robrob
Member
I'm a new Aventon.com Pace 500 owner and I want to share my initial impression of the bike. I'm 6'2" and 240lbs so I went with the large frame. I ride my bike for exercise and don't commute with it.
I'm a pretty good mechanic but it still took me about an hour to assemble the bike alone. Assembly went smoothly and I posted some assembly tips in another thread here earlier. If you're not mechanically inclined you may want to have a bike shop assemble it.
My gear shift lever needed a slight adjustment at the handlebar mounted adjuster. One turn out (tighter cable) stopped the gear jumping that occurred before the adjustment.
I'm very impressed with the quality of the bicycle and the way it rides, assisted and non-assisted. All of the other ebikes I have ridden had torque sensing assist and I prefer it to the Pace 500's cadence sensor. Torque sensing gives a more natural power boost. The more pressure you put on the pedals the more boost you get. With cadence sensing the boost is much more on/off. If you are pedaling, no matter the effort you put into it, you get the full assist level you have selected. It's definitely not a deal breaker for me but my next ebike (probably a KTM mountain bike) will be torque sensing.
On a related note I have to agree with an earlier poster who said the pedal assist level 1 is too fast at 12mph. I also got too much assist up steep inclines with level 1. I wanted to go slower and work a little harder. I zoomed up the inclines at around 10mph with moderate pedal work. I would prefer to climb at around 5 or 6mph with more effort. EDIT: I have learned that by lowering the bike's speed limit from 28mph to 19mph (30% decrease) you also decrease all the pedal assist speeds by 30%. You access the speed limit by holding down the up and down arrows simultaneously for 3 seconds, then press the "M" button (power on button) until you see Function 05P "LIMIT". Press the arrows to set the limit.
I was surprised to find I really liked the throttle. It's great for a quick boost when you're in a gear too high and you're almost to the top of a rise. Use your thumb and zoom, you're over the hill. When reading about the bike it didn't sink in that when in level 0 you can simply use your thumb to quickly dial in boost.
I have a 13 mile loop with two steep climbs that I like to ride with my non-electric bikes. Today I rode that loop with the Pace 500 and the hill climbs were so easy I did a second loop for a 20 mile ride. I run in assist 0 most of the time and use assist 1 for steep climbs (any climb I can't do myself in 1st gear). I'm amazed at how the bike pushes my 240lbs up steep inclines. Surprisingly, at the end of the 20 mile ride I still had full energy bars on the display and on the battery. I'm going to try a 35 mile loop next.
I really like the riding position with the stock handlebars in the full forward/down position. I may put on a straight mountain bike bar in the future and I love that I will be able to adjust the handlebar stem up and rearward for a comfortable position. The hand grips are a little slippery when sweat covered but I love the wrist wings. The bike rides very smoothly and the geartrain doesn't complain when I stand up and crank as hard as I can. The bike handles high speed downhills well too.
I realized today that with a hub mounted motor the bike doesn't care what gear you select. The gearing is just for you, the motor doesn't use it. We can shift easily when the motor is delivering full torque. This is not true for mid-mount motors that drive the chain like the KTM mountain bike I rode in Hungary and crank mounted add-on kits like the Bafang.
Overall the Pace 500 is an incredible value and I'm very happy with it.
I'm a pretty good mechanic but it still took me about an hour to assemble the bike alone. Assembly went smoothly and I posted some assembly tips in another thread here earlier. If you're not mechanically inclined you may want to have a bike shop assemble it.
My gear shift lever needed a slight adjustment at the handlebar mounted adjuster. One turn out (tighter cable) stopped the gear jumping that occurred before the adjustment.
I'm very impressed with the quality of the bicycle and the way it rides, assisted and non-assisted. All of the other ebikes I have ridden had torque sensing assist and I prefer it to the Pace 500's cadence sensor. Torque sensing gives a more natural power boost. The more pressure you put on the pedals the more boost you get. With cadence sensing the boost is much more on/off. If you are pedaling, no matter the effort you put into it, you get the full assist level you have selected. It's definitely not a deal breaker for me but my next ebike (probably a KTM mountain bike) will be torque sensing.
On a related note I have to agree with an earlier poster who said the pedal assist level 1 is too fast at 12mph. I also got too much assist up steep inclines with level 1. I wanted to go slower and work a little harder. I zoomed up the inclines at around 10mph with moderate pedal work. I would prefer to climb at around 5 or 6mph with more effort. EDIT: I have learned that by lowering the bike's speed limit from 28mph to 19mph (30% decrease) you also decrease all the pedal assist speeds by 30%. You access the speed limit by holding down the up and down arrows simultaneously for 3 seconds, then press the "M" button (power on button) until you see Function 05P "LIMIT". Press the arrows to set the limit.
I was surprised to find I really liked the throttle. It's great for a quick boost when you're in a gear too high and you're almost to the top of a rise. Use your thumb and zoom, you're over the hill. When reading about the bike it didn't sink in that when in level 0 you can simply use your thumb to quickly dial in boost.
I have a 13 mile loop with two steep climbs that I like to ride with my non-electric bikes. Today I rode that loop with the Pace 500 and the hill climbs were so easy I did a second loop for a 20 mile ride. I run in assist 0 most of the time and use assist 1 for steep climbs (any climb I can't do myself in 1st gear). I'm amazed at how the bike pushes my 240lbs up steep inclines. Surprisingly, at the end of the 20 mile ride I still had full energy bars on the display and on the battery. I'm going to try a 35 mile loop next.
I really like the riding position with the stock handlebars in the full forward/down position. I may put on a straight mountain bike bar in the future and I love that I will be able to adjust the handlebar stem up and rearward for a comfortable position. The hand grips are a little slippery when sweat covered but I love the wrist wings. The bike rides very smoothly and the geartrain doesn't complain when I stand up and crank as hard as I can. The bike handles high speed downhills well too.
I realized today that with a hub mounted motor the bike doesn't care what gear you select. The gearing is just for you, the motor doesn't use it. We can shift easily when the motor is delivering full torque. This is not true for mid-mount motors that drive the chain like the KTM mountain bike I rode in Hungary and crank mounted add-on kits like the Bafang.
Overall the Pace 500 is an incredible value and I'm very happy with it.
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