Went for a long ride today and first impression is excellent. The hill climbing ability is awesome, I have no idea of gradients, but will post some pictures later to give you an idea.
Initially I rode my normal 20 mile circuit, which after 16 months on the Powacycle Salisbury, I average around 15.8mph, this has contributed greatly to a weight loss from 97kilos to 81 over the same period. Apart from a couple of steep climbs, the FreeGo will do this on throttle only, which I used for half the distance in an attempt to flatten the battery for conditioning.
The bike feels really solid when riding, most noticeable on fast hill descents, were I just let the bike run at what must have been close to or higher than 40mph (waiting for the computer to be fitted). The disk brakes are very good.
Todays task was to flatten the battery, not easy on this bike. I have no idea on initial charge as I rode it as delivered from the UK dealer. After my 20 mile ride, all lights were still lit, so I continued to Peel, a further 14 mile round trip. First light went out. I then hit the mountain climb to really draw the amps. This is a second gear hill in my 2.1 litre car. Up to this point I was wondering why they needed gears on this at all, as I had remained in top gear for the whole of my run, up some quite decent gradients, although some of them required moderate effort.
The mountain climb had me dropping down the gears from 6 to 3, but at that gear it was still relatively effortless, unbelievable, this thing will climb a tree. Obviously I was now drawing the amps, but still couldn't get the second light out. I repeated this one and a half mile climb three times and then it dropped to two lights. Cutting a long story short, for the next hour I rode up and down a number of hills and eventually I got the last light to flicker and returned home.
God help me tomorrow, when I will definitely be on a full charge for the second conditioning.
Only negatives are a squeaking noise at the rear, I think its the disc brake, and poor waterproofing. The controller is en-cased in an alluminium box, but the cabling lacks a grommet. On the other hand, the in-line connector is very well sealed with a rubber shroud.
So first impression .... excellent