Veloelectrique.co.uk review or comments?

[Doms]

I’ve been thinking about getting a cargo trike for a while now but have been stumped by the vast range of options available. With the exception of a few British manufacturers, they either appear to be “Expensive, Fab & European” or “Cheap & Chinese”.
I can’t really justify £2500+ for the European models but I am worried that the Chinese trikes will just fall apart after 3 or 4 years.
So does anybody have any experience of veloelectrique.co.uk ?

They appear cheap but they look identical to the Chinese models (that I have been warned about by The School Run Centre) that look great for 18 months but then apparently attract rust and maintenance issues.
http://jxcycle.en.alibaba.com/product/688573772-213110848/Electric_cargo_bike_for_children.html
These seem to sell for $650 or £400

I might go and test ride one but am worried that whilst they look great now, what will they be like in 3 years time?

I asked the owner of velo-electrique.co.uk (Jeremy) but he has only started importing them from China this year and only used one for 500miles of testing, so couldn't really comment on their longevity
Guess I don’t want to fall victim to the ‘fancy website but crap product’ scenario !

Thanks in advance
Milly
xxx

 

[Pale Rider]

The rear of the trike in the link is fairly standard cheap Chinese.

Nothing wrong with that, some give quite good service.

Buying direct from China can be cheap, but you may get stung for import duty.

Trying to check that in advance is all but impossible, so that's the chance you take.

There is also no warranty, you might be lucky and get a good trike that works out of the box, or you might have to source some spare parts.

Bits for the ebike part are readily available, but you will be paying for those and need someone to fit them.

Longevity is the big unanswered question, it might soldier on for years or it might fall to pieces around you in months.

Have a go on one, the 250w motors do a reasonable job on a standard bike but may struggle to shove the trike bits along.

You will need to put some effort in to keep moving, particularly up hill or into a head wind.

I see the UK seller is asking £1,395 for one, which is a lot more than the base price form alibaba, but as I said earlier, you won't know the true cost until you get it, unpack it, build it, test it, and fix anything that needs fixing.

http://www.veloelectrique.co.uk/product/cargo-trike-standard-black-red/

 

[Doms]

Thanks for your advice, Pale Rider.

I wasn't planning on importing that cargo trike directly from China, I was concerned that if the Chinese company is selling them for only £400, then they wouldn't be very good quality.

A ‘bike geek’ friend (thank you Jim !) did some research for me about these trikes and found this post where Jeremy, the owner, stated that the build quality was “interesting” and “the paint is a bit brittle”.
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/14509-electric-tricycle-legality.html

As this is quite an investment I am going to keep looking for a quality 2nd hand cargo trike rather than the Veloelectrique option.

Hopefully something will come up locally on ebay, unless anybody on here in the N4 area has a trike for sale?

Milly xxx

 

[Tom_trike]

Hi Dave here. I don't usually do cycle forums but thought I'd join to add my expereince to this post.
My wife and I brought a Velo Electrique from veloelectrique.co.uk in 2014 as with times getting harder we thought it would be an ideal alternative to running a second car.
As a concept the Velo Electrique trike is a great idea. Most (~80%) of our car journeys are less than 3 miles around town so an electric trike with loads of space for the kids and shopping with the electric assist was a great idea.
In general the Velo Electrique trike has been okay-ish, but there have been some issues with it....
We have had problems with the stiching on the seatbelts coming undone and the pedals needed replacing after 8 months.
The raincover is very flappy and sags in the middle quite a lot and its as streamlined as a brick !. The instruction manual for the trike advises that zips on the raincover openings should not be used as they are quite fragile and may break! Whats the point of producing a manual advising people not to use zips that are on the raincover, why not just make the zips better?!

My major gripe though is with the electric motor in the rear wheel. We use the trike with our two kids (5 and 7 yrs) plus shopping and the motor struggles on some hills. I've seen the same motor advetised on ebay for bicycles so I wonder if the motor was originally designed for bicycles with one rider rather than trikes with loads of stuff. The instruction manual advises getting off and pushing when you encouter a hill.... This is proberbly why how Velo electrique manange to claim 50 mile range (my record is 25miles). If you have to push it up the hill then you are only usuing the lectric motor for the flat and downhills !
The brake balance is the other pain; it seems that no matter how much I tweak the front brakes I can not get them to brake both at the same rate. If the left one brakes first its not so bad but if the right one brakes first it pulls the whole trike into the middle of the road which has caused a few scares for me and car drivers.
I was a bit annoyed becuase I got the impression from their website that the trike was a quality product made in England, when it was actually one bloke importing the trikes from China, repainting them and replacing the bolts with stainless steel bolts.

Having said that, the trike has been okay but its obvious that its been built to a price (more than likely the £400 the Chinese are charging ex-shipping and ex-vat)

So would I buy another electric cargo trike? Yes deffinatly
Would it be another Velo Electrque? Nope