PDB415
Member
Here is my review of the Zen Samurai that I picked up in Ashland Oregon this week:
Background: I have a cool fat tire Rohloff hub hard tail and a Pinion drive Priority 600 for my on and off road biking. My wife did not like riding with me because she had trouble keeping up. I bought her a Specialized Como early in 2020 and she has loved it so far. She went to not being able to keep up to smoking me effortlessly up hills in San Francisco. The two issues I have with her bike are that the frame is a size small and the seat cannot be raised high enough for me to ride comfortably and secondly she does not let me ride her bike at all as she thinks I am too hard on it. I rode it one and only one time and had a blast. I started looking in to Ebikes for myself and was trending towards the Reise and Muller high end bikes. With price tags of $10k+ I was not interested. I found the Zen page on the Electric Bike Forums back in late June and connected with Ravi. I really gravitated towards the components he was advertising and thought his bike looked like a low maintenance beast. Ravi kept me in the loop as the bike developed.
First Ride: I took the bike on a 22+ mile trip starting on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, around the Marin Headlands, across the bridge and diagonally across San Francisco. 90%+ of the trip was paved although some of it was more pothole than road. My assist level was 50% eco, 30% tour, 14% sport and 5% Turbo. I only used turbo when I was on a road known for heavy traffic and I did not want to get run over lollygagging up the hill.
Things I liked: This is by far the heaviest bike I own and as such it was rock solid. It handled great at speed which was really nice. The brakes were very competent and I only doubted them once. The assist levels are easy to switch through as needed and the Rohloff E-shifting is pretty damn cool. The headlight and brake lights are really nice though I was riding in broad daylight. The combination of the front fork and Kinect (sp?) seat made the bike feel like a full suspension bike as far as absorbing potholed and rough pavement. There was one hill on the Marin side that was 15% downgrade for 3 miles. Me plus the bike lock plus the bike had a difficult time slowing down. In all fairness the road bikers passed me but I was not comfortable with their speed. The brakes did a great job on every other hill and there were some steep ones. The Rohloff E shifter worked really great overall and I especially liked that it reset to 5th gear after a full stop. The handlebar grips were very comfortable.
Things I wasn’t crazy about: There was a little motor noise that was audible when I was on a road with no cars or wind. It wasn’t bad but it was there. As soon as there was traffic the motor noise was 100% gone in to the inaudible background. I have heard the noise goes away or gets lower with some breaking in. The noise was quieter in the mid gears and louder in the lower gears when I was ascending hills and the motor was working hard. I have a manual Rohloff bike with a twist shifter so I am already used to having to come off the pedal force to get a shift. This is especially true when going uphill. The Eshifter is cool but the same rules apply, you are going to have a difficult time shifting is you are putting torque on the pedal.
For some reason the Kiox display and my phone did not record my route but they did record statistics from the ride such as distance, time, max speed, average user power. I am confused as to how it got this information but not the actual path I took. I am sure this is user error and I do not put it on the bike at all.
Overall: This is a great Ebike and if you are looking for one I would buy this again. I look forward to riding the bike more and when I transfer closer to home I could see myself commuting on this great bike. I cannot overstate how solid and stable the ride was. I am a complete novice when it comes to ebiking but I won’t be for long. I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence.
Edit: I got home with a little over 70% of the battery left meaning I could have kept riding in brutal hill country for another 40 or so miles or 60+ miles in total. My legs would not have survived. If I would have stayed in eco mode I am sure I could have done 100+ miles as long as my legs didn't jump overboard and leave me.
This is half way down a 3 mile 15% grade hill
Background: I have a cool fat tire Rohloff hub hard tail and a Pinion drive Priority 600 for my on and off road biking. My wife did not like riding with me because she had trouble keeping up. I bought her a Specialized Como early in 2020 and she has loved it so far. She went to not being able to keep up to smoking me effortlessly up hills in San Francisco. The two issues I have with her bike are that the frame is a size small and the seat cannot be raised high enough for me to ride comfortably and secondly she does not let me ride her bike at all as she thinks I am too hard on it. I rode it one and only one time and had a blast. I started looking in to Ebikes for myself and was trending towards the Reise and Muller high end bikes. With price tags of $10k+ I was not interested. I found the Zen page on the Electric Bike Forums back in late June and connected with Ravi. I really gravitated towards the components he was advertising and thought his bike looked like a low maintenance beast. Ravi kept me in the loop as the bike developed.
First Ride: I took the bike on a 22+ mile trip starting on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, around the Marin Headlands, across the bridge and diagonally across San Francisco. 90%+ of the trip was paved although some of it was more pothole than road. My assist level was 50% eco, 30% tour, 14% sport and 5% Turbo. I only used turbo when I was on a road known for heavy traffic and I did not want to get run over lollygagging up the hill.
Things I liked: This is by far the heaviest bike I own and as such it was rock solid. It handled great at speed which was really nice. The brakes were very competent and I only doubted them once. The assist levels are easy to switch through as needed and the Rohloff E-shifting is pretty damn cool. The headlight and brake lights are really nice though I was riding in broad daylight. The combination of the front fork and Kinect (sp?) seat made the bike feel like a full suspension bike as far as absorbing potholed and rough pavement. There was one hill on the Marin side that was 15% downgrade for 3 miles. Me plus the bike lock plus the bike had a difficult time slowing down. In all fairness the road bikers passed me but I was not comfortable with their speed. The brakes did a great job on every other hill and there were some steep ones. The Rohloff E shifter worked really great overall and I especially liked that it reset to 5th gear after a full stop. The handlebar grips were very comfortable.
Things I wasn’t crazy about: There was a little motor noise that was audible when I was on a road with no cars or wind. It wasn’t bad but it was there. As soon as there was traffic the motor noise was 100% gone in to the inaudible background. I have heard the noise goes away or gets lower with some breaking in. The noise was quieter in the mid gears and louder in the lower gears when I was ascending hills and the motor was working hard. I have a manual Rohloff bike with a twist shifter so I am already used to having to come off the pedal force to get a shift. This is especially true when going uphill. The Eshifter is cool but the same rules apply, you are going to have a difficult time shifting is you are putting torque on the pedal.
For some reason the Kiox display and my phone did not record my route but they did record statistics from the ride such as distance, time, max speed, average user power. I am confused as to how it got this information but not the actual path I took. I am sure this is user error and I do not put it on the bike at all.
Overall: This is a great Ebike and if you are looking for one I would buy this again. I look forward to riding the bike more and when I transfer closer to home I could see myself commuting on this great bike. I cannot overstate how solid and stable the ride was. I am a complete novice when it comes to ebiking but I won’t be for long. I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence.
Edit: I got home with a little over 70% of the battery left meaning I could have kept riding in brutal hill country for another 40 or so miles or 60+ miles in total. My legs would not have survived. If I would have stayed in eco mode I am sure I could have done 100+ miles as long as my legs didn't jump overboard and leave me.
This is half way down a 3 mile 15% grade hill
