New Allant+ 8s owner!

tomeng70

New Member
Region
USA
HI Folks,

I'm new to this board, but have been reading the threads prior to my purchase. After doing a lot of research (including watching several YouTube videos from EBR which were super helpful) I bought an Allant+ 8s yesterday. I originally was thinking about a Specialized ebike, but I liked that Trek uses the Bosch edrive system which seems to be popular (and hopefully will have better long term support over the years). The specialized and other brands of bikes look good as well, but I'm hesitant to invest in their systems for fear of not being able to get parts and more importantly not being able to get compatible batteries in the future. I hope that Bosch will be committed to supporting this specific ebike system and have parts and batteries available for some time.

I was debating between getting a 7s or an 8s, but ended up choosing the 8s because of the larger battery and primarily because it was easier to find an 8s in my size locally (NH) instead of the 7s.

I took the bike out for a 27 mile ride this morning and hit some fairly steep hills at the end of my ride and the bike was great. The motor is a little bit noisy, but once you get going the wind and road noise cancel out the whirr of the motor.

I had the assist turned off or in eco mode on the outbound leg of the ride (which is a slightly downhill leg of the journey). On the way home, I took a different, much hillier route and kept the bike in eco and touring mode, and kicked it up to sport mode for the really steep inclines. At the very end i put the bike in turbo mode to see how it rode. It was fun - but i almost collided with a buck (whitetail deer) which I saw in my peripheral vision and at first thought it was a dog. i figured the dog had an invisible fence and would stop running towards me so i didn't slow down, but then realized it was a buck and it was going to cut across my path and we would collide if i didn't brake hard (back wheel skidded a little). thankfully i managed to avoid hitting him (barely... he literally was about 8 inches in front of me... I could see the velvety new antlers on its head!!!) and i can attest to the efficacy of the disk brakes on the 8s. i was probably going about 16 or 17 MPH (maybe 20 MPH? it all happened so fast) when i encountered the deer.

i started with 96% battery and ended around 50% or a little more (I think it might have said 55% on the display). I think i could get better range if i hadn't gone as fast as i did up the steep hills. i wanted to test the system and see how well it handled the steep inclines.

One thing I like about the 8s over the 7s is that the 8s has a larger low gear (42 vs 36 on the 7S). This is helpful when riding up the hills in NH. with the short low gear, I can use a little less electric assist if i don't mind going slowly.

when i was riding down some of the steep hills, the bike went very fast (no assist or only eco assist, i hit 30+ MPH). it's interesting that i was more careful there and was looking for deer and other potential threats when i was riding down the hills, but wasn't thinking about deer when i almost crashed into one a half a block away from my house!

i normally don't like to travel too fast, with the exception of some of the downhill portions. However, with the very generous tires and the weight of the bicycle, the ride was very smooth even at higher speeds (30 MPH).

i start a new job this fall and plan to bike commute regularly. i used to ride occasionally to and from my old company which is a shorter ride (8.5 miles outbound, 13 miles return). however, the new job is farther away 11.5 to 16 miles each way, depending on the route i take, and i think that if i have the electric assist i'll be willing to ride more regularly. with my old job, i often would not ride to work because i didn't look forward to the return trip (which was uphill most of the way) after working a long day. with the electric assist it's less of an issue.

i don't have any pictures of the new bike yet, but i will post some later this week. i'm super happy with my purchase. it was pricey, but i think the electric assist will motivate me to ride more often. it's nice to know that you have it on demand especially at the end of a long ride.

the bike is heavy but it's light enough that i can still move it around and was able to load it in the my minivan and transport it home from the bike shop.
 
HI Folks,

I'm new to this board, but have been reading the threads prior to my purchase. After doing a lot of research (including watching several YouTube videos from EBR which were super helpful) I bought an Allant+ 8s yesterday. I originally was thinking about a Specialized ebike, but I liked that Trek uses the Bosch edrive system which seems to be popular (and hopefully will have better long term support over the years). The specialized and other brands of bikes look good as well, but I'm hesitant to invest in their systems for fear of not being able to get parts and more importantly not being able to get compatible batteries in the future. I hope that Bosch will be committed to supporting this specific ebike system and have parts and batteries available for some time.

