Buying an expensive bike, sight unseen, from a dealer 1000+ miles away, is a slightly traumatic business, with a great deal of trust involved. But alls well that ends well, as somebody once wrote.
It is very easy to get seduced by the offers on the German Ebay website, especially if there is no personal recommendation to light a candle in the murk£££ darkness, but I was lucky.
It was a post on this site, from Andy (Boxin), that set me off looking for rad-sport-brucki, as he had very good dealings with this shop in Austria, and loved his 11 speed Alfine/Bosch/KTM. Radsport Brucki | english info
As I mentioned in a previous post, the bike arrived very quickly, but slightly damaged by DHL, in as much as the suspension fork lockout was permanently ‘locked out’ as the handle bar quick release, has been snapped off. But other than that, perfect.
The money side was dealt with by a company in Covent Garden, London ( Covent Garden FX ) as their rate was miles better than the bank....and, amazingly, the money actually got there.
First ride on the bike was exciting, but the set up was far too ‘aggressive for my 72 years years, with the bars too low, and to extended. But my first real experience of Bosch power, left me convinced that the money was well spent.
So now it was a case of stripping the bar raiser, and short stem, plus, bar ends, proper mudguards and rack, off of my non-powered Rockhopper, and putting them on the KTM. Even managed to change the rubber grips without bugg++ing them.
As for the broken Poplock, well it took Brucki from rad-sport about 3 days to send me a complete new fitment, no questions asked, which is pretty good considering the unit is £45 +pp on ebay.
He also sent me a proper KTM kick stand, for 15 eu, all up, which leaves my LBS, and web pages for dead. Excellent.
So I have now finally replaced the Poplock, upped and shortened the reach, and fitted full size guards, despite the rather over sized knobbly Racing Ralphs.
Fitting proper mudguards was not really a problem, as long as you don’t mind using cable ties, and a pair of adjustable Cateye clips around the front forks, for the mudguard eyelets,
Unpowered the bike feels great, and not too different to my unpowered Rockhopper. The 9 speed XT derailleur works seriously smoothly, and only having one front chainring makes life a lot easier, as normally one is considering overlap of each rear sprocket, with each one of the 3 front chain rings.....the gearing is a bit low, meaning just over 20 mph in the 11 tooth sprocket, but that is only with a fresh pair of legs, and doesn’t last long (unfortunately).
The 4 options on the incredibly well designed left hand remote power switch, are still being explored, but I have tried to ration myself to Eco (30%) for as long as possible, interspersed with 0%, when the going is good. The remote has a + and a – button, which are angled, ‘just so’, to accommodate the thumb...excellent touch.
A fresh battery charge offered me 115 miles in Eco, (under perfect conditions), but came back with 85 showing after 15 energetic miles....chasing roadies around Regents Park outer loop....(unsuccessfully)....I was using ‘turbo’ for a long slight uphill to keep me on the wheel in front, but mostly I was on my own (as it were) at around 18/19mph, and so beyond ‘help’.
The SLX hydraulics are a smooth as a babies backside, but in all honesty, not too much different a feel to the Tektro hydraulics on the Rockhopper..............the law of Diminishing Returns, strikes. But no rim wear, and no brake fibre grot over everything, which makes hydraulics the default choice. The levers on the SLX version, have great little knurled knobs, to adjust the lever/handlebar distance, depending whether you have monsters or minis, in the paw department.....so very sophisticated
The motor is totally quiet whatever the demand, and the only sound is that generated by the Racing Ralphs, which must show where a fair bit of the effort is going. The big Intuvia HMI ‘dashboard, is mounted on the stem, and is a very easy readout, and the big buttons easy to use, despite a thick pair of gloves in this 0’ C weather.
There is a seriously steep short ramp on the way back home which has me down to a walking 4 m.p.h unpowered, and on gear 28 of the 27! But the KTM rocketted up at 12 mph in assistance level 2 (Touring), and some of the remaining muscle.
And (as Kenny Everett might have said), it was all done in the very best of taste
The saddle is a bit severe (as it were),and although the narrow shape is OK, just a wee bit more memory foam would have been appreciated, but I have a shelf full of tried and discarded saddles to work my way through before Evans is on the radar.
So 10 out of 10 for rad-sport-brucki, as he has taken the sting out of a distance purchase, and at a precise £2000 all up for a pretty sophisticated piece of kit, to the very latest 2013 spec, plus the big 11 ah Bosch battery, is verging on the very cusp of a bargain.
