AlanW
Guru
- Location
- Not to sure?
Back in March of this we purchased a new Cube Kathmandu SLX 750 so that my wife could join me is doing some light touring. Nothing to serious, just the odd weekend away and staying reasonably local to home. The plan was to ride about 60 or so miles out and then return via a different route.
In my quest to find a suitable bike for her, we looked at so many makes and models, but decided that 750Wh battery was a must in order to cover the distances that we had in mind, and also a Bosch CX mid drive motor seemed to be the most popular choice. Furthermore the ability to carry panniers and have mudguards was also a must have.
With all the above in mind, the Cube Kathmandu SLX 750 seemed to fit the bill perfectly. We have done a few local 50 miles rides, but no overnight stops till now.
While its a truly great bike and ticks every box, its a utter brute of a bike to move about and she really struggles to man handing it around, more so with loaded panniers on it!
The biggest issue is that the bottom bracket/motor assembly sits quite high up from the ground, thus making the saddle quite high if you want to maintain a comfortable pedal stroke. This is a problem when the bike is loaded with two panniers as she cannot lift her leg high enough to clear them, even leaning the bike right over. But by leaning the bike over, its tends to get a bit heavy to hold upright and one or two times it very nearer toppled over.
We have just come back from our first two day trip and as much as we both really enjoyed it, its now raised a few questions about what we want to do in the future. To be fair, the e-bike was utterly superb, loaded up with both panniers and it never missed a beat. Even better, it meant that I didn't have to have any panniers at all on my non e-bike
Outgoing route was 56 miles out and 4300' of climbing, not a problem for her, but it made me pant a few times I can tell ya!!!
We had a bit of a panic on the return leg, she picked up a huge thorn in the front tyre but thankfully it didn't make it thru' the tread into the tube....phew! Good job really as we were miles from any where, and I have no idea how the heck I would have got the front out.
She now says that she would like to go away in the car and take the bikes with us from time to time, which just isn't going to happen I'm afraid. We only have a small hatchback (a BMW One series) and the only way I could maybe get it in the car is by removing the front wheel and the battery in order to try and reduce the overall weight, and even then it would be a two man lift and I'm still not certain it would fit because of the full mudguards for one. But also the forks have a stop on them so they will not rotate to get the forks at 90 degrees to the frame.
She is now thinking about selling the bike and buying a much lighter e-bike so that we can fit it in the car because she likes the idea of going to different places in the car rather than being tied to always riding from home. Which to be fair, I do understand and I do take her point.
But quite what we would replace it with I have no idea at all! But it wouldn't need to have pannier mounts, but it would need to have full mudguards and it would need to be a lot lighter than the Cube, which shouldn't prove to difficult!
In my quest to find a suitable bike for her, we looked at so many makes and models, but decided that 750Wh battery was a must in order to cover the distances that we had in mind, and also a Bosch CX mid drive motor seemed to be the most popular choice. Furthermore the ability to carry panniers and have mudguards was also a must have.
With all the above in mind, the Cube Kathmandu SLX 750 seemed to fit the bill perfectly. We have done a few local 50 miles rides, but no overnight stops till now.
While its a truly great bike and ticks every box, its a utter brute of a bike to move about and she really struggles to man handing it around, more so with loaded panniers on it!
The biggest issue is that the bottom bracket/motor assembly sits quite high up from the ground, thus making the saddle quite high if you want to maintain a comfortable pedal stroke. This is a problem when the bike is loaded with two panniers as she cannot lift her leg high enough to clear them, even leaning the bike right over. But by leaning the bike over, its tends to get a bit heavy to hold upright and one or two times it very nearer toppled over.
We have just come back from our first two day trip and as much as we both really enjoyed it, its now raised a few questions about what we want to do in the future. To be fair, the e-bike was utterly superb, loaded up with both panniers and it never missed a beat. Even better, it meant that I didn't have to have any panniers at all on my non e-bike
Outgoing route was 56 miles out and 4300' of climbing, not a problem for her, but it made me pant a few times I can tell ya!!!
We had a bit of a panic on the return leg, she picked up a huge thorn in the front tyre but thankfully it didn't make it thru' the tread into the tube....phew! Good job really as we were miles from any where, and I have no idea how the heck I would have got the front out.
She now says that she would like to go away in the car and take the bikes with us from time to time, which just isn't going to happen I'm afraid. We only have a small hatchback (a BMW One series) and the only way I could maybe get it in the car is by removing the front wheel and the battery in order to try and reduce the overall weight, and even then it would be a two man lift and I'm still not certain it would fit because of the full mudguards for one. But also the forks have a stop on them so they will not rotate to get the forks at 90 degrees to the frame.
She is now thinking about selling the bike and buying a much lighter e-bike so that we can fit it in the car because she likes the idea of going to different places in the car rather than being tied to always riding from home. Which to be fair, I do understand and I do take her point.
But quite what we would replace it with I have no idea at all! But it wouldn't need to have pannier mounts, but it would need to have full mudguards and it would need to be a lot lighter than the Cube, which shouldn't prove to difficult!
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