Yes I bought the 378kwh extender for my Orbea Gain In Jan 2022. It now does NOT require the special bottle cage cradle Shown on the pictures on their website. It now comes with a cable on the bottom of the battery that goes straight into the charge port in the frame. So the volabike extender can be seated in any normal bottle cage. Handy for when bike being used without extender and you want two drinks bottles.
I’m a 95kg rider and been getting extremely good range out of this extender and orbea gain. I did the Cheshire Cat ride last week. Did 138km over 1500m very steep climbs, mow cop 25% gradient etc, and still had 48% battery left.
Have fitted a 36t rear cassette to help spin and it helps the motor from bogging down on steeper climbs. Works very well up to 20%. You are on your own beyond that it feels, or maybe that’s just me at my weight. Climbs like Lance on all the smarties on anything less than 20% gradient. I don’t spare the turbo mode it gets used at 100% 250W. I’ve set middle mode for 80% of the 175W. Eco mode is set at just 65% of the 100W available. These are my custom seeking in the app, but are very close to the apps Sportive Mode settings.
I’ve done a few rides now and I figure with the extender it’s got way over 225km range even on a lumpy English ride. I’m off to the French alps with it in July and I think on the shallower alpine climbs it will be in its element. If you Apollo 13 the sh#t out the battery you could get a Letape or Marmotte done with the extender…. it is a possibility.
The extender battery comes with a handy button when pressed lights up the level of charge bars. Charge the bike and extender both up to 100%. Switch on the bike then switch on the extender which has its own power button. The power then gets drawn in parallel from both. Much better than the mahle bottle which just recharges the bike battery, with all the inefficiencies of that and the extra wear and degradation on the bike battery.
The 378kW extender fits onto a Medium size orbea frame. I’m not sure if it would fit on a Small frame. Maybe the 257W battery would work better on a Small frame bike. The extender battery does not really affect handling too greatly. I descended like a fat man tied to a piano and the bike behaved very well. The weight gives it stability ironically.
In summary the orbea gain battery at 250W +378W volabkie extender gives 628Wh.. So at a fairly useful 100W assist mode setting you should get over 6hours of climb assist. Don’t forget the battery won’t be used on the downhills or long fast flat sections when you are going over the 25kmh limiter. So this set up is a serious days out riding …..
