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Firewheel F260 Review


esaj

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Firewheel F260 review

I have now ridden over 700km after about a month and half on the 16" Firewheel F260 and think I have enough experience with it for a more thorough review. Actually I reached the around 600km mark about two weeks back (pretty much one month after getting the wheel), but haven't had that much time to ride lately, and also did a teardown & (rushed) rebuild of the wheel to get some measurements and to prepare for custom battery packs.

I bought the wheel used from vee73 at the beginning of June. The mainboard has been replaced around January 2015, so it's probably the "2nd"(?) gen, it has the two riding modes, but not the change on the part of the mainboard which has burned on many users (apparently the first board of this wheel burned similarly), as that wasn't introduced until around May (if you check dmethvin's Firewheel F260 rebuild -topic). It also seems to have some different behavior than hobby16's board, it could be there's (at least) one generation between dmethvin's re-designed board and mine. So it looks like all of us have different board revisions now... BTW, I think the version Austin Marhold scolded in his review was a 1st gen one, which apparently had even more issues than the current ones ;)

The current board on mine has been ridden around 300-400 full battery cycles since replacement, and has worked without any faults. The battery BMS was modded by previous owner just before selling it off (btw, the shutdown after "Take care, take care"-message also apparently disappeared when the mod was done), the shells were changed to new ones (I also have the old ones, and they're pretty worn, but good for planning the new wire channels and such for the batteries) and the entire inside was caulked with silicone to seal critical parts.

I don't have experience with other wheels except the 14" generic I have and this one, so I cannot do much experience-based comparison to other wheels. From the outside, Firewheel is a beautiful wheel, although I've heard rumors that the design has been stolen from the Mono Electric wheel (see the resemblance: http://www.monoelectricwheel.com/). 

 

EDIT: For some reason, the images don't show up if I put them later in the post, so they're all here... sorry ;)

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Side view, the padding is made in two pieces at the shell seams, so I don't have to rip it off when opening the wheel. The reflector tapes are there for better visibility during night and are made as the bicycle law requires (white to front, red to back, yellow to sides and front & back of pedals).

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Close up details of buttons etc. Ride-mode selection on the side, power button, charge port with metal cap (I don't know if the metal cap comes with the wheel or if vee73 bought it later on), ride light-button and battery display. Bike computer -stand is attached on the handle with rubber band and the wire is taped to the side with painters tape ;)

 

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Ride lights on, battery display is too bright to really see in this picture

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Old picture of the battery display I had, the circle shows the "mysterious number 1" I was wondering, but in reality it's just the spent charge bars ;)

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Front with other pedal down. The black "blob" near the tire is the bike computer sensor taped to the side of the shell.

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Back with the lights on. The backlight becomes brighter when braking.

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My typical foot position while riding with a very worn size 42 sneaker :P

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"Simulating" pedal tilting, I'm not actually riding here (like you couldn't tell with my other leg showing on the floor ;))... on the left, the typical position of foot, ankle & leg, in the middle (notice that the camera is a bit tilted), how I need to turn my ankle when power-braking, because the pedals don't tilt-back in sport-mode, and on the right, how I'd LIKE it to behave in sport-mode when power breaking/leaning further back. But the middle is what really happens in sport-mode when leaning back.

 

Specs

Motor
The motor is (rumored) 550W rated / 1350W peak power motor. The exact motor ratings seem not to be known, all I know it's a DAAO Electric / XINAOMA -motor with marking A16AMK27C1412048393. DAAO produces many different E-bike, E-scooter and EUC ("Self-balancing wheelbarrow" :D) motors, but I couldn't find anything matching this from their catalog: http://www.daaomotor.com/html/Self-balancing_Wheelbarrow_Motor/

 

Battery
The 264Wh (16S2P) battery is apparently built with 2 * 8S2P -configuration wired behind a single BMS, for a total of 32 pieces of Sony US18650V3 -cells (http://www.dampfakkus.de/akkutest.php?id=106, the cell chemistry is NMC (LiNiMnCo), if anyone's interested). I get around 18.25-26km per full charge at 57kg + safety gear (the helmet is probably nearer to 2kg, other stuff maybe around 1kg), depending on riding style, temperature, head winds, hills etc. I just got my Charge Doctor from hobby16, and measured that the battery packs can take in 267.3Wh (after probably closer to 400 full cycles).

