Ninebot C series feature Types C60 and C40. The new types belong to legal electric bikes within new national standards, subject to administration as a non-motor vehicle. License plates could be normally obtained without the need of driver licenses.
After the Spring Festival, my wife was transferred to a workplace closer to home. For a distance of shorter than 3km, driving is not necessary, while riding a bicycle is too exhausting. It seems only an electric bicycle is the perfect choice.
Available on the official website are customized and standard types. C40 Standard features a full battery endurance of 35-45km; C60 Standard has a full battery endurance of 55-65km (available on Xiaomi Mall and JD). I directly chose C60 with a longer battery endurance to avoid the painful experience of charging an electric bike of a certain brand every day.
Ninebot C60 electric bike is packaged in a way similar to mainstream motorcycles. The huge cardboard box with a wooden frame for fixation inside is much bigger and heavier than expected.
Attention needs to be paid to a small detail. This electric bike was delivered from Ninebot’s own factory in Changzhou, Jiangsu. Ninebot’s C-series electric bicycles and E-series electric motorcycles have their own ‘road motor vehicle (motorcycle)’ production qualifications and are manufactured in independent factories instead of OEMs.
The content includes the main body of C60 bike, a pair of pedals, and a box of bike accessories, including an instruction manual, a charger, two metal keys and two NFC cards.
Ninebot C60 features a novel and top-grade design, whether seen from afar or at close range. It is novel because of the simple body structure, and striking color contrast. The fully wrapped front and rear mudguards and huge brake discs set it apart from the others.
Why is it top-grade? Compared to other commonplace electric bikes, C60 basically has no exposed metal frame. Coupled with front and rear LED lights and paint-free PP materials for the entire electric bike, it is head and shoulders above 90% of electric bikes on the road.
The front and rear tires are CST vacuum tires with elf-designed tread pattern and has excellent grip performance on dry and wet roads. The front brake disc and brake piston are not small for this electric bike. In particular, the brake disc adopts a punch design. It looks beautiful with decreased thermal decay.
The rear tire adopts solid rim and drum brakes.
Why not front and rear disc brakes? Without driving experience, most users’ natural response in an emergency is to apply the brakes. The rear disc brake easily causes locking and side slip in an emergency. This will not occur for the front disc and rear drum brakes, which are applied given safety consideration.
It turned out that the metal key is just a backup way to open the seat (the key is a must for the first starting, because the power is not turned on, and the other two methods are not applicable). Then I successfully saw the core.
Ninebot C60 has the total battery power of 960Wh, closer to one kilowatt hour. Its endurance of 55-65km is far higher than that of common electric bicycles on the market, and even close to that of some small-power scooters.
In particular, Ninebot C and E series come equipped with self-developed lithium battery intelligent BMS 5.0 electronic control system. The user experience is vastly different from types without BMS.For example, if you accelerate an ordinary electric bicycle, the power seesaws irregularly, and you can only guess at the consumed battery or how long it takes to charge. With a BMS system, you have a “brain” that controls battery charging and discharging, which is more smart and also makes driving safer.
The external charging outlet of C60 is concealed at the bottom of the rear frame. According to my practical measurement, it takes about 3 hours and 40 minutes to fully charge from 50% to full power. It takes 7-8 hours to charge the flat battery.
You can unlock the bike by swiping the NFC card on the dashboard. In addition, you can set the induction unlocking through the mobile phone APP. Unlock the bike anytime if you carry the pre-set mobile phone.
C60’s dashboard features a minimalist design with the outer ring indicator displaying the battery power, and the speed shown in the most prominent position in the middle with a large enough font size.
After set on the mobile, the APP will display the current bike status, including remaining battery life, battery power, and total mileage. You can also open the seat and un/lock the bike via the APP.
You could find the “Induction Unlocking” switch by pulling down the menu to, then your mobile phone becomes the key to electric bike. The distance of induction unlocking can be adjusted on the setting menu, as well as energy recovery intensity, notification sound, indicator brightness, and so on.
In order to reduce the risk of theft, Ninebot features triple-positioning, geofence, posture sensing, abnormal motion alarm, etc., whereby users are informed of the bike status at any time.
What if I feel tired to hold the acceleration grip all the time during riding? Press the multifunctional button on the right side until you hear the sound of “click”, and the bike will be in the cruise mode at a fixed speed with the indicator light turning blue. Turning the acceleration grip or pulling the brake handle again could remove the cruise mode at any time.
After experiencing for a few days, I have greater interest in C60, which totally refreshes my understanding of electric bicycles. I even feel an urge to buy another one for my own commuting.
In addition to the online platforms, Ninebot also begins to set up brick-and-mortar stores. From April 25 to May 5, Ninebot will open 199 stores nationwide. Users can purchase after experience the bike at physical stores.
