Modmo's new Saigon ebike is an odd take on the electric commuter road bike, but one we think might work well. With a front hub motor, a modular snap-on/snap-off accessory system and a claimed 124-mile range, it looks like a tidy little package.
Perhaps the frame is a good place to start. Made from 6061 aluminum, it's slim, attractive and pretty darn stealthy for an ebike. The removable battery, all 18.5 Ah / 666 Wh of it, fits in the cylindrical downtube and does a remarkable job of not looking like a battery at all, and both the crank and the rear hub look oddly clean for an ebike.
That'll be because the Saigon runs its hub motor on the front wheel; the crank basically only needs torque and cadence sensors for this system to work just fine. Still, the back end is kept super tidy with a Gates carbon belt drive. If you want gears, you can have 'em with the addition of an internally geared hub at the rear, a Shimano Nexus system.
Brakes are Tektro hydraulics, and the hoops are WTB Horizons, a light off-road tire that looks like it won't offer too much rolling resistance on the pavement. There's no suspension, so a bit of tire thickness here will at least do something for the ol' backside. There's a nicely designed shortie front fender, which is handy, and lighting is integrated front and rear, with the nice addition of electro-luminescent painted parts that act as turn signals.
The frame has modular mount points on the front and rear that can accept a range of click-in accessories; baskets, kid seats, racks, boxes and whatnot. You can also use the front mount point to accept your charger if you don't want to pull the battery out.
Tech-wise, it rocks a GPS with its own 4G data connection for location tracking and security. There's motion sensors that operate like a power switch; when you move the bike, it turns on, and when you put it somewhere still, it turns off. So don't take it on the train, I guess. A Bluetooth connection lets you run the show through your smartphone, or there's a 3-inch screen in the nice-looking handlebar unit.
Modmo claims you can get up to 200 km (124 miles) out of a single charge. That would seem a stretch to us from two-thirds of a kilowatt hour of battery and a hub motor. Then again, the motor is an EU-legal, 36-volt 250-Watt weenie with five power levels, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility on the lowest possible setting with lots of downhills and never exceeding the pathetic EU-mandated limit of 25 km/h (15.5 mph). And the whole bike apparently weighs a pretty amazing 13.9 kg, or less than 31 pounds, so you're moving a significantly smaller mass around than on many ebikes. Realistically, if you ride it like most folk want to ride their ebikes, a quarter of that range might be closer to the truth.
That would still be practical for most folk, and the Saigon is a pretty tight-looking and well thought-out little package. It's on pre-sale now for a 5 percent deposit on a €1,999 (US$2,238) price tag, which sounds like a decent deal to us for a nice custom frame with all those goodies. Deliveries are expected in September. Check out a short video below.
Source: Modmo
The mud guards are sufficient for most environments. There is a safety recall issued and the company looks like it's going into receivership due to several incidents of the battery falling out onto the floor. The bike has been very successfully competing against the top brands in Germany which has hoovered up 86% of the companies total sales. Although only a few bikes are involved and an easy 'fix' has been devised the recall has proven too costly for the new company - a great pity if they disappear.