We’ve had our Wattwheels Scout LS XT bikes for a fortnight now and put a couple of hundred km on them. We love them. Let me tell you why.
Introduction
We’re a few years into retirement. I own a bike (a hardtail mountain bike,) and in earlier years had owned a couple of street bikes. Cycling was, back then, my go-to form of exercise, but over the last decade or so had been eclipsed by hiking. My wife, Clemency, hadn’t really ridden a bike since she left school. She loves walking as much for the camaraderie as for the exercise, so expeditions on foot are always included as part of the trips we make, towing our small caravan to remote parts of Aotearoa.
As we have aged we have, unsurprisingly, slowed down a bit, so we decided to trade in the walking shoes for e-bikes. We wanted something that would take us around hilly Dunedin, where we live and along some of the country’s many cycle trails. I wanted something on which it would be possible to do the ride from North Cape to Bluff, and Clemency wanted something safe and easy. We wanted to take the bikes on caravan trips, but recognized that on a small van like ours, no matter where we placed a bike rack, the weight of two e-bikes would seriously impact balance and handling. So we decided on folding e-bikes which could be carried inside our car. There’s a few folding e-bikes around, but I didn’t like the ones I tried. I’m 6ft 1in and weigh 95 kg, and they all felt cramped and small. Most had a payload which would be stretched to the limits when me and enough gear to sustain me on a month’s ride were loaded on to them. I think I examined every folding bike available in New Zealand, until, at Dunedin Electric Bikes in North East Valley, we tried out the Wattwheels Scout XT and were so impressed we bought two of them on the spot.
Wattwheels is a New Zealand company which makes three folding ebikes, all called "Scout", two of which have rear hub drives and derailleurs, and our one (the XT) which has a centre drive and hub gearing. They are all solidly made of strongly welded aluminium and have their large batteries mounted behind the seatpost. The XT has a 300 watt, 48 volt Dapu motor with a stonking 100 nmh of torque, delivered at 5 levels of power assistance. It comes with a choice of either a 16 Ah or 17.5Ah Samsung battery and has Shimano 7 speed internal hub gears. The power assistance is governed by torque sensing rather than cadence, so it is pleasantly predictable and gradual and a thumb throttle gives the option of not peddling at all if that’s what you want. There are Tektro hydraulic disc brakes with big 180 mm rotors, fat little 20 inch tyres, suspension front forks and a suspension seat post for the wide and comfortable gel seat. The pedals are little folding plastic jobs which I find a bit small and a bit slippery, especially if my shoes are wet. I may yet swap these out for something a bit bigger, time will tell. There is a solid carrier welded firmly on the back and a tough little basket bolted on the front. All the wiring is marine rated, so should be durable and water resistant. This is a solid bike, with strong, high quality componentry, as is testified by a fairly generous warranty: 3 years on the frame and 2 years on motor, battery and electric components.
Handling and performance.
These are not small bikes. With all that quality gear, and the big battery and the solid frame, they weigh a little under 30 kg each, but the centre of gravity is very low and in use they feel very stable and well sorted. The hub gears are incredibly simple to use and Clemency’s wish for a safe and easy ride to assist her learning curve has been answered from day one. The claimed top speed is 40kph, so on the first day of ownership, on a flat path and with a slight head wind, I tried that out and found it to be accurate, though my legs were rotating as fast as I could manage. Several times, coasting downhill I have exceeded the top speed by a fair margin, but the bike has never felt unsafe. The disk brakes are sure and reliable, the frame, despite its folding mechanism is nicely rigid, and steering is precise and stable.
The controls are simple – a twisting gear shift on the right and a little control panel on the left. The control panel has a few quirks (that’s how you turn on the tail light? Really?) and the few information options are not very customizable. But, it does the job and it's pretty easy to understand. There is a small manual, which is available online, which is just as well, as the ones we got with our bikes were for a different model. There are a few omissions in the manual - Instructions in some basic adjustments (such as the reach of the brake lever, and how to tighten the handlebars) would be helpful but I did find the things I needed to know online.
