Vitus E-Mythique VRS builds

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
My wife and I have been looking for out next bikes for a while. Been looking at the Vitus E-Mythique, but with the problems with Vitus had me hesitant. When they shut down Vitus USA I figured all was lost. Then Planet Cyclery must have bought all the US stock because they popped up with some. It peaked my interest but I was still hesitant. Then they put them 50% off. I couldn't wait any longer. I purchased a large for myself and a small for her.

When they came it was very interesting. Her's came first. It was well packaged and included tubeless valves already installed and no tubes installed. It also did not include sealant. It came with a multi tool and charger. The dropper post was not installed at all. Only the cable housing was routed. I had to do a complete install including installing the lever and trim the housing and cable to length. It didn't bother me because I usually have to trim the housing down anyway. They are normally way to long and make tidying the cables difficult. I pulled the tires off the rims to install her preference of tubeless valves (amazon valves that I really like in her favorite color, purple). I installed cushcore pro in her rear tire while I had it off. The casing of the rear tire is very stiff. I just installed to Maxxis double down tires on another bike and the rear Vee tire is very comparable in stiffness.

Mine came a couple days later. It was packaged well too. It had the dropper post already installed and completely mounted. It did not come with a multi tool or sealant. Mine also had a small dent on the seat stay. Not enough to see, but you could feel it. It doesn't bother me and there's probably nothing I can do about it since there's not another large for sale in this country. I had ran out of sealant and had to order more. When it arrived and I went to install it in the wheels, my leaked from almost every spoke. I had to untape and retape the wheels on mine. I had to dial in the shifting and brakes on both bikes.

Went on our first brief 10 mile ride this evening. First impression are very good. The rear suspension is super supple and reactive. The fork is okay. There's a loud clunking that comes from the fork on bumps and drops I haven't been able to figure out. I'm going to turn the compression up some tomorrow and see what happens. Usually as a big fellow I have to leave fork compression open almost all the way. I followed @Zimmerface recommendation and set the rear shock up to 32% sag. The ride at this setting is nice and supple but I'm going to need some tokens. I used over 80% of the shock and didn't do any big jumps or drops today.

The tires were surprising. I'm usually a Maxxis or nothing guy, but I don't hate them. The front feels grippy and soft. My son was riding my old bike that has Maxxgripp tires on it and they collected mud much worse than the front Vee (Monday and Tuesday we received 5 inches of rain in 48 hours). That generally means it's not quite as soft. The rear is a little hard but seems to do well.

The brakes bedded in well. They are surprisingly good. I had to do a lever bleed on the wife's front brake to get a consistent feel with the rear lever. It's been good since. They don't blow me away, but I haven't wanted any more.

The bike handles incredible. I have a Yamaha Moro (full 27.5), a Polygon Mt.Bromo (full 29er) and now the Vitus. The Moro feels like a kitchen knife, okay at everything but great at nothing. The Bromo feels like an axe. Incredible good at plowing and doing its job as an enduro racer. The Vitus feels like a scalpel. Although all the bikes should weigh the same (I haven't scaled them all personally, but I will), the Vitus feels much lighter on the trail. It turns like a dream and is easy to lift over obstacles. I rode most of the ride in Eco and felt that was plenty. I finished the last of the ride on trail to play around and holy cow this is a fast bike. I like the feeling of trail and it really feels dialed in well. Powerful but not overpowering a tight single track. I found myself not needing to downshift nearly as much or at all. It was really impressive. I will probably ride in Eco normally, but bump it to trail to blast around.

I'm not to impressed with the drivetrain and it'll probably be the first thing to go. It does everything I ask of it but nothing well.

IMG_2180.jpeg IMG_2181.jpeg IMG_2182.jpeg
 
Last edited:

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
We are going to doing upgrades over time and will document them here. The build plan for the bikes are;

Wifes
PNW Grips and Pedals
Diety 50mm riser bars (transferred from her old bike)
Diety stem
Marzocchi z1 coil fork
Marzocchi Bomber CR shock to eventually be tuned by Avalanche
Shimano SLX drivetrain
Shimano SLX 4 7120 brakes
Ergon saddle
170 dropper from my bike
Nukeproof Neutron wheels with Maxxis Assegai DD Maxgripp and DHR2 DD Maxxterra


Mine
PNW grips and pedals (also clipless from time to time)
Diety 50mm riser bars
DMR stem
Fox 38 factory
Fox DHX fractory
Shimano XT 8120 brakes
Shimano XT drivetrain
Ergon saddle
Fox factory 200mm dropper
Hunt All Mountian wheels and Maxxis Assegai DD Maxgripp and DHR2 DD Maxxterra

The plan is to keep these bike for a long time. With the ability to keep the electronics going for years we should be good. I'm extremely happy with the bike and can't wait to get it out again. My wife on the other hand said hers felt small and had a hard time finding her power setting. She doesn't handle change well and needs a little more time on the bike.
 
