Well spotted Scaleyback. I have 2 Orbea Gains (D50 & F40), and Ms Richtea has the women's Boardman HYB 8.9e.
The Gain D50 is virtually new, and F40 is bust (eBay bargain/project). It's in the throes of being fixed.
Some history - both purchases were to replace our 20-30 year-old tourers, and the split in choice was financial.
The aim was to get lightweight ebikes - & therefore light but sufficient assistance.
Summary
The Boardman is a marginally better design overall, but at a correspondingly higher price.
The Orbea is better than I expected. I bought it nearly-new as an experiment - expecting to sell it again, but I love it.
Just supposing they were the same price, I'd buy a Boardman/Fazua, but it's not that much better that I'd swap over now.
Even though the bikes are the most basic models available, compared to a 20 year-old steel tourer neither will disappoint. They're close to the weight of a Dawes Super Galaxy (maybe 1-2Kgs more), and they basically let you tackle rides you would have done, well, 20 years ago.
Design
Boardman (Fazua):
- very tidy hub drive & battery design. Properly thought out. Weight is centralised.
- removable battery for easy charging
- better battery connector. Again properly thought out.
- easy to go up & down power levels
- standard wheels (no hub motor) so you can swap wheel sets, if you want
- original battery removal mechanism could be better. I'm OK with it, but a lot of people dislike it, and Fazua have now improved it.
- the hub drive bolts can work loose. Easy to fix if you know how to use a Torx key, worrying if you don't.
- you can't switch the battery on from the handlebar controller. You have to switch the battery on itself first, then insert it. However, it will then stay on idle for 8 hours, so not a big problem.
- pedal backwards and you get a loud clicking noise from the centre hub freewheel. You just learn not to.
Orbea Gain (ebikemotion):
- lighter weight system (but it's only marginal)
- the Orbea is more of a standard ebike design, but well hidden (battery in frame, motor in rear wheel hub)
- non-removable battery (a problem in mid-winter if you have a cold garage like us - you have to bring the bike into the house to charge it)
- 1-button controller cycles through the power settings 1,2,3,0, 1,2,3,0..., not as nice as being able to go up & down with a single click (flat bar Orbeas come with an up/down controller like the Fazua, but not the drop bar models)
- Orbea wheels seem so-so quality with only 1x lacing, but I am a very heavy rider so others may be fine with the standard wheels
Both have mudguard and rack mounting points, and room for wide tyres, so they're very practical if you add the extras.
Both are near-silent, and both roll freely with the assistance off.
Both have 250W motors. Plenty enough for us.
Power
On the flat and gentle inclines/small hills both are a joy to ride. They're both smooth, they both ease off at 15.5mph+ with no issues.
The power levels are customisable on both systems' apps, but we haven't needed to fiddle.
The Boardman seems to give better power at low speeds, ie. crawling up very steep hills, whereas the Gain power decreases at very low speeds. The power is still there, but ideally you need to pedal the Orbea at say 6mph or more, so very steep hills can be a challenge. I get up them (which I couldn't do previously), but you definitely work up a sweat.
I think the difference is that the Boardman/Fazua has a torque sensor to decide how much power to dispense, whereas the Gain just senses the rear wheel rotation - which is necessarily slow up steep hills.
Battery life
Tricky, this one. The Boardman seems to use up battery quicker, but I think it's purely down to Ms Richtea using it more often than I do. She manages 40-50 miles on a charge, I manage 80-100, but that's because I only switch on for the steeper hills. Neither range limits us at the moment.
Reliability
- too early to say. No real problems, but from my second Orbea I can see it's possible that some people might mess up the wheel removal/replacing. The Orbea motor wire needs to be positioned correctly (but copious instructions are given in the handbook).
- Both are completely custom systems, so most/all repairs will have to use OEM parts and the official dealer. That may change in the long term if enough units are sold to create a 3rd party market.
Parts
- I've never needed to buy parts for the Boardman, but some Orbea parts seem a little rare. Not clear why, but possibly all the parts are going into new bikes during Covid-19.
