Review of the Pinion P1.18 in a Stevens P18 bicycle that I bought in Chernivtsi (western Ukraine)

I had already prepared to buy a bicycle in Ukraine, before starting my trip to Poland and then Ukraine, because I saw various bicycles with Pinion C1.12 gearbox offered on olx.ua. So I felt there was a good chance to buy a bike with Pinion to test and at the same time make long bike trips in Ukraine.

In Poland I used the Selle Anatomica H2 saddle (for heavier riders of 90+kg even though I am not that heavy) that I took with me on my trip, for about 200km on various rides there from Wroclaw to neighbouring places, and from all the bicycle stuff that I took with me from NL, I used a bottle cage, a taillamp and the Lumintop B01 headlamp here. The other bicycle related items that I took with me such as a frame lock, plug-in chain for the frame lock, dynamo headlamp Trelock LS906, cork grips, Shimano PD-EF205 pedals, I would use only once I would have bought a bicycle in Ukraine.

I stayed in a Kiev a few weeks, in mid August I was thinking of either going to Kremenchuk to visit a house that I saw for sale on olx, or to go Chernivtsi where I saw a seller had a Stevens P18 bike for sale. As the realtor for that house said he would be away for at least a week I decided to go to Chernivtsi by train. I talked to a guy on the train who suggested to ride to Kremenchuk as that was a far more interesting way to ride by bicycle than to Kiev. That sounded good and bicycling to either Kremenchuk or Kiev would be more interesting than going back by train, so I wanted to go to Kremenchuk by bicycle, but I deviated from this plan after arriving in Kamyanets podilsky as I thought it would take too long. Perhaps I should have done it after all as it took a long time before I could visit that house due to the seller not being present. In any case I will tell the story of my trip as this tells very well also experiences with the bike and the gearbox on various road surfaces, hills.

Manufacturer's page

Here is the manufacturer's page for the bike, it is the 2021 model with front suspension fork: https://www.stevensbikes.de/2021/de/de/city-trekking/trekking-premium/p18/. The bike I bought just had a different saddle, seatpost, the rear tyre was a marathon instead of almotion and it had an Ursus rear fork kickstand.

Belt vibration

At the start before I bought the bike there seemed to be something rubbing on the fender, but actually it turned out that the belt needed more tension. I will get to this later as I did have an issue with belt-vibration with this bike and I need to check a few things on my next trip. I feel belt vibration with the Vannicholas Pioneer with Rohlof hub and belt as well, but there only at somewhat higher speeds, around 25-30 km/h. This issue remained and is one that I will investigate further in 2024.

Buying the bike and setting it up

The first problem I had in Chernivtsi was to be able to get enough grivnia's in one go from a bank! In the end I managed but it was a hassle and I used 200 euros that I had with me as well.

In Chernivtsi the terrain was very difficult, with lots of roads with cobble stones similar to in Lviv, then a lot of bad roads with gravel which comprised not small stones but quite big stones (up to fist size). Some roads also had mostly pebbles, so round stones, and quite large ones. Other roads on the outskirts of the city were mostly sand. Very few roads were asphalt. There were also big hills which means that all riding from one part to another part of the city was usually quite strenuous. I found very little of interest in the city, though I didn't explore the big park enough. The few large aslphalt roads through the city are quite busy, especially annoying was crossing the roads.

I changed the pedals to Shimano PD-EF205, the saddle to the Selle Anatomica H2, I mounted a frame lock, bought 2 panniers (1 big, 1 small, that was all I could find in all the bike shops in Chernivtsi), mounted real cork grips (which I had only briefly used in NL, I didn't particularly like them especially because of not enough grip in the heat. Cork-rubber micture grips are better, nicer grip, though they do wear and will wear out (how long that takes: not sure), and mounted the Cateye Padrone bike computer with cadence measurement.

Experiences riding in the heat and on various types of roads

I rode in high temperatures, about 33-34 C at first in Chernivtsi, then when I made the bike trip to Kamyanets-podilsky it was 37-38 C.

The gearbox was excellent under all circumstances, which means from flat terrain to very steep hills, roads with very coarse gravel or very big pebbles (almost fist sized). Such stones can fly away from under you at various times. The tyres, ca. 40mm (note that tyre width is usually a bit less than stated by the tyre size) of which 1 is a Marathon almotion, the other a standard Schwalbe Marathon which was probably replaced after the original tyre was worn, were also surprisingly good under all circumstances. They gave good enough grip even on steep uphills with grass, and I was able to ride everywhere where I needed. I only had an issue in one small area with a short sand path with really soft dry sand, much later on a trip towards Zhytomyr, but, I know that the 50mm tyres on my Cannondale touring bike are also insufficient under such circumstances. It seems that 40 mm tyres are just as good as 50mm tyres under almost all circumstances...

The switching of the gearbox was fine under all circumstances, the shifting with the rotational shifter is light enough to not get annoying and it is possible to shift under load, though to a smaller/easier gear for uphill doesn't always work, then the gearbox feels stuck in some cases and you need to take pressure off the pedals briefly. Under all circumstances with very difficult terrain where I had to adjust the gears, it performed very well, I never had to step off the bike, and so I am happy with its performance. The only issue is some clicking from the the second freewheel at the front which makes it that the front belt ring doesn't rotate if you pedal backwards, you will hear this engaging with a slight crunching sound that made me worry I would damage the gearbox but from reading about this, it seems to be normal. In general you will hear it after not pedalling a bit, then engaging again, and it is a bit annoying. Good performance going up hills: I went up a hill much later in Belaya Tserkov (Bila Tserkva) for example where a guy I talked to for a bit went on a mountain bike and he then wondered if I had a motor! No, it's just a gearbox. He had to stop and I could have gone to the top but had to stop for him as I was riding behind hime... After Bila Tserkva, which was on the way back from Zhytomyr to Kiev to get some stuff fixed such as the pannier, the headlamp bracket of the IQ-X broke. This was after 1000 km riding on Ukraine's bad roads. The seam of one of the panniers had completely torn earlier on the way to Bila Tserkva, which I dealt with with some 50mm wide tape, wrapping it around the pannier. In Kiev I replaced the 2nd big torn pannier that I had bought in Kiev before going to Zhytomyr, with the smaller pannier that I bought in Chernivtsi. The trips in Ukraine were certainly testing all of my equipment!

Creaking, from the belt, or from the gearbox not fixed properly in the frame?

An issue that I encountered fairly quickly was creaking of either the belt or the gearbox mount. I found some videos of people complaining of creaking. One said it was because of the belt, another person had an issue with the mount of the Pinion gearbox in the frame, some bolts were not tight. I need to examine this closer but to check that the bolts of the pinion gearbox into the frame are tight, I need a special tool to remove the belt ring. I bought this along with a new bottle of Loctite and oil to service the gearbox and I will take all that and a few other things with me at the end of January or early February when I will go back to Poland and Ukraine. [ Delayed due to paperwork, early March? ]

Last modified: 2024-2-16