Azub SIX

First ride, and impressions — with an update after 600 miles

Update 02/28/2022 — — — — — — — — —

It has been several months since I got the Azub SIX. It is rainy season (if you can call it that) here, so I have not been out riding as much. Still, I’ve logged 661 miles on the bike, so I thought I’d update my “first impressions” article below. I have left the original untouched and simply added an update here.

TL;DR

The Azub SIX is one of the best recumbents I have ridden. A pleasure to ride, very stable at both high and low speeds…etc. In short, most if not all of my initial impressions still stand. A great bike.

Point by Point — strengths

I will address each of the items I mentioned as “strengths” in the original article, to see how they aged since…

• Comfort — ride smoothness: it continues to be strong. One of the best I’ve had. It did get impacted, a bit, on account of my removing the tires I had originally, which were very supple, with Marathons. The ride also got a bit harsher, on account of the new tires. That said, see the next point.
• Comfort — suspension: continues to over-perform for me. It is very good, and it makes me feel safe. I have moved to leaving the rear strut in the “locked” position, as even in it there is enough movement to absorb the bumps and not the power from my legs.
• Comfort — USS: fantastic, simply fantastic. Have gotten more familiar with it, and what was great at first, is now second nature. Oh, and I was able to figure out how to sit on the bike reliably :-)
• Comfort — seat, and neck-rest: the neck-rest has been fantastic, as I can move it to accommodate whatever position I need it to be at. The seat has been good too, but on occasion, I have had some lower back pain. Not the seat’s fault, to be sure, but I thought I’d mention it.
• Motor — power, and range: absolutely stunning. Reliable, solid, long-lasting. I usually ride on ECO, sometimes TRAIL, occasionally BOOST. Most of the time I am on OFF on the flats. While I have yet to do the 62 miler mentioned in the post, I’ve done 40 miles with climbing and I’ve gotten home with three bars remaining. I think I will be able to do 62 miles with hills (the ride shown below in the original article) with one battery without a problem.
• Motor — smoothness: I mentioned how smooth the transitions were in the original article. While it is still smooth, I can now notice when it kicks in. This is one case where the first impressions were related to the motor being brand-new, possibly. That said, it is very smooth, and while perceptible, the transitions are always perfect.
• Motor-responsiveness: that has not been lost at all. The motor continues to respond as soon as you put any pressure on the pedals. This is fantastic for when you have to quickly accelerate from a traffic light stop, for example.
• Things To Do — Horn: I added an electric/wireless one. I like it, but there’s a noticeable delay between when I press the button on my handlebar and when the sound comes out. I wanted it wireless because the bike is new and beautiful and I did not want to run wires and start to add zip ties, but I might have to. On this one, I wished I could run the cables inside the frame :-)

• Things To Do — Cellphone Mount: I 3D-printed a mount, and bought a Quadlock Wireless charging Case with a mount, which I positioned on top of the brace I 3D printed.

• Things To Do — Battery Pack: I bought a battery pack from Amazon, and I ran a cable from the side pocket of the tail bag to the wireless charging head. I don’t like this solution, because it means I have to remember to charge the battery, but I was not about to hack the Shimano cable to DIY a splitter and converter off of that….At least not yet :-)

Point by Point — Not roses

Here’s an update for the items that I identified as needing a solution for…

• Speed: this was easily solved, as it turns out. I bought a new (smaller) sprocket from Zach Kaplan, installed it (took a minute) and now I can pedal up to 28/29mph, which is plenty for me.
• USB option: see above….no solution….had to use battery pack.
• Mirror placement: I 3D-printed a set of sticks of sorts, so I can mount the left mirrcycle mirror on them. It looks ugly, and it shakes when riding…but it is better than having to look down to see behind. Clearly a less-than-optimal solution, but it works for now. One day I will get used to helmet-mounted mirrors, and all this would be a thing of the past.

• Seat recline: as it turns out, I was able to eke out a bit more recline by simply turning around the T-Cycle mount extender the bike comes with. As. you can see in the picture below, I have flipped it vertically so that it nows resembles a “U” shape. That allows the rim of the seat to come down lower, when before it was hitting the extender (as a matter of fact, you can see the little marks on the rim from where it used to touch the extender). Incidentally, the cable you see going through the “U” is the battery pack cable, that goes all the way to where the cell-phone is mounted on the front boom.

