I bought this on spec, I'm an experienced cyclist and had several phone calls with the bike shop first before placing my order. Had to wait 2 weeks due to a hiccup with Sparta getting the battery deliveries over but going for the 600 w/h was worth the wait. I get around 40 miles per charge.
It's a heavy thing despite what it says on the website, I am not looking forward to taking it on trains and so on but for everyday cycling it is brilliant, the weight has positives and negatives. Positives are the handling, which for a step thru Dutch 'sit up and beg' is pretty good, you can throw it round corners with aplomb, and the brakes, although traditional rim ones, are very good, can't see the pads lasting long though.
The negatives of the weight are that a couple of spokes on the back wheel are already very loose, the wheel itself remains 'true', I've done 450 miles so far and a couple of potholes and speed humps have pushed 2 spokes in.
I paid extra for Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres so you need a decent track pump to keep them at the recommended pressure, but they will probably outlive the battery, and are supposedly puncture proof, fixing a puncture on the back wheel looks like hassle. So far I have not needed to pump them up.
My overall impression, apart from niggles, is one of quality though, I've tried to tighten the spokes but couldn't, which makes me worry about long term maintenance but I'm sure a local bike shop could deal with it.
The extras like the tyres and big battery pushed the price to an eye watering 2.5k, but really, it's so much fun, and comfortable, the 'power boost' twist control helps when up hills or getting off at a junction and there are other useful features like the built in lights, I chose this bike over the Sparta RX+ which has hub gears and was the same price but I preferred a rear wheel motor.
There are other things like 'regen' where if downhill or not pedalling the motor recharges the battery but I have switched that off for now, it didn't seem to do much...
Overall though, I am a convert, my last car was getting 22mpg around town, this thing costs about 7 pence to recharge for 40 or 50 miles...
It's a heavy thing despite what it says on the website, I am not looking forward to taking it on trains and so on but for everyday cycling it is brilliant, the weight has positives and negatives. Positives are the handling, which for a step thru Dutch 'sit up and beg' is pretty good, you can throw it round corners with aplomb, and the brakes, although traditional rim ones, are very good, can't see the pads lasting long though.
The negatives of the weight are that a couple of spokes on the back wheel are already very loose, the wheel itself remains 'true', I've done 450 miles so far and a couple of potholes and speed humps have pushed 2 spokes in.
I paid extra for Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres so you need a decent track pump to keep them at the recommended pressure, but they will probably outlive the battery, and are supposedly puncture proof, fixing a puncture on the back wheel looks like hassle. So far I have not needed to pump them up.
My overall impression, apart from niggles, is one of quality though, I've tried to tighten the spokes but couldn't, which makes me worry about long term maintenance but I'm sure a local bike shop could deal with it.
The extras like the tyres and big battery pushed the price to an eye watering 2.5k, but really, it's so much fun, and comfortable, the 'power boost' twist control helps when up hills or getting off at a junction and there are other useful features like the built in lights, I chose this bike over the Sparta RX+ which has hub gears and was the same price but I preferred a rear wheel motor.
There are other things like 'regen' where if downhill or not pedalling the motor recharges the battery but I have switched that off for now, it didn't seem to do much...
Overall though, I am a convert, my last car was getting 22mpg around town, this thing costs about 7 pence to recharge for 40 or 50 miles...
