Long Term Test: Haibike sDuro HardSeven SL Review

What I wanted to achieve?

When I bought the HAIBIKE SDURO I wanted primarily a bike to ride to work on as often as possible, leaving my car at home as much as possible on a bike that could cope with a mainly off road route of between 12 and 14 miles to work and then get me home as quickly as possible on a hilly 10 mile B Road route.

To complicate matters I need to carry quite a bit of stuff to work and prefer to use a rear rack and panniers to do so. The tracks I use are too rough for the trekking style bikes so my choice was quickly reducing. I looked at a lot of bikes but in the end decided I needed a hardtail electric mountain bike that I could fit a rack to.

After a lot of research I found myself returning to the e-bikeshop site and focusing on the Haibike sDuro and xDuro HardSeven. I rang Martin who was very helpful, and reassured me that they could fit racks to either bike and said I should come to the shop and try them out.

In the end I attended the demo day and was able to ride both the Yamaha and Bosch systems on great tracks and meet some really friendly like-minded people.
The Yamaha motor

As other people have noted The Yamaha motor is a gem. The zero cadence works brilliantly off road and means it responds immediately to your input on the pedals and the torque of the motor will pull you up and over anything you aim it at.

It will try and engage with any weight on the pedal and if you are at a road junction or set of lights I sometimes switch the assist off while I am waiting and back on again when it is time to set off. Either that or just take your feet off the pedals or un-weight the pedals.
Riding the eBike

I have now been riding the bike to and from work for seven months throughout the summer and hardly had to use the car at all. The off road route to work is a sheer pleasure and I have added more demanding tracks knowing that the bike can cope. I actually want the exercise and now predominantly only use the eco mode on the 13 mile off road route to work but know the bike can pick up the pace and fly at the push of a button.

Getting home fast is also a pleasure I use the second standard level of assistance and never use the highest assistance level even on the steep hills and turn the motor off on descents.

10 Things to Consider When Choosing a Location for Your Business

Before you start shopping for business space, you need to have a clear picture of what you must have, what you’d like to have, what you absolutely won’t tolerate and how much you’re able to pay. Developing that picture can be a time-consuming process that's both exciting and tedious, but it’s essential you give it the attention it deserves. While many startup mistakes can be corrected later on, a poor choice of location is sometimes impossible to repair.

Be systematic and realistic as you consider the following 10 location points.

A Startup's Guide to Micro-influencers

Celebrity influence doesn’t come cheap. Macro-influencers with massive followings could probably get away with charging two months’ payroll to promote awareness of your brand among their millions of followers. But, take heart: Set your sights a bit lower and you'll be able to widen your reach and get better uptake for less money.
First, understand who micro-influencers are: the everyday social account gurus who are passionate about their topics.

5 Tips to Help You Overcome Startup Struggles

Startups are not all unicorns and IPOs. The startup struggle is real.

You ever see that image about success with the straight arrow going up on the left that reads, “What people think it looks like,” and then a squiggly arrow on the right that wraps itself in loops and looks like a mess and states, “What it really looks like”? The more experienced I get, the more real that depiction becomes.

I’m not here to write about watered-down BS than can be found in any self-help book. I want to keep it real with you, as I’m interested in building authentic, genuine business relationships with all of my readers. It’s the reason why I write about my personal struggles (How My Life As An Entrepreneur Shaped My Time In Prison, 3 Lessons Learned From My Failed Business With A Guy I Met On Craigslist and 6 Life Hacks Learned In Prison That Will Maximize Your Productivity), not just my success.