Back from Switzerland, and I'm already planning next years trip.
I'm about to write a short article about the trip and how the bike performed etc, but what I will say is that any doubts that I previously had about the Bosch motor, are now well and truly left behind. The bike was equally as amazing. The one major negative being battery range. Some of the climbs were roughly nine/ten miles long with no let up, and despite only using eco and tour, there wasn't ever much left remaining. Swapping batteries made no difference.
Because of walking during the day with family, I only really managed to ride in the evenings, but still raked up an incredible 54,789' of elevation gain, over roughly 96 miles of continuous climbing over 12 rides. Not bad by anyone's standard.
Roughly 96 miles of down hill riding wasn't bad either, although along with the bike, my wrists and forearms took some major punishment. With some of the descents approaching ten miles, I did find that on the steeper sections, I was having to stop to shake my arms, to get the circulation working again, and tension gone. I did film a few rides, both downhill, and more unusably going up hill, but stupidly managed to delete all but one road ride. I'll try to upload it at some stage over the next few day. It isn't very exciting though.
Just a taster.
Roughly 9.15 in the evening, with the whole mountain to myself.
The rock face in the distant background, is the one that I came very close to going over. I hadn't realised just how close that I had been until riding on this side of the valley.
Top of a 300 metre near on 50% indicated gradient. Tackled in Sport mode, the only limiting factor being traction on the loose stone surface. I managed about 200 metres before having to get off and push due to the bike just spinning up. Lesson learned... Spd mtb shoes are bloody dangerous and slippery on stone when pushing a bike. The metal cleat just slips.
I also couldn't believe just how many pedelecs that are now out there, when compared with last years trip. Hub drive appeared to be the norm on town bikes, and mid drive on e-mtb's. There was certainly a varied selection, predominantly Trek though, and not one Haibike amongst them. Free Wind or some similar name made up the bulk of the town bikes. I'm afraid that I didn't really pay them any attention to get the exact brand name. Stromner made up the rest of the town bikes. Very nice that they were to.
One very dusty, hard worked KTM Macina Lycan after the last ride of the holiday. I am also glad of having decent quality suspension components, and firmly believe that 'pretend' e-mtb's fitted with low end Suntour forks, and cheapo components, would have made the riding a struggle.
I'm about to write a short article about the trip and how the bike performed etc, but what I will say is that any doubts that I previously had about the Bosch motor, are now well and truly left behind. The bike was equally as amazing. The one major negative being battery range. Some of the climbs were roughly nine/ten miles long with no let up, and despite only using eco and tour, there wasn't ever much left remaining. Swapping batteries made no difference.
Because of walking during the day with family, I only really managed to ride in the evenings, but still raked up an incredible 54,789' of elevation gain, over roughly 96 miles of continuous climbing over 12 rides. Not bad by anyone's standard.
Roughly 96 miles of down hill riding wasn't bad either, although along with the bike, my wrists and forearms took some major punishment. With some of the descents approaching ten miles, I did find that on the steeper sections, I was having to stop to shake my arms, to get the circulation working again, and tension gone. I did film a few rides, both downhill, and more unusably going up hill, but stupidly managed to delete all but one road ride. I'll try to upload it at some stage over the next few day. It isn't very exciting though.Just a taster.
Roughly 9.15 in the evening, with the whole mountain to myself.
The rock face in the distant background, is the one that I came very close to going over. I hadn't realised just how close that I had been until riding on this side of the valley.
Top of a 300 metre near on 50% indicated gradient. Tackled in Sport mode, the only limiting factor being traction on the loose stone surface. I managed about 200 metres before having to get off and push due to the bike just spinning up. Lesson learned... Spd mtb shoes are bloody dangerous and slippery on stone when pushing a bike. The metal cleat just slips.
I also couldn't believe just how many pedelecs that are now out there, when compared with last years trip. Hub drive appeared to be the norm on town bikes, and mid drive on e-mtb's. There was certainly a varied selection, predominantly Trek though, and not one Haibike amongst them. Free Wind or some similar name made up the bulk of the town bikes. I'm afraid that I didn't really pay them any attention to get the exact brand name. Stromner made up the rest of the town bikes. Very nice that they were to.
One very dusty, hard worked KTM Macina Lycan after the last ride of the holiday. I am also glad of having decent quality suspension components, and firmly believe that 'pretend' e-mtb's fitted with low end Suntour forks, and cheapo components, would have made the riding a struggle.
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