# Tenways e-bike



## MBosh (10 May 2022)

I have been looking for an ebike that is cheap and seems to tick all the boxes. I've just come across this one (link below) and I haven't seen a bad review about it yet. Has anyone else got one of these, if you have then how are you finding it? Thank you

https://www.tenways.com/products/cgo600


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## ebikeerwidnes (10 May 2022)

Looks pretty good
Only problem I can see froma quick look is the range
it says 43 miles - but this is pretty low considering this is under optimal conditions - hills, wind and cold will reduce it - possibly significantly
Also - range will reduce over time so after a few thousand miles the 43 miles will be lower - maybe 35 or even 30
and - lower range means charging more often - which mean more charge cycles a week/month which also reduces the life of the cells

WHether or not this is a problem depends on how you intend to use it

still - looks nice!


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## gzoom (10 May 2022)

As mentioned in the other post, the bike you have linked appears to have no gears!!!

Even with the motor on max support I the gear range of my Boardman is fully used. Also bare in mind most eBike work best when you are spinning along at 70-90rpm, which clearly depends on gearing, terrain, fitness.

Also be very 'careful' of products on the Internet with zero negative reviews. As they say don't believe everything you read.


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## welsh dragon (10 May 2022)

Looking online it has good reviews. However I suspect it would be morw useable in an urban setting rather than hilly conditions. Worth asking about replacement batteries as it won't last forever and the price of replacement is a consideration you need. Also a belt drive can have advantages if your using it for work in a city.

Horses for courses really. Start with what you want to use it for, then look at bikes that suit that use. 

Good luck.


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## bonzobanana (10 May 2022)

36V 7Ah battery is only about 250Wh or something so a small capacity battery, a lot of proprietary parts and harsh aluminium forks for £1500. I have to say it doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. Seems more about cosmetic appeal rather than good value parts for your money. However I accept the belt drive and other bits are quite nice but its really about whether you want to go down that route of style over function. Gears are super useful on an ebike. There will be plenty of times you run out of charge or face a particularly difficult hill which the 250W hub motor and a single gear won't cope with. 

I think the top end version of the Carrera Impel is £1500 and that has a battery probably about twice the capacity of this one and a decent range of gears over a wide range cassette. It will likely be stronger and more comfortable and have easier to replace parts. You can typically get a healthy discount by buying discounted Halfords gift cards and sometimes there is a voucher code to use or a 10% reduction for various memberships to drive the price further down. You also have a place to bring the bike back to if any problems without resorting to expensive postage costs.


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## MBosh (10 May 2022)

gzoom said:


> As mentioned in the other post, the bike you have linked appears to have no gears!!!
> 
> Even with the motor on max support I the gear range of my Boardman is fully used. Also bare in mind most eBike work best when you are spinning along at 70-90rpm, which clearly depends on gearing, terrain, fitness.
> 
> Also be very 'careful' of products on the Internet with zero negative reviews. As they say don't believe everything you read.



It has a torque sensor, so I don't think you would need to spin along at 70-90rpm like you would with the other kind of sensor. A torque sensor measures how much you are putting in and adapts accordingly.


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## ebikeerwidnes (10 May 2022)

gzoom said:


> As mentioned in the other post, the bike you have linked appears to have no gears!!!
> 
> Even with the motor on max support I the gear range of my Boardman is fully used. Also bare in mind most eBike work best when you are spinning along at 70-90rpm, which clearly depends on gearing, terrain, fitness.
> 
> Also be very 'careful' of products on the Internet with zero negative reviews. As they say don't believe everything you read.



Well spotted - I clearly hadn;t read the spec properly
At that price and with no gears I would suggest looking elsewhere - even Halfords, last time I was in there they seemed to have a new ebike that looked nice!


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## MBosh (10 May 2022)

bonzobanana said:


> 36V 7Ah battery is only about 250Wh or something so a small capacity battery, a lot of proprietary parts and harsh aluminium forks for £1500. I have to say it doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. Seems more about cosmetic appeal rather than good value parts for your money. However I accept the belt drive and other bits are quite nice but its really about whether you want to go down that route of style over function. Gears are super useful on an ebike. There will be plenty of times you run out of charge or face a particularly difficult hill which the 250W hub motor and a single gear won't cope with.
> 
> I think the top end version of the Carrera Impel is £1500 and that has a battery probably about twice the capacity of this one and a decent range of gears over a wide range cassette. It will likely be stronger and more comfortable and have easier to replace parts. You can typically get a healthy discount by buying discounted Halfords gift cards and sometimes there is a voucher code to use or a 10% reduction for various memberships to drive the price further down. You also have a place to bring the bike back to if any problems without resorting to expensive postage costs.



