I was so busy with it I forgot to post anything… and in honesty decided that I didn’t want to gloat about having a new bike anyway. It’s been pretty smooth, arrived just about when they said it would in an enormous box that I should have expected but – it was far larger than I expected – didn’t. Got it unwrapped and the handlebars on – nearly straight – and then found that the battery was almost flat. Got that on charge and had a rest.
After the battery was charged I went out and had a play on it, took the dog for his constitutional and got a few miles in, which I just looked at and found I did seven miles. I’d love to say I did it all without stopping or getting off the bike, but of course I didn’t, pedal assist isn’t going to instantly make me super fit. Also the dog needs to sniff things then sign them in triplicate. :/
Then today after taking my bike into Settle to have the better (RockShox Gold 35) suspension forks fitted by my local bike shop I managed nearly twenty miles (into Settle -> Home + Home -> Clapham -> Eldroth -> Home). My new shocks rock, so much better than the oil/coil stock forks. Just need to get the dropped that I ordered the incorrect size of swapped and I will be happy – mostly – with the bike.
Which brings me to the downsides:
- It’s not perfect, it’s really hard to get started if I stop on a steep hill. I noticed this on the bike I hired in the summer, I don’t know if it’s just because the bike is so heavy you can’t get it any rolling speed to give you enough momentum to get the 2nd pedal stroke in, or if it’s user error that I will learn to cope with as I use it more.
- When the assist cuts of at 25km/h it’s a really hard cut off, one minute you’re cycling along with nary a care in the world and the next you’re trying to pedal through treacle. I mean it’s doable and I’m readily travelling at 25kph+ regularly, but it would be nice if both the cut off point was higher and the software control meant the top 5-10 ramped the assist down rather than just turning it off.
- The fact that with the assist off you have to turn the motor too, so you’re pedalling against the resistance of the motor is a little annoying too.
- No easy water bottle cage mounts, all my old bikes for the last thirty or more years have had little braised on nuts that allow you to bolt bottle cages (and other things) to the downtube/seat post, this bike has something called a MRS (Modular Rail System) which performs the same function, but you need extra hardware to use it, not just a couple of bolts, even to use my old cages as I intended I’m looking at ~£20 (2 kits).
- The assistance doesn’t always seem to kick in when I’d expect, I think this may be down to me being overweight for the bike, or perhaps because the bike is second hand, I’m going to keep an eye on it and might have to talk to Tredz about that if it continues to play up, though getting the bike back to Swansea will be difficult/expensive.
Upsides should mostly be obvious, I can pedal up most of the hills I have come across in the last two days, so I’m actually cycling more than I was on the old bike, ~27 miles in 2 days for me is pretty amazing, even at my peak last summer I cycled less than that. Compounded by the fact I’m actually cycling most of it and not pushing my bike up most of the hills. I mean exercise is still exercise and whether I’m walking up the hill or cycling up it I’m still burning calories, but I hated going to a bike ride that I spent most of the journey pushing the bike.
The weather is pretty cold here right now, and it’s to turn wet and windy too over the weekend, but the current plan is to do a reasonable amount of cycling every day, trying to lose some weight. I’m already dieting with the same aim, though so far it’s just been my hunger keeping me awake. :/
I will post some pictures, as soon as I get round to taking them.