For some reason I am still really struggling to ride at the moment, but as I had to venture off to see the Rohloff hub, it seemed daft not venture up onto the South Downs at the same time. 35 miles and an elevation gain of 2,865ft. More than enough for me today.
I also came across a guy who was out for his first ride on this.
He suggested that I took it for a ride, which I said was a stupid idea as he didn't know me and that I could just ride off into the distance on it. He needn't have worried though, as it didn't do it for me and my ride was a fairly short one. The finish on the bike was amazing though, as were it's looks, and the photo does nothing to show how good that the colour and paintwork finish is, but I hated the position of the power settings, and didn't like the short stem for my riding use. You could change the stem, but I wouldn't have been able to live with the power settings position. An lovely looking bike, but just not for me.
Negatives.
Poor position of power settings. The obvious place to have put it would have been the top tube. Changing settings was a distraction from where you should be heading, and would prove a nightmare in winter with thick gloves and cold hands.
The poor positioning of the power settings, also means that the display will just become covered in crap thrown up from wet muddy riding. Not an ideal thing to happen.
Very odd power delivery.
An underslung battery that requires a hex key to remove or change. I couldn't hack that hassle mid ride in wet muddy conditions.
An underslung battery which is going to catch the full brunt of every bit of crap going. Not a very pleasant thing if you once again want to swap a battery mid ride. The owner didn't remove the battery for me, but from what I could see, it isn't all that convenient size wise when it comes to carrying spare.