Here is some real world things I wanted to share. Most of the videos just don't go into stuff I cared about. I wanted to know about comfort, style, speed, effort and a few other personal things you could only get by riding it daily. Here are a few thoughts that I think someone might fine helpful.
This is from about 4 hours on the bike 90 miles ridden.
- Very solid bike without being to ridged. So much more comfortable than my road bike. I love the tires, much better than slicks. Very solid contact with the road and these Big Bens don't track in groves and make cracks, uneven pavement seem like non factors during my ride. This makes my ride so much more fun . On my road bike I was alway looking for road hazards.
- I work in a good sized office and word go around about my bike and people thought I was a bit nuts on spending that kind of money on a bike but when I showed up with it everyone that has seen it has been blown away on how good it looks. The Black St2 does not show well in pics but in person it looks all business. Comments like "bat mans bike" "tank" "special forces" and "bad ass". I have a 69 Camaro and this bike gets that kind of reaction. Since I ride with jeans, boots, or converse and CHOME jackets you can have a masculine look riding this bike. Other ebike scream DORK this was considered and style is important to me.
- I'm in good shape and on my 8 mile ride I can have this bike pegged most the time doing 26-28 mph my whole ride. In the past wind, hills, cars, stop signs all were a pain. Well wind & hills are not an issue anymore, zero issue! I can out run most cars from a stop so eating exhaust gas is mostly avoided. Cars for the most part in a 25mph zone are having to stay back and don't have much opportunity to pass the bike is that quick. So far no road rag from drivers so just be respectful and I think all will be good. Most of my time I just use the 3 tallest gears and the shifting is money on the downshifts and upshifts with no clunks, rattles etc. Kinda like my motorcyle in many ways.
- I was wondering about the weight as this think is close to 60 lbs. But other than moving it around which is not bad (happy I don't have stairs) it has not been and issue and only make this bike ride better than my other bikes. Because this bike is solid and has some weight it rides really nice. Kinda like a "touring "car with just enough of a sport feel with out having to get beat up. This bike is really easy on my joints & muscles. I'm a real active guy so I'm either surfing, softball or at the gym and I didn't want my bike to drain me. Now I can ride to work and hit the gym at lunch even on "leg" day. Most the time I can have this bike maxed and my heart rate is maybe at 100 beats per minute. I show up to work in a jacket not sweating much. I can still can wear a dress shirt not needing to change after my ride. In the past I didn't wear as nice as clothes, wore clip in shoes and needed to change my shirt so this is a major improvement in my day to day work/ride lifesyle.
- Riding at night is killer with the lights, I feel way safer than with my road bike as I know this bike eats up shitty roads. Most of the time I can use the whole lane day or night which makes a huge difference in the quality (road surface) of my ride and I feel much safer as cars can see me better as I'm not as likely to blend with parked cars.
