Over the weeks that I’ve been living with our CAKE ösa + review bike, I’ve taken it on a number of everyday errands. From retrieving parts for other bikes, to grocery shopping, visits in order to local businesses, friends’ houses, food pickup/dropoff and more, I feel as though I’ve gotten to know this a lot better over time.
Here are the pros and cons that will I’ve noticed, from the time it arrived up until now.
The Pros: Basket Storage
The CAKE ösa + is nimble plus lightweight, with an undeniably eye-catching and unique design. If you opt for a pair of metal baskets to clamp on (along with bungee nets to keep your stuff in the particular baskets as you ride), it’s hard not in order to appreciate just how much you can fit inside.
Case in point: On big grocery runs, I have fit because many since three big reusable grocery store bags filled with food—as well as the small backpack I like to carry everywhere—in the rear basket. While I can fit simply about as much stuff in the underseat storage area of my Suzuki Burgman 400 maxi-scooter, I usually have to take it out of the bags plus reconfigure where items sit in order to make everything match.
With the ösa +, it’s much easier to simply load up the groceries, secure the bungee net, and take off—no underseat grocery Tetris necessary. (That said, my groceries would certainly get soaked if I left the WEDDING CAKE out in the rain, which wouldn’t happen along with the scooter. )
Adding the smaller front basket behind the particular headlight gives an extra tray for any items you want easy access to, or that are fragile and need to be separated from whatever you have loaded within the back. On grocery store runs, for example , that rack is a great place to stash eggs or some other delicate, crushable things. I recently made some baked goods to take to some friends, and that front basket was the perfect place to keep them while I rode to their homes.
The Cons: Suspension plus Saddle
These two things work together, I feel. If either the saddle or the suspension was a bit more comfortable, then both things would probably feel better if you’re the rider who plans in order to use this bike for longer commutes. However , the saddle is not padded, and if you spend lengthy amounts of time in it, you’ll need to accept the fact that you’re going to possess a new bicycle feeling in your undercarriage through this bike.
The only suspension adjustability is the preload. It makes a small amount of difference if you have a lot of rough roads in your own area, but you know what also helped in my case? Ratchet-strapping the spare battery into the rear container, centered directly over the rear wheel. At the period, I just wanted to secure the particular spare electric battery so I’d have this if I needed it—but then I discovered an added, bonus benefit of a smoother ride with that will added weight on the drive wheel.
So , in case you find yourself hauling a bunch of stuff with your ösa +, that could actually work in your own favor as far because ride comfort and handling are concerned—as long as the weight is in the back. Overall, though, I’d say this particular bike isn’t great for long rides—and there’s another, bigger reason why, which I’ll get to further down.
The advantages: Easy Cleanup
Plenty of things look good with bright swathes of white in their design. Through cars in order to sneakers, using white may make the definite statement—but always, the practical side of me wonders how difficult it will be to keep clean. (That’s why magic erasers were invented, duh. No, not on cars, but on sneaker rubber? Yes, absolutely. )
Looking at the ösa +, things like the particular grips, the wheels, and the saddle immediately stand out because they’re a bright white (or maybe slightly off-white) color. It’s a striking design choice, to be sure—especially set against the dark gray plus black utilized elsewhere in the design.
After my first ride experience, when I had to get the bike towed home, the bike was pretty dirty from the tie-downs that the particular towing company had used to secure it. Both the grips and the saddle were pretty filthy. Now, as an electric bicycle, you of course don’t want to soak or submerge the thing. The owner’s manual even offers some specific instructions for cleaning, such as the fact that you shouldn’t clean this with the battery connector disconnected because when it’s not connected, that connector is water-sensitive.
However, as long as you’re careful and observant, it’s nice to see that whatever coatings have been used on the high-touch surfaces of this bike are pretty robust. That’s good to know, because even simply riding my bike wearing black jeans or even gloves seems to obtain the saddle as well as the grips dirty pretty easily.
The Cons: The particular Display, Mirrors, and Ride Mode Retention
Display on, in direct sunlight.