Both the battery packs on a F260 are on the same side (left), which causes the center of gravity to be slightly to the left, but not so much that it would affect the riding. For the larger F520 and F779 -models, there are 4 packs with 4S4P -configuration wired behind a single BMS, and the weight is evenly distributed as all the battery compartments have batteries. Btw, the largest (F779) so-called 779Wh battery is NOT really 779Wh, but around 696Wh. They used the the maximum voltage (67.2V) to calculate the 779Wh-value... All the other models apparently use the real Wh-value calculated with nominal 60V voltage.

The Firewheels suffer from the notorios BMS-problem, meaning it can cutout without warning depending on load/temperature/battery charge/phase of moon/bad luck. Due to poor safety features (no speed-induced tilt-back, poor audio alarms) I wouldn't suggest riding one without the mod.

 

Weight
I haven't measured the actual weight, but it's around 13-14kg for F260, more for bigger battery F520- and F779-versions, a little less for F132. Not that heavy, but not something I want to carry around a lot either. In F132 and F260, the battery packs are on one side only, making it a bit left-sided with weight distribution.

 

Comfortability and riding

This is where Firewheel shines in comparison to the boxy generic. The pedals are large and good shaped, no foot fatique/numbness even when riding 26km on one go without any stops (as long as you have good foot placing, I have got sometimes some numbness on longer trips if my footing was more off, probably also the kind of shoes you're wearing affects). I have a size 42 (European system) / 8 (UK & Australia) / 8½ (US & Canada) foot. The pedals aren't that high from the ground, about 10cm, but I haven't (at least so far) scraped them while riding fast, only sometimes when practicing really tight turns at slow speeds (but they were already pretty scraped when I got the wheel ;)). Might be an issue for some people.

The wheel is pretty easy to grab with your shins for going over bumps, curbs etc. The angled rubber/silicone pads aren't that optimal for me, as the recesses in the center are too much to the front, my ankle isn't where the "deepest" part of the recess is. Not a big problem though, at first it felt a bit funny.

As is to be expected, the 16" wheel is not as nimble as the lighter and smaller 14", but not too hard to control or turn. At least for me, the 16" seems more "optimal" than the 14" (I don't do tricks). The bigger tire rolls over cracks, smaller bumps, rocks, pinecones and whatever is on the roads with ease. I haven't had the problem with the fairly low going shells, but at least vee73 had cut them higher in the old shells, so I guess they do come in the way if you ride in the forests / paths. 

I can't do as tight circles with it as with the 14", partially due to the low pedals, but "tight enough". Riding at crawl speeds (sub-walking speed) is no issue, even though the center of gravity of the wheel is a bit to the left (both battery packs on same side). I have done some off-road riding with the Firewheel, but can't really ride that fast (maybe around 20km/h or below usually), this has been on bigger hiking paths, which, while bumpy and rocky, are nothing like the actual forest paths. I'd say this is not really good for off-road use (although vee73 probably differs in his opinion ;)).

 

Riding modes
Except for the very first models (which haven't been probably produced for a good while, maybe since around October 2014?), Firewheels have two riding modes: "Sport-mode" (hard) and "Comfortable-mode" (soft). I ride pretty much all the time in the sport-mode, although I've tried the comfortable-mode a few times. You know which mode you're using when you turn the wheel on, as it greets you with a voice message. "Welcome to use Firewheel, Sport-mode" (or "..., Comfortable-mode"). The mode is selected by a small latched push-button on the side near the power-button. Mode can only be changed by restarting the wheel, pushing the button while the wheel is powered has no effect.

