Second ride, shortened due to weather. Set up remains about 2 minutes or so, not quite the 60 seconds they advertise but certainly simple enough. Steps are pretty much open brake, open quick release, remove wheel, insert Geo wheel, close quick release, (which is on the wrong side of the bike BTW), wrap rubber straps around fork, attach throttle and away you go. Brake had to remain open to account for the wheel width.
Test bike continues to be a custom steel frame with a steel fork, bike weighs 20 pounds. The weight of the wheel essentially doubles the bike weight. Turning on the motor but not activating the throttle allows the wheel to roll freely, not the same as a spoked un motored wheel but certainly easy enough. For that test I ran a 39-17 gear. Activating the throttle removes the slight pedal assist which means as soon as you release the throttle the regenerative function kicks in, almost like resisting the upstroke on a fixed gear bike. Stopping takes a bit longer than usual but that is to be expected given the added weight. Between the regen slowing the bike and a front brake, one can stop easily enough. With the throttle activated and pedaling as the same time 25 mph was easily reached, the pedal effort would be considered "soft pedaling". From a standing stop no pedaling the wheel accelerated smoothly to almost 20 mph on level ground. This isn't neck snapping acceleration but that could be a function of both the bike weight and my own. Climbing a moderate grade (~5%) without pedaling was slow, a bit too slow for my taste. Adding pedal effort fixed this problem and still felt like soft pedaling. A friend suggested we try a one mile climb we call 13 bumps, the first 1/2 mile is in the 12-15% range before it levels out to something more reasonable, around 5% - 7% or so. That will be interesting but was not to be this day.
It was 45 degrees and the rain kicked in so the bike only saw around 5 miles of ride time. I don't like cold and wet.
Battery rattle some complained of was non existent, the fix was simple, add some of the foam that came with the shipping box around the battery and no more noise.
There are three lights on the battery that show current charge, the display still showed full but probably (certainly) that was not the case.
Although the company suggests using this wheel on any bike I am not going to tempt fate by placing a 22 pound wheel on my carbon frame. The steel road bike or steel single speed/fixy will be the only two test beds.
I still find the weight distribution to be a bit unsettling. Certainly having the weight more centered on the bike would improve handling but that would defeat the purpose of the design. The hard foam tire presents a ride that is no more harsh than a road tire inflated to 100-110 PSI.
The next test will be a no pedaling range test on a closed loop in a local park. I intend to challenge the battery to see if the claims of 18-20 miles is a real claim.