The battery on the Carrera bike you mention is the same 367Wh battery, but takes 5 -6 hours to charge, unlike the Tenways, which takes 3 hours. The Carrea also is around 4kg heavier. The Tenways also use a torque sensor, so it measures what you are putting in and adjusts itself, so would gears still be necessary if the battery doesn't go dead?


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## gzoom (10 May 2022)

MBosh said:


> It has a torque sensor, so I don't think you would need to spin along at 70-90rpm like you would with the other kind of sensor. A torque sensor measures how much you are putting in and adapts accordingly.



Its not about the torque sensor, electric motors do deliver all their torque from almost zero rpm, but most like to 'spin' at a decent speed for maximum efficiency. Going at the same speed with pedals turning at 90rpm versus grinding at 30rpm the electric motor will be much happier at 90rpm.

I'm not at all clear on if Tenways bike has any actual 'gears', but if really has zero gearing options at all than its not going to be a very useful bike unless you are somewhere completely flat. The Carrera eBikes with proper gearing will almost 100% be better bikes.


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## gzoom (10 May 2022)

MBosh said:


> The Tenways also use a torque sensor, so it measures what you are putting in and adjusts itself, so would gears still be necessary if the battery doesn't go dead?



Gears are still 100% necessary on any eBike. The motor on eBikes aren't like the motor on EVs which produce massive amounts of troque and high rpms. Pretty much every eBike onsale is a pedal 'assistance' bike, ie your legs still do MOST of the work, they aren't designed to mopeds where the motor is doing all the work.

If you are already riding a fixie having no gears isn't an issue, but if you are use to normal bike, going to a fixie will be big change - regardless of motor. 

This is my commute to work on my Boardman with a 250watts motor, you can see my cadence is pretty much fixed at 80-90rpm almost regardless of gradient. That because the gearing is doing what its job, letting me sit at a comfortable pace, and the electric motor does the rest to keep my speed at the at 15mph legal cut off. Without gear, my cadence would be up and down all over the place, which is OK, but certainly not ideal.


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## gzoom (10 May 2022)

MBosh said:


> The battery on the Carrera bike you mention is the same 367Wh battery, but takes 5 -6 hours to charge, unlike the Tenways, which takes 3 hours.



You are missing the basic points/facts of the bike. The Tenways has a 252wh battery, so 30% less battery capacity than the Carrera which is why it charge faster - The battery is smaller. 

Having a small battery is fine, my Boardman has a 252wh battery, but thats where efficiency is really important. The smaller the battery, the bigger impact an inefficient drivetrain will have range/usage. As already the Tenways doesn't have gears, which means less efficiency already. Its a hub drive motor, which is again less efficient than a mid-drive unit on the Boardman, and finally its belt drive, again less efficiency. 

So whilst on paper the Tenways looks OK, the more we get into the details, the more its clear its not a very good bike at all, and certainly there are much better and cheaper eBikes around.


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## bonzobanana (10 May 2022)

MBosh said:


> The battery on the Carrera bike you mention is the same 367Wh battery, but takes 5 -6 hours to charge, unlike the Tenways, which takes 3 hours. The Carrea also is around 4kg heavier. The Tenways also use a torque sensor, so it measures what you are putting in and adjusts itself, so would gears still be necessary if the battery doesn't go dead?



The £1500 Carrera Impel 3 has a 496Wh battery which is twice the capacity of the Tenway which is 36V 7Ah (252Wh) so the Carrera has twice as much capacity and that is why the Tenway charges in around 3 hours and the Carrera 5-7hrs because presumably they are both using a 2A charger. Carrera definitely heavier but then its an ebike so that is less of an issue anyway. I think the Carrera is torque sensor based too. It uses the Hyena ebike system. There is no way the Carrera can compete on weight with the Tenway, it has a proper drivetrain and a much heavier battery plus thicker tyres and generally a much stronger frame and forks by the looks of it. The Tenway is designed to be a minimal ebike with a single gear and a very low capacity battery and looks very light construction with even aluminium forks. The Carrera design is really a more functional design. The Carrera will destroy the Tenway for hill climbing because it has conventional gearing the small weight difference won't matter.