I was debating between getting a 7s or an 8s, but ended up choosing the 8s because of the larger battery and primarily because it was easier to find an 8s in my size locally (NH) instead of the 7s.

I took the bike out for a 27 mile ride this morning and hit some fairly steep hills at the end of my ride and the bike was great. The motor is a little bit noisy, but once you get going the wind and road noise cancel out the whirr of the motor.

I had the assist turned off or in eco mode on the outbound leg of the ride (which is a slightly downhill leg of the journey). On the way home, I took a different, much hillier route and kept the bike in eco and touring mode, and kicked it up to sport mode for the really steep inclines. At the very end i put the bike in turbo mode to see how it rode. It was fun - but i almost collided with a buck (whitetail deer) which I saw in my peripheral vision and at first thought it was a dog. i figured the dog had an invisible fence and would stop running towards me so i didn't slow down, but then realized it was a buck and it was going to cut across my path and we would collide if i didn't brake hard (back wheel skidded a little). thankfully i managed to avoid hitting him (barely... he literally was about 8 inches in front of me... I could see the velvety new antlers on its head!!!) and i can attest to the efficacy of the disk brakes on the 8s. i was probably going about 16 or 17 MPH (maybe 20 MPH? it all happened so fast) when i encountered the deer.

i started with 96% battery and ended around 50% or a little more (I think it might have said 55% on the display). I think i could get better range if i hadn't gone as fast as i did up the steep hills. i wanted to test the system and see how well it handled the steep inclines.

One thing I like about the 8s over the 7s is that the 8s has a larger low gear (42 vs 36 on the 7S). This is helpful when riding up the hills in NH. with the short low gear, I can use a little less electric assist if i don't mind going slowly.

when i was riding down some of the steep hills, the bike went very fast (no assist or only eco assist, i hit 30+ MPH). it's interesting that i was more careful there and was looking for deer and other potential threats when i was riding down the hills, but wasn't thinking about deer when i almost crashed into one a half a block away from my house!

i normally don't like to travel too fast, with the exception of some of the downhill portions. However, with the very generous tires and the weight of the bicycle, the ride was very smooth even at higher speeds (30 MPH).

i start a new job this fall and plan to bike commute regularly. i used to ride occasionally to and from my old company which is a shorter ride (8.5 miles outbound, 13 miles return). however, the new job is farther away 11.5 to 16 miles each way, depending on the route i take, and i think that if i have the electric assist i'll be willing to ride more regularly. with my old job, i often would not ride to work because i didn't look forward to the return trip (which was uphill most of the way) after working a long day. with the electric assist it's less of an issue.

i don't have any pictures of the new bike yet, but i will post some later this week. i'm super happy with my purchase. it was pricey, but i think the electric assist will motivate me to ride more often. it's nice to know that you have it on demand especially at the end of a long ride.

the bike is heavy but it's light enough that i can still move it around and was able to load it in the my minivan and transport it home from the bike shop.
Welcome. I just got an 8s two days ago myself. I can already tell it’s going to be a lot of fun.
 
I got a 7s a couple of weeks ago, I wanted a blue bike. I had to drive 30 miles away to get the last one in the region! I took a good an hard look at the 8s. Such a beautiful red candy apple shine, but I couldn't swing the extra few hundred. I hope you have a great time on the 8, stay safe and post lots of pictures. We Trek owners are kinda strange that way, we love to see pictures of TREKs in the foreground of a trip. It a small community but we are very proud of our Trek Bikes. You'll feel the same as you see those others bikes bouncing around. Pride in ownership Bike On Trek Owner!
 
HI Folks,

I'm new to this board, but have been reading the threads prior to my purchase. After doing a lot of research (including watching several YouTube videos from EBR which were super helpful) I bought an Allant+ 8s yesterday. I originally was thinking about a Specialized ebike, but I liked that Trek uses the Bosch edrive system which seems to be popular (and hopefully will have better long term support over the years). The specialized and other brands of bikes look good as well, but I'm hesitant to invest in their systems for fear of not being able to get parts and more importantly not being able to get compatible batteries in the future. I hope that Bosch will be committed to supporting this specific ebike system and have parts and batteries available for some time.

