Daymak smart bike review Toronto

[Toronto_ebiker]

Daymak 2009 smart electric e-bike/scooter

This review of the daymak electric bikes should help you decide whether or not the daymak scooter are right for you.
I had been looking at e-bikes for quite some time trying to decide if I would use it enough to justify spending $1400
on an electric scooter. I have always liked the idea of electric powered vechile due to that fact that they do not pollute
and they are very inexpensive to operate and repair.

Last week I decided that I would purchase a smart bike from daymak in Toronto and take advantage of their no pst/gst sale they were offering.
The prices of their ebikes were also going to change due to the strengthening US dollar which would add an additional $100 to
the bike. When I got to the store there were no customers so I approached the front desk to inquire about the bike that I was
interested in. The sales associate and I walked over to the e-bikes so I could get a better look and ask some questions.
After comparing the smart bike and the Austin I decided to purchase the smart bike due to the advertised range capabilities. Unfortunately
I was not able to test drive the bike since it was raining out, but trusted the bike would perform well and would satisfy my e-bike needs.
I had to wait for two days until I could pick up the bike since It had to be inspected by a mechanic to make sure it was
in working order for warranty purposes. After two days I finally had the bike in my hands and could scoot around my neighbourhood. My first impressions
were that it had plenty of power for my needs, but the steel frame was flimsy and the steering column would flex when you applied the front
brake, but aside from that everything seemed to be ok. When I checked the tire pressure the tires were only inflated to 20psi
when they should have been closer to 40psi. I specifically asked at the store if the tires were properly inflated and the associate helping
me bent down and squeezed the tire with his hand and replied "yes", hmmm.... not a very accurate way of testing the pressure, strike one.

After riding the scooter around my neighbourhood for a few days the fairing where the front light attaches to started to break off and the front wheel
well cover broke off completely arggg. strike two. Unfortunately daymak does not warranty these pieces so If I wanted them replaced I would have to
purchase replacement. I decided to fix them myself with fiberglass as well as some of the other fairings that seemed weak.

My first long distance test was to a clients house and back which was a total round-trip distance of 30km. I made it to their house using the
battery alone with no pedal assist and without incident (aside from the SUV that almost u-turned into me). On the way back my battery started to die
about 10 km from home and I was not a happy e-biker especially when people and pedal bikes were whizzing past me at 25km/h, strike 3.

It would have been fan'freakin'tastic if the instructions or the people at daymak mentioned to me the the switch under the seat that appeared
to turn the bike on and off was actually meant to switch between the two battery packs the e-bike carried. I did not realize I was using the small 7ah supply
and I could have switched over to the 15ah pack and made it home no problem. Thanks daymak.

Aside from the above incidents the e-bike is acceptable and you get what you pay for. I have closely examined the e-bikes
from mobilityunlimited and there bikes have more rigid frames and better quality motors. I would not buy another product
from dayak and would rather spend a few hundred dollars more to get a higher quality bike. Although all the e-bikes appear
to look the same, they are not.

Hope this review helps you decide if daymak is for you.

Link to Daymak Smart e-bike pdf: http://www.daymak.com/bikes-toronto/assets/eb-br/smart08ss.pdf

 

[fechter]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like it needs a little reverse engineering and design improvement. That's the fun part to me. :wink:

 

[recumbent]

My neighbour bought an ebike very similar (but not as nice) as the one pictured above, and the brakes failed within one summer of easy riding.

The speedometer is inaccurate by 9km/h, too fast, (ofcourse). top speed was only about 22km/h. Whenever she goes over bumps the thing would rattle horribly. I like all the lights though, even the handle bar ends light-up at night.

The good thing about her purchase was she only paid $500 for it. I'm sure it's a lesser model than yours, but it worked okay for one summer anyway.

 

[Toronto_ebiker]

That's no good for your friend. The bike is pretty useless without brakes. My bike makes rattle noises too when I go over bumps, but I'm not sure if there is anything I can do to stop them. I will give daymak some credit towards the wiring harness and electronics which seem to be top notch. I was riding it home in pouring rain a few nights ago and there was absolutely no problem with the bike at all.

 

[Toronto_ebiker]

UPDATE:

I have rode my scooter almost 100km and love it. There have been no other issues with the bike since my first post. I crossing my figers that the city of Toronto legalizes these type of vehicles once the pilot ends in October 2009. They are a fast and efficient method of traveling short/medium distance.

 

[Monsoon ebiker]

Mobility Unlimited Mobility Unlimited Mobility Unlimited bla bla bla

They sell mobility scooters and electric bikes. Right.

You're promoting a company that provides 30 day warranty on their bikes and charges over $300 for 1 year warranty on motor and frame. The old man there will tell you one price and his Midland/Kingston dealer will quote you $500 more for the same bike. Mobility Unlimited thinks were dumb buyers and they are using the web posting negative reviews about their competition. My friend bought a Diablo there and they would not even replace a broken mirror after having it for 2 days. The frame on the steering looks like it's made of old scrap metal that's been glued together not to mention the crappy wiring job the bike has. If you want a honest dealer then look elsewhere. Oh yeah, just ask the old fart there what he thinks of Obama as President.

 

[supernovadramaqueen]

Daymak is THE WORST company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. I purchased my bike about 14 months ago and have only been in possession of the bike for about 5 months of that.the rest of the time it has been in their shop being"fixed" by their so called mechanics.only problem is the almost never manage to fix the problem even though they have the bike from 3 weeks to 3 moths each time it is sent back.also when i get the bike back not only is the problem not fixed but they have usually broken something else and or left body pieces off the bike completely.Virtually nobody is helpful at all with the exception of the manager Tom and they are generally rude once they get your money.AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS.it is a total waste of money and i would have returned my Gatto a long time ago if that were possible.they have suspect merchandise and getting your bike bike from them when they are supposed to be repairing it is akin to pulling teeth.a management structure appears to be absent at best and the "mechanics " have no idea what they are doing. furthermore ,upon researching i noticed they have an F rating from the better business bureau which is the worst rating possible.

 

[ebkr]

Yeah, it's not easy for everyone at the beginning of something that isn't turned yet mainstream, but has all the potential to do so within decade or less. It reminds me those early days of car industry back in 18th century. Everyone has issues... sellers... buyers... Everybody suffers from lack of skilled mechanics, knowledgeable and experienced stuff, complete absence or poor quality of parts, not so perfect design and all kinds of weaknesses and imperfections... I had a chance to work at Daymak in 2009 and even though I had to leave the company shortly after few month because of my urgent and long 6 month trip to Ukraine, I clearly remember those days when we received Smart bikes for the first time. They were the best bikes we ever had... Lots of batteries and room for the luggage, not too skinny, not too fat, yet not too heavy... Great mileage and streamlined design... Very affordable price... Even I wanted to get one for myself despite I had one already! The truth is that the problem is not in the bike, since any imperfections can be ironed out within the short time. The problems are in people. We are the failing link in a chain. When there is something you've never dealt with before, and you have to learn everything bit by bit by yourself out of nothing or worse, out of your own mistakes... no help, no literature, no forums, no documentation to read, no magazines, no courses or colleges or universities to attend and learn about that something so novel, it alone can put a lot of pressure on human being, driving them even crazy sometimes, let alone the huge financial risk of the owners entering such a new market segment even before there is a firm law to let you be successful in this sort of trade! If they did so, that must be truly because of their own firm belief that that IS actually the future. And if you ask me to point my finger at who was rude person out there, I simply won't be able to do that because even those 3 or 4 month that I was working at Daymak have been quite enough to realize how great people I were working there with and how much I can learn from them... Mike Smiley, called so because of the smile on his face no matter how hard was the day or how many customers he had to help during the day, Zenon doing impossible things possible in order to keep parts stocked at least at a minimum level... always nice and kind Savanna, taking hundreds of phone calls daily, small fraction of which would instantly kill probably me... and yes, Tom, whose natural charm and grace were all the time as a good example and the main reason for everyone to keep cool and not to go totally crazy about all kinds of issues, pressure and workload... People are people, and always be... No wonder that after I come back to Daymak after my long trip to Ukraine, I couldn't find a good half of those working with me just these 6 month ago. It's not that easy to withstand so much stress and pressure beginning something nobody did before you, and yet always succeed in that at the same time no matter what. We all learn from our mistakes and improve... I can say that judging by myself. Even after almost 2 years as independent e-bike mechanic, I still have lots to learn and I know that I'll have to learn even more if I want to stay in that field and be able to help others with all kinds of issues and problems. It's the very same story as with computers I'm fixing already for more then a decade and still have to learn how to fix them today... That's the life... The crazy life in the 21th century...
I'm not affiliated with Daymak since I've left the company more than a year ago, nor am I authorized by Daymak or anybody else to write anything here. It's not my intention at all to say actually something good or bad here about Daymak or any other company in TO. It's just very sad to see all the efforts and really hard work of so many people to bring the brighter future to masses are being totally leveled, scrapped or actually annihilated without a second thought by such a complaints. It's even more sad to watch the newly born industry failing so often and almost falling apart because people don't understand that we are all in the same boat. The boat that can sink, or the boat that can stay afloat... It's up to us to make it sink and die in the car smog or from a lung cancer, or unite our voices and efforts and together reach the brighter and smogless future for our city and the next generation. All I would ask to remember all of you, folks, doesn't matter - buyers or sellers, or servicemen... We all standing at the very beginning of something wonderful and great, good by it's nature for most of us, something we all have been waiting for so long, a freedom in the commuting for so many people, a revolution in a Megapolis transportation... The Great Entering of the Individual Electric Transportation Industry into it's reign and power without any fanfares, but rather through the pain and all kinds of difficulties, limitations, skepsis and disbelief in our daily lives, in the mainstream to save our city, our planet and our future... So whatever was your story, good or not so good, did you suffer or just plain enjoy, you are the part of a history, the history of Toronto. So let's do everything we can together - sellers, buyers and servicemen, to make that history great and the transition to a new mod of a city commuting smooth and as easy as possible on all of us and I hope our children will thank us one day for this great gift for them sometime... That's all I've got to say...

