This is a dystocia evaluation. It has been more than a month since I got to Galaxy, but I haven't started writing for no other reason. I just hope to write a calm and objective evaluation after I calm down.

As a cyclist who has been on the back street for more than half a year, my heart has been firmly seized by Galaxy's "maverick" since the picture at the 700BIKE conference on July 19 last year.

After starting the Backstreet before the Spring Festival 16 years ago, I had a brand-new urban cycling experience, which made me full of expectations for Galaxy. After nearly 10 months of expectation, when I really received Galaxy, I felt as if I had returned to my childhood and opened the gifts for Children's Day. But after unpacking, installing and testing, I had to say that Galaxy is a folding car with both advantages and disadvantages, We can also see the struggle between ideal and compromise in the breakthrough stage of 700BIKE products.

As Zhang Xiangdong said, "I don't want to love a bike for nothing", the deeper the love, the more responsible Yu Qie is. I also don't want to love 700BIKE for nothing. So I hope that a calm, objective and even critical evaluation can be used as the best reward for 700BIKE as a cyclist. Just as in the exam, if 60 points is the pass line for others, then the ambitious students should set themselves a pass line of at least 75 points. If we want to redefine the ideal of city bikes, 700BIKE should not stay beyond the existing market products, but should have a more ambitious goal.

Unpacking

Like the Backstreet, Galaxy's packaging continues the overall packaging style of 700BIKE. Corrugated carton packaging is a common packaging style in the bicycle industry. The design of the carton surface is subject to water-based printing technology, which cannot be expressed too much and can only be reflected in the layout.

The effect of side A of the outer packing box is very good, while side B is a side view of Galaxy, highlighting the frame of Galaxy. Personally, if the design of Galaxy could be more abstract, or even put the hand-painted version of the design on it, the visual effect would be better.

It should be pointed out about the packaging that Galaxy and Backstreet both adopt the way of unpacking bicycles from the upper side, which needs to be discussed. The user's experience of unpacking bicycles is not perfect. If the way of unpacking like Xiaomi Bicycle is adopted, it may be more perfect.

From the above perspectives, we can see that the two corrugated paper protective shells on both sides protect the whole vehicle well, and the packages at key positions ensure that the possibility of damage to the whole vehicle during transportation is very small, which can be seen from the great care.

From the perspective of the overall unpacking experience, Galaxy's packaging and accessories level did not reflect the craftsmanship spirit it sought. The so-called details are the devil. It does not cost too much to work on the details of packaging, and the pleasure brought to the user experience cannot be measured with money. It was these details of unpacking that made me start to worry about the overall experience of Galaxy. Unfortunately, in the later part, this worry was confirmed.

I hope these details only appear in the beta version. If the mass production version is also in this packaging style, at least I think 700BIKE lacks the paranoid pursuit of satisfying the perfect experience of users.

Appearance design

Well, let's forget those unpleasant unpacking experiences and enjoy the appearance of Galaxy. It is estimated that most of our friends who pay attention to Galaxy, like me, are first attracted by the visual impact of Galaxy. Indeed, design has now become the main driving force of products. First of all, put a picture of Galaxy in the children's park next to the company. In my opinion, Galaxy is my big toy.

  It is said that the front half of the frame, front fork and head tube of Galaxy adopt the 3D integrated forging process. As I am not familiar with the 3D integrated forging process, I will not comment here, but the overall feeling of the head tube and the front of the frame is really good.

However, due to the need to install an intelligent module, the head tube only adopts a one-step folding mode and cannot be raised, which brings a problem. It is a joke that the Galaxy can ride at the nominal height of 160-190. If 185 brothers want to ride on it, they can only ride on their stomach, trying to meet the demands of all people with a car, which is itself problematic.

The folding part of the head tube is my favorite part. For people like me who are extremely opposed, such an asymmetrical design makes the head of the whole car full of tension.

However, it must be pointed out that the folding device experience of the head tube is not good. After closing, the internal space is not enough, and the part that can bear the force on the edge is not enough. Every time you open it, it takes half a day. The girls in the office have tried several times without success.

Galaxy adopts the external wiring mode, which is very neat.

Where the gate line is combined with the frame, there is a protective sticker to protect it, which is considered a considerate design.

The seat bag of the brand SR of GUO CHAN is selected as the seat bag. The seat bag of SR is famous for its clumsiness. This seat bag is very lightweight, and of course, it matches the slightly rugged frame of Galaxy.

As for the seat tube, I think it is one of the most perfect parts of Galaxy's processing. Whether it is the triangular broken air seat tube design, the intimate scale design behind the seat tube, the plastic lining in the middle tube to prevent the seat tube from being scratched, and the seat tube clamp that is comfortable to operate, the processing of details is not always perfect, which is the part of this car that best reflects the spirit of craftsmanship.

