Bosch displays

[JoeBlow]

I have the basic Purion display on my Orbea Wild FS. If I'm honest I don't like it very much but is it worth upgrading to a better model and if so which one? As a secondary question how hard is it to fit a better display, what does it involve?

As a side issue, looking at the design of the frame it looks like cable routing is above the motor making removal of the motor to route it unnecessary. Can anyone confirm if this is indeed the case?


Al

 

[Mteam]

The kiox can display a lot of info , things like, :-

- cadence
- speed,max,avg
- range
- power,max ,avg
- trip distance, total distance
- date time etc
- Battery remaining in percent (eg 52%)
- heart rate - in theory, it doesnt seem to like working with my garmin watch - so this doesnt work for me
- navigation - but it needs to be connected to your phone via bluetooth for this work .

In my opinion all the above is superfluous except for the actually battery charge remaining in percent - and that is probably the one killer reason for getting a kiox over the purion which only displays the number of bars out of 5 remaining - with KIOX you can accurately tell how much charge you have left.

Cant help with your questions on fitting it, as mine came with the bike. Its a lot of money to upgrade to kiox just for the accurate battery percentage.

 

[JoeBlow]

I have heard that the Kiox can "lock you out"

Al

 

[Voluptua]

I've only ridden the Kiox and I liked the navigation. It's only basic - showing a moving arrow and stripe on a plain background - no map features. But riding rural bridlepaths, and coming to a fork in the trail, it was useful to have a display to show which way to go.

I found swapping screens on the move, to show different riding statistics, was a bit distracting. But it was nice when finished, to look back and see the metrics of the trip.

Reading other threads on the upgrade (not done it myself) - you have to drop the motor to unplug the old system and plug in the new, but it's only six bolts.

 

[Voluptua]

On the Kiox "lock" feature: If it really did lock the motor, so the bike wouldn't move it would be a winner. As I read it, it just prevents the electrics being used, so thieves can still push or pedal your bike away.

Only once they get it home do they find that it won't work - even with a replacement head unit - it will only go with yours. So they'll throw it in the canal and look for another one.

 

[Mteam]

I have heard that the Kiox can "lock you out"

Al

There's some security feature (that you have to pay extra for), where by you have to attach 'your' kiox display to the bike (as opposed to any kiox display) to make it go, but I wouldnt trust bosch to have implemented it correctly, I think someone was saying they lost their phone, or un paired it from the kiox or something and the bike thought a different kiox was connected and wouldnt work.

I wouldnt trust it, not having experienced how flaky bosch's current kiox software is at communicating with the phone.

And someone else had an issue where the kiox stopped responding to the controller buttons, I think they ended up fixing it by hard resetting the kiox by holding down some combination of buttons - this ones not too bad as you can fix it yourself, but the security one could be a major pain - as you need to take it to a dealer to get it fixed.

 

[JoeBlow]

Sometimes I can be really dumb! The cable has to go via the motor in order to control it. It does however look as though the brake hose and shifter cable can be replaced without dropping the motor. This seems like an eminently sensible idea and as far as I can tell unique to the Orbea Wild. I'm beginning to think that for the riding I do the upgrade is probably not worthwhile and looking at the alternative change mode unit it's not a lot smaller than the Purion. I have a Garmin and my phone for navigation so that's another tick in the cons box. I think Specialised and Brose really have the edge on this feature.

Al

 

[Mteam]

I think Specialised and Brose really have the edge on this feature.

Al

Agree - I think shimano is decent too, IMO its not reason to not buy a particular motor, but its something that bosch could have done so much better with. I guess they could still just bring out a minimalist display and controller that plugs into the existing motors, I'd pay £100 for something minimalist/small and sleek, as long it displays what mode your in and the battery charge left in percent, that's all I would need.

 

[JoeBlow]

Agree - I think shimano is decent too, IMO its not reason to not buy a particular motor, but its something that bosch could have done so much better with. I guess they could still just bring out a minimalist display and controller that plugs into the existing motors, I'd pay £100 for something minimalist/small and sleek, as long it displays what mode your in and the battery charge left in percent, that's all I would need.

Yes I would buy such an offering in a heartbeat. Like you say though, not a show stopper. I had a Purion on my Trek Powerfly so I can't claim that I did not know what I was getting. I think the other thing that Specialised and Brose have hit the mark on is the battery/housing size, it a facilitates a very elegant look.

Al