I haven't tested other wheels which have adjustable "softness"/riding-mode, so I don't have anything to compare to. The Sport-mode of Firewheel is very stiff, meaning that the pedals stay exactly or almost level even during hard acceleration (leaning forwards a lot) and power-braking (ie. leaning back and pushing down the pedals hard to make the wheel stop really fast). With a heavier rider they could possibly "give-in" (ie. tilt) a little, but with my weight they're more or less dead straight all the time (or if they tilt, it's so little that I don't notice it). 

It took a while to get used to the "hard"-style after riding the 14" generic for around 300km, but I like it. The only nagging I have is that the wheel should allow the pedals to tilt-back a little while power-braking, as it's harder to do when you have to bend your ankles while leaning back so you have firm grip at the bottom of your shoes. Slowing down on steep hills you need to grip the wheel with your shins, this is also a case where it would be useful if the pedals tilted back a little while leaning back.

I must say that I don't really like the comfortable-mode, it's way too soft (the pedals lean back and forth too much) and slow-reacting, when I tried it the first time I thought at first the wheel's not going to react and I'm going to fall forwards. There seems to be either a rather large dead zone, or the motor output is really low until the pedals tilt backwards/forwards a good amount.

Since then, I've tried the comfortable-mode a couple of times on longer trips just to see how it behaves. I actually found out that it does "stiffen" the pedals after enough speed (maybe around 25km/h), and behaves much more like the sport-mode in high speeds (the pedals don't tilt forwards at all). But in lower speeds, I don't like "too much" softness, although it may not be completely bad thing at times.

Power-braking is more comfortable in the comfortable mode, but still lets the pedals tilt a bit too much. I needed to practice it with the sport-mode for some time at the early days, as it is so different with stiff pedals than on the 14" generic, where the pedals give in a lot (but not too much, in my opinion). Still, I think the optimal balance for my riding would be "hard"-mode when leaning forwards and some softness especially when doing hard braking (but not necessarily when only slowing down by leaning backwards just a bit).

Safety
There are three audio-alarms: first one starts around 18km/h, and is a one-tone "bleeping" that plays over and over with little interval between repeats. The second comes around 25km/h, and is a female voice-message, but I've never quite got what she's saying. The final warning starts around 28km/h, with the female voice saying "Take care, take care". Except for the very first warning, the later warnings are hard to hear with any extra noise (wind, traffic), and make it dangerous, considering the speeds the wheel can reach. Enough noise and you won't hear the first one anymore either. There is NO TILT-BACK due to speed, ever (unless you like to ride in comfortable-mode, you will notice when the pedals stiffen and level at higher speeds, maybe around 25-27km/h). At least on my board version, it seems the warnings start to come earlier (slower speeds) once the battery has less charge left.

At least non-shunted wheels seem to shutdown the motor soon after the last warning starts to play (see for example Michael Vus faceplant video, where he didn't hear the last warning due to wind and fell on asphalt from around 28km/h), but I've never had a shutdown or cut out even when riding with the last warning playing all the time steady at around 30km/h. I don't know if it's actually the shunt that stops the "overspeed" shutdown from occurring, or the fix of the very badly soldered BMS-wire vee73 did while doing the shunt (The wire was held in only by the shrink wrap! "Quality control"...). It could also be because I'm lighter, and don't cause as much stress (high current) on the wheel? So even if it doesn't shutdown due to high speed on me and hobby16, I can't promise it wouldn't happen on other individual Firewheels, even with the shunt. But at least with it, you don't have to worry an undervoltage/overcurrent protection cutting the power and leading to a sure faceplant.

What is done good, is the warning on battery running out. The wheel will pretty slightly tilt-back the pedals, start slowing you down, repeat "Power is low" and start doing small shakes soon if you don't brake yourself. It doesn't accelerate nearly as much as normally, although it won't let you fall on your face either (well, maybe if you really try and lean forwards a lot ;)) and it is so noticeable you cannot do it by accident. After you've come down to slow speed/stopped, the wheel won't accelerate nearly at all, maybe to around walking speed, although I've never really tried to push it when the warning is triggered. Usually this happens when going uphill (more load), and you can still ride a bit if you carry it on top of the hill and wait a minute or two (so that the warning does not start right away when you turn the wheel on). I've once ridden around 1.3km after the first time the warning came on uphill, after the second time it would start right away after turning the wheel on and wouldn't let me ride at all.

