New Moscow Plus - my mini review

[blueskyca]

How I spent my summer with a Moscow Plus...

I’ve really appreciated the reviews and comments I’ve read here on this site and they have significantly influenced my buy decisions. At least I’ll know who to credit or blame…

I’d like to add my (somewhat lengthy) review of my latest electric 2 wheeler.

I recently bought an NCM Moscow plus directly from Leon Cycles, Seattle. Although their website showed out of stock for the model I wanted, Ryan was able to perform some stock exchange manipulations and my 27.5” model was soon on its way.

My comments:

• FedEx sucks. Waited all day for signature-required box only to be notified at 8 PM it was delayed until the next day. Waited all day again, bike arrives with a beat-up box and a broken front fork. Leon rushes a replacement fork to me. Another day of waiting for a signature-required package. 8 PM called FedEx but they didn’t know where it was and put out a “tracer” and would call me back. They never called, waited another day and the replacement fork finally showed up. The bell was smashed too and Leon Cycles sent me a replacement, but it didn’t fit the bars.
• NCM support, at least in the US from Leon Cycles, has been great. Very responsive.

Finally got the bike on the road and these are my thoughts:

• I’m 6’1” but I’m glad I ordered the 27.5” model to give me a little more stand over height as I do a fair amount of off-road and gravel roads.
• The motor is pretty quiet. Got up to 24 MPH on flat ground in a burst in PAS 6. Motor power goes to zero at 22 MPH at PAS 6 and drops about 2 MPH for each PAS reduction. About 8 MPH in PAS 1.
• The derailleurs were pretty well adjusted right out of the box. It shifts pretty good, maybe better than expected for Acera components. Longevity will be the real tale.
• I really like the grips – great palm support for long rides. I may get some for my other bikes.
• I adjusted the bars to place the brake reservoirs vertical and this felt pretty good for my height.
• The tools it came with are actually decent. Too bad there were no wrenches for the rear axle.
• As others have noted, the battery holder mounting screws were loose and the battery rattled and thudded over bumps. The tiniest of screws are used to hold a rather substantial battery so I’ll be checking these often.
• I have a rear disk squeal so I cleaned the pads and rotor with alcohol and realigned the caliper – with no significant improvement.
• The front disk brake was weak out of the box but improved to fully adequate after 20-30 miles. Not as strong as my Trek Cobia, but this is a much heavier bike.
• I set off up some SoCal mountain roads, gaining about 1500 feet in 4 miles, mostly paved. The bike had no issues with the steep grades and the motor and controller were only warm at the top. Pretty impressive although a fair amount of the fully charged battery was consumed.
• Even though I tightened the headset after installing the new fork, it was now loose. Be sure you can’t spin the headset spacers by hand.
• Walk mode is pretty cool, but I found myself simply using the throttle carefully on some technical off-road uphill sections.
• The cadence sensor can be abrupt at low speed and I found myself gently pulling the brake lever (disabling motor power) to execute tight 180’s or using throttle only to get started. PAS 1 is a little gentler in serious technical stuff but still seems to deliver full power on steep low speed uphills.
• I had several loose spokes, as others have reported. Finding a 3.7mm spoke wrench wasn’t happening in my area so I sacrificed a Park wrench and made one.
• There’s not much you can’t climb with this bike, but you have to be in the right gear and wailing on the pedals.
• The display battery voltmeter isn’t especially accurate, measuring 0.3 to 0.8 volts lower than actual.
• The speedo is pretty accurate – I measured about 0.7 MPH optimistic.
• The USB port is handy but would have been better located at the display.
• The C7 display is nice. Bluetooth would have been nice too for mods and stats. I also would have liked to see amp-hr or KW-hr consumption along with the battery meter. This may be a future upgrade I add as I have one on my e-motorcycle.
• The manual says to charge then fully discharge the lithium battery. Bad advice for lithium, as confirmed by Ryan at Leon Cycles. I fully charged then rode until just 1 bar, a total of 23 miles with a lot of hills. A 3rd ride with a fully charged battery got me to 11.3 miles in about an hour with 1 battery bar flashing, but his included a lot of hills. With a 768 W-hr battery, this suggests motor power is higher than the 500 W rated, but there are lots of variables. I was at 24 miles by the time I got back down the hill. I’m not optimistic range will improve after more cycles. Flat land cruising may be closer to their 40 miles or so rating.
• I’m not sure who makes the batteries for this, but NCM/Leon Cycles appears to stand behind them, at least for a year. I’ll be doing capacity testing periodically.
• The charger is nameplate rated at 48V and 3A. I measured 54.5V open circuit (~4.19V per cell, if balanced) and 2.94A at 46.5V battery voltage while charging. Current tapers off as it charges but I haven’t measured the green light cutoff current yet. I’m charging on a timer via a WiFi smart plug so I don’t keep the battery at max voltage for longer than needed. I’m not sure if this charger completely cuts off when full or not.
• The battery charger runs pretty cool as the fan in on continuously. But it’s not especially efficient. I measured 82% efficiency which is on par with other cheap Chinese 120V chargers. I have DC-DC converters which push 97% efficiency that I use on my electric motorcycle, running off my solar charged power wall. I’ll switch over at some point but an extra 5 cents per charge is in the noise.
• I’m not crazy about having both 18mm and 19mm nuts on the rear axle. I’d like to find some common nuts.
• I didn’t think I wanted a bike with 3 chainrings but I’m warming up to it. A wider ratio cassette and single chainring, like some others use, might have been a better choice. If you’re at PAS 6 on flat ground you’ll be on the big chainring.

