Spoiler alert: don’t buy this bike!
First of all, you can f**k right off with this “woman’s bike” bullshit. What an outrageous anachronism.
I bought this bike several weeks ago. I was keen on a bike to commute to work with that I could change the gears on while the bike was stationary. This would save a lot of that cycling up and down through the gears multiple times in anticipation of the stop-start nature of my commute, with plenty of traffic lights.
I also wanted to be able to keep up with the traffic to some extent – no point only being able to get assistance up to 25 kph.
Well, in some ways it’s been a nice bike. They adjusted the seating for me so that my posture is a bit more comfortably sporty rather than bolt upright. The construction is very solid so it rides like a limousine. The handle bar grips and seat are nicely padded. It’s terrific going downhill. On the flat it needs more motor input than you’d expect – in the second assistance setting (“tour”) out of four, it feels like the same amount of work as a normal unpowered bike. I assume that’s because it’s so heavy? But it’s on the uphill that it really disappoints. At maximum assistance (“turbo”) and on the lowest gear, it’s a struggle getting up my hill, far harder than my old cheap ebike.
As I mentioned previously, I took it in to the shop last week to see if there was something wrong with it, but apparently not. It’s got a huge motor, so you could see they thought I was just whingeing. “The level of assistance depends on how hard you’re pushing down on the pedals, so maybe if you didn’t have it on the lowest gear while going uphill?” Nice try, buddy, but that’s not how physics works: on a higher gear, the hill was harder work (did I mention I live on Wellington’s 16th steepest street?)
In summary:
Pros: A comfortable ride. The red is a nice colour that matches the Tesla. I’ll get fitter.
Cons: I didn’t expect to have to arrive at work sweating. With a price tag of $11k, was it unreasonable of me to expect more?
The Germans have over promised and under delivered. It might be perfectly adequate for a gentle pootle along the Rhine, but it’s simply not up to the cycling challenge that is Wellington
3/10