Chris here taking a look at a new brand it's the Noko Forza now this is a city commute e-bike that
doesn't even really look like an e-bike the good thing about it and the best part I think is it is
Italian designed Italian made and they are not using Chinese import components I'm normally
covering Chinese e-bikes and this is pretty much a top quality bike that they have on offer here
with all of the brand components so it is a 250 watt powered e-bike it's an FSA motor that they
use up to 43 newton meters of torque it has a Samsung battery located in the frame right here
which is 252 Watt hours takes about four hours to fully charge it and will give us a range of around
90 to 100 kilometers in the lowest Eco pedal assist level maximum speed is 25 kilometers per
hour with the pedal assist it's got 700c wheels or 28 inches hydraulic disc brakes and it only
weighs 14.8 kilos which is about the same weight as a carbon fiber e-bike that I recently reviewed
in the channel hydraulic disc brakes these are 160 millimeter and they get really good strong braking
performance both front and rear the forza uses a speed sensor and a torque sensor and it is very
quick to deliver that power and it's very smooth the power delivery and part of the reason it is
so smooth is because it has this a belt drive now it's a carbon belt it's from there it's this split
belt Pro and it does have about tensioner right here so if you need to remove the rear hub it's
very easy just to pull down on this release the tension on the belt and simply slip it off the
battery is located in the frame right here now it's surfaceable but it's not user replaceable
you cannot just go along and remove it it's a Samsung battery 252 Watt hours it takes four
hours to charge the charging port is right here it's got a little dust cap weatherproof Gap goes
over the top of it and it's a 36 volt system that they use and you see that NOCO has some
mounting points here for a bottle holder there's one here and on the other side of the frame
so we have 700c wheels the tires are CST selector and the rims are Vision so again
branded components they have gone with the seat is comfortable it doesn't have a lot of padding to it
there's a bit there so it is firm but it's suited to the style of bike and the seat post here that's
an FSA branded seat post The Handlebar is also FSA more FSA components here and they are using lock
grips the levers for those hydraulic brakes they do feel very good and you'll notice that there is
no screen no display with this particular e-bike and that's one of the reasons why it doesn't look
like an e-bike to power on the bike and control the pedal assist levels we have this single button
right here now it has these color-coded LEDs so when it lights up you know the pedal assist
level you are in so turning it on now you hold it down for about two seconds it's powered on now and
you go through the different pedal assist levels you get a different color for it too and if you
get to the red one that is the top level which is Boost so it has has five pedal assist levels
and this is also a battery gauge for us onto my writing test now so if you haven't gathered I am
really loving this bike so far it's quality it just screams quality the finish the components
they have used everything now I wanted to point out that the kickstand this is an optional extra
it's working fine it doesn't rattle in fact there are no rattles from this bike whatsoever you won't
hear any noises I've got the microphone on so if it picks up anything it's going to be very rare
because there's nothing that's rattling around and that just shows to me at least the quality of the
bike and the assembly too so you don't have to really assemble it all you just gotta straighten
out the handlebars when you get it out of the box now the seat is adjustable you're going to need to
use an allen key to adjust that there's no quick release on anything here whether you need Allen
keys for it all but that's probably why nothing's rattling and why it does actually feel really good
so I'm in the perfect place to test it out which is in a bike lane here now starting out you need
to press the button hold it down for a couple of seconds here and then it turns on you've got those
five pedal assist levels it is super smooth the power delivery because that KSA motor 250 Watts
uh we're just over I think it's around about 42 newton meters or 43 newton meters of torque kicks
in straight away so it's using a speed sensor and a torque sensor and it delivers that power super
smooth and of course we've got the belt drive here so no chain you've got no noisy chain no
maintenance of a chain which does make the ride extra smooth but of course the downside is we just
have the single gear now the riding position with the bike you are crouched down a little you're not
upright just because of the handlebar height now it is smooth very easy to ride along here but what
about top speed and push real hard now and using my watch I've seen that I can get up to around 32
kilometers per hour maximum speed and now the climb test here so this is about 25 degrees 30
it is steep and I do have it set in the red color which is the boost mode the level five or five for
pedal assist so pushing up this with the torque sensor I can feel it giving me that eight and
so far this is not actually bad this is better than the Utopia so far that carbon fiber bike
okay I have to put a little more effort in the steeper it gets now
but still not too bad and it starts to get a little steeper here more effort is required but I
don't feel like I need to stand up like I did with the 250 watt motor in the Utopia carbon e-bike
no this knockout Fonda is doing this not too bad but it's not its strength
now the braking performance so hydraulic disc brakes 160 millimeter disc from here
pretty good braking a little bit of a delayed response there from me but I am really impressed
with the brakes on this particular bike because they're hydraulic brakes but they give plenty
of stopping power and you can stop safely when you want even traveling at high speeds
and here I am now at the end of the coast here and Daniel last ride as my typical ebite
e scooter route that I do take and it has been a very pleasant ride really smooth great power
delivery delivery good brakes and listen to this no rattles nothing nothing is rattling
at all and that is a sign of not only a quality bike but very good assembly too nothing's loose
so how's the ranch with this bike it is very good thanks to the 700c wheels and if you do
of course ride over 25 kilometers per hour you're not actually then using the battery so I'm looking
at over 80 kilometers with my 82 kilo weight and then the climbs that I've been doing and
yes I have been riding quite a few instances over 25 kilometers per hour so not even touching the
battery so it's really good and most of the time I was using the pedal assist level three or four
even sometimes the red mode the boost mode to go up those climbs now let's talk a little bit about
that climbing performance it has surprised me because normally with the single gear the
single belt drive they don't have good climbing performance when they have the legal 250 Watts
with them but the Thorns are here did really well with the climber a lot better than those others
the competitors out there for example just off the top of my head which I've recently reviewed
is the Utopia similarly priced bike carbon fiber that weighs about the same as this bike too this
is 14.8 kilos that one's 15. this climbs better than that bike a lot better you still have to put
a little bit of effort in there's no gears and they do have a model that is called the volcano
that is pretty much the same bike but it has the gears now great that we've got brand components
for everything they've used lot grips hydraulic brakes it just screams quality this bike and for
me it's a bit of a no-brainer if you're looking at the Utopia which is similarly priced it's
carbon fiber yes but don't let that fool you this is a much better bike in terms of quality
build quality the assembly and the components especially that they've used this is the bike
that I think if you're looking for a city commute bike you want to hang on to for say five years or
ten years you're better off getting something like this so it's a quality bike very smooth
Good Ride Torque sensor speed sensor pretty much has it all and if you're after a bit of a
stealth-like e-bike that doesn't even look like an e-bike well this one is perfect that's where
I run into some minor complaints from me and they're very minor there is no screen with it
there is going to be an application from s FSA for of course the motor there but we don't have
a screen to get all that information like a trip computer your current speed that's missing now
of course you can easily get a speedometer and a trip computer for any bike so you could do
that there's a way around it but I do wish it was included the other is very minor and that
is that of course there's no gears with it but you've got that other model if you do want the
gears overall fantastic e-bike I wish I could hang on to this bike and keep it unfortunately
it is just a low unit but thank you so much for watching my review here of the Noco phonza