a spacer that will allow me to raise it up. I'm not too sure how easy this would be to do and to match the aluminum anodized finish on the stem, but I'm going to investigate this. An alternative might be to find a new handlebar that is configured such that it would in essence do the same thing.
From what I can gather, Biomega doesn't have much of a presence here in the USA. I'd be interested to hear from others outside of this country to learn of their impressions of this bike. From the few I talked to about this bike, they say that Biomega isn't that interested in this market here, and concentrate more in the European marketplace. One dealer told me that 'they won't put any money in marketing here'. Don't know what the reality is, but it seems like a really nice machine worthy of consideration. That's about it for now!
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