Hi Larry,
I've enjoyed your posts. I also have an XM700+ and have ordered a Powerfly 7 2017 ( hardtail ) . My plan is to use the Powerfly 7 on stone dust rails to trails rides,
any groomed trails and roads, but limited to 'back roads'. I tried my XM700+ on a stone dust trail, but didn't feel stable enough with the stock Schwalbe Energizer Plus
tires thus the Powerfly 7...The XM700+ will be for paved conditions.... How do like your Powerfly 7 off road, assuming you ride on stone dust etc ?
I'll never go true off roading so that is not a concern. I'm guessing the Powerfly performs well on paved roads?
Also I truly enjoy the XM700+ stock swept back handle bars, but Trek no longer carries them or I'd install them on my Powerfly 7. Did you stick with the stock
bars on your Powerfly ? I'm not comfortable with true flat bar/ Mtn bars and will be changing to something with a sweep. I installed a Bodyfloat seat post
on my XM700 because it was waaay too stiff, the Bodyfloat is great and made the bike very ridable for me... Is the Powerfly stiff like the XM700 ?
I've purchased a second Bodyfloat and was planning on installing it on my Powerfly. Lastly, how do you like your Powerfly 7 on the road?
Thanks in advance,
John from CT
I've taken the Powerfly 7 onto several gravel trails and it's pretty stable at 40psi tire pressure, although if you get into some deep soft <1/8" pea-gravel it will slow the bike way down as you sink in and you need to power up the motor to get through it rather than bogging down. It's not often that I run into that, where it feels like those old playgrounds with 12" deep soft loose round gravel. I imagine that if you were doing a lot of fine loose gravel it would be like riding on sand and you'd want a 4" fatbike instead, or lower the tires to 30psi (or go tubeless and go to 25psi).
On hard pack single tracks with gravel on top of the surface it seems to do pretty well, but as you know any 2.3" tire can still skitter around on gravel, so you have to keep your body loose and let the bike move around and find it's way. On those surfaces my wife can't keep up with me on her Neko+ with 1.5" tires and more of a hybrid tread. Her bike is geared all wrong for climbing on slow/loose dirt trails anyway, and is best on hard pack with mild gravel and pavement.
I've not had my front end wash out yet on loose dirt, but I've come close and it helps when I keep my weight back, which means getting off the seat and moving my butt back, but the bars are a longer reach forward than swept bars and without a dropper seat-post it's hard. Instead I did buy a suspension seat post, but just a better seat could be enough.
I tend to let the bike float between my hands and legs on bumpy surfaces, to absorb bumps and stay on track. So I haven't gotten much use from my Suntour NCX suspension seat post
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IM2JZYY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 but when I force myself to take the weight off my feet and use the seat, I find that the seat post works very well and does a better job absorbing bumps than my front dual 100mm shocks set for 26% sag. If I sit too far forward on the seat then the Suntour seat post doesn't get enough leverage to move (it moves down and back with bumps). If I sit back far enough to get it to absorb everything then I can barely reach the handle bars with my spare tire in the way (okay, my gut).
On most rides I do use up 100% of my front fork travel, and have thought about spacers inside the forks to get it to be more progressive, so I can run a lower pressure for a softer street ride. I think my fork pressure is between 120-125psi but I haven't checked it since May. So, currently I can't go lower on the pressure without spacers to make it more progressive - the front suspension works better off road than on pavement where it doesn't absorb the small bumps as well.
My 2.3" dirt tires still do great on pavement without too much rolling resistance, although I suspect that the grip in emergency braking might suffer with less contact patch on the road due to the knobbies. I've taken mine up to 42.7mph downhill on pavement, and it's steering geometry is much more stable at high speed than the DualSport+ that I borrowed for a weekend before ordering my XM700+ and then canceling for the PF7.
It corners well, although I'd expect that the XM700+ would corner better/faster on pavement with it's tires. Regardless, a bicycle is not like riding a motorcycle, as I'm much higher off the ground (36" vs 28"). So I'm not as confident leaning hard into turns when I'm sitting on a tiny seat 3 feet off the ground. Countersteering still works, but I feel like if I'm leaning into the turn too much that I'll start to slide out. So I have not tested my limits on dirt or pavement, and I slow down to at least 15-20mph for turns.
I do keep the tires at 40psi for all rides now, as I usually have to ride on pavement to get to any off-road riding, and 3/4 of my ride miles are on pavement. I can pedal it up to 22-23mph comfortably on flat ground with a comfortable cadence, and occasionally 26-27mph but then the cadence is too high for me to maintain for long. There's one stretch on the ride back from the local Zoo where I can pedal at what I'm guessing is 100+rpm at 35mph for about 3/4 of a mile which is about a 2% downhill grade where the bike would coast at only 20-25 without pedaling.
I went for the smaller 55cm frame for my 5 foot 9 inch body (30" inseam) and I kept the stock bars. But I went with a shorter and steeper handlebar riser (maybe 110x45 I'm not exactly sure now) which brought the bars closer to me, although I'd wish they were 1" higher and 2" farther back for cruising.
For where I like to ride (street and dirt), and riding 10-20mph with my wife, the Powerfly 7 is perfect and very versatile. Although it would be nice to also have a 28mph speed pedelec with street tires, after dropping so much on the Trek if I get a 2nd eBike it might be something like the Juiced Crosscurrent S at a much lower price. I can't justify another $4K bike to my wife, but if money grew on trees my Bike #2 would be a Stromer ST2 S.