So, battery running out has good alarm, speed-wise the alarms are next to useless. I'd be really scared if mine did shutdown the motor after passing the last warning-speed, but since it hasn't ever done that, I'm not personally that worried. I have learned to feel the motor vibration and hear from the motor sound when I'm close to 28-30km/h, so I can keep my speed down even without hearing any of the alarms.

There are other voice-alarms for different problems, when putting the wheel back together, I once had something like "Low battery voltage or bad cell in battery" repeating after turning the wheel back on. After fiddling with the wiring a bit more (it could have been the suspected "regen braking"-wire, or just a loose connector), it didn't come again. In normal use, and with healthy batteries, you probably never hear these.

Performance
I haven't had problems with the power the wheel can deliver, I've ridden it on top the steepest hills around here, and it has never failed on me, even with low battery (although I haven't really tried to out-lean it on purpose). The acceleration is good, and the top speed is more than enough for me: 31.5km/h is the highest I've ever ridden with the bike computer, but usually keep it below the last warning speed, which comes around 28km/h when the battery is more full, sooner after the battery charge is lower. I'd say I ride around 23-28km/h usually, slower if there's lots of people or crossings). I don't know if it could still go faster, but haven't dared to try, and don't think I need or want any more speed even after riding this much with it.

Hobby16 has said his unit can reach 35km/h and he weights a little more than me (around 65kg?), and it never plays the last warning until 28km/h, even with lower battery, so there might be other mainboard changes between mine and the one where the burning part of the board was redesigned (he also says there's a sudden fast acceleration around the last warning speed, mine doesn't do that either). Still, I like the fact that I don't have to fear a faceplant if I accidentally (or less accidentally) cross the "last-warning" -speed even for a longer while. The manufacturer and resellers state that the top speed is 22km/h, 23km/h or 25km/h, depending where you look, but clearly this isn't true.

Once the power-braking was mastered, the wheel stops pretty fast when I want to, haven't measured the braking distances, but I bet they're shorter than on the 14" (as power-braking actually uses the motor to stop you, so higher power = better braking), even from higher speeds. Just take care that when the wheel stops, you also stop, just by leaning back a bit more while pushing the wheel in front you. ;)

At least on my individual wheel, there's very little torque loss until the battery is almost empty. I have noticed it becomes a little softer (the pedals tilt very, very sligthly) on sport-mode and the response is not as quick for the last kilometer or two before running totally out. This is probably at least partially because of the fairly high voltage that still remains in the cells when the wheel stops you from riding (Charge Doctor said the charging started around 56.2V = around 3.51V per cell, after I had ridden it to VERY empty by doing laps until the power warning, even after it had stopped me twice on hills). For example Gotways seem to let you ride the voltage down to around 50V (around 3,1V / cell), where the torque drop is more dramatic.

Battery display
There's a large back-lit display which shows your battery level both as bars and as 0...99 percentage number (I don't know why it shows both, I usually just look at the number). While at first it sounds like a good idea to show the battery level as a percentage, it has lots of issues. The display clearly shows the current battery voltage from some X...Y -range (I don't know what the actual voltages for 0% and 99% are, between them, it's probably linear). This causes that at first, when the battery is nearly full, the display shows 99% all the time. After a while of riding, you'll start to notice it dipping to lower numbers. Then starts the real show: the number goes up and down a LOT depending on whether you're braking/accelerating/going steady/climbing uphill/going downhill... I've seen it jump from 0% to 60% during braking or going downhill. Same goes for acceleration and climbing, the value can drop to 0% with harder acceleration, even if it was showing tens of percents before. Finally, before the battery is depleted and the wheel tells you to stop riding, you can have easily gone for several kilometers with the display showing nothing but 0% while riding. 

