Also, everyone should have a dropper seat post. I took the bike out for several 15 to 20 mile trips over a few weeks. OK, it’s not physically that hard to ride for an hour with electric assistance while listening to a podcast, but I appreciate being able to quickly move my seat around at a stop light when my butt and quadriceps decide to stop working well.
Even with these additions and full MTB front and rear suspension, the bike weighs a surprising 40 pounds for the large frame. Having ridden a lot of electric bikes, I’d estimate that a bike with these specifications would weigh around 60 or 65 pounds. (I estimated my XS frame to be about 35 pounds, but that’s just by feel.)
everywhere at once
Photograph: Adrienne So
There are some mixed surface trails that I regularly travel on that I am somewhat reluctant to tell about because I worry that some of you might see me there. One is a loop that travels around the northernmost point of Portland, Oregon, and passes through some slopes; I also love the Leif Erickson Trail, a 20-mile gravel trail in Forest Park, Mount Tabor, and the loop around Pier Park, which was one of the first places anyone ever raced cyclocross and which is now used primarily by elementary school students on teenage mountain bikes.
As someone who regularly rides gravel bikes, it’s nice and weird to ride a bike that is, to all appearances, a gravel bike, but feels like a very comfortable, premium electric mountain bike when you sit on it. It’s like biting into something that looks like bitter dark chocolate and finding it filled with a fluffy, sweet marshmallow. I’m here, ready to roll over some rocks, but…these tires are too big! This suspension is soft! What is this strange feeling? Is it relaxing?
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