Some follow ups to my original post.
I have been enjoying this bike a lot. The motor is whisper quiet when riding off road. On pavement the only thing you hear is those aggressively knobby fat tires. On grass, you could hear a pin drop on throttle.
The derailleur shifts are still only 80% good. Not really very happy about shift quality, still working on fine tuning the indexing. 10 speeds is utterly useless where I live. I don't think I'm even using the first 4 gears anymore.
The front fork is ok (stock RST guide). I think it's making some noise, sounds like something may be loose so I'll be looking in to that. Also plan on removing the front fender, just causes too much noise.
The brakes. Where to begin. The brake have taken the top spot from the derailleur on my s*it list. Adjusted several times, bedded as directed. They make so much grinding and gurgling noise it's borderline embarrassing. The rotors are straight and there is no pad contact when off the lever. I'll be taking them out and sanding them down soon or considering a full upgrade. 160mm rotors and dual piston calipers seem too small for this roughly 100+ lb bike.
The front headlight works well but the wires had no slack. Took one week and they ripped right out the back of the headlight. No big deal. I'm very comfortable with wiring so I fixed it and added 2 inches of slack, problem solved.
The seat. Hated it. Changed it out immediately. Hate the one I replaced it with so looking for another one. Nearly 100 miles of potential range and I can't sit comfortably for more than 15. Running the tires at 20psi did take some of the edge off.
Speaking of tires. First puncture on my first full ride with the bike
. Couldn't find the damn puncture in the tube on the side of the road so I pushed it 1 mile back to my house and took the rear wheel off and removed the tube to find the sucker. Patched it up, good as new.
The batteries are monsters!(52v17.5ah main and 52v14.5ah secondary) Went riding with my brother in law on his Super73 RX. After some spirited trails at 30mph on throttle and then some pedalling while cruising on paved paths between 15-20mph for about 10-15 miles the battery rested for 5 minutes and said 97% and range was 90miles in PAS1. I love this battery setup! My brother in law? 80% on his Super73 and 30 miles of range.
The throttle is a little jumpy in stock configuration. It feels like it's either on or off. I'd prefer and more gradual controlled activation so some programming will be in order. The PAS activation is pretty good. It felt like 1/4 turn of the crank was all it needed. In most instances the motor cutoff time after stopping pedalling was unnoticeable. There was only one time where I was maneuvering through right spot when the motor cutoff was noticeable and stayed on longer than I wanted for the one given situation. Easily programmable so no problems really.
The display looks great and is easy to see in direct sunlight. The power meter on the right hand side of the DPC18 display never reaches 1500watts. I thought that was weird and I know it's nothing to put much stock in to but it always falls short no matter what. Looks like it stops around 1200 or 1300. Only other thing I wish was different about the display was the information that can be scrolled through at the bottom. I prefer to have range shown but everytime the bike turns on, it defaults to trip. Again very little nitpicking but it would be cool if that could be changed. Oh and the time display is only available in 24hr mode. No AM or PM. My math is improving though.
Conclusion: At $3,400, this bike was over my original budget by $1,400. The dual batteries was totally worth it and will be further tested when I get a more comfortable seat and hit the longer trails. Don't love the brakes and derailleur (I may still come around to liking the Shimano Deore once I can get it truly dialed in). Fat tires make everything more fun when you have the motor to back it up. Overall I am happy with the bike and give it a solid 8/10.
I am still considering making some video of the bike in action so be sure to check back in the future.
