Is it here yet? Hope you love it. Review please?!
Yes I have it now. I picked the bike up on my lunch break last week. the moment I got out of the store to ride it back to my office the heavens oppened and I was pelted by hail stones all the way back. But still, it was some of the most fun I have had on two wheels in a long time.
The first time I got on it, the small wheels took a little getting used to, but by day two riding it was like second nature. The manouverability is great being able to weave in and out of traffit to get to the front of the lights, I couldn't immagine doing the same ona full size bike.
It's alslo rather quick, I often find myself flying by all but the most serious of cyclists on my short dash between the station and my office. What used to be a 30-35 minute walk now only takes me 8 minutes so I'm happy with that.
I am impressed with the fold. Not having owned any other folders I have nothing to compare it to, but it is a very quick and easy operation. It doesn't fold as small as a Brompton, but I knew that was the case before hand, so I can't knock that. Where as a Brompton will fit in the void between the seat backs on the train, unfortunately this does not. The space itself is just about big enough by the looks of it, but the aisle is too narrow to be able to turn the bike to fit it in, a bit disappointing, but that's more a fault of the train company not providing any luggage space than a fault of the bike itself.
Instead, I leave the bike folded in the vestible and take a seat opposite where I can keep an eye on it. I understand there is some new carrigaes on the way eventually which will address that, if you believe that the trains will ever recieve any investment!
This particualar model doesn't come with mud guards or rear rack, but as per a couple of other comments on the Evenas website, mine did. The rack came of straight away to free up a bit of weight as I prefer a back pack personally, but mud guards are a must for commuting, so that saved me having to fork out for those too.
The only down side is that the bike itself is white. That itself, I actually like, but witht he bud guards being the same colour, it kind of looks like a little old ladies shopping bike. The frame itself is very BMX-esque, all be it with raised seat post and handle bars so looks really quit cool without the guards, but impractical. So the first thing I did was take them off, strip them down and re-paint them black with some flexible paint. Now they kind of dissapear against the tryes and looks much better!
Still early days so can't say much about reliability or build quality, but if anything come up I shall update.