Okay, I've gotta take out the dogs and get ready for dinner, and I only took one photo, with the bike out of focus-- more tomorrow, I promise-- but..
Holy crap.
There were a lot of hiccups with delivery-- I am the FIRST rider to use the REI assembly option, and the short version is, Canyon's communication was non-existent, no updates other than 'bike shipped to REI, we'll email you when it's delivered' and they never did. Fortunately, FEDEX managed to find me, and were great about revising the delivery and Canyon was outstanding. The bike was delivered with a scratch in the down tube, and REI explained what I already guessed in more detail: The only remedy they would suggest would be rejecting the bike and starting the process all over again. What's more, the bike was assessed by pros when it arrived, which is what I wanted in case something exactly like this happened-- and they confirmed that all that is scratched is the paint. No CF is visible under the scratch, only primer. So absolutely nothing structural. Two inches long, the width of a #3 pencil, will cover w/ Testor's model paint-- and see if Canyon will give me a break on a remote in a couple of months-- if one is ever available.
The bike itself is astounding. First, the only potential problem I observed-- some auto shifting / gear slipping while ascending. This may be due to my inexperience with electronic gears-- I'm working the brake-mounted shifters as if they are manual-- or just something bedding in, or looseness in the rear axle nut, which is what it always is when Seeker exhibits this behavior, though this was not as dramatic. It's interesting, because there's no cable to stretch, so we'll see-- I notice this did not happen at the end of the ascent, when I was paying more attention to shifting technique.
Now, the great: What I worried about most was potentially being between sizes (I got a large) and the drop bars. The sizing was perfect for me at 6 foot and 3/4 of an inch in height and an inseam of roughly 34 inches. The Canyon sizing tool worked perfectly for me; the seat is slammed (a few millimeters above the low limit) and the bike fits like a glove.
As for the bars,
I have never ridden a drop-bar bike with hoods before! Riding on the hoods, there is, like, only about 20% of the pressure on my metacarpal joint as there is with the Motobecane. The riser and swept bars added to the Marin were more like 35% pressure. So the hoods are the most pain-free solution for bike riding I've ever experienced. The downside: The drops are harder on my back, and I do feel that even if I'm only on the drops for 20% of the ride. It's basically way more comfortable than any other bike 80% of the time, but more uncomfortable in a very different kind of way for the other 20%. Feels like a very significant improvement overall, but I don't have a good position yet for very high speed descents on pavement-- for really opening it up well past 35 MPH on straight descents, and then quickly dumping speed before cornering. I find myself holding it to the low 30s for now. The cornering itself seems good, probably in the low 20 MPH range, same as most other bikes, for two or three turns, but linking a lot of turns super fast would be hard on my back in the drops, at least the way I'm riding now.
What's also a joy is how it eats the small-to-medium bumps on the crap pavement. Front fork is set with a lot of cush at the moment, and between that, the CF frame, the sprung seatpost-- I'm just not feeling the rough road. For crap pavement, this is the best solution to vibration of all three eBikes I've had. Again, easier on the hands, easier on everything. The bike feels VERY stable and sure-footed, particularly for its weight; I'm not noticing the thinner, gravel-bike tires, and on short patches of dirt, if didn't feel floaty in a bad way, like I had to maintain balance perfectly. Very easy to throw it into a quick U-turn, nothing awkward.
Power delivery is VERY different. I guess I should download the FLOW app and mess around with it; honestly, I don't see why I need to just at this moment! The demented top-tube mounted power adjustment isn't even as distracting as I thought it would be. Power level selection seems simpler: If you're more or less flat, you can shut off the motor or be in ECO, and stay there for short upgrades; I took most of my ride home in ECO (or whatever level 1 is.) In all levels, one thing you notice is that cadence governs power delivery much more than on either the E5000 or the Tongshen; it's a bigger part of the cadence-sensing/torque-sensing balance. The bike WANTS you to downshift-- several times-- on an upgrade rather than switch power levels. Level 2 is totally find for mild upgrades, I only used level three for steeper upgrades, and even then, usually only for longer ones. I only had to use Turbo, or whatever it was, once-- and this is with a five-pound backpack with the charger, tools, etc.-- only on the steepest hill. 55nm of torque is PLENTY for a 35 pound bike, and it's way more usefully deployed than on the Tongshen.
Shakedown cruise was 14 miles with 1,000 feet of vertical, and used about half of my battery capacity. The app will confirm when I fire it up. So range seems a bit shorter than I'd hoped, but the battery has not balanced yet, and I could have shut off power more frequently. I'm also guessing that the shop charged the battery to 85%, because the first bar went to half-power faster than any of the others, and it was all in ECO. Oh, that's another thing: You don't really have only 5 bars of battery level indication, it's effectively 10: Each bar is green at first, then turns white when it's half exhausted.
Do I really need to know much more than that? Maybe not. Maybe the range estimators for the TSDZ and E5000 were just anxiety-generators. Maybe less is more. The bike is super high-tech, but if FEELS simple. Not having a display is kind of cool... I will probably mount an after-market speedo and odo, I have a spare.
Gotta run-- the canines are threatening to do bad things. (Was that supposed to be a short review?) Super happy with this ride!
