Mike relentlessly shills for the bikes he carries, esp. the Surface604 Shred and Aventons. He trashes every other brand. He's an embarrassment to the industry, really. He's like a broken record, just repeating his hateful rants against brand competitors over and over again. I can't even imagine what it would be like dealing with him when the inevitable warranty issue/s pop up with these bikes.
As far as the
Aventon, these bikes are severely under-engineered. They kick like a mule on the lowest level of assist. They're impossible to ride slowly. I like to ride fast, but I also like to be able to control my speed. The only way to ride slowly on the aventon is to turn the pedals a quarter revolution, let the bike lurch forward, slow down, ease off the pedals, then tap the pedals again for another big kick of power, etc. It is an awful ride experience.
Not to mention, the swept back bars are horrible for handling. Any time you want to steer, the aventon just yells back: "NO!" The bike doesn't want to do anything besides plow forward in a straight line.
The Aventon would hypothetically be fun to ride on a completely empty track in a straight line only. But if you want to ride it in the real world, which requires modulating your pace, cornering, navigating through city traffic, it is downright awful.
Which is too bad. I've met quite a few of their staff reps and they are nice people. They're not bicycle enthusiasts: they're very young kids fresh out of college just looking for their first job, but they are well intentioned and have a good attitude overall.
The Aventon was my first experience with cadence sensor bikes, and I just automatically assumed that any bike with a cadence sensor rode as badly as the aventon. Fortunately, I rode the rad rover later on and discovered bikes with cadence sensors can actually ride much like a normal bike, only with significantly more horsepower.
