Stryder Zeeta e-Cycle Review - An Interesting Electric Bicycle From Tata?

It seems it’s raining electric cycles these days. Over the last few months, we’ve reviewed a couple of e-bikes from Hero Lectro, and recently I got a chance to spend a few weeks testing a brand new electric cycle in the Indian market - the Stryder Zeeta. Even those of you who are generally in the bicycle game might not be aware of the Stryder brand. But this is a new venture by the Tata Group which is making all sorts of bicycles for India, and the Zeeta is their latest e-bike. The company claims that the Zeeta is “ideal for young professionals, college and university students looking for economical and alternate modes for their daily commute”. Well, I’m none of those things. So how did the Zeeta fare on this 42-year old auto journalist’s 38km round trip of a daily commute?

Specifications

Before we delve into the riding experience, let’s get the specifications out of the way

Unboxing & Assembly

The Zeeta came to us packed in a box and required some assembly. Thankfully, the rear wheel along with the motor and all the cables were already attached. All I had to do was attach the front wheel using a quick release axle, drop in the seat stem (with the seat already attached) into position and lock it in, attach the handlebar using four Allen bolts and screw in the pedals. While there were tools included for everything else, I don’t trust the pedals if they’re just hand-screwed in place. So I required a size 15 spanner to firmly secure them in place. Charged it up with the included charger and the Zeeta was good to go. 

Design & quality

The first impression that everyone in the office had of the Zeeta was “Damn, that looks good”. This general consensus was thanks to the Zeeta’s matte grey paint scheme which was absolutely flawless and gave the e-cycle a very premium appearance. What I also appreciated was the little carrying handle moulded into the back of the seat, which made carrying the cycle up and down stairs very easily. By this stage, the Zeeta was off to a great start.

Riding Experience

Now, unlike the Hero Lectro C5X which we previously tested, the Zeeta doesn’t have any assist levels. The pedal is either on or off and can be toggled with a key located next to the right grip. This right grip also happens to be a twist grip for the motor only mode. And again, unlike the Lectro C5X, which only had one small part of the grip function like a throttle, the Zeeta’s entire right grip functions like a throttle (like a regular 2-wheeler). Initially I thought this might be an issue when I need to stand and pedal as I might inadvertently twist the throttle while the bike was leaned from side to side. Thankfully, my fears were immediately put to rest as I pedalled the Zeeta from office to home.

Now I must say, the pedal assist was nowhere as strong as it was on the Lectro C5X’s high assist mode, so going up steep hills did require more effort on my part. But soon I discovered that I could also use the throttle while pedalling to give me additional assist, which made pedalling up steep slopes much easier. Riding back home on the first day was a breeze.

Range Anxiety

The next morning, having consumed what I thought was a little less than half its 40km claimed range, I started my way back to the office with the hope of reaching work and then putting the cycle for charging. But my hopes were dashed as the LED battery indicator near the right grip started dropping its bars faster than I anticipated. So I started switching the assist off completely when it wasn’t needed and only putting it back on when I encountered a steep slope. Still, with around 8km left to reach office, the battery drained out and pedalling a single speed mountain bike that’s a bit on the heavier side thanks to an electric motor and built-in battery was no fun at all.

Charging Experience

Thankfully, fully charging the Zeeta takes only around 3 hours, but because the battery is not removable, you need to plug the charger into the bicycle itself. This is not an issue at our workplace which is a row house with a sizeable parking garage. But everything I had to charge at my home, it involved dragging the cycle indoors - not super convenient. It’s something I had to live with though, as every time I wanted to commute to the office with it, I would take it indoors and full charge it the day before. I certainly didn’t want a repeat of the battery dying on me in the middle of the highway.

Ride Quality

Even though the Zeeta is built like a mountain bike with wide and knobby mountain bike tyres, it doesn’t have any suspension. This would be fine on smooth roads, and in fact, Zeeta’s manual explicitly states that it isn’t meant for off-road riding. But clearly, Stryder’s team hasn’t ridden on Pune’s excellent roads which are nothing short of a bone jarring experience on the Zeeta. A telescopic front fork would’ve gone a long way in ensuring that my teeth didn’t slam against each other every time I went over a sharp bump. 

One way of alleviating this is to run slightly lower pressures in the tyres, but those wide knobby cause just too much drag that way, making it more difficult to pedal and certainly adversely affect range.

My only other grouse with the Zeeta was its brakes, made by a company called Wuxing. Now I’ve never heard of them before in the cycling world, but in our case, we simply couldn’t adjust the front brake to have a strong enough bite. This kept me mostly reliant on the rear brake, which would fairly easily lock up the rear wheel when squeezed hard. 

Verdict

After spending a few weeks with the Zeeta, I came to overlook some of its shortcomings, except for the fact that I had to keep dragging it into my living room to charge it. But otherwise, it was a pretty good experience, as long as stuck to the best of roads and learned to ride my way around bumps and potholes.

For those who stay in cities with generally great roads, I think the Stryder Zeeta can make for a great option for commuting to work, running errands and even doing some recreational riding around town. But if you’re going to be riding on bad surfaces such as broken roads or the occasional off-road section, my recommendation would be to look for an e-Cycle that at least offers front suspension.

Where Zeeta makes a strong case for itself is in its value-for-money proposition. Priced at Rs 25,599 (for a limited time, the retail price is Rs 31,999), it's about as expensive as regular lower-mid tier mountain bikes. So if you’re looking to get your first electric bicycle without breaking the bank, the Stryder Zeeta might just make a convincing argument.