Last edited:

Jimmylowblow

New Member
Oct 26, 2023
49
35
Uk
I got the same one as you. My fork also made a loud bang on small compressions. I took it to my suspension guy and he took a look at it. He said it's a dry fork, very clean inside and tight. He spoke to a few people and went with adding a low oil to the lowers, only a small amount 5-10mil. After this the fork was transformed and the bang was gone.
 

FJ1200a

Member
Nov 6, 2023
5
5
Belfast
Would suggest Gorilla taping the battery cover. The majority of bikes being returned for warranty are due to water ingress on the lower end of the cover. Also due to the light guage of the external wiring it is very prone to being crushed and nipped so be careful when dropping motor and then refitting it
 

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
Would suggest Gorilla taping the battery cover. The majority of bikes being returned for warranty are due to water ingress on the lower end of the cover. Also due to the light guage of the external wiring it is very prone to being crushed and nipped so be careful when dropping motor and then refitting it
I've noticed a lot of the problems are water ingress. I saw where some people were putting clear body protection over the display to cover the seams. My batteries fit pretty firmly in place. I've removed them to charge as to keep the charge port plug intact.

I don't ride in inclement weather often if at all. I am one of those guys that wash they're bikes pretty often though. I noticed some guys on here are don't wash they're bikes with water. I would like to learn more about that.

I had to remove my wife's motor to install and adjust the dropper post. I noticed the wiring was very neatly routed and much easier to install and remove the motor than the yamaha. The cable housing would not slide up the seat tube by pushing it. It seemed to be dragging on something near the lower battery mount. I wanted to unscrew it and see if I could move the cable housing but the screws that hold the lower battery mount are behind the glued on pad. I don't really want to mess with gluing it back down.
 

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
I got the same one as you. My fork also made a loud bang on small compressions. I took it to my suspension guy and he took a look at it. He said it's a dry fork, very clean inside and tight. He spoke to a few people and went with adding a low oil to the lowers, only a small amount 5-10mil. After this the fork was transformed and the bang was gone.
I am definitely changing the fork out, but I will keep this in mind. I may use the fork for another bike so I will try the lower bath oil trick on it.
 

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
Put a couple more rides on mine. I'm in love. By far the best riding bike I've owned or possibly ever ridden. So nimble and flickable but still takes the trail chatter well. The motor has plenty of power and works well. I mainly bumble around in E and turn it up to T when I want to play. I'll admit I have not even tried B or R. I kind of want to play with those to figure out the over run. That could be handy on techie climbs.

My wife on the other hand does not seem to like hers very much at all. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but she does not seem to be having fun on the bike. Hers will probably be for sale very shortly.

I on the other hand am so happy with mine that I picked up an acoustic Summit (who's geometry seems to be very similar to the E-Mythique) that matches while Planet Cyclery is doing the 50% off sale.
 
Last edited:

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
Got about 50 miles on it so far. Still really liking it. The bike rides extremely well. I swapped the Bromo suspension over to it just to get a feel (160mm fox 38 performance and a x2 performance elite) and damn! It transformed the bike. I've only got one 10 mile ride with this on it but wow.

With the new suspension its quiet enough now I heard the rattle everyone was talking about similar to shimano. I guess the clunk from the old fork was loud enough I never heard it before. It doesn't bother me but neither does the shimano clunk.

The wife is still struggling to get along with the bike. She says the geometry feel very confidence inspiring and she riding things she never has before but is struggling with the motor. She rides in T and still struggles (we have riding intercoms, I hear her breathing heavy much more than with the yamaha's we have). She says it runs out of power uphill and then "boosts" power when she's not expecting. She was adamant that something was wrong with her's but we swapped for a couple miles and I found nothing wrong. I have notice that in T is does have some overrun. I thought only B and R had overrun but I have figured out how to work it to the advantage. I do however use E 90% of the time.

The brakes have continued to get better. On the last ride had some steep chutes and they are working great. I'm truly impressed for these to be budget brakes.

Good news it a full size water bottle fits with a nice reservoir shock.
1705364869001.png
 
Last edited:

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
The Sommet came in and it matches the E-Mythique perfectly!

One thing the Sommet has brought to my attention is how much the NX drivetrain on the E-Mythique sucks. I have very little experience with Sram drivetrain so I don't have much to draw from but the 2 I currently have. The Sommet has GX and it shifts nice, quick and clean. The NX drivetrain on the other hand does not.

