Nine month review of Urban Arrow

Ever since I saw the first video of the Urban Arrow I knew that I someday had to get one, and some time ago I got one, and this is my review nine months in.

I bought a short bakfiets more than one year ago, it was green and the kids loved it. When the Urban Arrow was released I knew I had to get me one of those, so the kids was presented with two options, either sell our tiny little car, or sell the green bakfiets. Of course they chose to sell the car (which I knew they would say;-) So we sold it and got our selves an Urban Arrow (UA from here on) instead.

We have since we got the UA biked ~1600 km in nine months, which is just over 6 km per day. I have under this time gotten a pretty good feeling of what’s good and what’s not, and here are my ups and downs. If you want a presentation of the UA I suggest you to read Electric Bike Review and BikeMamaDelphia.

Good

• Rock solid quality all way through
• Good controller and engine
• Good choice of gear system
  
  Although my LBS maybe disagree cause the frame and the gear are a bit fiddly to master
• Big box
  
  A 7 year old and 4 year old can sit next to each other
• The rain canopy is REALLY good!
  
  My seven year old can easily climb in and out without any assistance or need to remove the canopy. It's also equal height in both the center of the box as on the sides.

Bad

Is there such a thing as bad things with this bike? Yes there is and here are some points.

• The steering collapsed one day when I hit a big pothole, it was a screw inside the steering linkage that came loose. This was fixed very quickly by the Swedish agent.
• The size of the battery is a bit to small, this seems to be fixed with the newest version that has a 25% increase of battery size.
• Range calculations, they are way of, a trip to the city center can easily consume 5-6km of range, when it's actually 3km. I think this is due to the Bosch system is not adjusted for the weight of the bike, but it would probably be accurate on a regular bike.

Winter

This was a crucial part for me, since we live in a country that has winter 4 month per year. A bit of struggle was to expect but none what so ever has happened. I changed tires to a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Winter and that is basically it. The bike has worked perfectly and I have not experienced any shortcomings when in comes to battery etc.
The bike is very stable when riding through slush and snow, mostly due to its length and weight.

The canopy

Yes, the canopy is so good it's worth a section of its own.
The canopy is constructed around two aluminum "tent poles", going from front up to the back of the canopy. The canopy is hold down with two loops in the back. When you release the loops in the back the canopy flips up a bit and the kids can easily climb in and out of the box, even with winter overalls. The canopy also works as a partial rain protection for the rider so only a small rain jacket is needed.
On of the main advantages with the canopy is the view the kids get, almost full range of visibility, although the mosquito net in the front ruins the view a bit.

Conclusion

So would I buy this again? Oh yes I would, very much.
Should you buy one? I have no idea, this bike fits me and my kids perfectly and solves our problem.

If you want to give it a try in Sweden you can contact Ecoride and find the nearest dealer, or just come visit me in Västerås =)

Cheers!