 Welcome to Road Gear Reviews. I'm Julie from RVLove and today I'm taking you on a bike ride to check out this Blick's Vika Plus electric folding bike. Let's go. So today we're reviewing the Blick Vika Plus electric folding bike. Blick's has a large selection of electric bikes, but the one we felt was most appealing for our life on the road was this Vika Plus folding bike. So they sent us the Vika Plus to try it out and share our thoughts in this video review. So the Vika Plus is a compact adjustable folding bike with the added benefit of having an electric motor to assist you in your pedaling effort. It has seven-speed Shimano gears and four levels of assist plus a throttle for an extra boost when you want it. It's a bit like a turbo boost. So of course there are folding bikes and there are electric bikes but this is a folding electric bike and that's what makes it so different and so ideal for our traveling life on the road. So the bike comes standard with a 36 volt 11 amp hour battery providing a range of up to 35 miles. You can also get an optional 36 volt 17.5 amp hour battery which gives you a range of up to about 55 miles and it only takes about three to four hours to recharge a battery. It gets about 500 to 800 charging cycles which means a lifespan of around 25,000 miles. So today's ride we took the bike out for about 13 miles in about in about an hour and 20 minutes. We used about 35% of the battery power so I'm very confident that the estimation of 35 miles that it can travel on one single charge is pretty accurate because we were using higher levels of pedal assist and a lot of full-on throttle electric power as if it was a scooter. So this really has the range that it talks about. Cannot keep up with her. So dimensions of this bike are 34 inches by 27 inches by 20 inches when folded and it's 49 pounds in weight six of those from the battery. This bike comes fully equipped with fenders, a cargo rack, front and rear LED lights for nighttime visibility to keep you safe and a trip computer which tracks your trip mileage, your total mileage, current speed, top speed and your battery life. It also indicates the level of pedal assist that's activated and it shows you when the LED front and rear lights are on. The bike has an aluminum frame and the angle of frame and handlebars aids in a really really stable feel when you're riding. It also has wider handlebars 20 inch wheels with kendo tires and v-brakes with integrated electric motor shut off. This is pretty funny. This is the first time I've ever scooted up a hill on a bike and been so far ahead Mark Bennett. He's a very strong cyclist and he's on a very capable bike. So anyway there's somebody else coming so let's get out of the way. So of course with our RV life so we love being active getting out and about and exploring local areas. We both have bikes but Mark's a much stronger cyclist than I am and so often we'll go and ride together and I find myself struggling to keep up with him and I'm just not as fit as him so it often makes riding not quite as enjoyable when I'm really having pedal hard to keep up with him especially going up hills. This is a great bike for somebody that loves to get some exercise but also doesn't want to be intimidated by going on a longer ride or going up hills or even just pushing yourself too hard whether that's for health reasons or comfort and enjoyment reasons. One of the things that I've learned that I really love about this bike giving it this test ride around the park here today is I really love biking and being out in nature and feeling the wind in my hair and just smelling the smells of everywhere that we're going but I don't like working too hard and pushing too hard. I don't like working up the sweat. What I love about this bike is I can just get on and ride and have a blast without worrying about how far I'm going, how hard I have to push or what the terrain is going to be like because we're always in unfamiliar places so I never quite know what I'm going to encounter when I go out on a bike ride. Some of you might remember Mark and I used to have a tandem bike. We sold that last year and one of the things that was great about that is we could go out riding together and follow a similar pace but the view for me was really limited to the sides and Mark's back and this bike allows me to keep up with him without pushing myself too hard and get to enjoy all of the scenery around me from every angle. So the regular price on this bike is $1,649 and that's not the cheapest electric bike out there. It's not the most expensive either. It may seem expensive to you but for me as somebody that likes to have a bike and I used to have a motorized scooter which I absolutely love, to me this is the best of both worlds combining a bike and a scooter in one without the need to fuel it and without the noise. So again it may seem like a lot of money and it is an investment but the quality of this is unquestionable. We took this bike out for a ride on all different kinds of surfaces today around a very well paved bike path out in some construction area and downtown in Colorado Springs to really get a feel for what it was like in all of those conditions and I have to