But I would say that wouldn’t I, as Christine Keeler said to the presiding judge.
It is very easy to get seduced by the offers on the German Ebay website, especially if there is no personal recommendation to light a candle in the murk£££ darkness, but I was lucky.
It was a post on this site, from Andy (Boxin), that set me off looking for rad-sport-brucki, as he had very good dealings with this shop in Austria, and loved his 11 speed Alfine/Bosch/KTM. Radsport Brucki | english info
As I mentioned in a previous post, the bike arrived very quickly, but slightly damaged by DHL, in as much as the suspension fork lockout was permanently ‘locked out’ as the handle bar quick release, has been snapped off. But other than that, perfect.
The money side was dealt with by a company in Covent Garden, London ( Covent Garden FX ) as their rate was miles better than the bank....and, amazingly, the money actually got there.
First ride on the bike was exciting, but the set up was far too ‘aggressive for my 72 years years, with the bars too low, and to extended. But my first real experience of Bosch power, left me convinced that the money was well spent.
So now it was a case of stripping the bar raiser, and short stem, plus, bar ends, proper mudguards and rack, off of my non-powered Rockhopper, and putting them on the KTM. Even managed to change the rubber grips without bugg++ing them.
As for the broken Poplock, well it took Brucki from rad-sport about 3 days to send me a complete new fitment, no questions asked, which is pretty good considering the unit is £45 +pp on ebay.
He also sent me a proper KTM kick stand, for 15 eu, all up, which leaves my LBS, and web pages for dead. Excellent.
So I have now finally replaced the Poplock, upped and shortened the reach, and fitted full size guards, despite the rather over sized knobbly Racing Ralphs.
Fitting proper mudguards was not really a problem, as long as you don’t mind using cable ties, and a pair of adjustable Cateye clips around the front forks, for the mudguard eyelets,
Unpowered the bike feels great, and not too different to my unpowered Rockhopper. The 9 speed XT derailleur works seriously smoothly, and only having one front chainring makes life a lot easier, as normally one is considering overlap of each rear sprocket, with each one of the 3 front chain rings.....the gearing is a bit low, meaning just over 20 mph in the 11 tooth sprocket, but that is only with a fresh pair of legs, and doesn’t last long (unfortunately).
The 4 options on the incredibly well designed left hand remote power switch, are still being explored, but I have tried to ration myself to Eco (30%) for as long as possible, interspersed with 0%, when the going is good. The remote has a + and a – button, which are angled, ‘just so’, to accommodate the thumb...excellent touch.
A fresh battery charge offered me 115 miles in Eco, (under perfect conditions), but came back with 85 showing after 15 energetic miles....chasing roadies around Regents Park outer loop....(unsuccessfully)....I was using ‘turbo’ for a long slight uphill to keep me on the wheel in front, but mostly I was on my own (as it were) at around 18/19mph, and so beyond ‘help’.
The SLX hydraulics are a smooth as a babies backside, but in all honesty, not too much different a feel to the Tektro hydraulics on the Rockhopper..............the law of Diminishing Returns, strikes. But no rim wear, and no brake fibre grot over everything, which makes hydraulics the default choice. The levers on the SLX version, have great little knurled knobs, to adjust the lever/handlebar distance, depending whether you have monsters or minis, in the paw department.....so very sophisticated
The motor is totally quiet whatever the demand, and the only sound is that generated by the Racing Ralphs, which must show where a fair bit of the effort is going. The big Intuvia HMI ‘dashboard, is mounted on the stem, and is a very easy readout, and the big buttons easy to use, despite a thick pair of gloves in this 0’ C weather.
There is a seriously steep short ramp on the way back home which has me down to a walking 4 m.p.h unpowered, and on gear 28 of the 27! But the KTM rocketted up at 12 mph in assistance level 2 (Touring), and some of the remaining muscle.
And (as Kenny Everett might have said), it was all done in the very best of taste
The saddle is a bit severe (as it were),and although the narrow shape is OK, just a wee bit more memory foam would have been appreciated, but I have a shelf full of tried and discarded saddles to work my way through before Evans is on the radar.
So 10 out of 10 for rad-sport-brucki, as he has taken the sting out of a distance purchase, and at a precise £2000 all up for a pretty sophisticated piece of kit, to the very latest 2013 spec, plus the big 11 ah Bosch battery, is verging on the very cusp of a bargain.
But I would say that wouldn’t I, as Christine Keeler said to the presiding judge.
