Cycleman72
New Member
- Region
- USA
I bought my Specialized Creo Expert a year ago and have come to love it. It is one of half a dozen road road bikes and e-assist trikes in our garage, so my bike mileage gets spread around, but the Creo, which now has 1,700 miles on it, has become my bike of choice for at least two out of five bike rides each week. The only change I made to the stock bike was to switch out the tires to Specialized 38c Sawtooths, which perform well on both pavement and gravel. I live in northern Colorado, and we have hundreds of miles of gravel and ranch roads, as well as good paved roads that the racing teams from Boulder train on, and an excellent paved trail system that connects the Loveland and Fort Collins trail systems in two places, providing a couple hundred miles of paved trails. I am 6'2" fit and athletic guy, but I am also 72 years old, and after open heart surgery several years ago to repair an aneurysm and a subsequent 8-month battle with A-Fib and A-Flutter (thankfully conquered 4 years ago), I found that I had lost 110 watts of my power, as measured on a before/after basis on a power meter. I am still pretty strong, but average speeds dropped from 16 1/2-17 mph to 14-14 1/2 mph on rolling terrain. Enter the Creo, which I adjusted in the Mission Control app to provide my missing 110 watts on the lowest (ECO) assist setting. What a difference! I still work as hard as ever (I didn't get an e-bike to cheat the exercise), but now my average speed are back up to 16 1/2 - 17 1/2 mph, and the smile is back on my face. I typically consume approximately 1% of battery life per mile, so theoretically I could ride a century on a single charge, but most of my rides these days are in the 40-45 mile range.
Aside from the subtle, well-integrated power input, the Creo is simply a great-handling road bike. It rides smoothly and predictably, and corners and stops as well as any other bike I own, including a custom titanium Seven Axiom. On flat or gently rolling terrain, I will frequently just turn the motor off and ride it as an analog bike. Oh, one other change that I made several months ago - and highly recommend - was to add the e-assist mode change buttons underneath the handlebars on either side of the stem. With the stock set-up, I always felt that I spent too much time looking down searching for the small and hard-to-find mode adjustment button on the top tube, which was both annoying and potentially dangerous. I usually ride the Creo in Eco mode, taking full advantage of the Di2 shifter, but we experience a number of high-wind days during the spring and fall months here on the CO Front Range, and it is such a joy to bump the assist up to "Sport" or "Turbo" to neutralize a 30-mph headwind. So, yes, the Creo Expert is expensive, but I still feel strongly that the bike is an excellent value and a sound investment. It has enabled me to get out on a ride on many days when the winds would have otherwise kept me indoors on a trainer, and it has given me back my former speed. Highly recommended!
Aside from the subtle, well-integrated power input, the Creo is simply a great-handling road bike. It rides smoothly and predictably, and corners and stops as well as any other bike I own, including a custom titanium Seven Axiom. On flat or gently rolling terrain, I will frequently just turn the motor off and ride it as an analog bike. Oh, one other change that I made several months ago - and highly recommend - was to add the e-assist mode change buttons underneath the handlebars on either side of the stem. With the stock set-up, I always felt that I spent too much time looking down searching for the small and hard-to-find mode adjustment button on the top tube, which was both annoying and potentially dangerous. I usually ride the Creo in Eco mode, taking full advantage of the Di2 shifter, but we experience a number of high-wind days during the spring and fall months here on the CO Front Range, and it is such a joy to bump the assist up to "Sport" or "Turbo" to neutralize a 30-mph headwind. So, yes, the Creo Expert is expensive, but I still feel strongly that the bike is an excellent value and a sound investment. It has enabled me to get out on a ride on many days when the winds would have otherwise kept me indoors on a trainer, and it has given me back my former speed. Highly recommended!