say it was very impressed in how it handled it every single one. Even on the construction surface it wasn't too rough. Those tires really absorbed a lot of the impact as I was riding. It felt very very stable. It's clearly a very very well built and stable sturdy bike so you're definitely paying for quality. One of the great things about blicks bikes is they offer a 30 day risk-free trial so if you try the bike and you don't like it you can just send it back and get your money back no questions asked but they sent it to us on a trial to do this video review and I have to say as you can see I'm absolutely impressed absolutely love it and there's no way I'm setting this thing back so I've decided to keep it. This makes for such a nice easy ride. I'm just cruising here. I'm not putting in any effort at all which sounds like sound bad to someone but I like it. Blicks will send the bike to your local bike store to do a sample and you can try it out before you buy it. Blicks bikes come with a three year warranty on the frame in two years on the technology so that we thought that was a really good warranty. So what do I love about it? Well I absolutely love the rush of feeling the electric motor helping me out especially in the lower gears and at lower speed. I love the adjustability of the pedal assist with seven gears and with four levels of pedal assist you actually get a lot of control of how hard you pedal and keep the battery lasting longer. You can always override the assist with a throttle at any time for that extra little turbo boost. One of the things I really like about this bike is the low step through. Being vertically challenged it's very very comfortable for somebody of my height to not only mount and dismount from the bike but just to ride it. That's one of the reasons I particularly love this Vika Plus model. So Blicks says this bike goes up to about 20 miles per hour but going downhill and in the higher gears we actually have got it up to 22 or 23 miles per hour. We didn't try to push it to its limit but that felt very stable even traveling at that speed. So the bike packs away really compact and easy. It only takes a few seconds to fold the bike up. It actually almost takes longer to put it into the bag than it does to actually fold the bike up. It's a nice quality storage bag that can carry the charger and accessories as well or you could just fold it on itself to take it along with you and store it at your destination. So I'm an avid cyclist. I primarily road bike but I've done extensive mountain biking as well. I love the way this bike rides. It feels very stable. Part of that's partially because of the battery being located really low on the frame but it's primarily I think the geometry of the bike. I love the low step through especially for Julie but you can see how the handlebars come back towards you from the front wheel. That provides a better stable environment especially if you get any bumps. I like the wider handlebars. It gives you a nice controls feel as well. It's got a lot of really high quality components and a lot of good control touch points. I put a lot of attention to detail as well. The handbrakes for the bike as soon as you start to squeeze the handbrake it has an electric motor shut off on it so you don't have the motor still trying to push as soon as you pull the brakes. I also like that it has multiple sensors around the sprocket so it's very responsive. As soon as you start pedaling it immediately notices that you're starting to pedal and it kicks in with that pedal assist. And you're in a deeper gear it has it's very noticeable even at level one pedal assist but there are four levels of pedal assist for this bike and seven gears. It uses Shimano Acera 7 speed and it has V brakes so it has pretty good stopping power as well. The 20 inch wheels roll really well over uneven terrain. I'm just super impressed with this bike. I love the way it rides. It has great ability to go some distance even when you're riding it basically as a scooter just using the power. And one thing that was really funny for me I love being able to ride with Julie now but I'll tell you it was a real wake up the first couple hills when Julie just went right away from me and just totally effortless giggling and laughing as she just completely dropped me on the hill. So I loved watching her be so excited and I love that we can go out riding together. If I wanted to run a quick errand that might be something I'd jump on to go run that quick errand because it's so nice to not have to break up a sweat if you want to go pick up some things. It has a little lug of drag on the back to be able to carry your cargo back with you. I love the adjustability for the rider height from all the way from someone as high as Julie at four foot eight. Says it can go up to someone six foot three. That seems a little tall for me but it feels great for me at five foot eight. I also love the adjustability of the actual controls. You know it has the seven speed gears but with those four levels of pedal assist you can tailor this to exactly how you want to ride that day. We've put a few miles on it now but it's actually really funny the first time you put a pedal