I have had my Esprit for for 6/7 weeks now, so I though I might give my view on it.
First up I bought without the opportunity to test ride, this has turned out to be a good thing as if I had test rode it I would not have bought it.
It is a perfect fit as it is very adjustable, but the cadence that the motor runs at is way below my normal cadence and felt very "wrong", after a few rides I lowered my natural cadence and found longer rides not as tiring, then after several more long rides I found that spinning faster and not trying to run in higher gears so the assistance was trailing off offered an ideal pedal speed for me and reduced power consumption on the battery, this requires getting used to the feel/sound of the motor coming off load until it became automatic, this also means running a lower gear or 3 than the assist will allow.
If you hit a steep climb just let the cadence drop and the motor helps more, very counter intuitive to a spinner
Now re the AtoB review, I suspect in their testing they never fully adjusted to the bikes assist, Last night I rode 30 km mostly up the local mountain, the battery indicator rewarded me with the highest LED flickering off momentarily, the first time it has gone off since the initial ride (conditioning the battery), so how they got the short range they did has me stumped.
Next the chain breaking due to shifting whilst stopped (a no, no anyway), the cranks require 1 and 1/2 revolutions before the motor comes on so the derailleur would have sorted its self out short massive levels of abuse or pushing the throttle to full off the line.
Tapping the brake to shift is quick, simple and becomes automatic quickly, I can not understand how this did not occur to them as my first reaction to drive train noise on an assisted bike it to hit the brake to stop assistance to see where the sound is coming from.
My hub issue was incorrect torque on the wheel nuts and extreme abuse by myself, I have increased the torque and added a jubilee clip as a safety stop for when I feel like extreme off roading again
I do have the intermittent cut outs that some one else has mentioned previously as if the brake was hit but they are occasional, momentary and not really an issue.
The bike is climbs brilliantly and leaves my hub bikes for dead. If you had to get home with and injured knee or something as long as you could turn the pedals at all (mine doesn't have a throttle), the assist alone would make it up almost any hill.
At the price I paid for it I would buy it again in a heart beat.
First up I bought without the opportunity to test ride, this has turned out to be a good thing as if I had test rode it I would not have bought it.
It is a perfect fit as it is very adjustable, but the cadence that the motor runs at is way below my normal cadence and felt very "wrong", after a few rides I lowered my natural cadence and found longer rides not as tiring, then after several more long rides I found that spinning faster and not trying to run in higher gears so the assistance was trailing off offered an ideal pedal speed for me and reduced power consumption on the battery, this requires getting used to the feel/sound of the motor coming off load until it became automatic, this also means running a lower gear or 3 than the assist will allow.
If you hit a steep climb just let the cadence drop and the motor helps more, very counter intuitive to a spinner
Now re the AtoB review, I suspect in their testing they never fully adjusted to the bikes assist, Last night I rode 30 km mostly up the local mountain, the battery indicator rewarded me with the highest LED flickering off momentarily, the first time it has gone off since the initial ride (conditioning the battery), so how they got the short range they did has me stumped.
Next the chain breaking due to shifting whilst stopped (a no, no anyway), the cranks require 1 and 1/2 revolutions before the motor comes on so the derailleur would have sorted its self out short massive levels of abuse or pushing the throttle to full off the line.
Tapping the brake to shift is quick, simple and becomes automatic quickly, I can not understand how this did not occur to them as my first reaction to drive train noise on an assisted bike it to hit the brake to stop assistance to see where the sound is coming from.
My hub issue was incorrect torque on the wheel nuts and extreme abuse by myself, I have increased the torque and added a jubilee clip as a safety stop for when I feel like extreme off roading again
I do have the intermittent cut outs that some one else has mentioned previously as if the brake was hit but they are occasional, momentary and not really an issue.
The bike is climbs brilliantly and leaves my hub bikes for dead. If you had to get home with and injured knee or something as long as you could turn the pedals at all (mine doesn't have a throttle), the assist alone would make it up almost any hill.
At the price I paid for it I would buy it again in a heart beat.
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