The only way to get "semi-reasonable" values is to stop and check the value while stationary. On top of this, in bright daylight (especially with sunshine) the display is pretty much unreadable due to the see-through plastic cover on top of it glaring. While it's sometimes somewhat useful (you can try to take a good guess on how near the end the battery is when stopping to check the value, after you've got more experience what sort of percentages it usually shows before starting to be at the end and how fast it goes down at what point), the Firewheel team should have worked more on the display. Not showing 0% "too soon", fine-tuning the voltage range and sampling/smoothing the values over time would give at least somewhat more dependable readings while riding, now if I see it saying 0% while riding, I cannot know if the battery is going to die on me over the next hill, or if I'll be able to ride many, many kilometers still. I ended up wiring a bike computer to the wheel to follow the trip-distance, and knowing the usual ranges I get, when to turn home to avoid having to carry the wheel.

Lights
The power-button lights up red when the wheel is turned on. There's a fairly powerful white riding light and a red back light. The lights are turned on with a single button above the battery display, that does not latch, so you have to remember to push it after turning the wheel on, if you like to ride with lights always on (I do). The backlight also doubles as a braking light (which is always working, even if you haven't turned on the riding/backlight), it becomes brighter when you slow down/brake. Nice feature, as I do lots of night riding.

Design issues
Other than aesthetics, the design and structure have lots problems (some of which come because of the aesthetics, slim design = small spaces inside): 

  • The mainboard and battery compartments are accessible only from the INSIDE of the wheel, and the tire throws a lot of crap inside the shell, even when riding only seemingly clean looking paved roads
  • The claimed IP65-ingress protection is a joke, basically there is very little protection... you can stick a finger inside the wire channels and from there, anything thrown by the tire can get in the batteries and/or mainboard
  • Some of the wire channels between compartments and the front of the wheel are very small, hard to fit even the normal wiring (especially over the small channel from mainboard compartment to front of the wheel), nothing to keep the wires in place, hard to close the shell-halves without wires getting between the seams
  • The battery compartments are very small, I'm going to have trouble fitting the custom batteries & the wiring, even the originals are very tight, the compartment covers clearly push at the cells/BMS of the originals. The compartments even have some unnecessary plastic bumps that were clearly originally meant for a screw holding the outside black plastic-part in place, but at least someone figured that it's not a good idea to have a screw that can puncture a cell if screwed too tight, so there isn't one really :D  They still left the small bumps inside the battery compartments though :huh:
  • The BMS-issue is really dangerous and the non-shunted/badly wired BMS can shutdown after last warning, with a fast wheel, you don't want things shutting down on you at 28+km/h
  • As seems somewhat typical for most wheels, the air vent of the tire is in a very hard to reach place. I've found a small compressor that has a connector that barely fits under the shell to fill the tire, but an extension would probably be better.

 

Conclusions

Firewheel is a mixed case. I don't blame anyone but the manufacturer if people don't want to buy it. The factory quality problems, poor alarms and shutdowns / BMS cutouts are not a good thing. But if you want a fast and beautiful 16" wheel with good ride comfortability, you can, but you should probably do or get someone to do the shunt, seal the insides and take your time to learn to ride it (although I expected it, the difference between riding the 14" and the Firewheel was surprising, it's like night and day, but in a good way). I would call it a fast street/sport-wheel, probably not for commuters (mostly due to weight, if you have to carry it around a lot) or off-road riders (although vee73 has shown it can be ridden in forests, too). Maybe not the best choice for a first wheel, although I think lots of people have bought it as their first and learned to ride it just fine.

Personally I have enjoyed it a lot, although thanks to vee73, I had it already shunted & sealed, so I got off to an easy start ;). I've torn it down to individual parts and put it back together already once, but that was preparing for the new batteries (and curiosity), not due to any real issue, so far I haven' had to do any real repairs to it. Of course I've had it for a fairly little while, so hard to say what the real reliability is then on the longer run.

I can't say that I would really recommend Firewheel except for people who definitely want a fast 16" wheel (it's the fastest around, no competition there), are prepared for the issues and can handle repairs and mods when needed... considering the mainboard faults, the missing sealing and the shunt-mod, you pretty much must open the wheel and do some work on it, at least the sealing & BMS.

 

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