 

[dnmun]

don't take his flaming personally. he is new.

if someone is getting into ebikes now, they should know a little about how to use a voltmeter and how to diagnose their problems on their own. otherwise the risk of being stranded over a simple problem like a loose connector or over discharged battery can totally ruin an otherwise productive use of the ebike.

it helps for people to toss their bike problems up here for newbies to read about how to fix stuff, gives them the courage to try to do stuff they likely have never had to do, maintain their transportation personally. like the original motorcyclists had to learn to do.

all imho

 

[Hillhater]

Any company or shop manufacturing , selling or servicing a product on a COMMERCIAL (for profit) basis has to meet a certain standard of acceptability.
Products must be "fit for purpose" and sales people must represent the products honestly ( dont lie about performance or reliability etc)
A product that brakes or fails within the first few weeks is not "fit for purpose" and would be returnable under law in most western countries.
Service personnel must have the skills and ability to maintain and repair the products effectively and in a timely manner. These are simple electric powered vehicles, not complex new "NASA" technology and anyone unable to fault find simply does not have the correct training.
Poor sales and service support , together with shoddy customer service , will kill any business rapidly... no matter how good or bad the basic product.
The customer is ALWAYS right ! :wink:

 

[ebkr]

Any company or shop manufacturing , selling or servicing a product on a COMMERCIAL (for profit) basis has to meet a certain standard of acceptability...

How many companies we can name today that adhere 100% to those so called "a certain standard of acceptability" at all times without exceptions? Even mighty Toyota recalls their vehicles by hundreds of thousands worldwide... And that's after making them for decades... How many companies were adhering to any standards at all in the early days of automobile industry?... Now, how can you adhere to the standards when there is simply no standards?... See?... Customer is always right except when this customer overexercise his or her right... No offense intended. BTW come to my shop and get some extra batteries cheap so you could enjoy all the hills, serious! I've just made too many packs for myself *-)

 

[Hillhater]

fortunately, we are no longer in "those early days of the auto mobile" , and there are always standards to be met.
Trading Standards cover much of this. A shop cannot sell any old unreliable junk as being something it is not, without expecting some comeback, (unless on Ebay etc possibly :lol: ) that is why trading laws were established to protect the customers from "snake oil" ( and used car ?) salesmen.
Some professions have no concept of customer service ( think Tax office or Balifs !) .. in others it is fundamental to their job ( Nurses, call girls etc )

 

[ebkr]

You're right we aren't in the early days of automotive industry despite all their today's worldwide failures. We are at the early days of individual electric transportation industry, but you can't see that as I see. That's alright. Since it doesn't make sense for me to stress that over and over again, I'm not going to come back to this topic anymore. I hope the others will be able to see the point of what was said here...

 

[JPM]

I am the not-so-proud owner of a Daymak Ecostar.

The double kickstand hangs too low and drags on the pavement on bumps and when cornering. Oh, and the crosspiece drags on the chain. I took it off and replaced it with a single kickstand.

The signals are hooked up to the HORN. At FULL volume. This is not easy to bypass - I ended up cutting out the speaker and getting an aftermarket horn.

The motor controller and 12V power supply for lighting sit loose in a small plastic compartment. They were bouncing around in there and the hard jolts were causing the throttle to cut out and regenerative breaking to kick in. Nothing like sudden braking over bumps to improve rider control. I secured them to resolve this issue.

The mirrors are welded to a tab on the handlebars... poorly. They fell off, so I taped over the holes in the bike shell and bought better mirrors at a hardware store for $5 each. The MP3 player in the original mirrors was an interesting idea, but losing half the mirror surface to speaker is dumb, and having mirror mounts that position the mirrors for a great view of my chest was dumber.

Much of the wiring was done with electrical tape instead of solder and heat shrink, or at least proper electrical crimps. (Fixed that, too).

The battery pack failed on me because they used the world's cheapest internal fuse. I've just finished replacing it with an automotive fuse.

It has no guts at all on hills, so the next upgrade will be to replace the motor controller (it's a 450W controller, though I believe the bike is supposed to be 500W) and upgrade the wiring to reduce voltage drop between the battery and motor.

The plastic shell is poorly fitted, and occasionally rubs against the spring shocks.

The spedometer died, but I don't really care since it was registering voltage instead of speed.

The lights are all incandescent. WHY NOT LED???

Finally, when I had the first issue (the kickstand), I attempted to contact Daymak twice. I never heard back from them, I assume because the only answer they could give me was, "It's a design flaw and you're stuck with it".

Basically, if you're thinking of spending $900-$1000 on this bike, DON'T. Spend an extra couple of hundred and buy someone else's unless you feel like dealing with the same issues I had - they're not because I got a lemon, they're because of the design.

 

[JPM]

Just a little followup - I mounted a GPS on my bike and took it out on a long flat road... it got up to 25 km/h in a few seconds, but took almost 30 seconds more to get up to 28.3 km/h and never went any faster.

So, despite having a 500W motor and having the bike more than 40 lbs under its load limit, it still couldn't reach the ebike legal limit.