Upgrades in progress:

• Since I’ve been drinking the Topeak KoolAid for some time now, I installed an Explorer MTX rack and quick connect EX bag. Works great.
• This also leaves the seat stay mounts free for a future ABUS frame lock, if I’m still in the mood.
• And since I’m occupationally obsessed with measuring everything, I’ll add an accurate Hall ammeter, voltage, power, and energy display, similar to my electric motorcycle.
• I’m also working on a charge-while-ride mode from an aux battery to boost my range when I want it. I’ve got several M365 scooter batteries that I’m pretty impressed with. Integrated BMS and great cycle life from LG batteries.

Overall, I’m happy with the bike. I realize this is not intended for Slick Rock Utah trail crashing and jumps, but it’s hard to argue the value compared to other eBikes.

 

[Presplan]

Nice review. Thanks for sharing.

 

[TheEqualiser]

Good review, thanks.

I don't know if you were unlucky or it's a US thing but my rear wheel nuts are both 19mm on my Australian bike. Having said that the wrench that I carry in my toolkit is 19mm at one end and 18mm at the other. I agree about the three chainrings. I climb about 500m (total) in a 37km commute and I never use anything but the largest chainring - I think a good 1x10 setup might be a good way to go. I put fenders and a rack on mine and "upgraded" to GP3 style grips but otherwise very pleased with the non-plus Moscow.

 

[RGOLD]

Nice real world review. Regarding battery life, I noticed that range improved after about 15 charge cycles. I'm able to average 50 miles with total of 3300 ft climbs. I let the battery drain to 44 - 45 volts and charge it to about 53V with the smart plug. Happy with this bike, no issue after 870 miles. I live near Portland OR so I drove to LEON store (They assembled it for me) in Seattle WA since I didn't want FEDEX or UPS to deliver the bike...

 

[blueskyca]

Nice real world review. Regarding battery life, I noticed that range improved after about 15 charge cycles. I'm able to average 50 miles with total of 3300 ft climbs. I let the battery drain to 44 - 45 volts and charge it to about 53V with the smart plug. Happy with this bike, no issue after 870 miles. I live near Portland OR so I drove to LEON store (They assembled it for me) in Seattle WA since I didn't want FEDEX or UPS to deliver the bike...

That's good to know about the range as I could certainly use more. I'm currently at about 5-6 cycles on my battery. I get a flashing one bar low voltage indicator on my display at 44.9V (indicated). This is probably closer to 45.4V actual, about 3.5V per cell, which is pretty conservative for a low battery warning if the cells are reasonably balanced. I'm not sure where the low voltage cutoff kicks in, but I also noticed I recovered about 0.3V on my downhill coast.

 

[blueskyca]

I'll also add that I was pretty bummed about the 20 MPH top speed, but since most of my riding is a mix of on and off road I don't often feel the need for more speed. If this was more of a commuter I'd probably be pursuing the other NCM and Magnum display options that bump the speed up a few MPH.

 

[lankox]

My Moscow cut offs power to the motor around 43.1 volts. Also, changing the tire size to the lowest setting gets you about 2-3 mph more in speed.

 

[Decrepidude]

My Moscow cut offs power to the motor around 43.1 volts. Also, changing the tire size to the lowest setting gets you about 2-3 mph more in speed.

I tried the wheel diameter hack and didn't notice an appreciable increase in top speed. I expected higher revs at top speed, because the motor would have to in order to reach max speed (20mph) with a real 20" wheel...

 

[john peck]

How I spent my summer with a Moscow Plus...View attachment 66550

I’ve really appreciated the reviews and comments I’ve read here on this site and they have significantly influenced my buy decisions. At least I’ll know who to credit or blame…

I’d like to add my (somewhat lengthy) review of my latest electric 2 wheeler.

I recently bought an NCM Moscow plus directly from Leon Cycles, Seattle. Although their website showed out of stock for the model I wanted, Ryan was able to perform some stock exchange manipulations and my 27.5” model was soon on its way.

My comments:

• FedEx sucks. Waited all day for signature-required box only to be notified at 8 PM it was delayed until the next day. Waited all day again, bike arrives with a beat-up box and a broken front fork. Leon rushes a replacement fork to me. Another day of waiting for a signature-required package. 8 PM called FedEx but they didn’t know where it was and put out a “tracer” and would call me back. They never called, waited another day and the replacement fork finally showed up. The bell was smashed too and Leon Cycles sent me a replacement, but it didn’t fit the bars.
• NCM support, at least in the US from Leon Cycles, has been great. Very responsive.

