Hi Everyone,
New member here. I got into biking like many due to the lock down. Before the gyms all closed and weight equipment became like gold bars, cardio was a swear word to me best left to the over weight treadmill folks and spin class girls!
So I bought myself GT Avalanche MTB as I knew very little about bikes. Great bike, comfy, good spec but I quickly realised that
A - Cycling is a different type of fitness. A 180kg deadlift and a strong bench does jack for climbing long hills on a bike
B - I'm the wrong side of 40 and my lower back doesn't like bumpy terrain or hard tails.
So I added a suspension seat post, comfy gel saddle and did a bit of hybrid convo on it, 38T front ring as its a 1x anyway and 40cc semi road/off road tyres to avoid the drag the MTB tyres had. Perfect, in fact so good I started wanting to go on longer rides but as I live some miles from the nearest/nicest paths, light trails and its all moderate hills here my fitness was stopping me.
Started reading up on ebikes and got lucky on a ebay'd GTECH sport. Its a V1 bike so it has the less glitchy battery. The guy selling had used it about 4 times and it had pretty much every GTECH accessory with it. There's a good facebook group and following for these bikes so as recommended by EVSteve I added ebay special £40 Suntour suspension forks, a Suntour suspension seat post, better brake pads and treated it to a 2nd battery so allow for 60 miles range vs 30.
Its a great ebike! I like;
No gears to faff on with and keep changing up and down
Stealth run and look (quiet, 2nd battery is hidden in my pannier bag)
It not ugly like 90% of the ebikes on the market
Takes the sting out of long rides
Can be left locked up when I go to the gym. The battery houses the controller so once that's off, the bike its basically a £400 budget bike. Suprisingly good at hills considering its fixed speed. Although cycling it up Penshaw Monument gave it a hard time.
Don't like
No gears, not often a problem but sometimes if you get stopped at the bottom of a steep incline it requires some leg work.
Rim brakes, they work fine but I'm paranoid about grinding my rims as it spends more time off road than on.
Doesn't have the premium feel of my GT MTB, I think that's largely due to the better air forks and hydraulic discs on the GT.
13mph limit. Even though its plenty fast enough given that me plus the bike are over 100kg, I probably shouldn't be going faster than that anyway.
Still when it comes to bike riding time now, I'll be honest I have to will myself to use my GT MTB, my Gtech is my preferred choice.
David
New member here. I got into biking like many due to the lock down. Before the gyms all closed and weight equipment became like gold bars, cardio was a swear word to me best left to the over weight treadmill folks and spin class girls!
So I bought myself GT Avalanche MTB as I knew very little about bikes. Great bike, comfy, good spec but I quickly realised that
A - Cycling is a different type of fitness. A 180kg deadlift and a strong bench does jack for climbing long hills on a bike
B - I'm the wrong side of 40 and my lower back doesn't like bumpy terrain or hard tails.
So I added a suspension seat post, comfy gel saddle and did a bit of hybrid convo on it, 38T front ring as its a 1x anyway and 40cc semi road/off road tyres to avoid the drag the MTB tyres had. Perfect, in fact so good I started wanting to go on longer rides but as I live some miles from the nearest/nicest paths, light trails and its all moderate hills here my fitness was stopping me.
Started reading up on ebikes and got lucky on a ebay'd GTECH sport. Its a V1 bike so it has the less glitchy battery. The guy selling had used it about 4 times and it had pretty much every GTECH accessory with it. There's a good facebook group and following for these bikes so as recommended by EVSteve I added ebay special £40 Suntour suspension forks, a Suntour suspension seat post, better brake pads and treated it to a 2nd battery so allow for 60 miles range vs 30.
Its a great ebike! I like;
No gears to faff on with and keep changing up and down
Stealth run and look (quiet, 2nd battery is hidden in my pannier bag)
It not ugly like 90% of the ebikes on the market
Takes the sting out of long rides
Can be left locked up when I go to the gym. The battery houses the controller so once that's off, the bike its basically a £400 budget bike. Suprisingly good at hills considering its fixed speed. Although cycling it up Penshaw Monument gave it a hard time.
Don't like
No gears, not often a problem but sometimes if you get stopped at the bottom of a steep incline it requires some leg work.
Rim brakes, they work fine but I'm paranoid about grinding my rims as it spends more time off road than on.
Doesn't have the premium feel of my GT MTB, I think that's largely due to the better air forks and hydraulic discs on the GT.
13mph limit. Even though its plenty fast enough given that me plus the bike are over 100kg, I probably shouldn't be going faster than that anyway.
Still when it comes to bike riding time now, I'll be honest I have to will myself to use my GT MTB, my Gtech is my preferred choice.
David
