Apologies for the English, my Finnish sucks. long post
After completing a bit more than 1000 km on the Hilgo I feel I can give a review here. I ride both commute (Espoo to Helsinki, 50 KM round trip) and for fun.
In the begging of 2018 I decided to order a Velo. I am riding recumbents for the last 7 years, and the main reason to get a Velo was to be able to extend the riding season, which in Finland (for me) was only Mid April to Mid October.
After a lot of thinking and reading I went for the Hilgo. I had a few reasons for that:
- Speed was not my top priority
- Open wheels in front
- I was afraid of maintenance and the Hilgo seemed to have a better solution than others
- I was promised a short ordering time.
On January 2018 I had a business trip to Amsterdam, and used one day yo travel to test the Hilgo. it looked good and I ordered it on March, with planned delivery date on late May.
The trouble started with delivery. To cut a very long story short, there was delay after delay, and finally I got it delivered to Finland only in November about 6 month delay!
The Velo looked good, and I started riding. I had many issues: - The drive train didn't work as expected. Chain kept falling. I played with it for a long time, until I shortened the chain and made the special tentioner stronger. This solved most of the issues.
- The battery was placed in a very strange place, with a very short cable. taking it in and out daily was very difficult. I purchased an extension cord and this mainly solved the issues.
- Pin holding the seat got broken, and many other small issues.
During December, January and February I hardly rode. I have winter tiers, but the amount of snow was way too much.
Now in the spring I started riding again, and finally started to enjoy the Hilgo. When it is cold, the hood is great. I suffered a huge amount of flats during the time the gravel was on the roads, I think I had more than 10 flats in 3 weeks. I quickly changed to Marathon Plus in the back, in the front I have Marathon racer, and manly the front right was a pain.
During last week, the part that hold the idlers under the seat broke, and this time I had a fast reaction from Sinner bike, and replacement came within two days!
Overall:
It is relatively easy to do maintenance on the Hilgo. Once I got over the main issue with the drive train all is working relatively OK. Removing the top part is easy.
It is not very fast. It is faster than my recumbent, but not by so much.
Very comfortable to ride, well protected from the elements, and maneuverability is good.
As I wrote in the beginning - my main goal was to extend my season. This has worked fine, I've ridden longer in 2018, and started 2019 earlier.
If anyone is interested to see, or even test ride - you are welcome to contact me.
Yoav
P.S - If anyone has a good system how to press the pedestrian light buttons with the hood on - I will be happy to hear