A Stealthy Eagle - Fighter track impressions

We find that having a ride of one of our bikes is the best way to get a proper impression of how they handle in a wide range of conditions. It's why we run our business the way we do, setting times and places to meet up with people, taking the time to understand the context of their rides and background skill levels to give them a tailored demonstration. 

In our last blogpost we mentioned having set other riders loose on our Stealth Fighter demonstrator at Cameron Park as part of the HunterEV Festival Prize practice day in the lead up to National Science Week. 

One of the lucky 3 riders was the owner of EagleBikes, Rob Luck. Rob has a long history with the off-road riding scene in Australia, so we were keen to hear his impressions of the (brief) ride:

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"Another dimension in flat-out fun – that's my verdict from a circuit trial on a Stealth Fighter at Cameron Park Raceway. I've been fortunate enough to have some previous bursts on Stealths at other events we've attended with Quiet Rush and always been impressed.  But taking to the track pushed the adrenalin rush to a new level. The immediate observation is that riding the Stealth on a track is more like a motorbike experience than a pushbike experience. The Stealth comes out of the box fast and the acceleration rushes you to the corners at near-motorbike velocities. Adopting a motorbike hunch, you can tip the bike right in to the corner at angles you couldn't achieve on a regular bike or e-bike. And get on the throttle early to maintain corner speed and flow to maintain momentum down the next straight and into the next turn.

It's instinctive too – you just point it and squirt it, and shift your bodyweight as you would on a motorbike. Probably the main difference, is that in the flip-flops, you have to remember to make a half-turn on the pedals to always keep them away from the tarmac.

Another difference is you don't have to climb off the side of the bike to get it low into the corners – as you would on a motorbike. In fact it seemed to be more important to keep your body weight directly above the frame and concentrate more on the fore-aft positioning and balance.

My ride was on the Yellow Stealth with the Schwalbe Crazy Bobs tyres. These are damned impressive with a fine block-tread that extends well over the shoulders, so you can push the bike over into motorbike angles and enjoy the full grip of the tread. Sure enough at the end of my ride there was plenty of evidence of sidewall tread action.

A great thing about the bike is the comprehensive feedback from frame, steering and tyres – it inspires confidence so you can push the machine to the limits. It took only a few laps to start sliding the front tyre into the tight turns and using trail-braking to kick the back end loose into the faster turns. 

But the limits are high and getting the max out of the machine takes more than a handful of laps. I would have liked more time to experiment with braking points, transition from brake to throttle, fore-and-aft body weight transfer,  trail-braking levels, and full use of the available tarmac. But this was a test day for schools and the chequer came down on the test session and that was it.  

Damn satisfying though, and heaps of fun. "

(Ed: It's just as well the chequered flag came down. We were wondering if we'd ever prise him off the bike..Thanks for sharing the ride impressions Rob.)