1000 Miles of Disappointment
The following is a description of how the bike performed after the motor was changed. First, I updated the firmware as asked. The Aventon has a problem with its technology. If a bike has an auto-power down feature enabled, the bike should know when it’s updating firmware and to NOT power down; it does not. Second, I also put the bike in Walk Mode in all three programs before riding. I made sure the bike was in default settings, which is where I do all my riding. I took off in ECO mode, and by the time I got to the end of the block, I knew I could not complete a ride with that level of support (which I believe is 50%). My Trek SuperCaliper is easier to ride. I then put the bike in TRAIL mode and rode 2 miles to my next transition point on my ride. I have been riding the last few rides in TRAIL mode for 40 miles. When I started riding the Aventon, I rode the first 20 miles in ECO and the last 20 in TRAIL. Then the bike got so bad I could not fight the bike in ECO. Today I could not fight the bike in ECO. At the 2-mile mark, the bike was harder than before the bike received its new motor. I got out my phone and had to bump the support from 60% to 70%. Now I am going to tell you that I am a 63-year-old cycling athlete. I ride over 5000 miles a year on a manual bike and can average 16 mph on the same course I ride the Aventon and get 21 mph. After I increased the bike to 70%, I was able to finish the ride, but it was much harder than before the fix. The bike, from a stopping position, provides little help and still skips. On several starts, the skip was so bad that my cleats came out of the clips. For only giving me a 5 mph performance better than a manual bike, this bike is very inefficient. I start at 100% and end it with 13-16%; that’s terrible. I have included my Apple fitness screen shot from a previous ride where you can see that my average heart rate is 107 and a calorie burn of 1929 kcals. On today’s ride, my heart rate average was 119 with kCals of 1916 (very consistent except for the effort I had to increase because of the increased resistance with pedaling). In addition, the bike App and its associated technology are terrible. You can see that Apple is consistent in ride distance, speed, and cals. The Aventon could not even get the ride duration right. It always says 122 cals, the distance is always wrong, so what good is this App? I was waiting to ride bike 1000 miles before I gave it a review; well, that time has come, and Aventon will not be pleased with my review.