I was debating between getting a 7s or an 8s, but ended up choosing the 8s because of the larger battery and primarily because it was easier to find an 8s in my size locally (NH) instead of the 7s.

I took the bike out for a 27 mile ride this morning and hit some fairly steep hills at the end of my ride and the bike was great. The motor is a little bit noisy, but once you get going the wind and road noise cancel out the whirr of the motor.

I had the assist turned off or in eco mode on the outbound leg of the ride (which is a slightly downhill leg of the journey). On the way home, I took a different, much hillier route and kept the bike in eco and touring mode, and kicked it up to sport mode for the really steep inclines. At the very end i put the bike in turbo mode to see how it rode. It was fun - but i almost collided with a buck (whitetail deer) which I saw in my peripheral vision and at first thought it was a dog. i figured the dog had an invisible fence and would stop running towards me so i didn't slow down, but then realized it was a buck and it was going to cut across my path and we would collide if i didn't brake hard (back wheel skidded a little). thankfully i managed to avoid hitting him (barely... he literally was about 8 inches in front of me... I could see the velvety new antlers on its head!!!) and i can attest to the efficacy of the disk brakes on the 8s. i was probably going about 16 or 17 MPH (maybe 20 MPH? it all happened so fast) when i encountered the deer.

i started with 96% battery and ended around 50% or a little more (I think it might have said 55% on the display). I think i could get better range if i hadn't gone as fast as i did up the steep hills. i wanted to test the system and see how well it handled the steep inclines.

One thing I like about the 8s over the 7s is that the 8s has a larger low gear (42 vs 36 on the 7S). This is helpful when riding up the hills in NH. with the short low gear, I can use a little less electric assist if i don't mind going slowly.

when i was riding down some of the steep hills, the bike went very fast (no assist or only eco assist, i hit 30+ MPH). it's interesting that i was more careful there and was looking for deer and other potential threats when i was riding down the hills, but wasn't thinking about deer when i almost crashed into one a half a block away from my house!

i normally don't like to travel too fast, with the exception of some of the downhill portions. However, with the very generous tires and the weight of the bicycle, the ride was very smooth even at higher speeds (30 MPH).

i start a new job this fall and plan to bike commute regularly. i used to ride occasionally to and from my old company which is a shorter ride (8.5 miles outbound, 13 miles return). however, the new job is farther away 11.5 to 16 miles each way, depending on the route i take, and i think that if i have the electric assist i'll be willing to ride more regularly. with my old job, i often would not ride to work because i didn't look forward to the return trip (which was uphill most of the way) after working a long day. with the electric assist it's less of an issue.

i don't have any pictures of the new bike yet, but i will post some later this week. i'm super happy with my purchase. it was pricey, but i think the electric assist will motivate me to ride more often. it's nice to know that you have it on demand especially at the end of a long ride.

the bike is heavy but it's light enough that i can still move it around and was able to load it in the my minivan and transport it home from the bike shop.
Congrats on your new bike and welcome to the Allant family! Need pics!
Your reasoning as per batteries is sound but in these times getting anything can be difficult. I’ve been waiting over 7 months for the 625wh PowerTube I ordered way back when. Best of luck!
 
Congratulations on your new Allant 8 I have had my 9.9S for over a year now and absolutely love the bike. There were a couple of bugs to work out, one that was addressed right away but the second although minor has not been resolved. The fixed one was a problem with the Shimano microspline hub that goes with the 12 speed cassette on the 9.9. Trek replaced it with the Onyx instant engagement, silent hub, a major upgrade.

The one that remains is a power hungry, hot burning headlight that fails to go into power saving daylight blink mode unless the rear light (where the sensor is located) is pointed directly at the sun with no cloud cover. I believe your 8 comes with the same light with the high/low beam switch on the handlebar. That headlight get HOT to the touch and eats up almost 10% of the battery power. My solution is not to use the integrated lights but rather a handle bar mounted Knog PWR Trail, 1,000 lumen head light that also doubles as a charging station (5,000 mWh battery) with several customizable blink modes. For a tail light I use a Hautworks Cliq taillight that had several mounting options, is controlled and customized by an excellent phone app with includes and motion sensor that enables both a brake light and a tamper alarm that is instantly sent to your phone up to 100 feet away.

