Enviolo users - can you shift while pedaling?

[AvalancheRun]

Well, we’ve now ridden 8 Blue Bikes for a total of 32 miles. They’re basically the Citibike equivalent with Enviolo shifters. They all felt the exact same, and all downshifted while pedaling. Maybe downshifting successfully was helped by not having a motor adding extra torque.

However, the consistency of the shifting experience on these was far above our $5k bikes. So frustrating dealing with the LBS who cannot offer any help.

 

[AvalancheRun]

For anyone experiencing this, the solution is to loosen the Gates belt. When the belts are too tight the hub bearings bind up.

A little bit of slack and the Enviolo shifts smoothly without much effort (without load), and without any belt slip.

 

[Jean-Paul B.]

Hello AvalancheRun,
for what it is worth....
My wife and I have tried 4 different R&M bikes with Enviolo, 2 manual and 2 automatic.
Manual shifted effortless under load (even with my load ), but we thought Automatiq would be preferable for 2 reasons :
- we ride since 2019 Van Moof S2 and X2, and really appreciate their ease of use in Paris urban environment.
- I was unsure of cable shifting reliability on the long run.
So we ordered 1 Homage4 and 1 Delite4 with Enviolo, with a change to Automatiq at LBS, and should get them next week.
I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[scrambler]

Interesting to hear your LBS does the automatiq upgrade, usually they dont do any work that is not sanctioned by R&M

 

[AvalancheRun]

Hello AvalancheRun,
for what it is worth....
My wife and I have tried 4 different R&M bikes with Enviolo, 2 manual and 2 automatic.
Manual shifted effortless under load (even with my load ), but we thought Automatiq would be preferable for 2 reasons :
- we ride since 2019 Van Moof S2 and X2, and really appreciate their ease of use in Paris urban environment.
- I was unsure of cable shifting reliability on the long run.
So we ordered 1 Homage4 and 1 Delite4 with Enviolo, with a change to Automatiq at LBS, and should get them next week.
I'll let you know how it goes.

We ride in a hilly city that requires a lot of shifting. The constant ratcheting motion from the wrist has caused a lot of wrist pain and carpal tunnel symptom throughout my arm. I've had carpal tunnel in the past and it was awful! Manual twist shifting = not for me.

I ordered an Automatiq kit earlier this week. In general I think it's a much better design than the manual twist control. It can be run in manual mode very similar to the Rohloff, and even downshifts automatically at stops. For a city like Paris I really think Automatiq is going to be a superior experience to the Rohloff. Please share your thoughts once you've received the bikes!

 

[Jean-Paul B.]

. For a city like Paris I really think Automatiq is going to be a superior experience to the Rohloff. Please share your thoughts once you've received the bikes!

We tried both, on Nevo4 for Automatiq and Homage / Delite for Rohloff E14.
At the end, both systems are very impressive, but :
- Full automatic is more comfortable than electronic shifting, because you can fully focus on riding and paying attention to surrounding traffic and environment, hence more security (even though Paris has become pretty cycle friendly)
- No need for Rohloff extra demultiplication for our usage
- Less maintenance on Enviolo
- Price difference was a nice to have, but not a decision criteria, regarding the whole investment. And it is almost offset by the upgrade.
In fact, I am really wondering why R&M doesn't offer Automatiq option on Homage and Delite.
My gut feeling is that the software would the same on Homage / Delite and Nevo, so no extra costs.
Full suspension is a real improvement over Nevo on paved roads and bumpers, so FS / Automatiq would be to my eyes the perfect set in old european cities.

 

[scrambler]

I agree, I am hoping R&M will eventually offer the Automatiq with all the models that offer Enviolo.