I wanted something special for my first pedelec. Something other than a bike with the ingredients that I am familiar with as a mountain biker and racing cyclist. The Merida E-Spresso Sport 400A with continuously variable hub gears and a powerful Performance Line drive from Bosch with a 400 Wh battery seemed to be just the thing. My idea for the bike: I wanted to do spontaneous everyday errands and occasionally ride distances of up to 80 kilometres. Special mission: individual trips to the lake with a trailer and kitesurfing equipment - including the trailer with an additional weight of around 25 kilos.
The good first impression after delivery of the bike was followed by the first disillusionment: during the first few rides (without a trailer), the motor occasionally switched off abruptly. The electronics could only be reactivated after a short break. It turned out that the battery was defective and had to be replaced by the manufacturer. Well, that can happen. After that, however, the hoped-for carefree drive fulfilled my expectations. At least over a longer period of time.
Pedalling with the geared hub was unfamiliar at first: you select the desired pedalling frequency on the control instrument - for example 90 revolutions per minute - and the electronics and the Nuvinci Harmony hub take care of the rest, i.e. selecting the right gears. When starting off, you have to pedal faster to get the bike moving easily. But just in time, before your legs start whirling like a sewing machine, the hub adjusts continuously until the pre-selected speed is reached. The gearbox then always selects the ratio so that this frequency can be maintained. A slightly disconcerting feeling, especially on hilly terrain: you glide through the landscape with the same pedalling motion, and the electronics only switch back automatically on steeper climbs. And the technology actually works! Only towards the end of the two summers of use (1,000 kilometres) did slight problems arise: It sometimes took a very long time for the cadence to be downshifted after starting off. The gearbox then remained in "sewing machine mode". The phenomenon did not occur constantly, but frequently. An enquiry with the manufacturer revealed that in some cases faulty gearboxes had been installed. This could have led to the aforementioned problems. Improvements have now been made to the current model series.
The seating position on the E-Spresso is comfortable, so you don't have to worry about back pain even on long tours. The add-on parts such as mudguards, pannier rack and lights are of good quality. Nothing rattles or wobbles, the bike has a very high-quality finish. The disc brakes work perfectly with their defined pressure point.
The unusually high power consumption for the Bosch motor was striking. This was probably caused by the automatic hub, whose poor efficiency I had already noticed during the initial battery failures. If you want to keep the bike moving without motor assistance, you have to work against a very high resistance. In my opinion, the remaining kilometre display hardly corresponded to reality. In high assistance mode, the figure dropped rapidly (to under 40 kilometres with a full battery) - and even faster with a trailer on the bike. However, if you avoid the Sport and Turbo modes as far as possible and focus more on the bars on the charge level indicator when it comes to range, 70 to 80 kilometres (without a trailer) are feasible, and even more on flat terrain. On longer journeys split into two - 40 kilometres to work in the morning and home again in the evening - I recharged the battery at the office to be on the safe side.
Conclusion Matthias Rotter, E-BIKE tester: "The high-quality and solidly built E-Spresso left an ambivalent impression: on the one hand, the fascinating technology of the automatic hub. On the other hand, the rather high power consumption and a certain unreliability of the electronics."
The balance sheet
- Conversions: Fitting a trailer coupling (Chariot)
- Wear: no significant wear during the test phase
- Defects: first battery defective (25 km); replacement by the manufacturer. Automatic gearstick no longer reliable (from km 720)
PLUS Maintenance-free drive, powerful disc brakes, comfortable seating position
MINUS Increased power consumption due to the hub, partly unreliable electronics, somewhat rear-heavy (gear hub)
The complete article was published in E-BIKE issue 1/2017. You can download the issue in the MYBIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or in the DK-Shop order.
