az2au
Member
Well, I'm a sucker for tech and a huge fan of Transition so I couldn't resist ordering the Repeater PT. I chose the X0 AXS option and received it yesterday. Built it up last night and took it out for a 20 mile, 1500' ride this morning.
Now, let me state that unlike a lot of people here, I don't ride e-bikes all that much. If I look at my stats over the last 4 months I had 0 miles on e-bikes even though I owned both a Shuttle LT and Relay. My Pivot Mach 4 SL accounted for nearly 75% of my riding with my Firebird at 20% and Switchblade and Druid the other 5%. I had mostly used the e-bikes when I wanted to let my kid ride on the front (Kids Ride Shotgun is a great option for that!). Other than that it is a hassle for me as I had to cross a full mile of non-ebike allowed trails to get to where I could legally ride one. I don't feel like dealing with a hassle so I just almost never do that. It was one of the things I did love about the Relay though as I could use it and still be fine as I'd just pop the battery into my hydration pack for that bit and then put it in where allowed.
However, I had also agreed to a "bike in, bike out" protocol with my wife so when I ordered the Repeater PT and a Pivot Phoenix, I had to let two bikes go. I chose the Relay and the Shuttle LT because I hadn't been riding them. I may regret letting the Relay go but it is what it is.
On with the review:
Good:
-Coast shift is awesome. I would love to have that on all of my bikes. You always feel ready.
-At first I thought I had the suspension too firm but I took it over some nasty tech and it handled like a breeze . Both the Zeb and Vivid performed wonderfully
-Battery power is great, still had 52% left but not sure what percentage of time I used range vs rally. I was hitting enough tech stuff that I mistakenly hit that sometimes and didn’t realize it until later.
-Geometry is perfect for an enduro bike. Some drops that look scary were handled like they were nothing. I’ve done that trail mostly on the M4SL and I usually feel like I might die at any moment
On the Firebird it is no problem but the climbs suck. Obviously not a problem today and the downhill performed comparably with the Firebird which is about as high praise as I can give
Bad:
-Autoshift is like 85% great and 15% WTF. Maybe 90/10 but it is enough that I felt like I had to babysit it. May just be a matter of me getting used to it.
-It feels a little jumpy in rally mode so you have to be careful on tech climbs
-Back end is hard to unweight/slide around
-Water bottle space is not really adequate but I'll solve that like I do on my other bikes
All in all I’d give it a B+ rating. The Relay got an A after my first ride as an FYI. I think I was just more easily able to control the Relay right away. This feels similar to the Shuttle LT that I had. I had to learn to control that one. I'm sure we'll see some of the problems corrected over time but for now autoshift is the only thing I'd call "disappointing". Not sure that is the right word though as I could totally see how it would help a beginner or if you were more on a mellow climb.
If anyone has any questions, let me know.
Now, let me state that unlike a lot of people here, I don't ride e-bikes all that much. If I look at my stats over the last 4 months I had 0 miles on e-bikes even though I owned both a Shuttle LT and Relay. My Pivot Mach 4 SL accounted for nearly 75% of my riding with my Firebird at 20% and Switchblade and Druid the other 5%. I had mostly used the e-bikes when I wanted to let my kid ride on the front (Kids Ride Shotgun is a great option for that!). Other than that it is a hassle for me as I had to cross a full mile of non-ebike allowed trails to get to where I could legally ride one. I don't feel like dealing with a hassle so I just almost never do that. It was one of the things I did love about the Relay though as I could use it and still be fine as I'd just pop the battery into my hydration pack for that bit and then put it in where allowed.
However, I had also agreed to a "bike in, bike out" protocol with my wife so when I ordered the Repeater PT and a Pivot Phoenix, I had to let two bikes go. I chose the Relay and the Shuttle LT because I hadn't been riding them. I may regret letting the Relay go but it is what it is.
On with the review:
Good:
-Coast shift is awesome. I would love to have that on all of my bikes. You always feel ready.
-At first I thought I had the suspension too firm but I took it over some nasty tech and it handled like a breeze . Both the Zeb and Vivid performed wonderfully
-Battery power is great, still had 52% left but not sure what percentage of time I used range vs rally. I was hitting enough tech stuff that I mistakenly hit that sometimes and didn’t realize it until later.
-Geometry is perfect for an enduro bike. Some drops that look scary were handled like they were nothing. I’ve done that trail mostly on the M4SL and I usually feel like I might die at any moment
On the Firebird it is no problem but the climbs suck. Obviously not a problem today and the downhill performed comparably with the Firebird which is about as high praise as I can giveBad:
-Autoshift is like 85% great and 15% WTF. Maybe 90/10 but it is enough that I felt like I had to babysit it. May just be a matter of me getting used to it.
-It feels a little jumpy in rally mode so you have to be careful on tech climbs
-Back end is hard to unweight/slide around
-Water bottle space is not really adequate but I'll solve that like I do on my other bikes
All in all I’d give it a B+ rating. The Relay got an A after my first ride as an FYI. I think I was just more easily able to control the Relay right away. This feels similar to the Shuttle LT that I had. I had to learn to control that one. I'm sure we'll see some of the problems corrected over time but for now autoshift is the only thing I'd call "disappointing". Not sure that is the right word though as I could totally see how it would help a beginner or if you were more on a mellow climb.
If anyone has any questions, let me know.
