Hey, welcome to the forum! May I ask why you are replacing your first ebike? I'm glad you're enjoying the R&M. Long wait for your wife's bike, huh! What is she getting? Lots of choices available in Germany, I understand.
Hi,
that's a longer story: my wife and I always liked biking (casual) but since 10 years we are living in an average mountain range. Tours even just between 20 and 30 km often times require 300-700m altitude difference. Our place is surrounded by hills between 600 and 800 meters - not the best place for casual biking. In addition our now 5 years old daughter (just learned biking) cannot yet do these tours on her bike - so I have her in a cycle trailer, which adds her's and the trailers weight (around 35-40kg together). In 2016, when she was 3, we wanted to do more bike tours, so we sold our old regular bikes and bought two Fischer eBikes. Fischer is a German brand focused on value. So we got 2 trekking bikes with 500Wh batteries, 24-gears shimano, Hub motor and what not for 2400Euros (together). Did no research at all, just bought them at the local DIY store.
So a lot of eBike for the money, but from a quality and comfort point of view: low end.
We spend our summer vacation from time to time in the Netherlands and we always rented eBikes of better quality and more comfortable than our Fischers and I think this spoiled us. My wife loves the upright seat position of the dutch bikes a lot and I had significant issues with my wrists on the Fischer - I also disliked the complex gear shifting with the 24 gear Shimano. This summer we were so happy with our rented eBikes that we decided to invest in better ones at home and this time from a regular bike shop.
We did some test rides and R&M convinced me immediately. I first wanted to go with the R&M Charger, but the Nevo is better suited for the cycle trailer and some baggage due to its step-through frame. Stablity is a non-issue with the Nevo (even going downhill over 60km/h when I do a solo tour). Big selling point was the comfort and the power of the Bosch CX. Being able to climb some really steep hills with the added weight from the trailer was one of my concerns, when giving up the 24-gear Shimano.
My wife is waiting for a R&M Swing with Bosch CX and Nuvinci. I tried to convince her to also take a Nevo - but she likes the more regular style of the Swing. Her bike was scheduled to arrive last week as well, but R&M informed us of a 6-7 weeks delay due to high demand (or missing parts ?).
Cheers
