Hydra has landed!

[kwseattle]

Starting a new thread to post my pictures, delivery experience, and first impressions.

DELIVERY EXPERIENCE

FedEx is trash, as usual. My package got stuck at a hub in Colorado for 3 days, missed the delivery date twice, then was delivered on my porch without a signature collected while I was gone. Their tracking system notified me 6(!) times that the package was delayed AFTER it had been delivered, then finally it updated to say it had been delivered Wednesday, October 27th (???). The package was surprisingly undamaged except for a tiny split at the bottom as shown below. The bike was packed well and there is no damage as far as I can tell!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The color is NOT AT ALL what I expected. It's significantly darker and has a shiny clear coat. There are a few dull spots and scratched areas - fortunately I've got an automotive paint polisher I can try out, but I don't know how thick the clear is so I will probably not try very hard to fix them. Below is a swatch of the color I ordered vs the actual paint on the bike. If I had known it would change this much with clear coat applied I'd have ordered polar blue instead (I kind of wish I had in the first place).

The bike is way heavier than I expected but that's what I get for not working out much for the last two years during the pandemic .

I'm glad to see that my derailleur is actually a Shimano Deore XT instead of the Microshift one as advertised. My front suspension as delivered is the SR Suntour Raidon instead of the DVO Diamond, and rear is the Manitou Mara. This was mentioned over the phone. Also to my surprise I was sent the 10 A charger instead of the base model one that I ordered, as well as a couple of t shirts! They also threw in the Innotrace programming cable at my request.

ISSUES

1) the aforementioned and shown paint scratches and paint color being completely unexpected

2) the brake light that I ordered ($100?) is entirely missing

3) I can't thread the left pedal onto the brake arm because of either paint in the threads or the threads being machined incorrectly (yes I know they are left hand threads)

4) I did not receive the $150 credit that was mentioned via email a month or so ago after they missed the 4 week delivery promise.

5) it's raining like hell and I can't ride it

Here's an overall shot!

 

[pushkar]

Hi there. We will process the $150 credit this week.
rear light - I believe we owe you a credit for this. I’ll check with our build manager on thjs.
We have removed the option of having a rear light since the light chip is still not ready.

Oh. It’s raining ?

 

[loamoaf]

I'll say this about color being darker than expected - on my E06 I ordered using a pantone color code and mine came out much darker than expected as well! I was going for a deep blue, I wound up with daaaaark deep blue. At least you went with glossy because it does look sick when the light hits it. The darker color may or may not be a result of no base primer/not enough coats over the black carbon. I have a paint guy in Mukilteo that I think I may have to my paint job for next build - he uses PPG 2K clear which is rock hard after curing and I can get any paint mixed up from the auto store if I want metal flake or candy clear, but boy can it get spendy. Couldn't imagine less than $300 paint & labor for primer, base + clear. If anything I learned from browsing forums is that paint issues are pretty common for tons of brands at tons of price levels unfortunately. Do yourself a favor and get some vvivid paint protection film (it's 3M heli tape) to protect it from rock chips!

Regardless of the paint issues it does look gorgeous though... love the angles on the Hydra. Almost kicking myself for not getting a Hydra to go with the X1 I ordered, but it'll be a learning experience.

Is your XT the new 8100 12-speed or 8000 11-speed? What size largest cog is that? Today's rainy indoor activity for me is hunting down an 11s setup that can go up to 50T - have my eye on a XT + Garbaruk cage & jockeys since long cage XT/XTR's are impossible to find right now.

 

[kwseattle]

Hi there. We will process the $150 credit this week.
rear light - I believe we owe you a credit for this. I’ll check with our build manager on thjs.
We have removed the option of having a rear light since the light chip is still not ready.

Oh. It’s raining ?

Thanks Pushkar!

I just went for a quick test ride after a short break in the rain, WOW it is fast! I hit 35 mph 28 mph in in eco lol. It was too cold to ride for much longer (~43 degrees F).

