Stromer verses Iowa

[John ware]

On my bucket list since retiring has been revisiting the Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa experience which is celebrating its 44th year. Over 7 days, in excess of 10,000 handlebar hedonists make their way through small town Iowa on all sorts of bikes.

It's been 33 years since I last did the ride and I'm curious to see how things have changed or not.

This year I'm doing the ride on my ST2, if you are so inclined, please feel free to follow the blog I've started at

jw-ebiker.tumblr.com

And yes, one of the things that's changed is bike technology so I'm using that as an excuse to do the ride this year on my incredible Stromer ebike. And before anyone starts whispering cheater, consider the 60lb bike and 40lb trailer with tent and gear I'll be towing and daily distances of 50-75 miles. No Lycra outfits and carbon fiber bike for this vintage/new tech cycle tourist.

 

[jstepy]

Been a few days since last post John... hope you are doing well and great pics so far.

 

[John ware]

Just a quick update, I'd say the Stromer definitely won! Cell coverage was non existent in southern Iowa so I'm still working on updating my blog. Two shout outs, one to Stromer for building an incredible bike and one to the folks at New Wheel in SF for helping make sure my ST2 was perfectly tuned for the ride. 7 days and 450 miles of non stop heat and rolling hills and the bike and trailer rig performed flawlessly.

On Monday I did 80 miles on a single charge while towing a 60lb trailer and rolled into the campsite with 4% battery remaining. At the 50 mile mark I still had 52% battery remaining by using 1, none or regen which allowed me to manage the remaining 44% to help tackle some long, late in day, hills.

More details to come.

 

[vincent]

John what kind of trailer is that?

 

[John ware]

John what kind of trailer is that?

It's from a company called Radical Design, I think the model is a Trekker IV or something. I can look it up and provide more details.

 

[John ware]

It's from a company called Radical Design, I think the model is a Trekker IV or something. I can look it up and provide more details.

Here is a link to the trailer site.

(Link Removed - No Longer Exists)

For the most part I really liked it. There was a little sag in the bottom fabric but proper packing minimized that. It tracked very nicely but the key was to get the weight distribution right with some tongue weight.