Experienced MTB now looking at my first EMTB purchase budget max £6k currently running a Marin Attack Trail 8 2018. Like the look of the Trek EMTB

[Stephenk]

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Voluptua]

Get yourself to a Trek dealer and try one out.

Be prepared for a lengthy wait for delivery though. You might have to be flexible on exact model choice to get a reasonable date.

 

[Jonty]

I’ve just bought a 2018 Trek Powerfly LT 7 Plus, it’s my first emtb after selling my Bossnut and Marin Attack Trail XT pro carbon. First thing you notice is it’s twice the weight of the Marin but the motor negates that up to 15mph. The bike is surprisingly nimble for the 24kg and there are tokens on the rear that you can turn to lower the COG and change the fork angle. Battery display is functional and gives current range. Eco will give about 67 miles and turbo 32. It also has a emtb mode that flips between touring and turbo mode depending on the terrain. Don’t think you won’t get a work out though as over 15mph you have no assistance and it’s hard work ?

 

[Doomanic]

Assuming you mean a Rail it's an awesome piece of kit. I love mine and any other bike would have to be seriously good to make me want to swap.

 

[Stephenk]

Thanks all for your reply’s. I should say I hired an EMTB recently and loved it. Always thought it was cheating but its still a real workout with benefits of miles and Steep terrain climbing you have no chance of making normally. I just loved it.

 

[Dirtnvert]

Good stuff. You know what you want geo wise and will work for you. Maybe just add 5-15mm to your chainstay length from your mtb for your climbing needs with assist. At this point im looking to get a bosch cx gen 4 bike. The trek rail could be a good choice, but there's a lot of great bikes with bosch now.
That being said, it sounds like brose finally has a durable motor ,with the latest focus on durability, and specialized has a 4 year warrantee on the drive system.
Maybe shimano's new ep8 is more durable because theyve also ridden nice in the past
Rocky mountains motor is powerful and has a 3 year warrantee.
I'm zeroed in on bosch atm but id consider a rocky and i might consider a specialized/with brose and shimano ep8 after they get a year of dependibility in

 

[Bumpy]

Take a look at Whyte as well, new 2021 models have a really good spec and they had some good reviews.

 

[Bigship]

See my thread about the YT Decoy. They just got a few in for immediate delivery, and they will o fast. You'll love it!

 

[Bellefield]

for what its worth, my advice is to buy from a local dealer if you can. If anything goes wrong they will fix it in a jiffy, rather than having to send it back to a internet sales site.

There may be an opportunity to buy second hand (a lot of ebikes were sold over this pandemic and I'm guessing a lot of them are no longer being used, and its a big outlay so I expect a lot to come up in the run up to Christmas) but I would only buy second hand if the item still had a long warranty with a shop near me.

I've been fairly lucky with my bike, bought it in the sales about a year ago, got a great price, but didn't do much research into other than trying to work out which geometry would suit me best, and mine has been brilliant, hardly anything has gone wrong on it, but you do hear some horror stories. Actually for Trek, the biggest problem has been the battery falling out and damaging the cover plate and sometimes the battery (search on here).

The Yamaha motor seems to be very reliable, and I've heard very good things about the Bosch Gen 4 in terms of power. There have been problems with some of the motors, but I don't know if this is just anecdotal or a key issue with one or two of the motors, so read up on them on here.

Having said all the above, they are great, and I suspect that most of the eMTB's, especially the full suspension bikes will be good for you, so it will just be a case of what is available, and which ones you like (and maybe the motor you prefer).

 

[Doomanic]

That being said, it sounds like brose finally has a durable motor ,with the latest focus on durability, and specialized has a 4 year warrantee on the drive system.

Only on the 2019 and 2020 bikes. The 2021 are back to 2 years.
The Bosch Warranty remains at a rolling 2 years.

Actually for Trek, the biggest problem has been the battery falling out and damaging the cover plate and sometimes the battery (search on here).

I do have to wonder how owners are letting that happen. I had to adjust my battery because the bike was cutting out over rough terrain and even then the battery was nowhere near falling out.