Other notes, the brakes do not cut off the power, is there something I can do to fix this? And if those light chips come in can we order them and install ourselves? Oh and what's the little button next to the battery lock do? Haha

 

[pushkar]

Do not post about any speeds over 28mph.

for brakes, magura doesn’t have 5es will late next year. That being said, sampling rate of the new controller is quite high (9khz), and it has a capacitor it dumps energy to. So cutoff is good to have but not a must have.

the button next to the battery lock is a remnant of on/off switch for china batteries. We make ours here so we don’t use that switch - that’s more for legacy support.
I’m glad you like it.

 

[pushkar]

Post more pics please.

 

[kwseattle]

I'll say this about color being darker than expected - on my E06 I ordered using a pantone color code and mine came out much darker than expected as well! I was going for a deep blue, I wound up with daaaaark deep blue. At least you went with glossy because it does look sick when the light hits it. The darker color may or may not be a result of no base primer/not enough coats over the black carbon. I have a paint guy in Mukilteo that I think I may have to my paint job for next build - he uses PPG 2K clear which is rock hard after curing and I can get any paint mixed up from the auto store if I want metal flake or candy clear, but boy can it get spendy. Couldn't imagine less than $300 paint & labor for primer, base + clear. If anything I learned from browsing forums is that paint issues are pretty common for tons of brands at tons of price levels unfortunately. Do yourself a favor and get some vvivid paint protection film (it's 3M heli tape) to protect it from rock chips!

Regardless of the paint issues it does look gorgeous though... love the angles on the Hydra. Almost kicking myself for not getting a Hydra to go with the X1 I ordered, but it'll be a learning experience.

Is your XT the new 8100 12-speed or 8000 11-speed? What size largest cog is that? Today's rainy indoor activity for me is hunting down an 11s setup that can go up to 50T - have my eye on a XT + Garbaruk cage & jockeys since long cage XT/XTR's are impossible to find right now.

It's an 11 speed, I'm not sure the tooth count.

I do love the look of the Hydra frame and it's one of the reasons I chose this bike over other similar models! I'll take more pictures tomorrow but here's one with the flash so yall can see Northern Lights a little better. With the clear it just looks black unless it's in direct bright light.

 

[pushkar]

The stock cassette right now is 11-51. We are going to switch to a smaller taller cog (46) for future builds.

 

[pushkar]

@Rome We missed your order but are prioritizing

 

[kwseattle]

Forgot to mention some basic riding thoughts:

Shifter works well and needs no adjustments to make it through the full range of gears. Gear changes are smooth with the power cutting out properly. Brakes feel great, this is my first time ever riding a bike with hydraulic disc brakes as opposed to mechanical ones. The dropper post is something I had never known I needed . Have yet to make any adjustments to the suspension - no idea what I'm doing there to be honest, since I don't have any experience with bicycle shocks except on some automotive racing applications in college. In the mile loop that I rode it, I drained almost 10% of the battery when testing out the different power levels... It accelerates way quicker than I expected and is an absolute blast. Definitely need to check out the controller programming software to set my eco mode for class 3 limits.

I'll be riding it some more tomorrow since it won't be wet for once! Will post more pictures and riding thoughts.

 

[kwseattle]

I attempted to install some matte clear paint protection film (from Ground Keeper) and it resulted in the worst case of screen-protector bubblage that I've ever experienced... Probably going to remove it. I also bought a custom Cascadia flag headset top cap from them, but it doesn't fit... it's too thick and the taper angle is wrong.

 

[kwseattle]

More thoughts and pictures!

I was out riding for about 6 miles through the woods and on the roads near my house. I went from 71% to 58% through the course of the ride, I'd say that's pretty good considering how much power this thing has!

Highly recommend the SKS Mudrocker and Crud XL fenders I've got installed - hardly got any mud/water/dirt on me or my clothes.

