I took my first ride today. TLDR: it's very different than the Tesoro, in mostly good ways.
I recently added the TQ remote, and when I had the fork off, I noticed that whoever built the bike ran the brake hoses wrong. There is a compression ring with cutouts for hoses and cables. It sits on top of the upper headset bearing. This is a key piece of the TICR internal cable routing system.
The split goes in the rear, so that the ports are on the left and the right. The brake hoses are supposed to be run into their respective ports, i.e. left on left, right on right. Whoever built it put both brake hoses on the left, which cocks the compression ring high on the left. I was able to get the headset presumably tight, but it would loosen over bumps. I felt that this situation was good enough for a test ride, but after that experience, it has to be fixed ASAP.
Anyway, back to the ride prep. I put on the pedals first. I use Crank Brothers Candy pedals on the Tesoro and love them. For the Allroad, I found a brand new set of titanium Candy 11's on eBay for $250 ($499 MSRP, $350 from QBP). I couldn't pass them up.
Next came the Garmin computer. I was not able to mount it to the Most square TICR stem. The top of the stem is flat, and the o-rings are too small, so I put it on the bars. I may be able to relocate the headlight to under the bars, and use an out front stem mount, but that's down the road. I added the three TQ sensors to the Garmin, and enabled the Garmin e-bike screen. That got me going. I have a lot of customization to do here. The good thing is that I was able to get power, cadence, range, and charge level immediately via ANT+ LEV. All firmware is old, and will be updated when I get the dongle.
The fit isn't quite right, and the Most saddle is just ok. I have a lot of work to do here, as well.
The first thing I noticed once I got started was how light the bike felt. If the Tesoro is an F-150 Shelby Raptor, the Allroad is a Tesla Roadster. The TQ motor is almost silent. It has very little pedal dynamics as well. That's with the factory settings, which had it set up with a 20mph assist limit. I've tried to change anything motor related with the TQ app, but all I get are errors. The TQ dongle should be at the shop when I get in tomorrow. It's probably just a region setting. I have TQ's USA dealer service number just in case.
The next thing I noticed was how much bad road juju the Tesoro suspension fork and 55mm tires took out of the ride. The Allroad rides like a carbon road bike. You don't feel every little bump in the road, but the larger ones can be startling. The carbon frame just soaks up all of the smaller ones. The handling is not race road bike crisp, but it's very, very responsive. Way better than I could have expected for an e-bike. It's fun to flick around. The tires are Vittoria Randonneur 40mm, and I have them set at 40psi per Silca. I'm going to try them at 37psi for the next ride. The Deore shifting is, well, Deore. Good but not great. With the current gearing, I spent most of my time in cogs 7,8,9, and 10. The brakes were supposed to be Deore, but they subbed in another brand I'd never heard of. They are brand new, so the jury is still ouit on them.
The HPR50 really likes cadence. From a standing start, the Tesoro pulls you back up to speed, where the Allroad takes a good bit of rider watts to get going, at least at the current settings, but once the windup is over, it cruises quite well with not a lot of rider power as long as you spin. I guess that's the headwind effect. I really like the way that the HPR50 delivers power. It's very natural, very analog bike-like. Unlike the Tesoro, nobody heard me coming, so I need to get a bell.
I did my 32 mile ride out to Skaket Beach and back. I've done this several times on the Tesoro. On the Allroad, set mostly on Eco, with a few pops to the other two settings, I had 47% of the battery remaining. On the Tesoro, with the main battery only, I'd use about the same, but a lot of it would be in Tour. I felt that I worked harder on the Allroad, but maybe that's just perception. It will take time to figure all this out.
Anyway, I'll fix the brake routing issue next. I'm looking at Deore XT Di2 for over the winter, and carbon wheels down the road. It's a beautifully made bike that I am eager to get to know better.