Although I live in Washington state, I am a born and raised New Englander with a sister on Peaks Island just out of Portland and a brother in Durham, NH. I know how rough the roads can be in your neck of the woods. Two addons that I highly recommend for the Allant to make it more comfortable on rough roads and trails is the Kinekt Body Float suspension seat post. There are others but most agree the Kinekt is the most effective. The other is the Baramind City shock absorbing handlebar. These two items turned are rather harsh ride into a much smoother one, for me. Both items are available direct from the manufacturer which I always encourage, not for savings but to encourage good products.

Enjoy your new bike this summer. It's a great one from a great company. May it give you many many miles and even more smiles.
 
Here is a picture of the bike. I changed the factory seat out to some comfort seat that I found on Amazon. The factory seat seemed pretty comfortable, but I have found that this "comfort" seat really is more comfortable for me on longer rides (I don't wear bike pants - I normally just ride with shorts or sweat pants).

I also moved the pannier bags from my other bike to the 8s and I installed a very bright rear LED light, and an additional front LED headlight. I also added a strip of black electrical tape around the battery to provide a little extra security (just in case).

Also, here is a picture of my other bike that I used for recreational riding and occasionally bike commuting. It's a Trek FX disc. It has an aluminum frame and a steel (heavy!) fork. I swapped out the cranks on the FX to get some smaller chain rings so I could have even shorter/lower gears for when I commute with a laptop, work clothes, etc. over the hill portions of where I live. I also changed the step so that the ride position on the FX was more upright, which is more comfortable for me on the longish commutes (about 22 miles round trip).

I really like the Trek FX (except I wish it had a lighter aluminum front fork).

PXL_20210606_123333443.jpg



PXL_20210606_123554695.jpg
 
Great looking bike!

If your integrated lights won't turn off, you can ask your dealer to enable the light switch which is done when the bike is connected to the Bosch diagnostic system they use to do firmware update and sort our error codes. Enabling the light switch on your display is one of the options. Then you could reserve using the integrated lights only at night where they will be more useful.
 
Great looking bike!

If your integrated lights won't turn off, you can ask your dealer to enable the light switch which is done when the bike is connected to the Bosch diagnostic system they use to do firmware update and sort our error codes. Enabling the light switch on your display is one of the options. Then you could reserve using the integrated lights only at night where they will be more useful.
Thanks for the tip @Alaskan ! I noticed today how hot the factory light was! I didn't originally realize it got so hot. I will have to check to see if I can turn it off (and ask the dealer to enable that option if I can't).
 
I rarely need my light on with my Allant+7 since I don’t ride in traffic much so getting to on/off update option enabled works great for me.👍
 
I got the 8s Stagger and it is working out great. Only rode a few miles because I also ride a trike. Both will get lots of trail time.
Enjoy and be safe8AE8ED3E-B1E4-4140-A688-63FCDF1514E4.jpeg
 
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Got my 8s a few weeks ago. Since then have made a few upgrades. Suspension fork, suspension seat post and Jones H bar. I want to re-install the fender on the front. Our local Trek store says it won't work. This is the same fork as 7s with fender. Anyway, has anyone put their fender on a suspension fork? Got to have been done. Any suggestions.
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Can you tell me about your choice on handle bar? What do you like about the Jones H bar. vs a Risers or Horn style.
 
HI Folks,

I'm new to this board, but have been reading the threads prior to my purchase. After doing a lot of research (including watching several YouTube videos from EBR which were super helpful) I bought an Allant+ 8s yesterday. I originally was thinking about a Specialized ebike, but I liked that Trek uses the Bosch edrive system which seems to be popular (and hopefully will have better long term support over the years). The specialized and other brands of bikes look good as well, but I'm hesitant to invest in their systems for fear of not being able to get parts and more importantly not being able to get compatible batteries in the future. I hope that Bosch will be committed to supporting this specific ebike system and have parts and batteries available for some time.

I was debating between getting a 7s or an 8s, but ended up choosing the 8s because of the larger battery and primarily because it was easier to find an 8s in my size locally (NH) instead of the 7s.

