Just started commuting to work on my new Upstart. Absolutely love the way the bike rides. It’s fast, smooth and very quick.
My route across the Chilterns has seven decent hills and is building my fitness levels as planned. It’s great to have a power pack to share the load and keep your average speed up.
Two questions:
Has anybody improved the braking power on the Upstart? Me@90Kg plus a fairly heavy back pack@15Kg on a fast down hill section - well ok 35 Mph - over powers the brakes a bit. Any recommendations for upping the braking force?
Also the chain seems to make a lot of noise. Anyone any ideas on how to reduce the noise? Is the alignment, the tensioner or something else.
The Upstart is proving to be a superb bike for my one hour each way commute. I’ve clocked 350 miles so far at an average speed of 14mph. (In two months)
The chain tensioner is still noisy and the brakes are down to 2mm on the blocks, probably due to them being a bit small for the hills on my route - and slightly underpowered.
Battery life is not a problem, I’ve seen the red led come on occasionally on the last couple of hills. That’s after 30 miles of 60% climbing/descending and 40% flat.
For me the real unique selling point of the Upstart its use as a fitness training bike. It gets me to the office in an hour (or less) and I can choose the intensity of the workout by dialling up more or less electrical power. Brilliant!
Why do I get on the bike at 7:30 in the morning rather than driving in at 8:30? Because it’s great fun! I’m “flying” up the hills burning calories and watts. I like to think of the motor as an electric gear, instead of trading rear wheel torque for speed I’m adding more power into the system and keeping my speed. Me + Upstart = speed + fun!