Hi All,
Can't find any reviews on the Kogan Fortis 700C BAFANG Mid-Drive Electric Bike
link: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/fortis-700c-36v-bafang-mid-driv…
If you have bought this bike, I would love to get your thoughts:
Thanks for any comments!
I’d hazard that it’s only a $300 bike with so electric bits thrown on. Zoom forks are rubbish. It’s got a freewheel hub too. Usually only found on low end stuff. The brakes are no name, they won’t be great.
I was hoping for someone who had bought it to tell me their thoughts but I do appreciate both your feedback.
It has made me rethink in buying an off the shelf ebike…I'm now considering getting a bike and buying a converting kit. At least I would get a bike with good parts :)
There is some advantage of buying an off the shelf model such as this. Everything is made to work together and there is a warranty.
If you want to buy a decent e-bike, you have to pay for it. They aren’t cheap.
It's quite easy to do a DIY bike. I converted my $800 Trek Marlin with a $400 hub wheel and $550 battery.
It goes 50km/h and if I was being generous (i.e only going 30-40km/h) it could probably go 40-50ks on a full charge.
I ordered one last night, planning to use it for commuting, will let you know how it turns out
How does it turn out for you?
So, I will need to sit down and write a long in depth review.
There is a flaw with this model that Kogan fails to accept at this stage, the battery will fall out when riding and hitting a bump. I have been through two bikes now, the second having the battery fall out only after 2.5km. Bumps don't need to be incredibly large railway tracks or potholes will do the trick and you will find your battery along the road behind you, hopefully a car hasn't hit it. Besides that I like the bike, shifting gears is a bit poor with decent delay in some gears.
I was weighing up getting a refund or getting another replacement (just to prove there is a fault in the product as it should be recalled)
We found the issue, the locking mechanism has been labelled incorrectly on both bikes, so lock is actually unlocked and unlocked needs to be selected.
Battery now stays in place correctly.
Kogan have been great at shipping replacements, lets hope third times a charm.
Mileage is about 25-30km, 60KM is an unrealistic figure unless you padel 70% of it.
Max speed is 25km/h with 250W motor
You do get what you pay for.
In this case it's a $600 bike with $900 worth of electrical motors/gears etc.
The suspension is extremely entry level, along with the drivetrain.
The brakes themselves are hydraulic which is good, but don't expect them to be able to pull up the bike on a dime.
It'll be fine for commuting, just hope you don't run out of power as these can easily surpass 30kg. Oh and winter would cause havoc on some of these parts.
Bafangs have proven to be fairly reliable alternatives to the Bosch or Shimano drives, just from experience they're more jerky and not as smooth in the power delivery.
If you never try a Shimano/Bosch motor you won't know what you're missing, but then again you'd look at another $1500 for one of those.
on high assist and fairly hilly terrain i feel you'd look at 50k's, low assist and you'll probably get around 80-100k's