I took the bike out for a 27 mile ride this morning and hit some fairly steep hills at the end of my ride and the bike was great. The motor is a little bit noisy, but once you get going the wind and road noise cancel out the whirr of the motor.

I had the assist turned off or in eco mode on the outbound leg of the ride (which is a slightly downhill leg of the journey). On the way home, I took a different, much hillier route and kept the bike in eco and touring mode, and kicked it up to sport mode for the really steep inclines. At the very end i put the bike in turbo mode to see how it rode. It was fun - but i almost collided with a buck (whitetail deer) which I saw in my peripheral vision and at first thought it was a dog. i figured the dog had an invisible fence and would stop running towards me so i didn't slow down, but then realized it was a buck and it was going to cut across my path and we would collide if i didn't brake hard (back wheel skidded a little). thankfully i managed to avoid hitting him (barely... he literally was about 8 inches in front of me... I could see the velvety new antlers on its head!!!) and i can attest to the efficacy of the disk brakes on the 8s. i was probably going about 16 or 17 MPH (maybe 20 MPH? it all happened so fast) when i encountered the deer.

i started with 96% battery and ended around 50% or a little more (I think it might have said 55% on the display). I think i could get better range if i hadn't gone as fast as i did up the steep hills. i wanted to test the system and see how well it handled the steep inclines.

One thing I like about the 8s over the 7s is that the 8s has a larger low gear (42 vs 36 on the 7S). This is helpful when riding up the hills in NH. with the short low gear, I can use a little less electric assist if i don't mind going slowly.

when i was riding down some of the steep hills, the bike went very fast (no assist or only eco assist, i hit 30+ MPH). it's interesting that i was more careful there and was looking for deer and other potential threats when i was riding down the hills, but wasn't thinking about deer when i almost crashed into one a half a block away from my house!

i normally don't like to travel too fast, with the exception of some of the downhill portions. However, with the very generous tires and the weight of the bicycle, the ride was very smooth even at higher speeds (30 MPH).

i start a new job this fall and plan to bike commute regularly. i used to ride occasionally to and from my old company which is a shorter ride (8.5 miles outbound, 13 miles return). however, the new job is farther away 11.5 to 16 miles each way, depending on the route i take, and i think that if i have the electric assist i'll be willing to ride more regularly. with my old job, i often would not ride to work because i didn't look forward to the return trip (which was uphill most of the way) after working a long day. with the electric assist it's less of an issue.

i don't have any pictures of the new bike yet, but i will post some later this week. i'm super happy with my purchase. it was pricey, but i think the electric assist will motivate me to ride more often. it's nice to know that you have it on demand especially at the end of a long ride.

the bike is heavy but it's light enough that i can still move it around and was able to load it in the my minivan and transport it home from the bike shop.
Welcome. I have the 8S stagger. Great bike.
 
Here is a picture of the bike. I changed the factory seat out to some comfort seat that I found on Amazon. The factory seat seemed pretty comfortable, but I have found that this "comfort" seat really is more comfortable for me on longer rides (I don't wear bike pants - I normally just ride with shorts or sweat pants).

I also moved the pannier bags from my other bike to the 8s and I installed a very bright rear LED light, and an additional front LED headlight. I also added a strip of black electrical tape around the battery to provide a little extra security (just in case).

Also, here is a picture of my other bike that I used for recreational riding and occasionally bike commuting. It's a Trek FX disc. It has an aluminum frame and a steel (heavy!) fork. I swapped out the cranks on the FX to get some smaller chain rings so I could have even shorter/lower gears for when I commute with a laptop, work clothes, etc. over the hill portions of where I live. I also changed the step so that the ride position on the FX was more upright, which is more comfortable for me on the longish commutes (about 22 miles round trip).

I really like the Trek FX (except I wish it had a lighter aluminum front fork).

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View attachment 89662
I wrapped “ stick to itself” Velcro around my battery tube. Easy to remove if you want to get at the battery.
 
It should be easy to figure out if the 7 fork has the same fender mounting holes as the 8? If not, get a 7 fender or go without.
 
Can you tell me about your choice on handle bar? What do you like about the Jones H bar. vs a Risers or Horn style.
I like these because it offers more hand positions, less bending over so more of a upright position. Jones makes several different models.
 
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