I'm going to have to do a little bit of a adjusting on the derailleur to get the top two most gears to hold without slipping under power, hopefully an easy adjustment.

I'm very very new to riding on trails with a full suspension bike but this thing is unstoppable! Very comfy ride and it handles the bumps, rocks, roots, and trail striations easily. I need to look into tuning both front and rear shocks once I get a bit more comfortable.

I checked out the xiaoxiang BMS app to look at my battery, it looks like the total capacity is only 14aH... I thought the Hydra came with 17aH but I know parts availability has been an issue so maybe that's why?

 

[TDA78]

14 Ah is the capacity for 20-80% charge. We can certainly go beyond that. I think that setting is just conservative so the remaining capacity calculation doesn't leave you stranded. It can be changed to 17 Ah if you're feeling lucky.

 

[kwseattle]

Thanks for your outstanding report. Specially on range and battery. Fenders are cool too gives your Hydra an Enduro appearance. It kept mud of your WW shirt but how is it against mud going towards the motor and chainring?

Lower part of the frame and the motor are pretty muddy but nothing that won't wipe off. I was reading specs on the Bafang Utlra and it's got a pretty good water ingress protection rating so I'm not super concerned. Chainring is pretty clean!

14 Ah is the capacity for 20-80% charge. We can certainly go beyond that. I think that setting is just conservative so the remaining capacity calculation doesn't leave you stranded. It can be changed to 17 Ah if you're feeling lucky.

Gotcha, yeah I had it set to charge to 80%. I'll be keeping it there for battery health and maybe charge it up a bit further before a long ride.

 

[Acme]

I’ve heard several people discuss your name range and that’s not being as much as I thought. when you do these tests it’s important to get an accurate calculation as to what your average speed and altitude climbed. when you look at most tests for regular Euro spec bikes they are averaging 8-10mph. I am not at all an expert rider but I always average more than 10mph. The power is there and it’s just so fun to use it even though it will shorten your range.

 

[Haystacks]

Thanks @slocoach the color is Northern Lights. The first frame I got was a lot darker tho, almost black, but then dark green in the light.

I'm just kind of amazed we chose the same color!

Shocking. I thought the bike looked used, and the colour to be so far off because of clearcoat, i call BS. Did you buy this as a used bike or new? I assume new as you chose a colour, so WTF is this, did you really fob a customer off with a reject bike pushkar?

 

[Csubi]

Jelly!

 

[Haystacks]

Jelly? Of a fcked up paintjob, scuffed chainstay, un clearcoated sections and a blatantly incorrect paint colour? Oh and if i wanted i could buy the frame from dengfu and the motor from innotrace in Germany, jelly yeah? Or just saying it as it is. If this is BNIB i'm father christmas.

 

[kwseattle]

Shocking. I thought the bike looked used, and the colour to be so far off because of clearcoat, i call BS. Did you buy this as a used bike or new? I assume new as you chose a colour, so WTF is this, did you really fob a customer off with a reject bike pushkar?

From what I'm hearing, another user (@Lsthrz) ordered a large Northern Lights but was delivered a medium Northern Lights with darker than expected paint.

I just happened to have ordered a medium-framed Northern Lights and got lucky I guess. I can't complain too much, I've waited 5 months and now have my bike in hand. It's not like a returned bike is somehow tainted just because someone else had possession of it briefly. If I REALLY cared about the darkness of the color that much I could send it back but that would be prohibitively expensive and it would probably take months of turnaround time. I could also disassemble the bike and hand it over to a local paint shop to paint whatever color I wanted. Maybe that'll be a winter project over the next couple of years. Also there's no sections that are missing clear coat, I just added a matte wrap to protect some spots.

 

[kwseattle]

If your Hydra was Lizards demo Hydra.

You scored! I was tempted to have it airfreight to me.

He encountered no rideability issues with it.

Only minor issue is the highest gear slipping a little bit - nothing a bit of adjustment shouldn't be able to handle.