Finally got the bike on the road and these are my thoughts:

• I’m 6’1” but I’m glad I ordered the 27.5” model to give me a little more stand over height as I do a fair amount of off-road and gravel roads.
• The motor is pretty quiet. Got up to 24 MPH on flat ground in a burst in PAS 6. Motor power goes to zero at 22 MPH at PAS 6 and drops about 2 MPH for each PAS reduction. About 8 MPH in PAS 1.
• The derailleurs were pretty well adjusted right out of the box. It shifts pretty good, maybe better than expected for Acera components. Longevity will be the real tale.
• I really like the grips – great palm support for long rides. I may get some for my other bikes.
• I adjusted the bars to place the brake reservoirs vertical and this felt pretty good for my height.
• The tools it came with are actually decent. Too bad there were no wrenches for the rear axle.
• As others have noted, the battery holder mounting screws were loose and the battery rattled and thudded over bumps. The tiniest of screws are used to hold a rather substantial battery so I’ll be checking these often.
• I have a rear disk squeal so I cleaned the pads and rotor with alcohol and realigned the caliper – with no significant improvement.
• The front disk brake was weak out of the box but improved to fully adequate after 20-30 miles. Not as strong as my Trek Cobia, but this is a much heavier bike.
• I set off up some SoCal mountain roads, gaining about 1500 feet in 4 miles, mostly paved. The bike had no issues with the steep grades and the motor and controller were only warm at the top. Pretty impressive although a fair amount of the fully charged battery was consumed.
• Even though I tightened the headset after installing the new fork, it was now loose. Be sure you can’t spin the headset spacers by hand.
• Walk mode is pretty cool, but I found myself simply using the throttle carefully on some technical off-road uphill sections.
• The cadence sensor can be abrupt at low speed and I found myself gently pulling the brake lever (disabling motor power) to execute tight 180’s or using throttle only to get started. PAS 1 is a little gentler in serious technical stuff but still seems to deliver full power on steep low speed uphills.
• I had several loose spokes, as others have reported. Finding a 3.7mm spoke wrench wasn’t happening in my area so I sacrificed a Park wrench and made one.
• There’s not much you can’t climb with this bike, but you have to be in the right gear and wailing on the pedals.
• The display battery voltmeter isn’t especially accurate, measuring 0.3 to 0.8 volts lower than actual.
• The speedo is pretty accurate – I measured about 0.7 MPH optimistic.
• The USB port is handy but would have been better located at the display.
• The C7 display is nice. Bluetooth would have been nice too for mods and stats. I also would have liked to see amp-hr or KW-hr consumption along with the battery meter. This may be a future upgrade I add as I have one on my e-motorcycle.
• The manual says to charge then fully discharge the lithium battery. Bad advice for lithium, as confirmed by Ryan at Leon Cycles. I fully charged then rode until just 1 bar, a total of 23 miles with a lot of hills. A 3rd ride with a fully charged battery got me to 11.3 miles in about an hour with 1 battery bar flashing, but his included a lot of hills. With a 768 W-hr battery, this suggests motor power is higher than the 500 W rated, but there are lots of variables. I was at 24 miles by the time I got back down the hill. I’m not optimistic range will improve after more cycles. Flat land cruising may be closer to their 40 miles or so rating.
• I’m not sure who makes the batteries for this, but NCM/Leon Cycles appears to stand behind them, at least for a year. I’ll be doing capacity testing periodically.
• The charger is nameplate rated at 48V and 3A. I measured 54.5V open circuit (~4.19V per cell, if balanced) and 2.94A at 46.5V battery voltage while charging. Current tapers off as it charges but I haven’t measured the green light cutoff current yet. I’m charging on a timer via a WiFi smart plug so I don’t keep the battery at max voltage for longer than needed. I’m not sure if this charger completely cuts off when full or not.
• The battery charger runs pretty cool as the fan in on continuously. But it’s not especially efficient. I measured 82% efficiency which is on par with other cheap Chinese 120V chargers. I have DC-DC converters which push 97% efficiency that I use on my electric motorcycle, running off my solar charged power wall. I’ll switch over at some point but an extra 5 cents per charge is in the noise.
• I’m not crazy about having both 18mm and 19mm nuts on the rear axle. I’d like to find some common nuts.
• I didn’t think I wanted a bike with 3 chainrings but I’m warming up to it. A wider ratio cassette and single chainring, like some others use, might have been a better choice. If you’re at PAS 6 on flat ground you’ll be on the big chainring.

Upgrades in progress:

• Since I’ve been drinking the Topeak KoolAid for some time now, I installed an Explorer MTX rack and quick connect EX bag. Works great.
• This also leaves the seat stay mounts free for a future ABUS frame lock, if I’m still in the mood.
• And since I’m occupationally obsessed with measuring everything, I’ll add an accurate Hall ammeter, voltage, power, and energy display, similar to my electric motorcycle.
• I’m also working on a charge-while-ride mode from an aux battery to boost my range when I want it. I’ve got several M365 scooter batteries that I’m pretty impressed with. Integrated BMS and great cycle life from LG batteries.

Overall, I’m happy with the bike. I realize this is not intended for Slick Rock Utah trail crashing and jumps, but it’s hard to argue the value compared to other eBikes.

Thx, I think that was a very objective appraisal.

Nice real world review. Regarding battery life, I noticed that range improved after about 15 charge cycles.

Mine as well, at 1st got 7 mi. to a bar; am now getting 11

 

[Formernuke]

How I spent my summer with a Moscow Plus...View attachment 66550

I’ve really appreciated the reviews and comments I’ve read here on this site and they have significantly influenced my buy decisions. At least I’ll know who to credit or blame…

I’d like to add my (somewhat lengthy) review of my latest electric 2 wheeler.

