Autumn exploration on the new Stealth Fighter

Some more extended ride/play time on the bike today, headed out with a photographer mate to make the most of the Canberra autumn colours. Made for a great backdrop canvas for the ride. We wanted to be able to demonstrate the versatility and capability of the bike, so took it around to a few favourite ACT haunts, though there are so many more to come yet.

What the ride reinforced for me was the great job that has been done in settling on a good flexible frame geometry that allows you to easily switch from laid back commuting/cruising, to exploring a quickly spotted trail and take on a range of technical sections. I'm waiting till I do a tyre switch before I go taking it into some of the rougher stuff that I used to race MTB on. Looking forward to bringing you more images over the coming weeks as the bike continues to settle in. It's about to get a lot of commuting use. If you're in the ACT and interested in taking a closer look, my contact details are available in a post lower down.


Seriously large thanks to my friend Aart for his skills with a lens, great to hear his feedback on the bike as the second rider to date. I suggest you go check out his website if you're after a skilled, experienced facilitator-see http://www.tellingthestory.net/

Mt Taylor morning ride

With the battery fully charged and an hour to spare, I ducked out this morning to see how the Fighter would handle a local climb up Mt Taylor. This ride has a range of tight short climbs that I knew would test the gearing/output balance quite nicely.

The ride up was fantastic, cruising up quietly next to kangaroos without scaring them off, just watching their curious joeys as I glide past. The ride along the cyclepaths in the crisp ACT morning air was just great. There were plenty of walkers about, so trail etiquette and some consideration was needed to curb the temptation of launching off the water bars. Will save that for some more serious off-road testing on some local tracks that I hear calling me.

Demonstration Fighter arrives

After a bit of a hiatus for some life changes (alright, it was 2yrs, I've been busy y' know), it's now action stations to start bringing you closer to a ride experience that'll redefine what you know about riding. I've now ordered and received the first ACT based Stealth Fighter, in a Tonka like yellow for safety/visibility. The colour similarity with large earthmoving equipment isn't entirely accidental.

First impressions of the new Fighter have been great, with weight eliminated from the earlier prototype, a slimmed down mid-section to make the bike easier to move around on and some under the hood changes that I'm not going to talk about...

It was great to be able to contrast the workmanship of the Stealth guys to my older Ethos FR7, a much loved and equally versatile rig that shares the same background of Australian manufacturing excellence and innovation. The yellow colour scheme is also a nod to the venerable history of the Ethos FR7 as a show bike for the early noughties, and it keeps the colour scheme consistent with the old kombi :-)