We received this ride report as Rick tries to break his new Optibike.
“I gave the suspension on the Optibike a HAMMERING! An absolute HAMMERING! I used the full length of travel on front & rear, & I did my level best to break it; sorry, can’t help myself, I’m a professional Test Engineer.”
I rode on technically tricky terrain, as well as extremely rough terrain to test the suspension. The Optibike ate it, no matter what I threw at the beast, it ate it & begged for more.
I also took the bike through trails which were too tight to be taken under power, so I rode it like a regular bike. NO PROBLEM! ….. I did the course in the same time it takes me to do it on one of my regular MTB’s! …. TRUE! …. The weight of the Optibike made NO DIFFERENCE due to the Rohloff Speedhub. The ratio’s on the Speedhub are so wonderful that anything you can do on a $10K Specialised MTB such as the S-Works Epic, can be done on the Optibike – UNPOWERED!
What you guys have done in designing & building the OptiBike is remarkable, in fact, no word exists in English, to my knowledge, to adequately communicate how great the bike is. Everything about the bike is outstanding, everything, bar none! …. I also tested the battery control system by running it to near depletion. Just as the manual says, the control system kicked in at just over the 60(km) range mark with the red-light flashing slowly. This reduced the power to the bike but got me home with quite a bit to spare I suspect”.
Rick S. Melbourne, AU