• Battery on the side: have not bothered with this. It is way too comfortable for the battery to be high when changing or charging it! :-) Now seriously, I have not had any balance issues on account of the battery, so perhaps while having it centered and lower will definitely be better, it will not be as critical as I originally believed it would be.

Original Article — — — — — — — — — — —

TL;DR

The Azub SIX is one of the best recumbents I have ridden. A pleasure to ride, very stable at both high and low speeds, very comfortable with both front and back suspension, and incredibly smooth in its implementation of gearing/e-assist; more so than other bikes I’ve tried. If first impressions are any indication of what’s to come, it will be a joy to ride.

Context

I have been riding recumbent bikes for several years. The picture below has the list of the bikes that I have had, or currently have.

While I used to ride frequently, in the past couple of years I didn’t as I was dealing with some health issues. It’s evident in the graph below, especially if you notice that I logged literally no miles in 2019 and 2020!

One of the reasons why I did not ride as often was the fact that I live in a hilly area (or at least, hilly for me). Whereas at the beginning (2013, 2014) I was able to hop on my bike in the garage and take off, lately it’s a whole production, which requires putting the carrier in the car, the bike on the carrier, driving, etc. For example, I used to commute to work (20 miles each way) without issues.

The issue is hills. Not sure about where you live, but around here, they’ve gotten taller. Go figure! :-)

Getting back into it

Thus, earlier this year, I decided to get back into action and accepted the fact that in order to deal with the hills I will need a bit of help. I had previously been reluctant to use any power assist, as I thought of it as “cheating”. Faced with the realization that it was an e-assist or nothing, I bit the bullet.

We made it a family production, and ordered a couple of bikes from Zach Kaplan Cycles, locally. We decided on an Azub SIX and an Azub MINI. These would be one for myself and one for my wife. Our daughters used to ride with us a lot when they were younger, but they have since outgrown their bikes. Given COVID, delivery was going to take many months (and it did). Thus, in the meantime, I went on the lookout for used recumbents that might work for our daughters, and as unlikely as it may sound, I was able to find not one, but two used recumbents of the style that we wanted.

I obtained an HP Velotechnik Speedmachine, and an HP Velotechnik Grasshopper, which I outfitted myself with power-assist using the DIY toolkit from Eco Cycles. I installed a Tongsheng TSDZ2 motor in each.

My wife and I have been riding the Speedmachine and the Grasshopper, and thus that is the backdrop against which these “first impressions” are drawn.

The Azub SIX configuration

We configured both Azubs for hills and light touring. The image below shows the configuration of the bike as we put it together when ordering

In addition to the above, I replaced the tires on the SIX. I used a Renee Herse’s Naches Pass extra-light on the back and a Gocycle on the front. Both of these are perhaps more streamlined than the stock tires (Marathon’s).

A few pictures of the SIX, the day I got it from Zach.

The first ride

While I took it out yesterday for a very short ride to adjust the seat and all that, earlier today I did one more substantial ride. The picture below shows the ride.

Nothing to write home about, but a reasonable number of miles, and about 2000 feet of climbing. I was not trying to set speed records. Quite the contrary. I wanted to focus on the following in this ride:

• Can this motor help me in climbing the tough hills?
• Is the bike stable? How does USS feel?
• How much will I drain the battery, given a real-world scenario?
• [gravy] Can I go fast?

First Impressions

Will discuss different areas in turn.