Display closeup, parked within same location on same day, in bright sunshine.
The display is small , digital, and fairly minimalist. Those three things could be acceptable on their own—but unfortunately, the particular display will be also not very bright. In the manual, there’s a line that says “Don’t trip your bicycle with polarized glasses as it will filter out the light from the display in certain angles. ” That is a definite and noticeable problem as well—but it’s a separate problem. Even with no glasses (or tinted visors) whatsoever, if you try in order to view the screen in bright sunlight, great luck to you.
Style-wise, it’s easy to see that the shape of the particular mirrors complements the rest of the design. They seem as though they should lock in place like many other motorbike mirrors on metal stalks that you may be used to. However , these people don’t seem to want in order to stay where you put them, and tilting them to get into a good position to see traffic around you while you’re riding is more challenging than most decorative mirrors I’ve tried. It can (probably) be done, but not without a lot of sighing and/or swearing, as well because possibly giving up temporarily and deciding that the sub-optimal position is good enough because you simply want to be able to get on with your ride.
The CAKE ösa + features three ride modes and two brake settings, which you can set via the buttons on the right-hand side of the display. According to the manual, Ride Mode One offers the particular best range, and limits your top speed for you to 45 kmh (or 28 mph).
Trip Mode Two gives a top speed of 70 kmh (44 mph) and offers slightly slower acceleration to help conserve energy. When we did our test ride in California in May, we were told by WEDDING CAKE reps that this was probably the best mode for most occasions, because it offered a balanced performance in regular road traffic. Drive Mode Three gives a person the 90 kmh (56mph) performance, yet will obviously sap typically the battery this quickest.
Brake Mode 1 does not engage motor braking, and lets often the bike just freewheel when you release the throttle. Brake Mode Two activates regenerative braking, so an individual can restore some power into your battery upon throttle launch, which should increase your battery range slightly.
The trip and brake modes are well and good, but anyone have to reset them every single time you turn the bike on. Most of the exact time, I was going about my business in Journey Mode 2 and Braking system Mode A couple of. That meant that every time I hit the kill switch plus parked to go do something off the bicycle, I had to help punch within my Ride Mode in addition to Brake Setting choices anew upon powering the cycle back upon, because the default settings start at Trip Mode A single and Braking mechanism Mode One particular.
Now, I should mention here that will I’m not able to use the particular CAKE Connect smartphone app, because We have an Android phone. While CAKE says that an Android version of the app is in the works and should be available soon (as associated with October, 2022), it’s not really available yet. Perhaps if I had an iOS device paired to this bike via the CAKE Link app, my settings might be saved and I could skip this step. I don’t know if that’s the case, nevertheless it’s some thing to be aware of.
The Pros: The rear basket is extra helpful if you’re short (and use the side stand).
My first ösa + experience in-may, 2022 , didn’t involve a new basket—and whilst I did mostly get used to mounting/dismounting typically the bike at that time, this current ösa & outfitted with that huge rear basket is pretty easy whenever dismounting this bike on the accessory side stand. Why? I actually steady myself with the left hand about the basket as My partner and i swing our right leg over to get off.
If you stick with the center stand that comes with often the ösa and up., the grab handle that is located behind the seat is surprisingly helpful any time you’re trying to hold your bike upright while dismounting. It also works fairly well to help you hoist the motorcycle back up onto the center remain once you are all the way off of it.
Before DESSERT sent me the side stand, My spouse and i noted of which it was actually easier for me to obtain off the exact bike on the right part (instead from the left), and then hoist it up onto the center stand that way. My right leg will be my stronger leg, so obviously your personal experience may vary based in your own strengths and weaknesses. When using the center stand, the rear container doesn’t really come into play if dismounting the particular bike.
The Cons: The Motor Overheated Twice on Longer Rides
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I’ll preface this section by saying that not necessarily every bike is great at every task. You wouldn’t take a trail bike with a highway and expect it to do nicely, for example—even if it’s everything you could ever want in some sort of completely great trail motorbike. That’s certainly not what it is made for, and even that’s definitely not what it may be good at.