I recently bought an NCM Moscow plus directly from Leon Cycles, Seattle. Although their website showed out of stock for the model I wanted, Ryan was able to perform some stock exchange manipulations and my 27.5” model was soon on its way.

My comments:

• FedEx sucks. Waited all day for signature-required box only to be notified at 8 PM it was delayed until the next day. Waited all day again, bike arrives with a beat-up box and a broken front fork. Leon rushes a replacement fork to me. Another day of waiting for a signature-required package. 8 PM called FedEx but they didn’t know where it was and put out a “tracer” and would call me back. They never called, waited another day and the replacement fork finally showed up. The bell was smashed too and Leon Cycles sent me a replacement, but it didn’t fit the bars.
• NCM support, at least in the US from Leon Cycles, has been great. Very responsive.

Finally got the bike on the road and these are my thoughts:

• I’m 6’1” but I’m glad I ordered the 27.5” model to give me a little more stand over height as I do a fair amount of off-road and gravel roads.
• The motor is pretty quiet. Got up to 24 MPH on flat ground in a burst in PAS 6. Motor power goes to zero at 22 MPH at PAS 6 and drops about 2 MPH for each PAS reduction. About 8 MPH in PAS 1.
• The derailleurs were pretty well adjusted right out of the box. It shifts pretty good, maybe better than expected for Acera components. Longevity will be the real tale.
• I really like the grips – great palm support for long rides. I may get some for my other bikes.
• I adjusted the bars to place the brake reservoirs vertical and this felt pretty good for my height.
• The tools it came with are actually decent. Too bad there were no wrenches for the rear axle.
• As others have noted, the battery holder mounting screws were loose and the battery rattled and thudded over bumps. The tiniest of screws are used to hold a rather substantial battery so I’ll be checking these often.
• I have a rear disk squeal so I cleaned the pads and rotor with alcohol and realigned the caliper – with no significant improvement.
• The front disk brake was weak out of the box but improved to fully adequate after 20-30 miles. Not as strong as my Trek Cobia, but this is a much heavier bike.
• I set off up some SoCal mountain roads, gaining about 1500 feet in 4 miles, mostly paved. The bike had no issues with the steep grades and the motor and controller were only warm at the top. Pretty impressive although a fair amount of the fully charged battery was consumed.
• Even though I tightened the headset after installing the new fork, it was now loose. Be sure you can’t spin the headset spacers by hand.
• Walk mode is pretty cool, but I found myself simply using the throttle carefully on some technical off-road uphill sections.
• The cadence sensor can be abrupt at low speed and I found myself gently pulling the brake lever (disabling motor power) to execute tight 180’s or using throttle only to get started. PAS 1 is a little gentler in serious technical stuff but still seems to deliver full power on steep low speed uphills.
• I had several loose spokes, as others have reported. Finding a 3.7mm spoke wrench wasn’t happening in my area so I sacrificed a Park wrench and made one.
• There’s not much you can’t climb with this bike, but you have to be in the right gear and wailing on the pedals.
• The display battery voltmeter isn’t especially accurate, measuring 0.3 to 0.8 volts lower than actual.
• The speedo is pretty accurate – I measured about 0.7 MPH optimistic.
• The USB port is handy but would have been better located at the display.
• The C7 display is nice. Bluetooth would have been nice too for mods and stats. I also would have liked to see amp-hr or KW-hr consumption along with the battery meter. This may be a future upgrade I add as I have one on my e-motorcycle.
• The manual says to charge then fully discharge the lithium battery. Bad advice for lithium, as confirmed by Ryan at Leon Cycles. I fully charged then rode until just 1 bar, a total of 23 miles with a lot of hills. A 3rd ride with a fully charged battery got me to 11.3 miles in about an hour with 1 battery bar flashing, but his included a lot of hills. With a 768 W-hr battery, this suggests motor power is higher than the 500 W rated, but there are lots of variables. I was at 24 miles by the time I got back down the hill. I’m not optimistic range will improve after more cycles. Flat land cruising may be closer to their 40 miles or so rating.
• I’m not sure who makes the batteries for this, but NCM/Leon Cycles appears to stand behind them, at least for a year. I’ll be doing capacity testing periodically.
• The charger is nameplate rated at 48V and 3A. I measured 54.5V open circuit (~4.19V per cell, if balanced) and 2.94A at 46.5V battery voltage while charging. Current tapers off as it charges but I haven’t measured the green light cutoff current yet. I’m charging on a timer via a WiFi smart plug so I don’t keep the battery at max voltage for longer than needed. I’m not sure if this charger completely cuts off when full or not.
• The battery charger runs pretty cool as the fan in on continuously. But it’s not especially efficient. I measured 82% efficiency which is on par with other cheap Chinese 120V chargers. I have DC-DC converters which push 97% efficiency that I use on my electric motorcycle, running off my solar charged power wall. I’ll switch over at some point but an extra 5 cents per charge is in the noise.
• I’m not crazy about having both 18mm and 19mm nuts on the rear axle. I’d like to find some common nuts.
• I didn’t think I wanted a bike with 3 chainrings but I’m warming up to it. A wider ratio cassette and single chainring, like some others use, might have been a better choice. If you’re at PAS 6 on flat ground you’ll be on the big chainring.