I've ridden loads of bikes over the last couple of years; Levo, Decoy, Lapierre, Cube and the one that actually made me get the credit card out was the 2020 Whyte e180RS and in a long convoluted tail resulted in me getting the Rail as part of a warranty deal for a broken Powerfly frame.

 

[Bellefield]

Only on the 2019 and 2020 bikes. The 2021 are back to 2 years.
The Bosch Warranty remains at a rolling 2 years.

I do have to wonder how owners are letting that happen. I had to adjust my battery because the bike was cutting out over rough terrain and even then the battery was nowhere near falling out.

I've ridden loads of bikes over the last couple of years; Levo, Decoy, Lapierre, Cube and the one that actually made me get the credit card out was the 2020 Whyte e180RS and in a long convoluted tail resulted in me getting the Rail as part of a warranty deal for a broken Powerfly frame.

the locks haven't been fitted properly apparently (speaking to our local dealer), and with the battery being on the side of the frame (rather than the top) the battery and cover have spat out. It seems to be a common problem, but not on every bike obviously. I don't believe its anything that the owners are letting happen, it usually only happens once then the cover is bashed and scraped, and it needs fixing. The consequences to the bike are that is needs a replacement cover or a replacement battery. I'm surprised you allowed you Trek to cut out before you fixed it

 

[Doomanic]

Have you actually seen one after it's fallen out? I haven't, but I have seen several where the battery is clearly on the piss and is nowhere near the point of falling out. When mine started cutting out the battery was still square in the frame and the information about resetting the battery mounts wasn't common knowledge.

 

[Bellefield]

Have you actually seen one after it's fallen out? I haven't, but I have seen several where the battery is clearly on the piss and is nowhere near the point of falling out. When mine started cutting out the battery was still square in the frame and the information about resetting the battery mounts wasn't common knowledge.

Yes I have, my wife’s fell out of hers as she was going around a roundabout. It fucked the battery cover mightily and the shop is replacing it.

if you look on the trek forum you can see loads of pictures of fucked battery covers. Regardless of your superhuman abilities it does happen to mere mortals.

 

[Doomanic]

Not even over rough ground? Wow! That’s some shoddy maintenance going on there fella.

 

[Bellefield]

Not even over rough ground? Wow! That’s some shoddy maintenance going on there fella.

it was brand new

 

[Doomanic]

In all seriousness, I really can't see how a battery can fall out on a road ride but it not be noticeable that it's not securely fitted beforehand; at the very least, the PDI performed by the shop should have revealed the issue. When my Rail started cutting out (before the alignment issue was common knowledge) the battery was still firmly fitted in the frame and the gap between frame and cover was parallel. I made some adjustments trailside, going from no gap at lock end to a huge gap at the lock end, riding bumpy, jumpy trails after each adjustment to see if It fixed the issue (it didn't) and my battery didn't fall out.

 

[Bellefield]

In all seriousness, I really can't see how a battery can fall out on a road ride but it not be noticeable that it's not securely fitted beforehand; at the very least, the PDI performed by the shop should have revealed the issue. When my Rail started cutting out (before the alignment issue was common knowledge) the battery was still firmly fitted in the frame and the gap between frame and cover was parallel. I made some adjustments trailside, going from no gap at lock end to a huge gap at the lock end, riding bumpy, jumpy trails after each adjustment to see if It fixed the issue (it didn't) and my battery didn't fall out.

we were also surprised, luckily the bus behind her stopped to let her pick it up rather than run over it.

But we're not the only ones, there is a whole thread on it

Rail battery fell out while riding!

On last nights ride my battery pretty much ejected it’s self while riding along some gravel track. I was going fairly quickly so needless to say it’s made a mess of the battery cover plate, but more worryingly it’s dented the battery it’s self. now the battery was definitely fitted properly (i...

www.emtbforums.com

 

[ggx]

ZIP TIE ...

 

[Doomanic]

But we're not the only ones, there is a whole thread on it

I know. I've posted in it.