2018 Powerfly 8 LT

[Marke]

I have a 2018 Trek powerfly 8 LT which I love. I chose over the competition for a number of reasons. Firstly it's bosch powered. This means that the electronics are mainly contained within the motor rather than the battery (the levo has the electronics in the battery) I expect to wear out batteries and have to buy new ones and keep my bike for a long time. Given the bosch system is more popular and more standard I think it will be easier to get batteries from bosch or 3rd parties in future. These custom batteries fill me with horror - I suspect there will be alot of expensive paperweight on ebay in the future when manufacturers stop supporting them and 3rd parties can't copy them. Secondly, I'm not convinced the motor is less reliable than any other brands and there are already threads cropping up explaining how to repair the bearings at home for 20 quid which is the only failure I've seen. Again less popular motors are less likely to have threads. In terms of performance it's great, I've heard on private land with minormodifications it'll go flat out in top gear with very little effort.

I like the 2018 trek design because it uses the slighly older generation of batteries which drop in the top which makes them better protected and less likely to get knocked. I think they might have dropped the ball on the 2019 as it has some sort of battery cover, not sure whether this is detechable and availble separately. The rest of the bike just works really well. I'm extremely happy with it. I would advise going tubeless from the get go though... I had some problems with punctures initially

 

[Blackbird]

That bike sounds nice! I'm curious as to how it looks The bosch system is awesome indeed, and like you i'm not afraid of the bearing problem. Quick tip, get a crank puller, a bosch spider tool and a bearing service kit. Change out the grease regularly based on use, should last a long time.