Delevered.
Wednesday night I drove to Chicago with my youngest son, and we picked up the velo at KLM/Air France Air Freight. This allowed me to get my hands on it sooner, and is supposed to save me 500 euros. It appeared in perfect condition, wrapped in bubble wrap, inside the giant cardboard box, on a pallet. I was very impressed with the packing job. I just brought it back, didn't do any real riding or evaluation save, for a short jaunt around a Denny's parking lot.
It fits in my Honda Odyssey minivan no problem with the middle seats removed. you might be able to fit it with only one seat removed, but I have not tried that yet.
Important disclosure: ALL my prior experience was in my old BV Quest. If I compare, that is what I am comparing to. Further, I am older, fatter, and in worse condition that when I had the quest. Last year I was road bike race fit, but the last 9 months my life had been nothing but work, and my condition shows it. Further, I crashed my mountain bike hard in May mountain biking with my oldest son, and smashed up my left knee. I sprained the left PCL. I can bike now, but I have lost some condition, and likely will avoid hills for a while.
As of now, I have 41 miles in the Hilgo, 23 of that today. These are my quick opinions or observations.
It is smaller than the quest. I knew that, and desired something easier to store, and maneuver, but seeing it in person it really sinks in. It is both shorter and narrower, and the cockpit edge may also be lower. Narrow is good (to a point), push less air, and the quest was larger than it needed to be in certain aspects. When I had the quest I wore XL shirts, now, often XL shirts are tight on my shoulders. This may not be important, but the cabin is tight for me. I didn't say too tight, and when I ride off 20lbs, I will be smaller, it may be fine. Also, with 4 years without a velo, I need to adapt again. Getting in and out is the same routine, but with smaller opening, I need to do the shoulder twist. After 2 rides, I am already able to "do the twist" and pop my shoulders out if I need to while riding.
I cannot provide detailed performance info now, but I can say it handles well, has a tight turning radius, and feels firm on the road. The suspension is set pretty firm, and I am ok with that. It behaves as you would expect a velo, it really accelerates on any roller or downhill, or even slight grade. When I spin it up it accelerates well, and I did average in the mid 20s (mph) for several miles today. It felt sooooo good to have the wind in my face again, flying down a country road in the velo.
Yesterday I rode it in a hard rainstorm, with the race cap on, and I was not feeling real comfortable. Today, I was able to punch it up, get good speed, hold it and feel confident. It felt great.
The big issues on this model are the rear shifting, and easy to remove top.
The top is amazing. I can now take the top off in just a few minutes, and have taken it on and off several times. There are 10 bolts, easy to reach, and two powerful magnets up front. To be even faster in the future, I plan on buying metric wing nuts. The bolts are set, you only need to twist off the nuts. It is a huge blessing to be able to remove the top so quickly. I hated that aspect of the quest. It was so hard to work on. Local bike shops wouldn't touch it, and I am not the best mechanic. This thing is a dream in that regard, and I believe it may be the best solution to access available in any velo. See the pics, with the top off, its easy.
I also really like the rear shifter. It is easy and intuitive to use. I see two main benefits, one, I like the access of all the rear cogs and shifting right under the seat, if you need to work on it, it is far easier than trying to work on some small panel in the back. This thing is WIDE open. See the pics.
The second benefit is rapid shifting. Let's say you going fast but approaching a traffic light. You don't know if you will get a green or red. With this shifter, you can downshift so quick, it is a real help. As fast as you twist, you can go from the small cogs to the largest cogs. You can also feel the shifts if you are just up or downshifting like normal. I really like this system. I consider it leading edge, and a great benefit.
Other items. The tiller is on a bungie that pulls or holds the tiller up. You don't notice it while riding, but entering or exiting the velo, the bungie holds the tiller up and out of the way. There does not appear to be room to 'tuck in the tiller" like the quest, but on the quest, this system wore off the foam on grips on the tiller.
It has no chain tubes. I am not sure about this, as I was a chain tube guy from way back...Over time, I will report on this more. Harry L deigned a chain tensioner and I will include a photo. The idlers are pretty noisy, and I plan on trying to reduce this noise by adding a plastic liner to the idler, or painting the idler with rubber, or buying some nice T-Cycle idlers. I know all velos are noisy, and I an not used to the noise with the time off, but I want to improve those things.
