Hi All,
Not have been able to make it to Presteigne myself (2 kids and a wife who works weekends) I have been checking the forum over the weekend expecting to see loads of postings about people's experiences trying out different bikes - particularly Pro Connects. Did anyone actually go?
I would love to read about your impressions of the bikes. Please feed my hunger for news.
Chris
We had an enjoyable day trying out lots of the bikes including taking some of them to the local hill to test their hill climbing ability. As Lafree owners our favourite by far was the Kalkoff which was smooth and climbed the hill easily in 4th, I can see now why owners are changing the rear sprocket.
The Gitane was interesting with its automatic gearchange but refused to change down on the way up the hill until we had to stop, when it selected 1st gear and we could pull away again. However there was a torque adjustment for the gearbox so it may have needed adjusting for my riding ability. It also didn't seem to be of quite the same quality as the Kalkoff but I think it is cheaper.
The "waterbottle" bike was great to ride but the fact you had to be doing 5 miles an hour before you switched on the motor would be quite limiting on a steep hill. It was also a bit weird the way it would keep accelerating all on its own without you touching anything. But nice to see such an innovative idea.
The Wispers felt powerful and quality but on the flat road it was difficult to say how it would perform and we didn't get to take one to the hill. We also tried a re-badged Powacycle Windsor which someone described as being like "riding a sofa", it really was so comfortable to ride and strangely on the flat in pedelec mode felt very fast, certainly a good fun entry level bike.
We have a few pics and a video (of the traffic cone incident) which we will post when we get home but I'm currently typing this on the M5 (I'm not driving I hasten to add), using our new broadband modem dongle which is performing brilliantly - another subject altogether!
