How do you like it so far? First impressions? Mine arrives in 2 weeks.
Well I've had it for a bit over 2 weeks now and I have 600 miles on it. If I had to use one word to describe it: Fantastic!
I like everything about it, the Rohloff E14 is great, it has a few mis-shifts and even though the assist power is retarded when you shift you still need to make a conscious effort to reduce pedaling power as well.
The bike is a lot beefier and "thicker" than what the photos make it appear to be and every component is of extremely high quality. The price is almost justified when you start adding up the price of each component even though it's hard to explain to people why anyone would spend north of $8K on a bicycle.
I'm 5'9.5" and got the smallest one and it fits me great. The stand over height is just right with my inseam and riding it is very comfortable.
The power assist is very natural and feels very appropriate. When I commute, 33 miles each way, I use Turbo, when I'm just out for a quick 20 mile ride I use Tour. On flats I can easily get to 27-28 mph in Turbo mode and it is a pretty good workout through and through. It is not a motorcycle, you have to pedal and have the bike help along. Realistically what it buys you is:
1) A comfortable bike where you don't have to worry about the weigh hurting your performance.
2) A few MPH advantage over a regular lean road bike without the sacrifices.
It will not ride on its own for you and going faster than 28 mph is both futile and unrealistic. The power gradually cuts out at 28 mph and it, as everything else about the poewrtrain feels natural. Given the simple fact that it provides about 275% of your input if you're putting in 100 Watts you'll be cruising as if you were putting in 375% which on this bike give the weight is around 28 mph on flats. Any more power would be unnecessary with the exception of hills but realistically at that point you might as well get a motorcycle.
Without the comfort of the Supercharger and the extra few mph over regular road bike I would not be commuting 67+ miles every day for sure.
I got the Kiox display and it's very legible, great contrast and sharp looking, substantially better than my Garmin Edge 1030 in terms of display quality. However, it reads fast, I had to adjust the tire size to read more in line with my Garmin and they have some weird tire size math and conversion that makes no sense what-so-ever, it is not compatible with the Garmin read tire diameter values. The display modes are not adjustable in any way so I just leave it on speed and use my Garmin for everything else. On the speed display it shows what gear you're in constantly as well. Bosch should make a CAN to ANT+ dongle to allow Garmin and other devices to interface with the Bosch control and leverage ANT channels for cadence, power, shifting and eBike related fields. It's all in the ANT+ standard the dongle would not be a complicated thing to develop. The Kiox display and feature set is underwhelming but since I have a Garmin it's a don't care for me.
The lights can be turned on/off, however brake lights and horn only work if the lights are on. The headlight is great, I ride to work in pitch black in the morning and the visibility is truly awesome with the headlights.
Range appears to be around 45-47 miles in Turbo mode, I generally use about 65-70% on my morning commute. The other day temps were 37F (3C) and I arrived to work with 23% battery left. Range will depend on speed, this morning I averaged 108 Watts of human power and I had more battery left. If I average 130-135W of human power then the battery also burns quicker and the time saving for my commute is marginal at that point. The extra mph at the top end is almost not worth it unless you want a stronger workout.
I charge with a 4A charger at home and have a second charger at work. I charge the batteries in the bike at the house and off the bike individually at work. The batteries get charged twice a day on days I commute which I think will be the Achilles heel of the whole thing, at $900 a pop and roughly 500 charges a year I wonder how long they will last.
My favorite gears are 12 and 13, I do most of my riding in those two gears around 25-27 mph even though I only average about 21-22 mph when you consider traffic and lights.