I really want to upgrade the current drivetrain. My plan has been for Linkglide but it came up in campfire conversation the other day about the Sram and Shimano compatibility. Having several other 12 speed shimano bikes I have some parts laying around.

Linkglide would cost around $320 to do a complete drivetrain swap. On the other hand I could pick up a 12 speed XT shifter and derailleur for less than $100 and use my current cassette and chain. I really would like to try the linkglide but the cost difference is hard to ignore.

1705366134917.png
 

ccrdave

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 16, 2018
1,421
1,125
uk
Can anybody tell me the bb height for a large mythique please
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
Can anybody tell me the bb height for a large mythique please
BB Drop is quoted as 26mm (the same for all sizes). Or 30mm for the VR with the 160 instead of 170 Fork.

Just quickly measured mine and it's 355 with a 180 fork so would be about 350 with a 170.

I have measured it previously in different specs, think that's somewhere in the main mythique thread.
 

ccrdave

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 16, 2018
1,421
1,125
uk
BB Drop is quoted as 26mm (the same for all sizes). Or 30mm for the VR with the 160 instead of 170 Fork.

Just quickly measured mine and it's 355 with a 180 fork so would be about 350 with a 170.

I have measured it previously in different specs, think that's somewhere in the main mythique thread.
Thank you
 

ccrdave

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 16, 2018
1,421
1,125
uk
Does anybody know if the seatpost can be pushed right into the seatube up to the collar on a large mythique? Important for me as i need the saddle as low as possible to get on and off the bike, hip arthritis!
 

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
you could try a GX shifter on your NX setup.
This was an option I looked into, but I'm just a fan of Shimano drivetrains. Once you get used to using your pointer finger do upshift (not to mention being able to upshift 2 gears at a time) its hard to go back! I believe I'm going to do the linkglide just because I'm going to have this bike for a long time so I want it to be what I want.

Does anybody know if the seatpost can be pushed right into the seatube up to the collar on a large mythique? Important for me as i need the saddle as low as possible to get on and off the bike, hip arthritis!
Yes the dropper can be ran slammed all the way down. I plan on getting at least a 200mm dropper so I can run mine down all the way also.
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
Not sure if it helps but I did put some seat post insertion stuff in the tech docs thread :

 

rotary

Member
Jun 26, 2023
26
9
derbyshire
Does anybody know if the seatpost can be pushed right into the seatube up to the collar on a large mythique? Important for me as i need the saddle as low as possible to get on and off the bike, hip
Yes it can but be careful not to trap any wires internally. I dropped the motor out and stowed the wires properly.
 

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
Went on a weekend trip with the wife and put another almost 100 miles on the bikes. Got a really good feel for everything on several different trail styles from cross country adventure style riding to black diamond natural downhill trails. The more I ride the bike the more I like it. Its really nimble and flick-able in the turns and handles the rough well.

I was still riding the borrowed 160mm fox 38 performance and the x2 performance elite. Really like this combo. I mentioned in the fork and shock thread that I picked up a 170mm performance elite fork for my bike. I'm going to get another x2 performance elite for mine also. I think this will stay true to the "budget brawler" theme of the bike. I also mentioned I'm thinking of trying a coil. The guys at Vitus seem to like this bike with a coil.

I stuck the front wheel of another bike on mine that had a DD Maxxgrip Assegai for the trip. Did not notice how bad the Vee's were till I put a good time on there. Either my go-to tires (DD Maxxgrip Assegai/DH Maxxgrip DHR2) or a set of the new continental's will make their way on the bike very shortly.

We did one day that was over 20 miles with 3500ft of climbing and descending. Its a single climb trail with 2 different downhill trails back to the bottom. The climb is about 6.5 miles on the first one. We put the bikes in trail and averaged 15mph up the climbing road! It was great! Then we got ready to do the downhill trail and I realized we had used over 40% battery on the first way up. I started to get worried about running out of battery so I put the bike in E+ on the downhill and then made the way back up the return road on E (averaging around 6mph). Finished the rest of the ride (which was around 15 more miles) with 30% battery left. E really sips the battery.

