cbles
Member
It amazes me that the Intese Tazer doesn't get more consideration from people interested in E bikes. It literally checks every box including amazing price comparable to the The Decoy which everyone seems to be in love with with a far more reliable warranty process.
I think the thing that probably holds this bike back the most is the funny looking downtube and if there was no point to it I'd understand but the reason it's shaped like that is for clearance with the fork crown. With the Decoy they have to put a limiter similar to Trek's knock block to keep the fork from hitting which leaves you stuck with that headset.
A little about me before I talk about my experiences. I'm 6'5 240 and I live and ride in SoCal, Laguna Beach mainly, so what interests me most in a good E bike is downhill capabilities. I have owned a dialed in custom Pivot Shuttle 29 and a couple Tazers now and spent time on the Levo and a few Haibikes.
The Pivot Shuttle 29 was the first E bike I owned and at first I loved it. I loved being on an E bike so much that I wanted a second one to have for my friends to be able to ride with me. So I decided to my a Large Intense Tazer Pro build that my shop had in stock out of convenience. To be honest I never even considered riding it until I busted a spoke on the Shuttle and wanted to get a ride in one day and that's when everything changed. Even though the bike was too small and the abrs were too narrow for my taste I realized how big of a difference there was in downhill capability betweeen the two. During this time Intense didn't have an XL Tazer yet so I wasn't prepared to ride a Large full time.
Fast forward a few months to January 2020 when I was finally able to get my hands on an XL and of course being me and loving custom built bikes I immediately stripped it down and completely custom built it back up with carbon wheels, a coil rear shock, and a dual crown fork lowered to 180. The bike set up this way was really rad and definitely a head turner but to be honest it didn't feel as good as the bone stock Large pro build I owned before. I think a big part of this was I couldn't get a heavy enough coil srping for my weight and a fairly short stroke shock, I had a 650 and probably needed a 725.
Fast forward again to May 2020 with the release of the Fox 38 and I rebuilt the bike again and this time it was truly something special. Put the stock Float X2 that came with the bike back on along with a new Fox 38 and some new custom build carbon wheels and this time teh bike was an absolute rocket ship right out of the box. I had purchased the fork at 160 because that was all that was left with the intention of upping it to 170 but I later realized that the bike feels too balanced with the fork at 160 and decided I didn't want to mess with the geometry at all.
To be honest most of the upgrades are fairly uneccesary and if I didn't work at a shop probably wouldn't have done any. I always go back to the first time I rode the out of the box Tazer Pro while I owned a top of the line Shuttle 29 and just how much it impressed me on the descents. The Tazer wasn't better in every way though, on the flats the Shuttle felt faster and more like a "trail" bike. But the second the trail got steep, fast, and technical for me it didn't compare.
The point I wanted to make here is not that the Tazer is the best E bike out there, it's just that it should get more consideration from people interested in a new E bike and you should really try and demo one if you can.
I think the thing that probably holds this bike back the most is the funny looking downtube and if there was no point to it I'd understand but the reason it's shaped like that is for clearance with the fork crown. With the Decoy they have to put a limiter similar to Trek's knock block to keep the fork from hitting which leaves you stuck with that headset.
A little about me before I talk about my experiences. I'm 6'5 240 and I live and ride in SoCal, Laguna Beach mainly, so what interests me most in a good E bike is downhill capabilities. I have owned a dialed in custom Pivot Shuttle 29 and a couple Tazers now and spent time on the Levo and a few Haibikes.
The Pivot Shuttle 29 was the first E bike I owned and at first I loved it. I loved being on an E bike so much that I wanted a second one to have for my friends to be able to ride with me. So I decided to my a Large Intense Tazer Pro build that my shop had in stock out of convenience. To be honest I never even considered riding it until I busted a spoke on the Shuttle and wanted to get a ride in one day and that's when everything changed. Even though the bike was too small and the abrs were too narrow for my taste I realized how big of a difference there was in downhill capability betweeen the two. During this time Intense didn't have an XL Tazer yet so I wasn't prepared to ride a Large full time.
Fast forward a few months to January 2020 when I was finally able to get my hands on an XL and of course being me and loving custom built bikes I immediately stripped it down and completely custom built it back up with carbon wheels, a coil rear shock, and a dual crown fork lowered to 180. The bike set up this way was really rad and definitely a head turner but to be honest it didn't feel as good as the bone stock Large pro build I owned before. I think a big part of this was I couldn't get a heavy enough coil srping for my weight and a fairly short stroke shock, I had a 650 and probably needed a 725.
Fast forward again to May 2020 with the release of the Fox 38 and I rebuilt the bike again and this time it was truly something special. Put the stock Float X2 that came with the bike back on along with a new Fox 38 and some new custom build carbon wheels and this time teh bike was an absolute rocket ship right out of the box. I had purchased the fork at 160 because that was all that was left with the intention of upping it to 170 but I later realized that the bike feels too balanced with the fork at 160 and decided I didn't want to mess with the geometry at all.
To be honest most of the upgrades are fairly uneccesary and if I didn't work at a shop probably wouldn't have done any. I always go back to the first time I rode the out of the box Tazer Pro while I owned a top of the line Shuttle 29 and just how much it impressed me on the descents. The Tazer wasn't better in every way though, on the flats the Shuttle felt faster and more like a "trail" bike. But the second the trail got steep, fast, and technical for me it didn't compare.
The point I wanted to make here is not that the Tazer is the best E bike out there, it's just that it should get more consideration from people interested in a new E bike and you should really try and demo one if you can.
