The whole may be less than the sum of its parts

I ordered my Lectric One ebike (L-1) on March 15, 2024 when it was announced. I finally received it on July 19. It was worth the long wait. Now I have ridden 600 miles on the L-1 and have refined my opinion on this ebike.

I already owned an ebike, an Evelo Aurora, but was not totally satisfied with it. Primarily the frame did not fit me well, especially because my neck is fused, and it is impossible to tilt my head back to see where I am going.

I was floored by the low ($2200) cost of the Lectric One, especially with its non-dérailleur-shifting transmission, Gates belt drive, and very powerful 750-watt motor. It also has an adjustable stem, so the frame geometry can be adjusted for my body. It is a very different bike from my Evelo.

Most obviously, the L-1 has smaller wheels, and the battery is behind the seat post. Missing are the shocks in the front fork. I opted to buy the Lectric shock-absorbing seat post and comfort seat. I will replace the seat with the leather one on the Evelo as soon as I get to it. Note that I already moved the Evelo saddle bag to the L-1.

The front handlebar is very full:

From left-to right are: Rear-view mirror; left brake lever; combination speed controller/throttle; necessary cell-phone holder; control screen; front reflector; horn; manual shifter; right brake; and right rear-view mirror. There is room for nothing else!

You will notice the mess in my Atrium. Despite Lectric advertising no tools needed for assembly, you will need an assortment of metric hex wrenches (2 are included with the mirrors), two expensive torque wrenches (calibrated in Newton-meters —don't bother looking at Home Depot), and metric male hex drive to 1/4" socket driver wrenches. Unlike the Evelo, every bolt has a torque spec. The needed male hex sockets have not arrived yet, so I have not torqued things. The rear axle bolt was torqued a lot tighter than the spec, and I am wondering whether to loosen it.

Speaking of bolts, the L-1 has numerous connection points on the frame for attaching racks, water bottles, etc. I wish the screws provided were longer—i had to get a water bottle bracket with less height under the provided screws.

Also, do not ask your PhD scientist friend to help with assembly.  He managed to disassemble the front brake while trying to install the front wheel, so I had to wait another week for a replacement part before my first ride. Fortunately, replacing the brake was in principle easy, but the handlebars reversed themselves and I almost removed the wrong brake. I ended up rewrapping all the cables 4 times.

The L-1 has a bunch of settings (visible in the control panel), but they are labeled P1–P22. You can't tell the players without a scorecard, and not all P# values are listed in the manual (but they DO have settings). Lectric says that the missing P#s are not to be changed. They are for things such as the battery voltage. The important one that I changed was to remove a speed limit on the lowest 2 power levels. Lectric says these limits are to prevent beginner ebikers from being over powered. Each higher power level drains more watts from the battery, so why would you not want to always stay at the lowest power compatible with your muscles and the speed you want to travel at. Why can't the settings be listed as a menu of functions instead of a cryptic set of numbers?

Why do I need a cell phone holder?—To display the necessary Pinion Smart Shift app. Initially the Android app crashed upon starting, but a Pinion update fixed this. Unfortunately, the app could be greatly improved. It serves three purposes after you pair your phone (via the app and Bluetooth) to the shifter.

1. It syncs your particular shifter to the app. (You can hear the gears whir while this happens.)
2. It lets you select your preferred mode.
3. It displays your current gear so that you can learn to use the Pinion properly. For example, there is no point downshifting manually if you are in the lowest gear. It is here that the app fails because the gear display is tiny and unreadable when attached to a vibrating handlebar. It is even hard to read on the screen shot! Pinion says that there is no way of making the gear display larger. Lectric has talked to Pinion about this.

The Pinion app will not connect to the shifter unless the power is on, and (maybe) unless the power assist level is above 0. If the app fails to connect, you must restart it. There is no "try again" option. If it still will not connect, hold down the lower shifter control until a blinking blue light appears (that enters pairing mode also). Then for me, the app connects. Speaking of lights, the Pinion manual claims that there are lights on the shifter that indicate the gear. There are no such lights on my shifter.According to Pinion: 

"There is no full automatic shifting with our Smart.Shift system.
There are the Start.Select and the Pre.Select functions. Start.Select function is obvious and according your description you are using it.
Pre.Select funtion is, so to say, a semi-automatic function. It will not change gears automatically when you are pedalling. It will perform gear shifting when you are rolling and the speed is changing so it doesn't fit the present gear and the target cadence. Typical case is, you stop pedalling when approaching a red light. As speed is reduced (without pedalling) the Pre.Select will shift down according to the speed. The system will also shift up, when for example you are rolling down a hill and accelerate without pedaling."

