Well, I've had my first ride on an eBike today.
Both my Sirocco CD and my wife's Santana arrived from Woosh at lunchtime today and I had no bother assembling them in less than an hour. As soon as my CD battery was fully charged I decided just to jump on it and go! A quick 10 mile round trip including around 700+ feet of ascent. No problem, and I haven't been on a bike for years, and certainly wouldn't have even attempted doing the same trip on a non-powered machine. My legs were a little stiff at the end although I was never remotely out of breath.
Now, as a motorcyclist, it all did feel a bit slow and the gearing meant that anything over 18mph meant a rather fast cadence. If it's an easy job to change the sprockets then that's something that I might do, although I may just leave it as it is as I don't plan on leaving Mrs Oldie eating dust on her Santana.
Sadly, on my downhill (fairly fast) homeward descent I had a blowout on the back tyre (possibly impact) and I had to limp home the last few yards. Rather than investigate the problem I simply put the CD in the garage and jumped onto the Santana. Very nice too. I actually preferred the riding position (well, at least for easy cruising) but the CD is better for the steep stuff, methinks. Yes, the Santana is a very nice bike and we're planning to get some practice runs in over the weekend. You somehow “feel” the motor a bit more and it feels quite powerful.
To be honest, I had presumed that the CD was going to have a bit more grunt than it actually has, but that's probably more of a consequence of riding 1300 cc motorcycles (they're quite quick) but I'm sure that I'll adjust to it very quickly. Anyway, it does it's job well so I'm satisfied.
Although this is not a review (not enough miles yet) I might make the following general points on the CD.
Front disc brake probably needs adjustment, or maybe it's just not that great.
Saddle is “firmish”, but should get used to it.
Throttle not really of much use to me as I prefer to pedal all the time.
Bike rides fine with no power.
Motor is quiet.
Gears slightly out but will adjust to get them perfect. Didn't detect any issue with changing up or down under power.
Suspension adequate although seat post spring probably not the most sophisticated.
In summary, I'm glad that we've bought the bikes and I think that they are good value and we'll certainly be using them quite a bit. It might take a few trips before the riding experience becomes intuitive and that's when we'll get the best out of them. Thanks for a good buying experience Hatti.
Both my Sirocco CD and my wife's Santana arrived from Woosh at lunchtime today and I had no bother assembling them in less than an hour. As soon as my CD battery was fully charged I decided just to jump on it and go! A quick 10 mile round trip including around 700+ feet of ascent. No problem, and I haven't been on a bike for years, and certainly wouldn't have even attempted doing the same trip on a non-powered machine. My legs were a little stiff at the end although I was never remotely out of breath.
Now, as a motorcyclist, it all did feel a bit slow and the gearing meant that anything over 18mph meant a rather fast cadence. If it's an easy job to change the sprockets then that's something that I might do, although I may just leave it as it is as I don't plan on leaving Mrs Oldie eating dust on her Santana.
Sadly, on my downhill (fairly fast) homeward descent I had a blowout on the back tyre (possibly impact) and I had to limp home the last few yards. Rather than investigate the problem I simply put the CD in the garage and jumped onto the Santana. Very nice too. I actually preferred the riding position (well, at least for easy cruising) but the CD is better for the steep stuff, methinks. Yes, the Santana is a very nice bike and we're planning to get some practice runs in over the weekend. You somehow “feel” the motor a bit more and it feels quite powerful.
To be honest, I had presumed that the CD was going to have a bit more grunt than it actually has, but that's probably more of a consequence of riding 1300 cc motorcycles (they're quite quick) but I'm sure that I'll adjust to it very quickly. Anyway, it does it's job well so I'm satisfied.
Although this is not a review (not enough miles yet) I might make the following general points on the CD.
Front disc brake probably needs adjustment, or maybe it's just not that great.
Saddle is “firmish”, but should get used to it.
Throttle not really of much use to me as I prefer to pedal all the time.
Bike rides fine with no power.
Motor is quiet.
Gears slightly out but will adjust to get them perfect. Didn't detect any issue with changing up or down under power.
Suspension adequate although seat post spring probably not the most sophisticated.
In summary, I'm glad that we've bought the bikes and I think that they are good value and we'll certainly be using them quite a bit. It might take a few trips before the riding experience becomes intuitive and that's when we'll get the best out of them. Thanks for a good buying experience Hatti.
