[ralbin]

Hello everyone
I want to tell you about my mostly positive experiences so far with the Hill Topper kit. I live in Calgary Alberta Canada ( that is the south-western part of the Country) and ordered the Lithium version of the kit on Apr 15 2010. The kit was shipped on Apr 24 ( and I got a concurrent confirming e-mail with invoice number and tracking info) from Grand Forks North Dakota. I had chosen the basic USPS parcel service for both cost ( about $55 )and because Mike at Clean Republic had told me that they had had few if any problems with customs delays in using USPS. I certainly had no trouble with customs but was somewhat bemused by the roundabout and lengthy route my package took to reach me. A direct route would have been from Grand Forks due north to the Canada/US border customs then to Winnipeg and a short journey west to Calgary total 971 miles ( 1550 Kilometers) or maybe 4/5 days. Instead it went, presumptively via truck to New York City then to Montreal and finally to Calgary ( Thank you Canada Post for flying it back almost the full width of the continent) 4083 miles or 6533 kilometers and 13 days to reach me, I got it May 6. In retrospect I would be tempted to spend the extra $60-70 for an expedited service; especially as one of the main reasons I got the kit is not so much to deal with hills per se, so much as adverse winds and during the delay in Calgary we had near blizzard conditions with sustained northerly winds of 50-60 miles per hour for days on end. Oh well live and learn! Anyway the kit showed up in perfect condition and installation was easy ( the instructions though are very rudimentary and presuppose a level of mechanical aptitude/visualization that a slightly more complete schematic would obviate). So far everything has been great, it has knocked 15-20% off my travel time and reduced my effort expended by 60-70% (of course energy used reduced by 100% if I was content to just sit on the bike and hold down the GO Button). Well worth the investment so far.
Sincerely,
Robert Albin
Calgary Canada

[Mike]

Hi Robert,

Yes, I suppose U.S. PS and Canada Post cut our work out for us by using all the energy for that delivery route.

We'll need to ride the hill toppers a few extra miles instead of the car to make up for it... once things thaw out. Getting warm in the Dakotas at least.

Thanks for posting in the forum. Would love to see any pictures of the install if and when you have them.

Cheers!