The Pinion shifter is very different from the Enviolo shifter on my Evelo bike (don't get the names confused!). The Pinion has 6 discrete gears, and you can feel and hear them shifting when you manually press the shifter lever. The Enviolo shifter is more of a CVT transmission; it shifts gear automagically, and I was never aware of its working.

I wish I knew more about how the shifter interacts with the power assist on the L-1. I am still figuring this out. I ended up usually riding in power level 2, which let me pedal at about 18 mph with a moderate amount of effort. This is a big improvement over the Enviolo system which left me at 19.5 mph with very little effort (and thus exercise). But a slower speed would be fast enough for a bike path with people, dogs, and other bikes. It is hard to ride at say, 10 mph on either bike. And there is a huge amount of power (compared to the Evelo) that made itself apparent on the steepest hill, where I only needed power level 4). Less steep hills were easily conquered using level 2 or 3. I could feel and hear the system whining as it applied power to enable climbing the hill without too much extra effort. In other words, the system let me pedal using a nearly constant effort independent of the terrain. But I had to shift manually. The Pinion gear box is noisy. No communing with nature while you ride. On the flip side, pedestrians can usually hear you coming (if not wearing headphones or earbuds). You definitely want a loud electric horn!

The L-1 control panel can use some improvement in addition to the P# indicators which are displayed when you press both the + and - keys on the power controller. The battery indicator seems useless. I rode 15 miles today, and it says that the current range is 36 miles, but the battery indicator is still all green. I would also like to see the time of day.  

Today, going out the front door, the left-hand mirror snapped off. Be sure to mount it so that is is flippable from front to back while the mirror is in a vertical position. But the mirror attachment point is really a poor design. It is weak plastic and about .25" in diameter.

Lectric eBikes has great support! A replacement for the above mirror was ordered in just a few hours!

The L-1 is not an easy bike to ride

I am still learning to ride this bike. I have now ridden it over 650 miles in 16-mile chunks. There are many things to adjust.

Starting is challenging. With my preferred seat and handlebar settings, there is really not enough room for me to straddle the frame, so I start on the left side of the bike with my left foot in the pedal and swing right foot through the frame. This can be tricky because the bike is accelerating at the same time, and may wobble. Starting to cross a road can be scary, and I try not to do this from a stop.

The real problem is that no power is supplied if you are not pedaling (or pressing the paddle on the power switch). Thus. the power is applied suddenly. Be sure to NOT set the power to be applied immediately upon pedaling—allow a 1–2 second delay. For example, one of the steepest hills I encounter is at the start of a 90-degree left turn, and there is a ditch at the far side. One must approach this turn slowly (I fell once, slipping on wet leaves). But the sudden acceleration. to power level 4 makes the bike somewhat unstable, and it is a challenge to make this turn. If someone is walking down the hill, this is especially difficult.

So far as I can tell, the Pinion shifter is an electric shifter, and not an automatic shifter. It does shift down to your preferred starting gear when you are stopped. To quote from the Lectric Web site: "This ebike gives the convenience of push-button electronic shifting with Pinion's Smart.Shift technology. Inspired by the intuitive dynamics of automotive paddle shifters, the Pinion gearbox delivers unmatched shifting performance." Indeed, the electric shifter works well when I manually change the gears. But overall, the gears are too low. I need a higher gear than level 6. I never seem to go below gear 3. I finally got totally annoyed at the Pinion downshifting every time I coast (you can avoid this if pedals are horizontal), so I turned this function off.

The L-1 is perhaps overpowered. I can get up really steep hills at power level 4; I can accelerate up the hills at level 5.

I would gladly pay hundreds more for a front suspension. I actually got the City of Oak Ridge (TN) to fix the huge root heaves on the paved bike trail, but smaller ones remain and can shake you enough to unseat your feet from the pedals. Even though I know the trail well, now that it is strewn with fallen leaves and painted by tree shadows, it is hard to see where the bumps are. I replaced the comfort seat and post (which I did not like) with a Cane Creek Thudbuster, and a proper leather saddle.

These absorb the bumps for my rear end, but if I grab the handle bars tightly, the lack of a front fork shock absorber shakes my whole body.

Summary

In summary, I have not yet decided which ebike I prefer. Tomorrow I am going to refresh my feelings about the Evelo Aurora. Check back here for more thoughts on the subject.

Comparison between Lectric One and Evelo Aurora