The design of the folding part in the middle of the frame needs no more nonsense. All friends who pay attention to Galaxy should be impressed by this design, which can be called subversive innovation. One car, a breakthrough at this point is enough

In order to maintain the strength of the rear half of the frame, the rear fork and the five way joint, they still use welding treatment, but the problem comes again. It is understandable that the weld bead of the five way joint is not treated for strength, so why is the weld bead of the frame part leveled above, and the part that cannot be seen below not treated? I can say, does it feel bad? Seriously, making products is just like studying in childhood. It is not for others to see, but for yourself. A satisfactory answer is not just a score. It is a basic requirement to do well in the visible part, and it is a perfect experience to do well in the invisible part.

Due to the use of a 20 inch wheel diameter, Galaxy has been able to use a 53T tooth ratio tooth disc without being obtrusive. When riding, it also brings a more relaxed experience with speed change.

The foot pedal adopts the folding foot pedal of Weile, which is slightly rough.

In the bead part, the air nozzle part is marked with stickers. Of course, it would be better if the marking could be painted.

After looking at the details, let's take a look at the overall painting of Galaxy. This time, the painting I received from Galaxy is Xingyun red. In fact, I personally think the best painting of Galaxy is Xingmang yellow. The overall painting of Galaxy is very simple, which fully reflects the design idea of LESS IS MORE. The 700BIKE LOGO is handled very well and integrated with the frame.

It visually compensates for the bulkiness caused by the wide frame by color control. However, the details of color knots are not refined.

In the actual riding process, you will find that the overall design of Galaxy is not only high in appearance, but also has enough guarantee for both the strength of the head tube and the strength of the frame. I have rocked my bike up the slope for many times, and I didn't feel the shaking of the folding position at all. Therefore, as far as the frame is concerned, Yinhe is worthy of the sentence "beautiful is not like strength".

From the perspective of appearance and detail design, although some details are not perfect, Galaxy is definitely a folding car product that can be called a subversion. My friends who play bicycles around me praise the design of this car. From the three product series named after the place names around 700BIKE's headquarters in Beijing, such as Baihua, Backstreet and Art Museum, to Galaxy, it can be seen that Galaxy is a product that 700BIKE has set a subversive mission. From the design point of view, although some details are not perfect, the overall appearance and structural design has been called a subversive work, which can be regarded as meeting 700BIKE's expectations. Of course, it also cost 700BIKE 16 months and a huge amount of research and development costs. Several friends estimated that the mold costs of the head tube, front fork and frame alone would cost at least 5 million yuan, not to mention the labor costs and trial and error costs in research and development. In today's depressed bicycle industry, we dare to invest a lot of resources in a product, which shows that 700BIKE strives to create a new generation of city bikes.

Configuration Analysis

Compared with the amazing appearance design that can be scored more than 80 points, the configuration of Galaxy can only be said to be in order, and there is still much room for improvement from perfect experience. If the design of Galaxy reflects an idealist's pursuit of perfect style, the vehicle configuration is more like an empiricist's conservative style, and the overall configuration is far from perfect.

700BIKE adopts SRAM entry-level X5 series 9-speed speed change system, with 53T tooth disc and 11-28 flywheel. In the actual riding process, the starting is easy, the speed change response is slightly stuck, and the whole speed change process is smooth after proficiency. The up and down fingering speed change design is also very suitable for single hand operation. The whole transmission system has no obvious shortcomings.

Of course, in the actual urban cycling process, especially in Zhengzhou, a typical second tier city with extremely congested bicycle lanes, which often needs braking and speed increase, I also found that the two gears of the high gear in the 9-speed speed change are rarely used, while the two gears of the low gear change little, I often switch directly by pressing the button. Then the question arises: does a folding car aimed at commuting in the city really need a 9-speed transmission, and can it consider using a 5-speed transmission? Further, what about the internal five speed with less maintenance burden? In terms of speed change, I think 700BIKE can think more deeply about users and application scenarios.

The Galaxy Flower Drum adopts the straight Rappelin Flower Drum, which can be seen from its efforts in lightweight. However, when the egg is merged, the smoothness of the whole Flower Drum is obviously insufficient. The idling visual inspection can only be said to be passed. At the same time, the adjustment of the disc brake delivered from the factory is not precise, and the disc is rubbed. For a bicycle sold mainly through the Internet, the adjustment delivered from the factory should be further optimized.

Galaxy adopts 1.75 wide tires, known as Kevlar puncture prevention. Of course, the author did not ride a pile of nails to test the puncture prevention function, so I can't comment on it. But only from the width of the tires, it ensures the trafficability on various urban roads.

Galaxy unexpectedly gave up the V brake of the previous three cars and chose the disc brake configuration. Personal analysis should be related to the wheel diameter and bead width, which, of course, also brought weight increase. There are still some minor problems with the adjustment of the ex factory disc brake. On the one hand, the disc is rubbed, and on the other hand, the brake feel is tight. When riding too fast, due to the high center of gravity of the small wheel track, the brake is easy to cause floating tail. After being re taught by professional technicians, the experience was pretty good.