That said, inside my encounter, the PASTRY ösa + is not made for long rides. Dont really only say that because regarding the seat and suspension. I also declare due to the fact the engine apparently doesn’t like this. If anything happens once, then you can chalk up to a lot of variables and you probably won’t even think about that much after the problem is solved. If it happens more than that, though—then, you start to acquire concerned.
Back at my First Ride of the bike, I just told a person about my personal battery woes—namely, that I’d thought When i had a larger battery (and thus, longer range) compared to I actually had. That coupled with typically the spirited drive I took the exercise bike on designed that all of us (me plus the bike) ended up getting a good tow home.
What I did not fully appreciate until later about that first ride has been the error message I had formed on this display correct before often the battery gave up. I’d gone about 23 miles regarding that ride—and apparently, your motor began overheating, as was indicated by an error message that I didn’t look up until (much) later.
At the time, the battery was furthermore on its last bar. Based on the manual, that intended that it had between five and 15 percent of a charge left. I had been pretty upset about having to find towed home—so I meant to look it up later, although evidently got distracted.
After TREAT sent me personally the larger battery , I charged up together with went for another long journey. This time, I resolved in order to keep things at lower speeds. Since I found personally with both the XL and L batteries throughout my garage, I billed both after which proceeded to be able to strap the smaller battery in to that capacious rear basket—because I seemed to be determined the fact that no matter what, I wasn’t getting stranded. (Think of it such as a spare fuel bottle on your combustion bike, only a lot more rectangular. The particular added bonus here was that I discovered the added weight over the drive wheel smoothed out my own ride considerably! )
Engine overheating mistake.
Anyway, that long ride went pretty well and uneventfully, for the exact most part—that is, until I was initially a little less as compared to two miles from home. After having ridden about 25 miles or so, I saw that problem message again. Around the same time, the particular battery dropped down to some single pub remaining. (I’m not certain in which order those things happened, as We were looking where I actually was going. )
I had been in Drive Mode A pair of and Brake pedal Mode Two (as usual). With each those situations on the display, acceleration from a dead stop was basically incredibly, unacceptably sluggish—particularly when you have anxious traffic behind an individual that’s regarding to ram you within the rear holder. It felt downright unsafe, and I’m grateful that all I got was a red face and additionally some angry honking through traffic close to me. I could barely have the bike for you to move coming from a lifeless stop, even with the accelerator open all the way—though it would eventually have up to speed right after quite an anxious bit of struggling.
We immediately had flashbacks to help the same behavior occurring along with the exact same error message on this first trip. It’s a thing that I actually later referred to in conversation as “limp-home mode, ” although Really dont know in case that’s an official thing with this bike. To me, it felt like that’s what it was doing; reducing power therefore that even if you had to do the idea slowly, you could at least get yourself away from where you currently were. (After all, this isn’t an e-bike, and it does not have pedals so anyone can power it with your legs if you have to. )
By some miracle, even though the street I appeared to be on as soon as the fault showed up had a 45-mph speed limit (and was first the kind of place exactly where most visitors goes at least 50 on a regular basis), simply by switching to the back way through my neighborhood, I is able to make it house safely. In fact , I didn’t even have to pull over and swap batteries (yay). Once residence, I was then able to take a photo in the error around the display so I could try to look it up and find out what it meant.
There are three miscalculation codes listed in typically the manual, all of which use simple icons to show you what’s wrong. The one I has been now seeing for the second time supposed that this motor had been overheating. The first time this occurred, I experienced gone twenty three miles for a warm day, together with spirited riding. The 2nd time this happened, My partner and i had eliminated about twenty five miles on a cool day, with much more mixed (but mostly more relaxed and slower) riding.
In conclusion, for small, short-distance, local errands, often the CAKE ösa + is usually a capable bike—and it’s a pretty excellent grocery-getter. For longer-distance commutes, though—that electric motor overheating (and accompanying sluggish performance by stops) can’t be ignored—and honestly, that is regardless involving any feelings you may have concerning the style or your price.
