S16 pro 100 mile first impressions (Coming from KS 16x, V8F)

[DuckDuckDucky]

Background: Casual street rider looking for a commuting wheel that can take me 24 miles (12 miles each way) with average speed 30-35mph, including light enough to carry into train. Previously used 16x for shorter commute for about 2.4k miles total. I wanted to give my first impressions on the wheel specifically about commuting and the things that are important to me, which may help others considering this wheel.

Things I like so far:

• Ride comfort: After some tweaks (tire pressure, suspension, pads) this is very comfortable wheel for street riding and commuting. The big difference with my 16x is that I couldn't maintain that 30mph top speed easily since I had to slow down/brace for potholes and bumps. I'm a conservative rider and i've never had cutouts because of aggressive riding; any modern suspension wheel is a game changer for maintaining those higher cruising speeds without being scared of over powering the wheel. It is very nimble and corners very predictably.
• Cruising speed/stability: This wheel can very comfortably cruise at 33-35mph and feels incredibly planted even when I occasionally push it to 37mph. To be fair the 16x also felt great at its top end cruising speed but as mentioned above it was a lot more squirely when encountering obstacles. This is also applicable to hills, where I can stay around 30-33mph with potholes/bumps on 40-50% battery. This is critical for me since the bike lanes are often shared with cars on my commute and an EUC that keep up with traffic speed is important. 
• Form factor: It's barely bigger than my 16x, and is still small enough so I can bring it on a train or metro without causing disruption to other passengers.
• Kick stand: It's shocking how much difference a nice kickstand makes honestly. I'm finding myself using it all the time and being grateful it's there.

Thing I don't like so far:

• Trolley handle ergonomics: As other reviewers have noted the offset trolley handle makes navigating the wheel kind of annoying. It's ok for me since I have a relatively short push distance for the wheel but if you have to push it for more than 15 minutes on your commute I don't recommend this wheel. When I go the store I find myself just parking it with the kickstand in the corner of the store rather than pushing it around, which was a breeze on the 16x. Also I find myself often two hand gripping the trolley handle whereas the 16x was easy peasy with one hand.
• Build Quality: The wheel feels just a tad too plasticky for a modern wheel. One of the pedals that it came with was loose and I still haven't figure out a way to tighten it down. Also I know people praise the stock pads in other reviews but I didn't really like the design. Furthermore I like my pads pushed forward significantly and I find I have to put my pads all the way to the edge of the available real estate.

Undecided:

• Weight: I'm giving myself 400-500 miles to truly get used to the weight. Good news is that it's completely unnoticeable when moving and so far I've had no issues lifting the wheel on the train or down. Bad news is that it doesn't have the immediate acceleration I can get on my 16x and i'm also getting wobbling at low speed when I try and accelerate quickly. I'm hoping that will be resolved over time.
• Long term mechanical/software issues.
• Waterproofing: My friend has an S16 and there are definite improvements to the cable management and other small build quality improvements that we can suss out just from the outside. However, haven't opened the wheel at all to check.

Things I don't care about:

• Range: I only use this wheel to commute. For fun I like to do things that involve some kind of exercise so as long as it can handle my normal commute (24 miles total) and my emergency commute if I have to take Metro instead of train (35 miles total) that's all I care about. Also I can charge at work most times so that halves my range requirement.
• Tire replacement: I've seen this discussed a lot but honestly I just take it to a local shop to do this. I called them ahead of time and they said they have no problem working on the S16. The owner did mention the V11(y) being an absolute pain and charges extra since it takes longer.
• LEDs: Idk they are there, but I mostly have them disabled unless it's night time.
• Speakers: Never really use them unless i'm on a shared trail. It's nice that I'm able to disable the various sounds (startup, shutdown) since those draw attention in public places which I don't want.

Hopefully this helped someone considering this wheel! If you have any questions let me know. Other wheels I considered were the V11y (I hated the suspension feel on my friends V11), begode falcon (I need the top speed to be higher for shared roads with cars), blitz (a bit too heavy, wary of first batch issues).

Edited Monday at 03:46 AM by DuckDuckDucky

[techyiam]

Do you trolley your S16 Pro backwards? 

When you reached 37 mph top speed, did the pedals tiltback?

I am still too conservative to go beyond 34 mph.

Which pedal mode do you have it set: 

(1) experiment mode (hard)

(2) riding mode (medium)

(3) learner mode (soft)

[DuckDuckDucky]

20 minutes ago, techyiam said:

Do you trolley your S16 Pro backwards? 

When you reached 37 mph top speed, did the pedals tiltback?

I am still too conservative to go beyond 34 mph.

Which pedal mode do you have it set: 

(1) experiment mode (hard)

(2) riding mode (medium)

(3) learner mode (soft)

Trolley backwards, yes I get the tilt back at 37 (which is noticeable but gentle compared to 16x). I'm on experiment mode. 

I do quick bursts at 35-37 mph for less than a few seconds, mostly cruising 30-33

[techyiam]

Thanks for confirming the tiltback.

If you haven't already tried the learner's mode, perhaps you may want to experiment with it. 

I set mine in learner's mode, and I get better acceleration and braking for the same amount of rider input. 

[DuckDuckDucky]

@techyiam hmm okay that seems counterintuitive but it doesn't hurt to try. Thanks for the tip.