These bikes are cruisers, built for comfort and stability. If you want to go fast, get something with curly handlebars and a high, skinny saddle. If you want to go down rocky mountain trails get something with weird looking suspension and knobbly tyres. The riding position of the Scout XT is very upright, which I find comfortable after the accustomed head down tail up posture of my previous bikes and I hardly need to use the padded pants and gloves which I have been used to. The bike invites a leisurely tootling along, with legs rotating, seemingly with little resistance. It all seems very easy, and relaxed until you glance down at the speedo and realise that that big beefy motor is doing a pretty decent job and that, actually, you’re going fairly quickly. Around town, on the flat, with power assistance set at its lowest level, I cruise around at 23-25 kph. On a longer ride on one of the city’s bike trails, with PAS set to 3, cruising speed is around 30kph, give or take. Dunedin has some formidable hills, and I’ve been up a few of them with no problems at all, hardly breaking a sweat as I crest the ridge at a steady 15kph. We chose the bigger of the two battery options but now wonder if we should have saved a bit of money by choosing the small one. So far our longest ride has been 40km, which included a couple of km up a fairly steep hill. This ride lowered the battery gauge from its five bar “full” to 3 bars, so I can believe that the claimed range of 120 km+ might be possible, with low PAS settings and flat terrain. This is not a mountain bike, but it does OK on grass and gravel. It’s all so easy, and it’s a lot of fun.
Portability
The bike folds up by way of a solid metal hinge in the frame, and another hinge at the base of the handlebars. The clasp which holds the frame hinge shut is plastic, which looks solid enough, though I might have been happier with aluminium. Folding is simple but not particularly easy, and once the bike is folded down, with the battery removed, it forms an irregular package weighing about 25kg, and measuring almost a metre on its longest axis. It has lots of little protusions to get caught on things, and it has no securing straps, so it can flop about in an unpredictable manner. Many people can lift 25kg, but remember, that when putting a folded e-bike into a car you are holding it at arm’s length and trying to manipulate it into a tight position. It’s tricky. We have a Kia Sportage and with the back seats folded down we can get the 2 bikes into the car… Just. There’s not much room for anything else. The portability of the bikes meets our expectations but there are other reasons people might want folding bikes where the Scout XT would be a bit of a disappointment. I wouldn’t want to take it with me on public transport, for instance, or try to carry it up a flight of stairs to an office or a first floor flat. This is a folding e-bike, and in this case the emphasis is firmly on the “e-bike” part of the description, rather than the “folding” part.
Conclusion
It’s the things which make portability so tricky which are the bike’s greatest strengths. This is a solid, stable, comfortable bike, capable of going very long distances at impressive speed. It has high quality componentry, a powerful motor and a huge battery. It’s easy to ride and a few plastic peripherals notwithstanding, should be durable and tough. It’s quite at home on pavement and on gravel bike trails and can also manage firm sand and grass. It will fit in the boot of many cars, but you might want to try it in yours before your fork out your money. It’s well equipped and quite funky looking. It handles well – a bit like a Vespa – stable, steady and lots of fun. I have had not one second of post purchase dissonance since I got it, as I know there isn’t anything else quite the same on the market: a folding fat e-bike with hub gears, centre drive, front suspension, a suspension seat post, hydraulic disk brakes and a range of 100 km or so. I find myself, every day, dreaming up excuses to take it out for a spin. For this level of built and these features, I’m prepared to lose a little sweat getting it into my car.
Specifications
| Dapu MD250 48V 300Watt - torque sensor |
| 48V20Ah Samsung Li-Ion (960W/h) |
| 16 Inch Alloy 6061 |
| Up to 40km/h |
| 40km Throttle only, Up to 80+km Pedal Assist |
| Tektro Hydraulic E500 with brake light feature, 180/160mm Rotors |
| Shimano Nexus 7 Speed Hub |
| Shimano Revo Shifter 7-Speed |
| 44T * 170mm |
| DPLCD -P Dapu easy to read display |
| RST Suspension Fork 60mm Travel |
| MTB Tyre 20*3inch |
| Sans 48V2.5Ah Smart Charger |
| Large Memory Foam |
| KMC 7 Speed |
| 28.6/31.6 Alloy |
| Sealed bearing |
| Ergo Velo 140mm Lock On |
| Yes |
| 29kg (includes battery of 4.0kg) |
| Camo Green or Matt Blue |
| Full Comprehensive - 3 years frame, 2 years motor/battery/display and 12months mechanical components |
| 130Kg Total load weight |
| Width - 600mm, Height 680mm, Length 940mm |
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