Luup-X bike? Or an alternative?

[IslandHopper]

I am curious what other folks here think about this bike: Luup X bike

On paper, it looks good. Battery near 1400 Wh, FS, up to 1000 W motor, mid drive, carbon fiber, and so on. In theory, it could be a game changer for my forestry road and singletrack explorations.

But I am also a bit nervous about it. There is no place nearby to test ride it; it's an unproven company; some of the parts are pretty low end; and there are no objective reviews. As for the carbon fiber frame... it's a great material if it is done right, but an accident waiting to happen if poorly executed.

I have a perfectly wonderful bike already: a Raleigh Tokul E. I have ridden it 4500+ km in the past two or so years, a lot of that on trails and forestry roads. It is awesome. Still, there are some mornings when I really miss having a full suspension bike. The Thudbuster ST post helps a lot, but it's just not quite the same.

I'm trying to keep my spending to a reasonable level, and the thought of forking out well over 6K for a new electric doesn't sit well with me.

I welcome opinions on the Luup, and any other suggestions on a very durable mid-drive FS MTB with a decent battery.

Thank you

 

[indianajo]

There is a thread about indigogo projects. I can't find it. Three objections I have 1. Quality is a matter of design 2. the training and supervision of the workers and 3. the discipline of the QA inspectors. Design involves adding enough material in the stress points to not crack. As you're intending to go off road, the stresses are likely to be significant. Having a product on the market for years points out to the design team where their stress models were inadequate. Plus carbon fiber has a significant worker controlled element. The layers are not added by machine. QA people have to override production people, especially right before lunch break, 2nd shift, Sunday morning at 3AM. Lots of production teams will empty the reject bin on Sunday morning and have a little party in the break room. The QA manager has to show up at random times to keep the inspectors honest. The QA manager has to check for suspicious lifestyle of inspectors to detect bribery. The country bicycles come from has a long history of lying on QA paperwork to make the numbers. Some importers can beat that by having inspectors fly in from out of country at random times. Some factory teams can beat that by having people check border data for them. #3 sales brand has had some aluminum frames crack around the geared hub motor. Read the brand threads. Indigogo project has no brand history to go by. Corporate culture is important to quality.
This is a fat tire bike. Fat tires are for riding in powder snow or on powder beach sand. You do live in Canada. How much powder snow do you see? Its pretty rare except in high mountains. Are you going to be out in that weather? 2.1" or even 2.4" tires now provide some float without the watthour burn of 30 psi (max) tires. On ice, 2.1" spiked tires can be bought. 4" spiked tires would be very expensive if available at all.
Off road high powered bikes are wattwagon and Lunabike. I don't know if you can buy them in Canada. Read the mountain bike category for more data on mountainbikes. https://electricbikereview.com/forums/forum/mountain/

 

[tomjasz]

The link...

 

[AHicks]

The link...

in the first post:

Luup-X:The All Terrain Fat Tire Carbon Fibre eBike

Efficient | Powerful | Customizable | Lightweight | High End Specs | Carbon Fibre | 180km Range | Check out 'Luup-X:The All Terrain Fat Tire Carbon Fibre eBike' on Indiegogo.

www.indiegogo.com

 

[tomjasz]

in the first post:

Yes Al, intended as a response to Timpo.

 

[AHicks]

Yes Al, intended as a response to Timpo.

OK, now I get it. My bad...

 

[IslandHopper]

There is a thread about indigogo projects. I can't find it. Three objections I have 1. Quality is a matter of design 2. the training and supervision of the workers and 3. the discipline of the QA inspectors. Design involves adding enough material in the stress points to not crack. As you're intending to go off road, the stresses are likely to be significant. Having a product on the market for years points out to the design team where their stress models were inadequate. Plus carbon fiber has a significant worker controlled element. The layers are not added by machine. QA people have to override production people, especially right before lunch break, 2nd shift, Sunday morning at 3AM. Lots of production teams will empty the reject bin on Sunday morning and have a little party in the break room. The QA manager has to show up at random times to keep the inspectors honest. The QA manager has to check for suspicious lifestyle of inspectors to detect bribery. The country bicycles come from has a long history of lying on QA paperwork to make the numbers. Some importers can beat that by having inspectors fly in from out of country at random times. Some factory teams can beat that by having people check border data for them. #3 sales brand has had some aluminum frames crack around the geared hub motor. Read the brand threads. Indigogo project has no brand history to go by. Corporate culture is important to quality.
This is a fat tire bike. Fat tires are for riding in powder snow or on powder beach sand. You do live in Canada. How much powder snow do you see? Its pretty rare except in high mountains. Are you going to be out in that weather? 2.1" or even 2.4" tires now provide some float without the watthour burn of 30 psi (max) tires. On ice, 2.1" spiked tires can be bought. 4" spiked tires would be very expensive if available at all.
Off road high powered bikes are wattwagon and Lunabike. I don't know if you can buy them in Canada. Read the mountain bike category for more data on mountainbikes. https://electricbikereview.com/forums/forum/mountai

Yes, I remember reading about cheap carbon fiber frames years ago. Mass produced, poor quality, fibers not lined up properly... not pretty.

I run 2.8 Eddy Current tires front and rear on my hardtail. Not the fastest rolling tires out there, but they are durable, absorb a lot of impacts, and have pretty good grip in almost every condition. I have ridden them in snow, sand, harsh logging roads, and pavement. I stay away from ice - not a problem, really - it's pretty mild where I live.

I'll have a look at the link you attached. Should keep me busy for a while.

Too bad about the Luup-X - in theory, a good concept, but I just don't trust it enough. And if you can't trust a bike or the company that makes it, then that takes a lot of fun out of the ride.

Thank you.