Bike handling, ride comfort

Making sure the bike is solid on the ground is really important to me. Ultimately, the feel of the bike is what puts a smile on my face or not. In this category, the SIX did not disappoint. Far from it. Consider the following observations:

• I found the bicycle overall incredibly smooth. The bike wants to roll and roll and roll forever. There’s one stretch of the ride where I never pedal at all, with all my bikes, to see how far each of them makes it. Now, before you say anything, I know this is not scientific, as there’s the wind to consider, the condition of the road, and more. Still, there have been so far literally two bikes that made it all the way to the end. One was the Zockra (the tightest recumbent I’ve ridden so far) and the other was the SIX. I was truly surprised (pleasantly) by this.
• The suspension was very pleasant. It worked as expected and it simply “ate” bumps, especially at high speed. For instance, on one of the downhill stretches, I had the whole street to myself, so I was enjoying the descent, probably doing about 30mph. The sun was setting and at one point it hit my face, and so for a brief moment, I did not see much. It just so happened that at that time there was a bump in the road. While the bike moved up/down, the suspension absorbed the bump. I am certain that on a non-suspended bike I might have eaten the pavement.
• The USS was great. Admittedly, I am not a USS expert. I’ve ridden few miles with USS, but I have had a little bit of variety (a Vision, an HPV, and the SIX). True, USS can be a bit squirrely at times, especially the way I have mine set up (maximum sensitivity, minimum turn radius) but I found it planted, and very comfortable. It is similar to the Grasshopper’s and both are better than the Vision’s. The Azub has a more ergonomic (to me) orientation of the handlebars, but overall, a very similar experience. Most importantly, I was able to go slow, go fast, turn, etc. One thing that I am still trying to figure out is how in the world to sit on the bike! I mean, where do I grab the bike so that it doesn’t tip to the side as I am trying to sit in it? Having the kickstand in place might not work, as I would not be able to retract it, or will I? As I said, still to be worked out :)
• The seat, and especially the neck-rest, were comfortable. It was a very short ride (2 hours and change) and thus the jury is still out on whether I will get some recumbutt or not. I am afraid I might, as the seat, even at its most reclined (which is the way I have it, see pic below) is still rather upright. Time will tell. The neckrest, on the other hand, is a pleasure. I have struggled with neckrests on all my recumbents….except this one. As a matter of fact, this is the only recumbent where I adjusted both the seat and the neckrest to my satisfaction mid-ride, using only one of those bike tools. While many recumbents claim this capability, this is the only one where it has been true for me.

Seat at maximum recline possible. Rib almost touching battery brace

All in all, it has been one of the most pleasurable first rides I’ve had. It literally simply worked. One adjustment of seat/neckrest and….that’s it. Well, sorta… more on this below.

The motor and its power

A key requirement is that the motor is able to climb the hills. It’s not as if I would do no work. Far from it, but I want to be sure that the motor is there for when I need it. I was blown away by this little motor. Going into it, I was not sure, as this motor is 250W, when others have might higher wattage (e.g. the TSDZ2 is 750W). I should not have worried :)

Consider,

• I did almost the entire ride either in “OFF” (no motor) or “ECO” (the lowest setting). The very low rolling resistance of the bike as a whole helps I’m sure, but overall this is a very capable motor that even in the lowest setting will help you. In contrast, when you set the TSDZ2 in its lowest setting, you can barely feel its help.
• As it turns out, even the toughest hills (on this ride at least) I could do in either ECO or TRAIL mode. Trail is the middle level. I put it on BOOST a couple of times just for fun, but I really did not need it. I know that I did not need it because most of these hills I didn’t even do them in first gear, but rather in 3rd, or 4th. Now, BOOST is a riot. It makes you go really fast. It felt higher assist than the TSDZ2 at highest settings, but that might be placebo. I am very happy about this finding. After today, I have no concerns about the hill-climbing ability of this little motor.
• One thing I noticed is that the motor is almost entirely silent! This is rather different from the TSDZ2, which hums. There seems to be no noise coming from the motor when in OFF, and almost no noise when engaged. Now, my ears are not what they used to be, so I am sure this prior statement is incorrect, but using the noise from the TSDZ2 as a baseline, and the same (tired) ears, the EP8 is virtually silent.
• I simply could not believe how smooth the transitions were. I mean the transitions from OFF to ECO to TRAIL and back. This is not on account of the Rohloff, mind you, as I tested it while keeping the gear the same. It is very nice how the motor simply speeds up or slows down (or whichever way you want to think about it). This is not a big deal on the TSDZ2 either, but you can feel the “bump” when it changes. I tried, I really tried to sense it in the EP8, and I failed. Impressive.
• Another important part of the motor, at least for me, is how quickly it reacts under pressure. The scenario is being stopped on a steep incline. Can you start? Torque is what matters in these cases. It was absolutely effortless. Remember, the EP8 does not have a throttle, so it relies exclusively on its pedal/torque sensing. It was immediate, and you would jolt forward if on BOOST! Amazing.