Upgrades in progress:

• Since I’ve been drinking the Topeak KoolAid for some time now, I installed an Explorer MTX rack and quick connect EX bag. Works great.
• This also leaves the seat stay mounts free for a future ABUS frame lock, if I’m still in the mood.
• And since I’m occupationally obsessed with measuring everything, I’ll add an accurate Hall ammeter, voltage, power, and energy display, similar to my electric motorcycle.
• I’m also working on a charge-while-ride mode from an aux battery to boost my range when I want it. I’ve got several M365 scooter batteries that I’m pretty impressed with. Integrated BMS and great cycle life from LG batteries.

Overall, I’m happy with the bike. I realize this is not intended for Slick Rock Utah trail crashing and jumps, but it’s hard to argue the value compared to other eBikes.

I have one on order.

You have done part of my plan already in installing the topeak rack so thanks for verifying that it can be done. Did you have any issues installing it? Any tips for the installation would be appreciated.

I'm also planning on getting a frame/ Cafe lock for mine. Did you install one yet?

 

[blueskyca]

I have one on order.

You have done part of my plan already in installing the topeak rack so thanks for verifying that it can be done. Did you have any issues installing it? Any tips for the installation would be appreciated.

I'm also planning on getting a frame/ Cafe lock for mine. Did you install one yet?

The only tricky part was the metal bending for the rear seat stay to get it to look decent. I could have mounted the front rack supports to the center bar on the seat stay, but I wanted to leave that open to mount a Cafe/frame lock like you're looking to do. So far I haven't found a frame lock I'm happy with. The ABUS 4960 is readily available and has a "wide" 2.5" opening, but that only leaves about 1/16" on either side without some additional machining. It looks like the ABUS 4650X or 5750L might fit both the tire width and seat stay mounting hole locations, but they're hard to find in the US.
I bought the Topeak rack for disc brakes and it works fine, but I would consider the regular Topeak rack for non-disc bikes if I had it to do again. The rear caliper doesn't extend much past the frame and doesn't need all the clearance the disc brake rack provides. I think you could get away with a tighter fitting rack with possibly a small added spacer on the disc side. I also have an NCM Aspen and really like the fat tire experience. I bought a non-disc brake rack for it and used a small aluminum spacer on the disc side.
And by the way, I served on the USS Seawolf, SSN-575. Sounds like you may also have a Navy nuke background.

 

[Formernuke]

The only tricky part was the metal bending for the rear seat stay to get it to look decent. I could have mounted the front rack supports to the center bar on the seat stay, but I wanted to leave that open to mount a Cafe/frame lock like you're looking to do. So far I haven't found a frame lock I'm happy with. The ABUS 4960 is readily available and has a "wide" 2.5" opening, but that only leaves about 1/16" on either side without some additional machining. It looks like the ABUS 4650X or 5750L might fit both the tire width and seat stay mounting hole locations, but they're hard to find in the US.
I bought the Topeak rack for disc brakes and it works fine, but I would consider the regular Topeak rack for non-disc bikes if I had it to do again. The rear caliper doesn't extend much past the frame and doesn't need all the clearance the disc brake rack provides. I think you could get away with a tighter fitting rack with possibly a small added spacer on the disc side. I also have an NCM Aspen and really like the fat tire experience. I bought a non-disc brake rack for it and used a small aluminum spacer on the disc side.
And by the way, I served on the USS Seawolf, SSN-575. Sounds like you may also have a Navy nuke background.

MM1, SSN 714.

I didn't see the seat mounts your talking about. I'll look at the pictures closer, worse case the Cafe lock doesn't have to be mounted to the holes.

 

[Formernuke]

The only tricky part was the metal bending for the rear seat stay to get it to look decent. I could have mounted the front rack supports to the center bar on the seat stay, but I wanted to leave that open to mount a Cafe/frame lock like you're looking to do. So far I haven't found a frame lock I'm happy with. The ABUS 4960 is readily available and has a "wide" 2.5" opening, but that only leaves about 1/16" on either side without some additional machining. It looks like the ABUS 4650X or 5750L might fit both the tire width and seat stay mounting hole locations, but they're hard to find in the US.
I bought the Topeak rack for disc brakes and it works fine, but I would consider the regular Topeak rack for non-disc bikes if I had it to do again. The rear caliper doesn't extend much past the frame and doesn't need all the clearance the disc brake rack provides. I think you could get away with a tighter fitting rack with possibly a small added spacer on the disc side. I also have an NCM Aspen and really like the fat tire experience. I bought a non-disc brake rack for it and used a small aluminum spacer on the disc side.
And by the way, I served on the USS Seawolf, SSN-575. Sounds like you may also have a Navy nuke background.

My last duty station was NRMD Groton. We called the seawolf uss never sail.

 

[Bitmugger]

I'm also planning on getting a frame/ Cafe lock for mine. Did you install one yet?

I've not successfully got a cafe lock to install at least with fenders on my NCM Moscow+ and my son's Amego Elevate (Moscow copy). I think without a back rack and fenders I could have modified the frame lock to fit but as is I couldn't get it installed.

I tried this one (without success)

M-Wave Frame Lock with Cable Ring Loop, Black : Amazon.ca: Sports & Outdoors

M-Wave Frame Lock with Cable Ring Loop, Black : Amazon.ca: Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.ca

 

[Formernuke]

I've not successfully got a cafe lock to install at least with fenders on my NCM Moscow+ and my son's Amego Elevate (Moscow copy). I think without a back rack and fenders I could have modified the frame lock to fit but as is I couldn't get it installed.