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## MBosh (11 May 2022)

@gzoom - What Boardman are you using? I was looking at this one (link below). Do you reckon that one is any good? it's mainly because I have a bad knee ( shattered my knee cap, so knee cap was removed). I can ride a bike still, but after 5 miles pressure on my knee hurts and I then need to carry the bike up four flights of stairs to to my flat.

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/elec...yb-8.9e-mens-hybrid-electric-bike-133934.html

@bonzobanana - That Carrera would be nice, but I wonder if it would be too heavy to carry up four flights of stairs. Plus I wish they would make a bit better looking bike. 

One other thing I forgot to mention. Given energy prices are going up do these E-Bikes cost a lot to charge when it comes to the electricity bill? How many watts do the batteries charge at per hour? Thank again..


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## gzoom (11 May 2022)

I have the Fauza motor powered Boardman, but if 'value for money' is the aim, the Carrera eBikes are fantastic, they just don't look as fancy.

As for charging costs I only get 20 miles per charge due to how I use my bike, so it works out as 80 miles per kWh. You should be paying about 30p max per kWh at present even with increased price rises, so 0.4p per mile.....In comparison a diesel car doing 50mpg at current fuel prices is going to cost you 16p per mile, so the eBike is 40 (Forty) times LESS expensive to fuel!!!

The key bit of 'saving money' with eBikes if that's your aim is the more you use them the more you save. So in that regard the better eBike you buy the more likely you are to use it. The Tenway looks nice but actually on closer examination is very clear the designer/company has picked to focus on appearance over function.....and 100% 5 star reviews, there is only one way ant product gets that, and that's NOT through owner feedback!

If I was buying again, I would probably spend a bit more than wait for the new Canyon hybrid with the upgraded/bigger battery Fazua system. Pricey, but with a frameset from Canyon, Shimano drivetrain, and Fazua motor system you know its going to be good.

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/electr...-bike/roadlite-on/roadlite-on-8-ltd/3215.html


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## gzoom (11 May 2022)

MBosh said:


> Plus I wish they would make a bit better looking bike.l



This is acutally why I choose the Boardman eBike over the Carrera one. Vanity has its price .


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## MBosh (11 May 2022)

@gzoom -Thanks for all the info and also thanks to the other guys for their advice. So is your Boardman bike similar to the one I've linked above, or is it the same bike? Also, when you say you are getting 20 miles per charge, are you having to put a lot of leg work in at that range? What setting do you choose to get the 20 miles?

One other thing I noticed is that the Boardman bike I'm after is £2,299, but it must have gone up by £300 because some reviews have it at £1,999 when it was first reviewed. Is there anyway I can get a discount from Halfords you might know of? Thank again..


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## bonzobanana (11 May 2022)

MBosh said:


> @gzoom - What Boardman are you using? I was looking at this one (link below). Do you reckon that one is any good? it's mainly because I have a bad knee ( shattered my knee cap, so knee cap was removed). I can ride a bike still, but after 5 miles pressure on my knee hurts and I then need to carry the bike up four flights of stairs to to my flat.
> 
> https://www.halfords.com/bikes/elec...yb-8.9e-mens-hybrid-electric-bike-133934.html
> 
> ...



Definitely would not want to carry the Carrera up four flights of stairs or the Tenway for that matter but definitely would prefer the Tenway for that.

I personally wouldn't worry about ebike charging costs because compared to any other sort of transport they are very low and there are many other cost factors with ebikes depending on their specification. Any type of hub motor severely reduces drivetrain wear as it works independently of the drivetrain so can massively extend drivetrain component life so can have a cost saving over a conventional bike in many ways. I.e. much longer chain life, reduced cassette and freewheel wear rate. Larger wheels with chunkier tyres will typically last longer i.e. 700c/29" for example. You can configure an ebike to get maximum riding value. As long as you are careful of the spec of the model you choose and it suits your application then an ebike is a truly fantastic way of travelling at minimal cost.


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## ebikeerwidnes (11 May 2022)

I measured how much it took to charge my Motus some time ago
I seem to remember it was about 22p 
and that was after I came home with no charge left - or - for the pedants because I was told off for saying power when I should have said charge, some months ago - so little charge that the BMS cut the power off to save damaging the battery


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