All in all, the performance of the motor blew me away. I know this is a much more expensive motor than the TSDZ2 or the Bafang. I thought I would not be able to tell them apart, but I was very wrong about that, as you can see from the bullet list above. The TSDZ2 is a fantastic motor, by the way, but the EP8 seems to be in a different league.

The battery

The motor being good would not help much if the battery lasts for 30 miles. My target is to be able to do a long loop from/to my house of about 65 miles. Something like this one, for example (also, see pic below)

So we are talking about 3,500ft of climbing (total) and about 62 miles. That’s the goal. Today, I did 26 miles with about 2,000 ft of climbing. I have yet to enable the iPhone app for the battery, so I don’t know for sure how full it was when I departed, but it was less than 100%, but more than 90%.

When I returned, I had four bars of the five. Not scientific, I know. Maybe another bar would have “cleared” in the next 10 meters of riding. So let’s assume that. Let’s say that 2 out of 5 bars were consumed by 26 miles and 2k of climbing. Under the assumption that Shimano’s engineers have taken the non-linear nature of battery depletion into account and figured out to make the bars linear (so they can be used for something)… then

• I spent 40% of the battery on the ride
• 62 miles is 2.38x the 26 miles I rode.
• 3,500 ft is 1.75x the 2,000ft I climbed today.
• Assuming the worst-case scenario, the long ride will take 2.38x of today’s ride. If I spent 40% of the battery in today’s ride, then I will spend 2.38x that amount on the long ride. 2.38 times 40% is 95.2%
• So, in theory, one battery ought to be able to last the long ride.

That’s good news, but I will not risk it of course, as we have a spare battery just in case. That said, I intend to test it to see what’s what. I suspect this system is more efficient than Tongsheng’s, and thus I ought to be able to make the battery last much more.

Things to do

There are a number of things that I still need to do in the bike to get it completely set up, as follows:

• Add a horn.
• Add a mount for my cell phone, which I use for the RidewithGPS app
• Add a battery pack to power the phone, for long rides

Not all is a bed of roses…

Yes, there are things I wish were different. With the humongous caveat that these are only FIRST impressions (and thus they are likely to change as I get more seat time on the bike), I can think of the following “upgrades” I would make to my bike, listed in order of importance

• I need more speed. Yeah, why not admit it. Especially since the gearing/motor combination is overkill for the hills (as I’ve detailed above), perhaps a slightly bigger crank would go a long way. As it is right now, I spin out quickly….and it’s almost impossible to move past 20mph. All of this without assist, of course. I would so love it if I could change that part. I think it would work fine, as the low-end is plenty for the hill-climbing I intend to do, but the top-end is lacking a bit.
• How is it possible that such a fancy power/battery system does not have a USB output/option? Can you believe I have to go and buy a battery pack so I can power my cell phone? That’s crazy. Maybe there’s an option with USB output, but I tried finding it….to no avail.
• The mirrors suck. Well, they don’t really suck, they are very nice, but the placement on USS simply is not to my liking. They need to go, or not, but irrespective I need something different. Will try helmet mirrors and/or a camera mirror next.
• It surely would be nice if the seat would recline more…without sacrificing butt height. I know, I am asking too much… Or maybe not. The sliding clamp used is fantastic (as I’ve attested to above) but it adds height. Maybe reduce that height a bit (something that my wife on her MINI would appreciate, for sure)
• The battery is mounted on the side. It did not bother me much today but perhaps there’s a way to mount it under the seat somehow? I’ve used the same t-cycle mount Azub uses and have been able to mount a bigger battery under the HPVs, irrespective of whether they used ASS (Speedmachine) or USS (Grasshopper). See pic below. Getting the battery down and center is not a bad thing for stability/handling…

In conclusion…

Remember, these are only first impressions. I am hardly familiar with all the bike idiosyncracies yet. Still, if these impressions are at all representative, I suspect the SIX will be my main “go-to” bike.