Batribike Perdu
The Perdu from Batribike is an instantly attractive bike, comprehensively specced with a 7 speed Shimano Twistrgrip Nexus Hub, the attractive blue frame features an elegant, low stepthrough, the design is simple, functional and wieldy, adding high quality, ribbed, silver grey mudguards and chainguard has avoided any hint of bling, sorry for the cliche but the looks are genuinely – well – classic actually.
Theyve gone for it with aluminium handlebars and wheel finishing as well, ProMovec offer a range of handlebar controllers and Batribike have specced the best version in the range (in my opinion), a small, easy to read LCD panel next to the left hand, ergonomic hand grip.
Everything on this bike is nice, they’ve opted for a hub brake on the back wheel and slotted in an Axa wheel lock where you might expect the brake calliper to be.
Add in seat post suspension, a hel packed, high quality saddle, rear rack, integrated LED lighting and you have a particularly well specified bike that is ready to go.
The really clever thing about riding this bike is the ProMovec control system, I always expect a little bit of ‘grab’ on a bike with a front hub motor but the Danes have woven a really impressive ‘soft start’ system into their software – no idea of how they did it but it feels at once powerful and easily controllable – extremely pleasant and a very safe feeling.
So far I haven’t mentioned the big deal about this bike – where is the battery? Other manufacturers have come up with a variety of ways of disguising the battery installation on electric bikes but as far as I know hiding the battery in the chain guard is a first, especially as this is a full sized 10.2ah battery with high quality (Panasonic) cells, owners can charge their battery on or off the bike and ProMovec offer a very robust battery warranty for two years with an option to upgrade to 5 years as an extra cost option.
So it’s well specced, well built and it looks nice but what’s it like to ride?
Really pleasant doesn’t seem like a strong enough recommendation but it should be, this is a lovely bike, it pulls away beautifully and without fuss, it does everything it should do and it does it with style and with ease, it has one of the quietest hub motors I have encountered yet is is incredibly strong, it really does flatten those hills and makes riding so effortless and you soon find your self using very few gear changes and letting the natural rhythm of your riding adapting a measured and easy going style whilst actually whizzing along at pace, the riding position is at once comfortable and controlled – you really can take it easy on this bike and it motors along with ease although a 100kg 62 year old has plonked himself in the saddle.
I am the first to admit that not everybody will fall in love with this bike in the way that I have, a lot of blokes just won’t buy stepthroughs, a lot of people want ferocious ‘grunt’and simply do not appreciate the subtlety of power delivery that the Perdu delivers and then there is the decal, a narrow band of bicycle wheel decoration running along the downtube, not very obvious but not very manly either, it doesn’t bother me but driving a Mazda MX5 doesn’t bother me either.
£1399 makes it quite expensive for a front hub bike but this really is a quality bit of kit, don’t take my word for it, come and see one, better still, come and ride one or ask us to bring one to you to try.
Batribikes all come with free Datatag security etching and although the Perdu has high quality Schwalbe puncture resistant tyres we also fit WheelGoo puncture preventative to the tyres as well.
John Miller
Hereford Electric Bikes
Hereford Electric Bikes 