Thanks for the link, I have looked at the specs and it seems very much like my Powerfly 7. The components don't seem to be "top shelf". You might want to upgrade those if you have problems with shifting and braking. I upgraded all my components to XLR very much overkill. I think that SLX or XT are all that are needed. 180mm rotors may be fine for you, depends on how much downhill braking you expect to be doing. Mine comes with 6-bolt 203 front and 6-bolt 180 in the rear.
I think that the PF5 is built for a price £2950.00($3600). That's much less money than I paid for mine at approximately £4000.00. For that much savings you are getting a lot of bike for the money.
The best parts are the tank-like Trek frame, the Bosch mid-drive system, and the 500 Ah battery.
Let me know how it turns out.
jeff
Jeff - knowing that you have a Powerfly 7 and that you gave me advice in your XM700+ mods thread, I also posted many of these questions there first. Could you answer a few questions please?
I'm new here, so sorry if this gets to be a pain, and sorry it's so long - in person discussing each point pro and con could be made more easily and be less cumbersome.
I would like to make a decision by tomorrow afternoon between ordering the Powerfly 7 or buying the DualSport+ that I had on extended test ride this weekend. I'm torn trying to decide right now.
From the frame specs, the PF7 might fit me better without making me reach so far for the bars, as with the DS+ I keep finding myself trying to sit on the front part of the seat. Otherwise I don't have any major gripes about the DS+ where I have been on rides yesterday and today that I could NEVER do on a regular bike.
SPEED QUESTION: I decided to skip the XM700+ since it feels too tall for me and it's a class 3 bike that can be treated differently from a regular bicycle, where I might be forbidden from riding in places where my wife's Neko+ is allowed. But I loved the Bosche's extra power, although it almost seemed like the XM700+ motor was holding me back once I hit the top speed limiter, where the pedal resistance really went up and held me back. I'll be mostly riding with my wife who rarely goes past 15-20mph, so a 20mph limit isn't a major issue.
But does the Powerfly 7 (or your XM700+) seem to hold you back if you want to go over the limiter speed under your own steam? The DualSport+ Shimano motor cuts out at 20mph but I could hit 26mph on flat ground for briefs periods of time while pedaling.
POWER QUESTION: On the DualSport+ extended test ride I noticed it has a power output gauge that shows whether you are using just a little bit or a lot of the motor's potential output - a black bar on the LCD stretches out from left > right as you put more force into the pedals or as you click to a higher power level. I maxed out the line several times in a few places along the route on the ride today. I was able to push through those tough spots, but in HIGH power I had to drop it down to one of the 3 lowest gears in a few climbs in order to maintain a high enough cadence rate to keep it at 5-8mph while using full power.
The Shimano power assist seemed to be greater with a high cadence/pedal rate, and it tops out at 50NM torque vs 75NM of the Powerfly 7.
How does your Powerfly 7 handle pedal assist in the higher gears vs lower gears? i.e. can it push through using a higher gear than recommended at low speed (grunt), or are you also forced to downshift to get your cadence up in order to get more output?
With my health issues, today's ride would have been an impossible without an eBike. I could happily live with the DualSport+ power output for the types of rides we'll most often go on. But I'm afraid that someday I'll go on a new ride for the first time where I'll find it to be more challenging than I expected for the Shimano's power output.
Do you think the 75NM torque is enough reason to get the Powerfly 7, or do you think the DualSport's greater range in HIGH power would be more beneficial because then I could leave it in HIGH more often and not wear myself or the battery out too fast?
RANGE QUESTION: So my previous question leads to the next issue. I'm mostly worried about range on hilly paved roads and hilly packed gravel roads with the Powerfly 7 vs the DualSport+. I can't find a published estimated range for the Powerfly 7, while I've read numbers of 30-75 miles with the Shimano powered bikes, and read about 15-65 miles for the Bosche powered XM700+, depending on conditions.
Today we rode 10 miles on hilly pavement with a cumulative elevation gain of over 1600 feet. We started out at the high point, rode downhill, pedaled back up, and then repeated this 5 mile loop once. By the end of the ride my DS+ battery had dropped to 78%, and my wife's Neko+ was down to 86% - potentially giving me a 45 mile range vs my wife's 70 mile range.
My goal is to have at least 30 miles of range with the PF7 on a ride like this, but the XM700+ that I tried was estimating that I'd only go 19 miles in TURBO, 21 in SPORT, 24 in TOUR, with 55 in ECO.
Using the above XM700+ range estimates, I calculate that if I went about 25 miles in ECO mode then I'd still have 50% of battery available for use in TURBO or SPORT mode, which would translate to at least 10 more miles, for a 35 mile ride (depending on conditions).
Since the PF7 has a 500WH battery pack with lower top speed than the XM700+, and based on your experience, how much better range would the PF7 get vs the XM700+ or DS+ in general?
I'm trying to estimate how this would all translate to the Powerfly 7, and I assume that if it has 30% less range than the DS+ today, that it could still complete a ride like this for 30 miles before running out of juice.
OTHER CONCERNS: I like the USB charging port, which only the Bosche Treks have. I also like that the Powerfly 7 has bigger brakes and wider tires than the Dual Sport+, but I worry that the fatter tires would make it harder to pedal with the motor off.
Do the benefits to ride quality and traction from the fatter 29x2.3" tires outweigh the added rolling resistance of the PF7 tires for long rides on pavement and packed gravel, or is increased rolling resistance not even an issue with the PF7?
The DS+ and Neko+ have everything but the hydraulic brakes run through the frame.
Does the Powerfly have anything internally wired through the frame like the others, because it doesn't appear so in the photos?
Does the PF7 have a quick release rear wheel like the Dual Sport+, and can a kick stand be added that works as well as the one on the DS+? (can't find pics of the bike's left side)
Do you have any other advice that you can share?
My first ever "Flip a coin" vacation.
