When you live at the bottom of one of the steepest inclines in the Tweed Valley, which way you turn when you come out of your driveway is a big decision. With hiking boots on, I always turn right to enjoy the beautiful bush tracks in Mt Jerusalem National Park, starting at North Chowan Road which is only 1km from home - sensational bushwalking country. On my bike however, I'd always turn left - purely to avoid the 15% incline of Mt Chowan.
I could climb this hill on my bike, however it was never an enjoyable experience. Granny gear and less than walking pace was the best I could manage, and there was always a feeling of sheer exhaustion once I hit the top, thus my penchant to always turn left.
Being able to turn only left though severely limited my biking options from home, thus my bike rack was often used as transport to the start of whatever ride I wanted to do. Using my car to go for a bike ride? That's just not cricket.
Now for the big test - would my new eBike allow me to comfortably turn right?
The Giant website tells me "The SyncDrive Sport Motor on the Giant Liv Amiti E+ has the capacity to deliver 80Nm of Torque". So? This didn't mean a great deal to me but definitely impressed the engineer in Phil and was one of the reasons he recommended this particular eBike model for me. Knowing the hills we have around our area, Phil was convinced this would translate into enough power for me to climb the Tweed Alps, particularly Mt Chowan, comfortably.
What we didn't appreciate was that when using the highest assistance level, this bike not only comfortably climbs our 15% incline, but it can be achieved at nearly 20km/h with sufficient pedal assistance - unbelievable !! Now that's what I call capable.
This was the first and only time I've used my eBike in the highest assistance level (to date) - it comfortably climbs Mt Chowan Hill in the lowest level of assistance, at a much more civilised 7-8km/h and still gives me a reasonable workout at the same time.
The Tweed Valley had just opened up to me and my new eBike - I could now turn right !!