down on this thing it's really gives you a rush because you start to pedal like it's a regular bike and all of a sudden zoom it picks up right underneath you and gives you that boost. It's such a rush when you take your first pedals on this bike. Oh my first ride of my Blix Vika Plus. The bike comes really well equipped with all kinds of options already with fenders and lights and everything. There are some additional accessories available on the Blix bike website but this bike comes very well equipped and pretty much loaded as a little toolkit that makes little adjustments to it as well. It folds and unfolds very easily and I find it to be very compact. At nearly 50 pounds it is a little bit of weight to be able to lift up but it easily fits in the back of our car. It can carry it into the RV as well. Very compact size for traveling. So it's not just Julie that loves this bike. I love this bike too. I think it's amazing and I think the price that it is is a very good price for how much bike it is. The components and the quality of the bike really come through and having that electric motor makes it more like a scooter than even a bike so very well worth the money and I think it's a fantastic product. Trying to get bored? Had to come back for me? Yeah. I told you it was going to be shocking how much better it'd be. It's shocking the power on this thing. One of the great benefits for me is I now have a huge gain in confidence in going out for longer bike rides knowing that if I get tired I could always use the battery power to get me home. This bike is ideal for going for a ride in scenic places, riding to the ranger station in the campground, going to run errands or to the store. I love the quality feel of the components. Many folding bikes like the one that I had before use much cheaper feeling parts to be lightweight but the saddle grips and all of the touch points on this bike are a really nice quality so it does feel built to last. Even the wire wraps are sturdy and look really nice. The bike comes with vendors to help keep the bike and the rider clean. Overall it's just a very very nice looking and stylish bike. It actually reminds me very much the Elektra Towney bike that I used to have before we hit the road in our RV but just really wasn't very practical because it was too heavy, too bulky and wasn't folding. My next bike was a folding bike and even though it was compact and folded down much smaller it was just a much cheaper quality bike and of course it was only a few hundred dollars so you definitely notice the difference. You get what you pay for. This is a bike that gets me around running my errands but also going and exploring and having a blast. This is awesome. I absolutely love this. I am having a blast. This has brought the joy of biking back to me. I tell you this is amazing. The control panel has a lot of information about current speed, distance, battery power remaining and it's easy to rig while riding. You can lock the lithium battery in place on this bike to keep it secure or you can also remove and detach it if you're leaving it out for a period of time and are worried about security but one of the things that I think is really great about having an electric bike is if you're somebody who maybe isn't quite as fit or you'd like to go longer distances without worrying about what the terrain is going to be like or how you're going to handle hills or safety or crossing busy roads as we did yesterday it was really handy to be able to have that electric boost to get me across traffic really quickly and safely. If you're somebody who has any health challenges or knee problems and biking, typical biking is more challenging for you this could be a really great option because you actually don't have to pedal as much. You can use the electric option so you can still get out and enjoy the ride and get around feel the wind in you here and have a blast without worrying about bothering your knees or pushing yourself too much physically if you have any kind of health conditions or if you're just like me and not exactly super fit so it really is the best of both worlds of a bike and a scooter all in one but without the noise and the fuel and I know this is something I'm going to get a lot of hours of riding pleasure out of. Well if you couldn't tell from the video I had an absolute blast today biking around on the Blix Vika Plus electric folding bike this was said to us on a 30-day trial but I am definitely going to be keeping this bike because I just am not willing to give up this much fun so I hope you found the review helpful if you have any questions at all if there's anything we missed please feel free to put them down in the comments below Mark or I will be happy to answer them so of course if you're interested in learning more about the Blix electric bike range whether it's the Vika Plus or any others in their range folding or non-folding they're all electric bikes you can check it out at their website blixbike.com will put the link down in the description below hit that subscribe button and click the bell to get notifications every week of new videos from the Road Gear Reviews team until next time I'll see you on the bike trail