Orbea Gain Volabike range extender

[youngoldbloke]

Anyone using one of these? Looks interesting.

 

[richtea]

No experience, but I do note the smaller ones seem to be just as expensive as the official Mahle extender, i.e. about £400-500 for around 200Wh.
The larger one (500Wh) looks like better value, and you could probably do day-long rides before charging.
However, the translation to English says they're 'exhausted'. Made me chuckle anyway.

 

[youngoldbloke]

- at around £380* for 250Wh., that's almost 50Wh. more than the Mahle one and £170 cheaper. I've read that it works differently - in parallel with the main battery rather than being in effect a powerbank. I also think the smaller one looks a lot neater than the Mahle X35 one.

*edit: around £400 with carriage. I don't know if the price they quote includes UK VAT and taxes.

 

[Pale Rider]

There's no magic wand here, it's just a spare battery.

What you cannot know is the quality of the cells used to make it.

Given there's very little price difference, I would stick with the Mahle version as giving me the best chance of getting something decent.

 

[Scaleyback]

Well, Volabike do say they use top quality cells, LG or Panasonic.
It's not exactly 'cutting edge' technology is it ? Providing there is anecdotal evidence 'out there' of tests and satisfied users I would be happy to purchase. Not that I need an extender at this time.

 

[Cheadle8]

I tried going down the DIY Range Extender route with a Chinese battery, and ended up with a minor disaster. What nobody tells you is that the charging point on the bike is also connected to the CAN bus. I touched the wrong pins and managed to create a momentary short which damaged the BCM (battery control module) contained within the battery. Net result was a new battery. I had looked at the Volabike solution, but it's unclear whether they take account of the CAN bus. The only guaranteed solution is the (quite expensive) official Orbea Range Extender.

 

[meckers]

Anyone using one of these? Looks interesting.

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 …..

 

[youngoldbloke]

Thanks, sounds just the job. I tried very hard to purchase one of these but Volabike sent me an invoice including Spanish VAT, having originally promised to bill me without. I got the impression they didn't understand how exporting to the UK worked post Brexit and I gave up worried I'd be faced with paying both Spanish and UK VAT. How did you find the process of buying from them?

 

[meckers]

The order process was simple and all just as per the online purchase in your "basket" press click and pay. The initial bill excludes import duty which comes later. I dont have that invoice to hand but it was a further £100 + pounds of import duty that was added post purchase upon entry into the UK. So you pay the EXTRA to the carrier. There was an invoice that came with all that from the carrier UPS............so i suspect that is why you drew a "blank" from Vola bike itself as they DO NOT deal with the import costs direct, its the carrier importing it into the UK who will provide that invoice. Hope this helps clarify your query.

All i can say is the thing turned up and works extremely well. Would recommend. Its attached to my bike on my profile picture.

I will have a dig around to see if i still have the invoice and let you know the exact details

 

[youngoldbloke]

I've just tried the site and it comes up with 449 euros, inc 77.93 euros VAT 'estimated for UK' - at today's exchange rate that would be around £380. So with the extra £100 that would be around £480. If you don't mind me asking is that roughly what yours cost? Was the extra £100 collected for import duty or UK VAT? A good saving on the Mahle anyway.

edit - just remembered you bought the 378 Wh one so my figures don't really apply Still interested in how the extra was described as I thought import duty on rechargeable batteries was minimal.

 

[quilkin]

Looks interesting, but it comes with it's own charger, which (presumably) doesn't have the same plug as the bike 's own battery. That makes it unattractive for touring purposes, where the charger(s) need to be carried with you. If using the Mahle extender, however, I assume that has the same charger port as the bike.

 

[meckers]

I've just tried the site and it comes up with 449 euros, inc 77.93 euros VAT 'estimated for UK' - at today's exchange rate that would be around £380. So with the extra £100 that would be around £480. If you don't mind me asking is that roughly what yours cost? Was the extra £100 collected for import duty or UK VAT? A good saving on the Mahle anyway.

edit - just remembered you bought the 378 Wh one so my figures don't really apply Still interested in how the extra was described as I thought import duty on rechargeable batteries was minimal.

Yep it was around £480. Over 550 euros I recall. Yes I got the larger battery. The duty was paid to ups as the carrier before they released the delivery to my address. That’s the process. Was about £100 ish. Still adding all this up it’s better value than the standard marble battery and works better in parallel rather than just the charger for the main battery.

Did the 144 km white horse challenge on Sunday 10th April. 1650m climb some excessive use of the Red zone on the steep sections. Still had 32% battery left. I’m over 95kg. Averaged just under 25kmh did it in just under 6 hours.

Volabike battery well worth the investment

 

[meckers]

Looks interesting, but it comes with it's own charger, which (presumably) doesn't have the same plug as the bike 's own battery. That makes it unattractive for touring purposes, where the charger(s) need to be carried with you. If using the Mahle extender, however, I assume that has the same charger port as the bike.

Yes it’s got a separate type of charger to the main bike charger. Weighs very little and compact. So it’s easy to carry. The gain of having the bigger parallel battery far out weighs the downside of carrying a little charger in my view.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Yep it was around £480. Over 550 euros I recall. Yes I got the larger battery. The duty was paid to ups as the carrier before they released the delivery to my address. That’s the process. Was about £100 ish. Still adding all this up it’s better value than the standard marble battery and works better in parallel rather than just the charger for the main battery.

Did the 144 km white horse challenge on Sunday 10th April. 1650m climb some excessive use of the Red zone on the steep sections. Still had 32% battery left. I’m over 95kg. Averaged just under 25kmh did it in just under 6 hours.

Volabike battery well worth the investment

Thanks - I didn't purchase due to the confusion regarding VAT. If I understand the government information correctly the import duty on Lithium batteries is 2%. So have you paid VAT twice? Pre Brexit the Volabike version would have been considerably cheaper than the Mahle one.
If you disregard that it sounds as if the Volabike extender might be a better choice!

 

[quilkin]

The volabike extender can't be used as a charger for the main battery. That makes it no good for me, since I wanted to be able to charge my bike if I can't get the bike near enough to a power point (for touring purposes, e,g, in hotels, cafes).
This is the response from Volabike:

No, you can´t connect the extender when the main battery is low power.
Our extender can´t be used as a charger. It only can be used as parallel battery, so it has to be connected to the bike when the main battery is 100% charged.

Connecting the extender with the battery with low power, may block the battery because the high current introduced by the extender, so avoid this situation.

although full marks for their support team for answering my email first thing the next working day!

So I will have to wait until the official Mahle unit is available somewhere..... doesn't seem to have been for at least 6 months