I tried this one (without success)

M-Wave Frame Lock with Cable Ring Loop, Black : Amazon.ca: Sports & Outdoors

M-Wave Frame Lock with Cable Ring Loop, Black : Amazon.ca: Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.ca

I have a plan hopefully in a couple weeks I'll know if it works

 

[Formernuke]

I've not successfully got a cafe lock to install at least with fenders on my NCM Moscow+ and my son's Amego Elevate (Moscow copy). I think without a back rack and fenders I could have modified the frame lock to fit but as is I couldn't get it installed.

I tried this one (without success)

M-Wave Frame Lock with Cable Ring Loop, Black : Amazon.ca: Sports & Outdoors

M-Wave Frame Lock with Cable Ring Loop, Black : Amazon.ca: Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.ca

I have a plan on how to do it. We will see if it works or not.

 

[john peck]

How I spent my summer with a Moscow Plus...View attachment 66550

I’ve really appreciated the reviews and comments I’ve read here on this site and they have significantly influenced my buy decisions. At least I’ll know who to credit or blame…

I’d like to add my (somewhat lengthy) review of my latest electric 2 wheeler.

I recently bought an NCM Moscow plus directly from Leon Cycles, Seattle. Although their website showed out of stock for the model I wanted, Ryan was able to perform some stock exchange manipulations and my 27.5” model was soon on its way.

My comments:

• FedEx sucks. Waited all day for signature-required box only to be notified at 8 PM it was delayed until the next day. Waited all day again, bike arrives with a beat-up box and a broken front fork. Leon rushes a replacement fork to me. Another day of waiting for a signature-required package. 8 PM called FedEx but they didn’t know where it was and put out a “tracer” and would call me back. They never called, waited another day and the replacement fork finally showed up. The bell was smashed too and Leon Cycles sent me a replacement, but it didn’t fit the bars.
• NCM support, at least in the US from Leon Cycles, has been great. Very responsive.

Finally got the bike on the road and these are my thoughts:

• I’m 6’1” but I’m glad I ordered the 27.5” model to give me a little more stand over height as I do a fair amount of off-road and gravel roads.
• The motor is pretty quiet. Got up to 24 MPH on flat ground in a burst in PAS 6. Motor power goes to zero at 22 MPH at PAS 6 and drops about 2 MPH for each PAS reduction. About 8 MPH in PAS 1.
• The derailleurs were pretty well adjusted right out of the box. It shifts pretty good, maybe better than expected for Acera components. Longevity will be the real tale.
• I really like the grips – great palm support for long rides. I may get some for my other bikes.
• I adjusted the bars to place the brake reservoirs vertical and this felt pretty good for my height.
• The tools it came with are actually decent. Too bad there were no wrenches for the rear axle.
• As others have noted, the battery holder mounting screws were loose and the battery rattled and thudded over bumps. The tiniest of screws are used to hold a rather substantial battery so I’ll be checking these often.
• I have a rear disk squeal so I cleaned the pads and rotor with alcohol and realigned the caliper – with no significant improvement.
• The front disk brake was weak out of the box but improved to fully adequate after 20-30 miles. Not as strong as my Trek Cobia, but this is a much heavier bike.
• I set off up some SoCal mountain roads, gaining about 1500 feet in 4 miles, mostly paved. The bike had no issues with the steep grades and the motor and controller were only warm at the top. Pretty impressive although a fair amount of the fully charged battery was consumed.
• Even though I tightened the headset after installing the new fork, it was now loose. Be sure you can’t spin the headset spacers by hand.
• Walk mode is pretty cool, but I found myself simply using the throttle carefully on some technical off-road uphill sections.
• The cadence sensor can be abrupt at low speed and I found myself gently pulling the brake lever (disabling motor power) to execute tight 180’s or using throttle only to get started. PAS 1 is a little gentler in serious technical stuff but still seems to deliver full power on steep low speed uphills.
• I had several loose spokes, as others have reported. Finding a 3.7mm spoke wrench wasn’t happening in my area so I sacrificed a Park wrench and made one.
• There’s not much you can’t climb with this bike, but you have to be in the right gear and wailing on the pedals.
• The display battery voltmeter isn’t especially accurate, measuring 0.3 to 0.8 volts lower than actual.
• The speedo is pretty accurate – I measured about 0.7 MPH optimistic.
• The USB port is handy but would have been better located at the display.
• The C7 display is nice. Bluetooth would have been nice too for mods and stats. I also would have liked to see amp-hr or KW-hr consumption along with the battery meter. This may be a future upgrade I add as I have one on my e-motorcycle.
• The manual says to charge then fully discharge the lithium battery. Bad advice for lithium, as confirmed by Ryan at Leon Cycles. I fully charged then rode until just 1 bar, a total of 23 miles with a lot of hills. A 3rd ride with a fully charged battery got me to 11.3 miles in about an hour with 1 battery bar flashing, but his included a lot of hills. With a 768 W-hr battery, this suggests motor power is higher than the 500 W rated, but there are lots of variables. I was at 24 miles by the time I got back down the hill. I’m not optimistic range will improve after more cycles. Flat land cruising may be closer to their 40 miles or so rating.
• I’m not sure who makes the batteries for this, but NCM/Leon Cycles appears to stand behind them, at least for a year. I’ll be doing capacity testing periodically.
• The charger is nameplate rated at 48V and 3A. I measured 54.5V open circuit (~4.19V per cell, if balanced) and 2.94A at 46.5V battery voltage while charging. Current tapers off as it charges but I haven’t measured the green light cutoff current yet. I’m charging on a timer via a WiFi smart plug so I don’t keep the battery at max voltage for longer than needed. I’m not sure if this charger completely cuts off when full or not.
• The battery charger runs pretty cool as the fan in on continuously. But it’s not especially efficient. I measured 82% efficiency which is on par with other cheap Chinese 120V chargers. I have DC-DC converters which push 97% efficiency that I use on my electric motorcycle, running off my solar charged power wall. I’ll switch over at some point but an extra 5 cents per charge is in the noise.
• I’m not crazy about having both 18mm and 19mm nuts on the rear axle. I’d like to find some common nuts.
• I didn’t think I wanted a bike with 3 chainrings but I’m warming up to it. A wider ratio cassette and single chainring, like some others use, might have been a better choice. If you’re at PAS 6 on flat ground you’ll be on the big chainring.

