Hey everyone,
I've been a long time reader, first time poster, so here goes! I've become enthralled with the Haibike line over the last few weeks after perusing through Court's thorough reviews as well as checking out other written reviews around the web. In my mind, the quality that they produce seems worth the extra expense over other brands since ideally these bikes would last 5-10 years at a minimum so the extra cost would be nicely amortized.
Anyways, I'm looking to pick up a Haibike in the next 12 months as I save up funds; currently I have a Cannondale R800 road bike that I use primarily for exercise and pleasure rides. I'd like to have a bike that I can both commute year round with and potentially do some trail riding if I have the desire to (there's no way I'm doing any sort of trails with my current road bike). I live in Minnesota where we have long and tough winters but I'd like to think that I'm brave enough to take them on given the right equipment. My commute would be a beefy 44 mile round trip so I'd probably only do it about once a week, but I'd still like to have that capability. I'll likely move closer to my workplace in the coming years so that will make bike commuting much more viable.
Anyways, my two primary candidates right now are the Trekking RX and the Xduro FS RX 27.5 - I'm mainly wondering if the mountain bike style setup would still be useful for longer commutes or if the increased tire friction/drag rules it out for doing long distances. I'd be able to charge up at work, so as long as the bike could make it 25 miles using a decent amount of assist to overcome wind then I think that would be satisfactory. I'm also thinking that the knobby tires and suspension would be useful for overcoming potholes, cracks in the road, curbs, etc that I may encounter along that commute. Plus I figure that I get a completely different machine than my current road bike and with that comes a lot of opportunities for more interesting rides out in nature.
However, on the flip side, it's hard to look past the 27 speeds of the Trekking RX and the built-in rack, fenders, dynamo that make it an ideal commuter.
I hope to test drive both of them (and any other Haibike I can find in my area, since they show 30 different models of E-Bikes on their website) to help make my decision. It seems that Erik's Bike Shop here is the only dealer/supplier but the rep I called hadn't even heard of the brand and didn't know when they would have any models in so that wasn't very encouraging. Hopefully we get some models in the area soon so I can get in the saddle and if the quality really is as great as it looks in videos.
I've been a long time reader, first time poster, so here goes! I've become enthralled with the Haibike line over the last few weeks after perusing through Court's thorough reviews as well as checking out other written reviews around the web. In my mind, the quality that they produce seems worth the extra expense over other brands since ideally these bikes would last 5-10 years at a minimum so the extra cost would be nicely amortized.
Anyways, I'm looking to pick up a Haibike in the next 12 months as I save up funds; currently I have a Cannondale R800 road bike that I use primarily for exercise and pleasure rides. I'd like to have a bike that I can both commute year round with and potentially do some trail riding if I have the desire to (there's no way I'm doing any sort of trails with my current road bike). I live in Minnesota where we have long and tough winters but I'd like to think that I'm brave enough to take them on given the right equipment. My commute would be a beefy 44 mile round trip so I'd probably only do it about once a week, but I'd still like to have that capability. I'll likely move closer to my workplace in the coming years so that will make bike commuting much more viable.
Anyways, my two primary candidates right now are the Trekking RX and the Xduro FS RX 27.5 - I'm mainly wondering if the mountain bike style setup would still be useful for longer commutes or if the increased tire friction/drag rules it out for doing long distances. I'd be able to charge up at work, so as long as the bike could make it 25 miles using a decent amount of assist to overcome wind then I think that would be satisfactory. I'm also thinking that the knobby tires and suspension would be useful for overcoming potholes, cracks in the road, curbs, etc that I may encounter along that commute. Plus I figure that I get a completely different machine than my current road bike and with that comes a lot of opportunities for more interesting rides out in nature.
However, on the flip side, it's hard to look past the 27 speeds of the Trekking RX and the built-in rack, fenders, dynamo that make it an ideal commuter.
I hope to test drive both of them (and any other Haibike I can find in my area, since they show 30 different models of E-Bikes on their website) to help make my decision. It seems that Erik's Bike Shop here is the only dealer/supplier but the rep I called hadn't even heard of the brand and didn't know when they would have any models in so that wasn't very encouraging. Hopefully we get some models in the area soon so I can get in the saddle and if the quality really is as great as it looks in videos.
Last edited:
