Lab – Elops 920 E Connect: Decathlon still has progress to make on the connected bike

We were recently able to test the Elops 920 E Connect electric bike from Decathlon. A model that is much more than a simple connected version of the Elops 920 E and brings its share of changes. Connectivity is however one of the major axes on which the sports brand communicates. The newly announced Elops LD 900 E electric bike also has ambitions in this aspect. Decathlon is far from being the first to want to make the electric bike smarter. It even seemed surprising that a behemoth of this magnitude had not yet invested in this area, which is crucial in many respects, both for the consumer and for the company.

For a brand that sells so many bikes each year, the information obtained from the use of its products through a mobile application is a gold mine. By knowing the habits of its customers, Decathlon — like all the others — could adapt and direct its innovation towards what makes the most sense. For the moment, the Decathlon Mobility application (available on iOS and Android) seems far removed from the potential that we could attribute to it, and especially from what the competition offers.

First pitfall, it seems impossible to connect your Elops 920 E Connect freshly picked up in store to the application. Like many other buyers of Decathlon’s connected VAE, we followed the steps offered by the app to connect the bike, to no avail. After going through the various help centers offered by the brand, we finally got a recommendation: drive for 10 minutes or 2.5 km to force the 920 E to communicate its position and therefore activate its connectivity. It was done, but even after a short tour of the neighborhood, it was impossible to find the bike in the application. A physical command to initiate a Bluetooth pairing procedure would have been welcome.

We therefore started our usual test routine without being able to connect the Elops 920 E Connect. A routine that takes us on the roads and paths of the Luberon, on a well-established route now by our comparison. It took about twenty kilometers for the Decathlon electric bike to finally communicate with our smartphone. Better late than never.

A fuzzy system

The Elops 920 E Connect incorporates Bluetooth connectivity, but also a 2G modem that allows long-range transmission. A solution developed in partnership with Axa, a Dutch bicycle safety specialist. Because it is safety that is at the heart of Decathlon’s current system. One of the first obstacles to buying a bike – electric or not – remains the fear of having it stolen. With its app, the Elops 920 E Connect can be precisely located. When the bike is turned on and moved, a notification is sent to the smartphone. The last position of the pedelec is also displayed.

However, this system only works if the bike is on. Understand that if someone steals the Elops 920 E Connect without starting the electrical system, you will not know immediately. However, as soon as the bike is switched on, its position will be communicated. Hoping he didn’t go too far. In the Decathlon Mobility application, it is possible to declare a theft. Once the larceny is registered, the process mentions a “electric bike chaser” in charge of finding the machine.

A certain vagueness reigns around the modalities of these functionalities. On the one hand, the Decathlon site speaks of a service offered for one year, then charged 24 € per year. However, the application also offers insurance against theft and breakage through the company Laka. A charged service”less than 10 € per month“, according to the insurer’s website. You must go through Decathlon Mobility to subscribe to it, but it did not work during our test.

Few features

At the time of writing, the Decathlon Mobility mobile application is rather lacking in features. Beyond the security aspect that we have just discussed, the app offers a “statistics” section. In the latter, you can find information related to the journeys such as the distance traveled, the average speed, an estimate of the caloric expenditure or the CO2 saved. For the latter, nothing really explains what the bike ride was compared to. All this data is displayed in the form of graphs, with the possibility of obtaining weekly reports and comparing your own results with those of other users.

Too bad Decathlon doesn’t go beyond what’s on offer here. It lacks the possibility of planning routes, or even information on the routes traveled: elevation gain, average pedaling rate… Zooming in on the recorded routes, we realize that it is not really a precise GPS survey, but a simple survey of positions at regular intervals.

We would also have liked to have advice on the maintenance of the bike according to the mileage: checking the tires, the brake pads, the lubrication of the chain… Links to the right spare parts and the right components could furthermore create traffic to the Decathlon site, in addition to reassuring the cyclist in his choice.

As it stands, the connectivity of the Elops 920 E Connect seems to us to be a very secondary and still rickety characteristic. Decathlon ensures that its Mobility application will be enriched over time via updates that will bring new functions. No doubt we will have to wait for the release of the LD 920 E Connect in mid-2023 for things to really change.