First Thousand Kilometers

It has taken a lot longer than I expected to rack up my first 1000 km.

Having said that, I am still enjoying riding the Gazelle as much as ever. As soon as I hop on it a smile spreads all over my face, and the first few kilometres down our dirt road feels like the road to heaven.

Still no maintenance issues and the batteries are working just as they advertised.

But there has been one blip and that involves towing a trailer. The trip to town is 27 km and over 200 m loss of elevation. The laden trailer and bike seem to work well together that way.

But coming home things are not so good.

In fact, after about a dozen trips, I have decided that there is an issue. The trailer is mounted on the opposite side of the rear wheel dropouts to the sensor. I suspect that under heavy load (laden trailer going up steep hills) the sensor does not function properly. The motor does not respond to pedalling effort consistently.

The result is just plain hard work. How hard? Well, the bike weighs 25 kg, and the trailer fully laden can be close to 40 kg. That is about the equivalent of trying to double an small sized adult without assistance. I enjoy hard work, but I do not enjoy doubling a 55 kg passenger for 27 km uphill!

The thing that really brought it home was to take the trailer off. I left it at a friends house about half way home one day. The difference was unbelievable. After 15 km of unremitting grind I suddenly felt like I was being pushed along from behind. Agony literally turned to ecstasy. The rest of the ride was bliss.

Interestingly, I have a child seat on the back. If I take my son (about 18kg) and panniers on the back rack the bike does not experience the problems created by the trailer. It works as it should.

I have now ridden the Gazelle in all conditions day and night. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The use of a heavily laden trailer in steep country is probably well outside the bikes design specification, so I do not consider this a real deficiency.

The bike and I are settling into a happy relationship together, and helping to make the world a happier place, one ride at a time.