Upgrades in progress:

• Since I’ve been drinking the Topeak KoolAid for some time now, I installed an Explorer MTX rack and quick connect EX bag. Works great.
• This also leaves the seat stay mounts free for a future ABUS frame lock, if I’m still in the mood.
• And since I’m occupationally obsessed with measuring everything, I’ll add an accurate Hall ammeter, voltage, power, and energy display, similar to my electric motorcycle.
• I’m also working on a charge-while-ride mode from an aux battery to boost my range when I want it. I’ve got several M365 scooter batteries that I’m pretty impressed with. Integrated BMS and great cycle life from LG batteries.

Overall, I’m happy with the bike. I realize this is not intended for Slick Rock Utah trail crashing and jumps, but it’s hard to argue the value compared to other eBikes.

No tire issues with the stock Sams? That was my only real issue other than regular tuning of the non+ moscow mechanical brakes. I´m really fussy about keeping mine totally dialed in; I check tires, brakes, spokes,
& wheel true b4 & after every ride these days. I plan to ride this bike fore the next ten yrs. or ´til thereś a
major break thru in batteries. Charge-while-ride? My solution was to mount the rack higher up with a shelf
for a second battery seen below.(time stamp totally wrong, but old pic)

 

[e-easyrider]

How I spent my summer with a Moscow Plus...View attachment 66550

I’ve really appreciated the reviews and comments I’ve read here on this site and they have significantly influenced my buy decisions. At least I’ll know who to credit or blame…

I’d like to add my (somewhat lengthy) review of my latest electric 2 wheeler.

I recently bought an NCM Moscow plus directly from Leon Cycles, Seattle. Although their website showed out of stock for the model I wanted, Ryan was able to perform some stock exchange manipulations and my 27.5” model was soon on its way.

My comments:

• FedEx sucks. Waited all day for signature-required box only to be notified at 8 PM it was delayed until the next day. Waited all day again, bike arrives with a beat-up box and a broken front fork. Leon rushes a replacement fork to me. Another day of waiting for a signature-required package. 8 PM called FedEx but they didn’t know where it was and put out a “tracer” and would call me back. They never called, waited another day and the replacement fork finally showed up. The bell was smashed too and Leon Cycles sent me a replacement, but it didn’t fit the bars.
• NCM support, at least in the US from Leon Cycles, has been great. Very responsive.

Finally got the bike on the road and these are my thoughts:

