Gocycle G4 Review: Cool electric bike with a foldable design

Image credit : Electric Bike Report With the convenience of being something you can quickly take up and store in a corner of an office or small flat, foldable bikes come with a very obvious trade-off: some limitations in the cycling experience. Usually, prioritizing one of those above the other will entail making some compromises. However, e-bikes provide a method to avoid some of that trade-off by improving cycling performance without significantly increasing mass. The Gocycle G4, which offers good performance in a smartly constructed package that is easy to pick up and carry around, is a great example of how well that recipe can work.

Excellent design

An employee of McLaren's performance division launched the English startup Gocycle. The initial concept was to create a bike that could transport people to and from a train station while still folding up neatly enough to be transported on the train. As a result, the design is highly customized. It has a few common parts, but the frame and the majority of the components were developed specifically for Gocycle. The good news is that the flexibility from having to use elements that were predetermined allowed for some genuinely original features. However, it also means that you must purchase standard-sized accessories from Gocycle if you desire them, like as mudguards or a rear rack. If you purchase parts off the shelf, there's a good chance they'll be the wrong size or incapable of fastening to the frame.

Fully folded

What benefits does customization allow for? The list is rather lengthy. The G4 has a set of legs that neatly tuck up against the frame when not in use in place of a typical kickstand. When one is pushed down, the other two stretch out and extend to form a sturdy tripod with the back wheel that keeps the bike upright even when it is entirely folded. When the bike is entirely collapsed, a piece of bungie and a clasp are tucked into the frame. The bungie is the perfect length for the clasp to latch onto a knob on the handlebars, keeping the bike in the folded position even if you lift and move it. [caption id="attachment_175456" align="aligncenter" width="1946"] Image credit : Electric Avenue Sports[/caption] Before attaching the assembly to the frame, the seatpost can be used to adjust the height and lock the seat in place in a tube that is not a part of the frame. The seat can be removed using this design without affecting the adjustability. In addition to a handy handle for securing the assembly onto the frame, Gocycle has carefully tucked an allen wrench for adjusting the seat height into the bottom of the seat itself. Last but not least, the majority of e-bikes with a single suspension mount it on the front wheel, cushioning abrupt braking on heavy frames. The G4 has a much more comfortable ride when you're sitting down because it doesn't have a big frame and the suspension is on the back wheel. Also read : Google lays out its next steps for snuffing out Chrome tracking cookies The bike's designers definitely put a lot of effort into all of these design choices. Two other bike features don't function as well. The G4's front wheel-mounted motor created a challenge throughout the toughest ascent.