Had a few minor issues with my bike, but none with the wifes. About 1 mile into the 20+ mile day my crank started feeling odd so I looked down to check it out and it fell off! The crank retaining bolt was missing. I put the crank back on and tightened the pinch bolts down and continued on. I had to stop and tighten them one more time during the ride. The crank looks good but I'm going to replace it for peace of mind. Besides, its 12 dollars for 2 crank bolts or 25 for 2 cranks and bolts. I have a set of 152mm cranks and bolt on the way. I will put those on the wife's bike and sick her cranks on mine. Then we'll have a spare. Then when I got home and was unloading the bike I realized the knob to release the battery was missing. It must have fell off somewhere. I'm struggling finding a part number for it currently. Its not a terrible deal because I currently cannot remove my battery due to me being a dummy and leaving the keys on the bumper and driving off.😡

The brakes have continued to impress me. We had one point where we descended 1300ft in less than 2 miles. They were smoking hot but never faded. My wifes got to the point where you could smell them. Still worked well. Still running the factory resin pads. I definitely want to upgrade to the TRP DH Evo's to get more power. By the bottom if the big trail my pointer fingers were tired!

I still cannot get the drivetrain to shift clean, crisp or quick. Still really not happy with that.

Overall I'm VERY impressed with the bike. Cannot wait to get the builds complete and more miles and trails on this bike!

IMG_1987.jpeg
 
Last edited:

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
Besides, its 12 dollars for 2 crank bolts or 25 for 2 cranks and bolts. I have a set of 152mm cranks and bolt on the way.
Just as a fyi, the M510 has a different crank retaining bolt. The arms came and they fit perfect but the retaining bolts were too little. I ordered the arms with bolts because they were on amazon and they could be here in 3 days. So now I ordered factory Bafang bolts from Aliexpress. Supposedly 2 weeks till delivery. We'll see.

On another note, the wife said she could tell a significant difference with the new cranks. She's really happy with them.
 
Last edited:

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
Got 260 miles on the bike so far. Still really loving it. It has received some upgrades. Planes changed on my bike due to finding some deals on parts. The plan was fox performance elite stuff all around but fox had a major sale in the US. It was less than $100 difference from the fox factory to performance elite so I splurged on mine. Picked up a fox factory 38, fox factory DHX and fox factory dropper for less than $1000.

First, I'm in love with the coil. It rides so well that major square edge roots now feel like braking bumps. Its incredible. Every ride out I am getting PR's or setting records. I feel like the bike can handle anything.

The new suspension has me riding so hard that I've bent the rear wheel. It may be fixable, not sure. I've dropped it off at my wheel guy but since its spring he's 3-4 weeks out. Luckily I had a set of Nukeproof Nutrons I was going to put on the wife's bike so I swapped them on with some random Maxxis tires I had. They are both just EXO tires and I'm struggling with that. I have to run 35-40psi to keep the rear from squirming while riding hard. Two rides on the Nutrons and the rear has a little wobble and a loose spoke already :( I'm gonna need a set of STRONG wheels, DH casing tires and probably rear cushcore.

That brings me to the negative. The bike is now pretty heavy. Much heavier that I was expecting. I didn't weigh it stock (I really whished I did now) but it now weighs 59.6lbs! I really did not expect it to be that heavy. Now the wheel thing makes sense.

I received my parts from Bafang and swapped in the new upper battery mount. I dumped all the pins out of the lock so it now can be turned with anything. I'm waiting to make sure everything is good before I do the wife's. So far its been fine on some back diamond trails with several 3-5ft drops. Also picked up a spare display with the new Bluetooth 5.1. So may play around with Go+. Also got a BESST tool on the way.

Also did the @Zimmerframe rear pivot guard with a spare front zip tie fender. Seem to work well!

I still have wheels, tires, drivetrain and brakes to go but the bikes are getting there. These bikes are great. I'm glad we got them as cheap as we did. When done I should be around $4500 in the bike all together. For the way this thing rides nothing can touch that.

IMG_2423.jpeg
 

weiran

Member
Jul 8, 2023
17
20
UK
That has to be one of the blingest e-Mythiques around!

I flat spotted the Neutrons that came with my e-Sommet within a couple months. Managed to get a set of Horizon V2s when they were on sale which have held up really well. The high engagement hub is nice too. Hard to find them now but I've seen Hunt wheels have some good discounts recently.
 

CarolinaCrawler

Active member
Jan 30, 2023
258
271
North Carolina
No pics but I wound up with Hunt All-Mountain wheels and Maxxis DD tires. Made a huge difference. Really happy with them.

Also picked up an XT shifter and derailler. Installed that and used the Sram cassette and chain. Everything seems pretty happy. Doen't shift quite as quick as hyperglide but its better than the NX crap. I never could get the shifting where I was happy with it. When the Sram stuff wears out I'll swap hyperglide stuff on.

Getting ready to start on the wifes bike. Have most of the stuff ready to go.
 

EMTB Forums

Since 2018

The World's largest electric mountain bike community.

555K
Messages
28,070
Members
Join Our Community

Latest articles


Top