• I’m 6’1” but I’m glad I ordered the 27.5” model to give me a little more stand over height as I do a fair amount of off-road and gravel roads.
• The motor is pretty quiet. Got up to 24 MPH on flat ground in a burst in PAS 6. Motor power goes to zero at 22 MPH at PAS 6 and drops about 2 MPH for each PAS reduction. About 8 MPH in PAS 1.
• The derailleurs were pretty well adjusted right out of the box. It shifts pretty good, maybe better than expected for Acera components. Longevity will be the real tale.
• I really like the grips – great palm support for long rides. I may get some for my other bikes.
• I adjusted the bars to place the brake reservoirs vertical and this felt pretty good for my height.
• The tools it came with are actually decent. Too bad there were no wrenches for the rear axle.
• As others have noted, the battery holder mounting screws were loose and the battery rattled and thudded over bumps. The tiniest of screws are used to hold a rather substantial battery so I’ll be checking these often.
• I have a rear disk squeal so I cleaned the pads and rotor with alcohol and realigned the caliper – with no significant improvement.
• The front disk brake was weak out of the box but improved to fully adequate after 20-30 miles. Not as strong as my Trek Cobia, but this is a much heavier bike.
• I set off up some SoCal mountain roads, gaining about 1500 feet in 4 miles, mostly paved. The bike had no issues with the steep grades and the motor and controller were only warm at the top. Pretty impressive although a fair amount of the fully charged battery was consumed.
• Even though I tightened the headset after installing the new fork, it was now loose. Be sure you can’t spin the headset spacers by hand.
• Walk mode is pretty cool, but I found myself simply using the throttle carefully on some technical off-road uphill sections.
• The cadence sensor can be abrupt at low speed and I found myself gently pulling the brake lever (disabling motor power) to execute tight 180’s or using throttle only to get started. PAS 1 is a little gentler in serious technical stuff but still seems to deliver full power on steep low speed uphills.
• I had several loose spokes, as others have reported. Finding a 3.7mm spoke wrench wasn’t happening in my area so I sacrificed a Park wrench and made one.
• There’s not much you can’t climb with this bike, but you have to be in the right gear and wailing on the pedals.
• The display battery voltmeter isn’t especially accurate, measuring 0.3 to 0.8 volts lower than actual.
• The speedo is pretty accurate – I measured about 0.7 MPH optimistic.
• The USB port is handy but would have been better located at the display.
• The C7 display is nice. Bluetooth would have been nice too for mods and stats. I also would have liked to see amp-hr or KW-hr consumption along with the battery meter. This may be a future upgrade I add as I have one on my e-motorcycle.
• The manual says to charge then fully discharge the lithium battery. Bad advice for lithium, as confirmed by Ryan at Leon Cycles. I fully charged then rode until just 1 bar, a total of 23 miles with a lot of hills. A 3rd ride with a fully charged battery got me to 11.3 miles in about an hour with 1 battery bar flashing, but his included a lot of hills. With a 768 W-hr battery, this suggests motor power is higher than the 500 W rated, but there are lots of variables. I was at 24 miles by the time I got back down the hill. I’m not optimistic range will improve after more cycles. Flat land cruising may be closer to their 40 miles or so rating.
• I’m not sure who makes the batteries for this, but NCM/Leon Cycles appears to stand behind them, at least for a year. I’ll be doing capacity testing periodically.
• The charger is nameplate rated at 48V and 3A. I measured 54.5V open circuit (~4.19V per cell, if balanced) and 2.94A at 46.5V battery voltage while charging. Current tapers off as it charges but I haven’t measured the green light cutoff current yet. I’m charging on a timer via a WiFi smart plug so I don’t keep the battery at max voltage for longer than needed. I’m not sure if this charger completely cuts off when full or not.
• The battery charger runs pretty cool as the fan in on continuously. But it’s not especially efficient. I measured 82% efficiency which is on par with other cheap Chinese 120V chargers. I have DC-DC converters which push 97% efficiency that I use on my electric motorcycle, running off my solar charged power wall. I’ll switch over at some point but an extra 5 cents per charge is in the noise.
• I’m not crazy about having both 18mm and 19mm nuts on the rear axle. I’d like to find some common nuts.
• I didn’t think I wanted a bike with 3 chainrings but I’m warming up to it. A wider ratio cassette and single chainring, like some others use, might have been a better choice. If you’re at PAS 6 on flat ground you’ll be on the big chainring.

Upgrades in progress:

• Since I’ve been drinking the Topeak KoolAid for some time now, I installed an Explorer MTX rack and quick connect EX bag. Works great.
• This also leaves the seat stay mounts free for a future ABUS frame lock, if I’m still in the mood.
• And since I’m occupationally obsessed with measuring everything, I’ll add an accurate Hall ammeter, voltage, power, and energy display, similar to my electric motorcycle.
• I’m also working on a charge-while-ride mode from an aux battery to boost my range when I want it. I’ve got several M365 scooter batteries that I’m pretty impressed with. Integrated BMS and great cycle life from LG batteries.

Overall, I’m happy with the bike. I realize this is not intended for Slick Rock Utah trail crashing and jumps, but it’s hard to argue the value compared to other eBikes.

Nice review, thank you, can you tell me how you would do your capacity testing or recommend a good YouTube video perhaps?

 

[blueskyca]

Nice review, thank you, can you tell me how you would do your capacity testing or recommend a good YouTube video perhaps?

I have a few ways to do capacity testing, the simplest being an active electronic load that measures energy and amp-hours (similar to attached
pic) and allows about a 3 Amp discharge rate and is very accurate. This can be connected directly to the battery terminals when it's removed from the bike. I also have several aux batteries that I connect in parallel or set up to charge my main battery (via DC-DC converter) when I go on longer rides and I use a simple hobby power/energy meter to record capacity as they discharge on the bike. Hall power/energy sensors are also pretty cheap and I use one like the other attached pic with my power wall and don't require a shunt for current measurement. Unfortunately, you'll have to get access to the main battery leads (buried in the frame) if you want to test the main battery as you ride.

I'm not sure I'd recommend doing testing yourself unless you're comfortable with electronics. The Chinese load testers have very few protective features and I've already toasted mine once and had to replace some components to bring it back to life. But if you're careful and understand the limitations it can be done pretty easily.

There are other simple methods, like using power resistors, but you may have to do some math to keep from frying the resistors. A regenerative hobby charger is another option if you can find one that can handle 13S LiPo.

 

[Bitmugger]

My review of a 25a shows the test rig I use for testing capacity. It's the same basic meter BlueSky mentioned just a different model, I ordered mine from Aliexpress for like $20cdn shipped then rigged it up with two incandescent light bulbs as resistors as they are super cheap, easy and give a nice visual indication during the test.

There's a mention of it and some pics in this thread

Just received a new Dorado 25ah battery

Thanks for contrastively testing riding in different roads and with different PAS. The bike shuts dowm at 40V, which protects the battery from over-discharging earlier than triggering he BMS protection. Excllent range of 93km on full assist!

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