Although Zhang Xiangdong has repeatedly stressed on various occasions that 700BIKE is a bicycle company rather than an intelligent hardware or Internet company, the smart accessories that are put in place still show that 700BIKE is trying to attract the attention of young consumers through a more intelligent product experience.

This intelligent instrument has built-in GPS and GPRS modules, which can display time, riding speed, mileage and other data. The speed measurement unit provides speed data through GPS. Compared with the intelligent instrument in Houjie, this instrument has a smaller display area and does not play a big role in the process of riding. I occasionally looked down several times and found that the speed was 0, Personal analysis should be the problem of GPS antenna signal. As for the anti-theft function, players of folding cars should always keep their cars close to people in most cases. The demand for anti-theft is far less than that of several cars such as the back street with 700C wheel diameter.

Therefore, the role of this instrument is not so much to bring users a better intelligent riding experience, but rather to provide 700BIKE with more users' riding data, so as to improve the product design in the next step. However, from this perspective, whether Galaxy can consider setting a sensor to detect the folding status of the vehicle in the folding part of the head tube and frame, Combined with GPS data, we can better understand the folding scenes commonly used by users when using Galaxy, and also better define the category of users.

In a word, the factory configuration of Galaxy can only be regarded as stable, without obvious shortcomings, but there is also no bright spot that can be praised by people. A good horse with a good saddle, such a set of configuration is fitted to the very modern design frame of Galaxy, which really hurts the shelf of Galaxy. Of course, the bicycle industry is a typical traditional manufacturing industry, with a very complex parts supply chain system, just as Xiaomi went around looking for agents and failed, 700BIKE's current influence in the bicycle industry is not enough to establish enough voice to integrate resources to customize all configurations. Therefore, we see a strong contrast between vehicle design and configuration on the Galaxy. But this is completely understandable. When we have no strength to influence the whole industry, we have to make compromises, influence consumers through continuous breakthroughs in frame design and technology, and finally establish our voice in the industry through the formed market influence. I think this is the real mission that 700BIKE has entrusted to Galaxy. This is exactly what we can see from the Galaxy car that 700BIKE, as an idealist, has made in the face of the status quo.

Cycling experience

In the course of commuting for about 50 kilometers a week, the overall riding experience of Galaxy is satisfactory, although constrained by the mediocre configuration. Especially in the complex urban road conditions, the flexible advantages of small wheeled folding cars are fully reflected. However, long-distance cycling and road accessibility are not as easy as that of a 700C bicycle. To be exact, Galaxy is not a good choice for cycling over a distance of 10 kilometers, so the mission of a small bicycle is destined to be used in specific scenarios to connect the last 5 kilometers of travel vehicles. In my opinion, there are two kinds of connection scenes, one is the connection scene placed in the trunk 4+2, and the other is the connection scene with urban public transport (mainly the subway):

Collapse scene experience

This is the photo of folding the back street and putting it in the trunk. The model is BMW X1, and the trunk size is medium. It can be seen from the figure that the 700BIKE is not small after folding, and it occupies most of the space in the lower part of the trunk when placed horizontally. If it can be placed vertically in an SUV, it should take up more reasonable space. In the boot placement test of another car, the space was basically full.

This is a picture of the back street in the subway. The same problem of taking up space is that the shooting time is not the rush hour. If it is a short commute, it is difficult to squeeze people and cars into the subway car like "sardines can" in the morning and evening rush hours. At the same time, when experiencing the subway scene, I found another shortcoming of Galaxy. After folding, the weight of more than 12 kilograms is still not light. It is not easy to carry and transfer when commuting.

At the end of the article, I am very grateful to Lei Feng.com for allowing me, a "swingman", to participate in this evaluation of Galaxy. In the spirit of craftsmanship in Japan, an important concept is "Shou Po Li". When apprentices learn from their masters, they should first abide by the word "Shou", master the basic skills of their masters and become proficient, and then continue the word "Po". After becoming proficient, they should try to break through their masters' skills, innovate to reach a higher level, and finally reach the word "Li", which is better than others, Build your own style. If 700BIKE can grow into the leader of a new generation of city bikes in five years' time, then look back at the Galaxy car. It can be seen that it is the first product designed according to the "broken" principle in the development of 700BIKE products. Although limited by cost and supply chain, it is not perfect, but its flaws are not hidden, The breakthrough in the design of the whole vehicle has brought me more surprise than disappointment in the configuration. However, from the perspective of the market, Galaxy is likely to be a popular product rather than a popular one, because in the market of the last five kilometers of the city, the products have become more and more diversified, including balance cars, electric skateboards and other new generation travel tools, which may be more attractive to the post-90s new generation of consumers, and Galaxy's competitive advantage is not prominent. Of course, in the "broken" stage, we should have been bold to try and make mistakes. No matter how the market response of the "Galaxy" car is, I personally hope that 700BIKE can stick to the "broken" road, reach the "left" realm as soon as possible, and truly create a new concept of urban bicycle products.