pedalcell.com Reviews 4

I brought this kit from Shop pay and was scammed out of nearly 400.00 finding out I bought the last one and they closed their business. Listen..beware they are scammers... they are linked thieves.

I have to supplement my May review because since then I have continued to use the Pedalcell dynamo, but in the end it was a bit of a failure, as described below.
After having collected the non-functioning of the prioritized port, in early August the generator at the wheel rim breaks down and no longer generates power. I still don’t know what could be broken in the generator, which should be a very simple element in constructive terms and therefore should last for long time if designed and built well, but this is what happened.
Obviously I immediately contacted Pedalcell via e-mail, that asked me, as last time, to fill out a new warranty form, this time for the generator not working. They replied that maybe that generator had slipped their quality control and that they would send me a new generator as replacement.
The new generator arrived after about two weeks, exactly the day before my departure for Paris to participate in the Paris-Brest-Paris, the most prestigious and famous endurance race in the world, for which I had thought of using the Pedalcell dynamo. I was a little skeptical at first, because the new generator could break down like the previous one during the race, but in the end I decided to mount it and use it during the race.
Unfortunately after only about 300 km also the new generator breaks down and no longer produces power. Fortunately I had brought a 20000 mah power bank, but I had to extend some stops and ultimately waste time to recharge the power bank, my iPhone (the navigator) and the bike devices, instead of the dynamo.
In the end I managed to complete the 1.219 km and 11.800 meters of altitude difference of the race in 75 hours, within the maximum time limit of 80 hours, but already during the race I e-mailed again Pedalcell to report what happened.
This time they realized that the dynamo was not suitable and reliable enough for intensive use, so to say, and offered to take it back by refunding the related cost, which they did without delay.
Therefore in the end, as said at the beginning, my purchase experience with Pedalcell was a bit of a failure because:
1) the Pedalcell dynamo proved to be unreliable and not solid at all for prolonged use (I would say for no use, as I run just a few hundred kilometers before it broke down twice),
2) it has two charging ports, but only one works with the main bike devices on the market
3) mounting it is not very simple, since it depends on the type of front fork of the bike; moreover the mounting brackets, when tightening the screws to keep the generator in position, may give way, as it also happened to me.

Nevertheless Pedalcell idea is great, I do not know what did not work as expected, but they may deep dive on it and hopefully make an improved product. The product did not live up to expectations, but I cannot fail to appreciate the seriousness of Pedalcell and the willingness to solve all kind of problems as much as possible.

Objectively I don’t think they deserve more than two stars at the moment and I hope this review is useful to other cyclists who love running long distances and need a reliable source of power to feed their bike devices.

I used the pedal cell for a cross Canada bike tour in the summer of 2022. I had high hopes for the device but it proved not nearly as reliable as touted by the company, or the other reviews I’d come across. My trip was open ended and I planned for an option to use trails and back roads if desired.

I started in Vancouver and didn’t really need to use it, as I was staying at motels for the first 10 days. I had a 5000 + 10,000 mah batteries also. Through the Rockies I only used it periodically with mixed results, and discovered both ports not giving output. Only the 2.1 amp would work. I figured I wasn’t getting the speeds needed plus I didn’t want to use it if I didn’t have to seeing the ascents were pretty brutal in some places. The combination of it not working great, and ample opportunity to charge devices elsewhere, i very nearly mailed it home to reduce weight.

Getting in to the prairies my speeds opened up and I started using it more. The campgrounds and towns were far and few between, so charging during the day was a bonus. Even at high continuous speeds of 40-50kph(very strong and helpful westerlies), I was unable to get both outputs to work. (One of the reasons I purchased it was this option for both). It also became inconsistent, to discover the oring had smoothed out, requiring a replacement at maybe 500-800k of use(I’m being generous at 800 I think). Very glad I bought and brought the 3 replacements for the trip. The new one worked for a period then eventually having the same issues.

I used it off and on, never knowing if it would work consistently. When it worked, it was great. When it didn’t, it became an added weight I was carrying across the country.

I gave up on it as I went through the states, south of the lakes. I survived on gas stations and campground plugs charging my devices and 5000mah, only needing the 10,000 for a couple charges over the whole trip, in fact.

Getting back in to Canada at Sault-St Marie, I decided to start trying again. Same ordeal. Would work for periods, especially after changing the oring, then not.

I got in to Quebec and was fed up. I started emailing the company and explaining the situation, hoping for some troubleshooting I hadn’t done already. Sadly, there wasn’t much inquisition, and they suggested the problem was my phone not accepting charge in hot conditions. There was no way this was the case, even though I had ridden in hot temperatures, I had ridden in plenty of cooler and even had the device in a bag, doing troubleshooting myself. I had already ruled that out.

After several back and forths via email, they agreed to send me another. This was of no use to me on the road mind you. I abandoned the use and made my way the last 1000 km or so, back to Halifax. I did ultimately discover that the route I took would have worked with two, 5000mah batteries. The 2nd as a backup.

They did replace it, so I have a brand new one sitting in my closet unpackaged. They would not replace the orings even though what I had described was a breakdown of those too.

My overall review at 3 might even be a bit high for what I was doing. For shorter distances it might be better but I still think it would break down. It also saw almost zero wet weather, so getting mucked up wasn’t an issue. The dry and dusty conditions MAY have contributed to the ring wearing quickly? At one point I had to oil the spring, it was reducing the arms pressure on the rim.

Pros-
1.when it worked it worked well for the one 2.1 mah port, and for brief moments, you felt the security and independence while touring.
2. It has the ability to interchange bicycles so if my bike needed replacing for whatever reason, I would’ve been ok.
3. Easy to disengage for ascending.
4. Oring replacement is easy.
5.They did replace it.

Cons-
1. Installation was not as straightforward as described. I was using a bike with older style v-brakes, so the clamp for the pedal cell only just managed to work around the brake posts.
2. Both ports would not work together. EVER. Even across the prairies at sustained speeds of 30mph+ while it was working well, I tried many times to use both ports without success.
3. Orings DO NOT work the advertised 2-3000 miles(I see the other review here saying the same). At 3200-4800kms, I had contemplated only bringing 1 replacement for my 7000 km trip.
4. The replacement process was a little funny. Without much troubleshooting they chalked the issue up as my device, even though I had explained the problem had nothing to do with what I was charging. It felt like they had passed the buck in way.
5. They DID NOT replace the orings even though I had thoroughly outlined the issues, describing the deterioration as a major, if not sole contributing factor to the poor performance.
6. Bulky. In comparison to hub dynamos it’s big and out there. How would it fare for mtn or gravel cycling?