Price
- Fazuas are pricey, with Boardman and Canyon being the 'bargains' at £2200 - 2800
- Orbeas (ebikemotion) are generally £1900 - 2400 for the basic models, a significant saving
The Gain D50 is virtually new, and F40 is bust (eBay bargain/project). It's in the throes of being fixed.
Some history - both purchases were to replace our 20-30 year-old tourers, and the split in choice was financial.
The aim was to get lightweight ebikes - & therefore light but sufficient assistance.
Summary
The Boardman is a marginally better design overall, but at a correspondingly higher price.
The Orbea is better than I expected. I bought it nearly-new as an experiment - expecting to sell it again, but I love it.
Just supposing they were the same price, I'd buy a Boardman/Fazua, but it's not that much better that I'd swap over now.
Even though the bikes are the most basic models available, compared to a 20 year-old steel tourer neither will disappoint. They're close to the weight of a Dawes Super Galaxy (maybe 1-2Kgs more), and they basically let you tackle rides you would have done, well, 20 years ago.
Design
Boardman (Fazua):
- very tidy hub drive & battery design. Properly thought out. Weight is centralised.
- removable battery for easy charging
- better battery connector. Again properly thought out.
- easy to go up & down power levels
- standard wheels (no hub motor) so you can swap wheel sets, if you want
- original battery removal mechanism could be better. I'm OK with it, but a lot of people dislike it, and Fazua have now improved it.
- the hub drive bolts can work loose. Easy to fix if you know how to use a Torx key, worrying if you don't.
- you can't switch the battery on from the handlebar controller. You have to switch the battery on itself first, then insert it. However, it will then stay on idle for 8 hours, so not a big problem.
- pedal backwards and you get a loud clicking noise from the centre hub freewheel. You just learn not to.
Orbea Gain (ebikemotion):
- lighter weight system (but it's only marginal)
- the Orbea is more of a standard ebike design, but well hidden (battery in frame, motor in rear wheel hub)
- non-removable battery (a problem in mid-winter if you have a cold garage like us - you have to bring the bike into the house to charge it)
- 1-button controller cycles through the power settings 1,2,3,0, 1,2,3,0..., not as nice as being able to go up & down with a single click (flat bar Orbeas come with an up/down controller like the Fazua, but not the drop bar models)
- Orbea wheels seem so-so quality with only 1x lacing, but I am a very heavy rider so others may be fine with the standard wheels
Both have mudguard and rack mounting points, and room for wide tyres, so they're very practical if you add the extras.
Both are near-silent, and both roll freely with the assistance off.
Both have 250W motors. Plenty enough for us.
Power
On the flat and gentle inclines/small hills both are a joy to ride. They're both smooth, they both ease off at 15.5mph+ with no issues.
The power levels are customisable on both systems' apps, but we haven't needed to fiddle.
The Boardman seems to give better power at low speeds, ie. crawling up very steep hills, whereas the Gain power decreases at very low speeds. The power is still there, but ideally you need to pedal the Orbea at say 6mph or more, so very steep hills can be a challenge. I get up them (which I couldn't do previously), but you definitely work up a sweat.
I think the difference is that the Boardman/Fazua has a torque sensor to decide how much power to dispense, whereas the Gain just senses the rear wheel rotation - which is necessarily slow up steep hills.
Battery life
Tricky, this one. The Boardman seems to use up battery quicker, but I think it's purely down to Ms Richtea using it more often than I do. She manages 40-50 miles on a charge, I manage 80-100, but that's because I only switch on for the steeper hills. Neither range limits us at the moment.
Reliability
- too early to say. No real problems, but from my second Orbea I can see it's possible that some people might mess up the wheel removal/replacing. The Orbea motor wire needs to be positioned correctly (but copious instructions are given in the handbook).
- Both are completely custom systems, so most/all repairs will have to use OEM parts and the official dealer. That may change in the long term if enough units are sold to create a 3rd party market.
Parts
- I've never needed to buy parts for the Boardman, but some Orbea parts seem a little rare. Not clear why, but possibly all the parts are going into new bikes during Covid-19.
Price
- Fazuas are pricey, with Boardman and Canyon being the 'bargains' at £2200 - 2800
- Orbeas (ebikemotion) are generally £1900 - 2400 for the basic models, a significant saving
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