Wanna-be (Gonna-be) eMTB Rider... as soon as I can figure out which bike.

[TimoSD]

More or less narrowed down my choices to either the Transition Relay or the Yeti SB160e.

Transition Relay

+ lighter, more playful​

+ stealthy​

- started to hear about some issues with the motor​

​

Yeti SB160e

+ More mature company & technology​

+ high probability of more thorough development process from bigger company​

- heavier​

​

Personal background, I'm turning 59 and ride an analog Polygon T8; my first bike. I'm about 215 lb (97 kg), and in pretty good shape... for my age. The only guys my age in our riding group all have 85nm eMTBs, but most are pedaling up those hills with no assist. I do okay with that group, but I'd also like to take longer rides with the eMTB-only crew, as well as ride with some more fit (mostly younger) groups whose climbing routes just kick my butt.

I do NOT want to lose the playfullness and flickability of my relatively light (32 lb / 15 kg) T8.

My only experience so far with an eMTB was a 2-hour demo ride on a Specialized Turbo Levo. It was really amazing at flattening out those hills, but moving it around in the chunk and through the ruts took a lot more upper-body strength than I am used to.

I welcome any advice at all!

 

[Plummet]

Ok, Here's my 5 cents worth having recently gone through the same process.
In my instance my fitness is good. I'm at the front of the riding pack of non E people I ride with.
Getting a E-bike for me was/is all about increasing fph. (fun per hour)

First up. Even the lightest low power e-bikes are still heavy and less playful as a standard bike by comparison.
If you go for the SL versions you will be able to keep up with fitter guys without e-bikes and go a bit further than you can now with your legs/lung combo. But, you will not be able to keep up with full fat e-bikers. you will be in the same position you are now with your group of fast pedelers. If you are not going to be riding in anger with full power e-bikers then sl might be worth considering.

However low power does not unlock the next level of fun that full fat e-bikes have. That is going a lot faster uphill, climbing crazy technical climbs that you can't climb on a normal bike, getting more descents and more climbs and generally more fun into your riding window.

Mid power is somewhere in between. Like the Orbea ride or the transition relay. I looked hard at the relay, But the battery is too small and when riding with full power mates you still get dropped. Its not as bad as a sl bikes. But it is still a factor.
Mid power gets you close with a lighter bike to full fatriders But you burn through your smaller battery sooner and sti

My daughter has an Orbea rise which I ride from time to time. Its 20kg. It is playfull for an e-bike but it does not hold a candle to the playfulness of my slayers. Hell even my DH rig is 3kg lighter!......

My conclusion was this. Even mid power light e-bikes are heavy and less playful. We need to give away the requirement that an e-bike needs to ride like our mountain bikes. They wont! Yes they require more upperbody, yes they are more freight train like.

Think of the advantage of riding/training on a heavier bike that's giving you a better upper body workout. When you jump back on your mountain bike you will be throwing it around like a whippet bike. It will feel sooooo light and fun.

I first started off my wants like you. It must be light, must ride like my current bikes. Then through a process of testing I came to the conclusion that full fat is more fun. You unlock the next level of climbing performance and ride ride what is unridable. It also enables more descending per hour. Yes the full fat is heavier and yes it is a different experience. But once you overcome the need to have a bike that rides like your pedal bike and open your mind full power can take you into new experiences and fun levels.

PS. Get your teeth into these reviews.

I havent ridden the yeti, but the reviews state its less playfull and more race orientated. If you can afford a yeti then you can afford anything.

Pivot shuttle LT and Orbea Wild might be good to look at aswell. Both lighter full power

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[Ou812]

I’m a huge fan of Yetis, 4 of the 8 bikes I own are Yetis. I was excited for the 160e until I finally got to ride one, the EP8 rattle was extremely annoying. The one I rode was about a year old, the battery life sucked. The bike rode extremely good but the Shimano motor/battery was a let down, if it had a different motor/battery combo I would have already bought one.

E-bikes are heavy as shit, you get used to it though. I can move my Levo around almost as good as my regular bikes, just takes a little more effort.

 

[TimoSD]

I’m a huge fan of Yetis, 4 of the 8 bikes I own are Yetis. I was excited for the 160e until I finally got to ride one, the EP8 rattle was extremely annoying. The one I rode was about a year old, the battery life sucked. The bike rode extremely good but the Shimano motor/battery was a let down, if it had a different motor/battery combo I would have already bought one.

E-bikes are heavy as shit, you get used to it though. I can move my Levo around almost as good as my regular bikes, just takes a little more effort.

Really appreciate the feedback on the Yeti. I need to look for more reviews on it, everything I had heard to date was positive.

 

[TimoSD]

PS. Get your teeth into these reviews.

Will do, sir, thank you!

 

[TimoSD]

E-bikes are heavy as shit, you get used to it though. I can move my Levo around almost as good as my regular bikes, just takes a little more effort.

One of the reasons my endurance isn't as great as these skinny kids (besides my age) is that I am somewhat of a power lifter. Kills the endurance, but my upper body strength isn't lacking. I raced motocross in my youth (45 years ago), so I vaguely recall what a heavy bike is like... shouldn't be too hard acclimatizing to that.

 

[Ou812]

Really appreciate the feedback on the Yeti. I need to look for more reviews on it, everything I had heard to date was positive.

The bike rode good, no doubt about that. The motor felt good, shimano has the most natural feel of all the motors I’ve tried. The EP8 rattle killed it though, combine that with the 630wh and it just wasn’t for me. I might would consider one if they started using the new motor and went with a bigger battery but there’s no plans to currently offer either.

 

[Streddaz]

You'll get a thousand different opinions on this but it's still worth asking.
Before I bought my first Ebike I test rode a few different brands (all full powered). Two iterations of the Trek Rail a Norco Sight and Range, the Mondraker Crafty RR and the full powered Levo. All felt heavy, unresponsive and the speed cut felt like hitting a wall. I had a friend with a Levo SL and took that for a short spin and was quite impressed. I'm coming from a 2015 Norco Sight C1 non-Ebike which only weighs 13kg, so I was used to a fairly light All Mountain bike.
A second hand Levo SL came up on the market for a reasonable price so I decided to grab it and haven't regretted it for one minute. I've ridden with mates with full powered bikes and I do have to work fairly hard to keep up, but its good exercise doing so. I have also ridden with non-Ebikes too, and that's no drama, even had the assistance set at zero for a few rides. I've raced gravity enduro, XC and gravel races on it and regularly commute the 50km return trip to work, it's a pretty flexible bike.
I still have my old Norco and still ride with non-Ebike riders and will probably upgrade that to something more modern sometime soon, so not planning on going full Eeeb.
I kind of think if you are a seasoned non-Ebike rider, still pretty fit but just want something to ride longer and further but wants to have as close to a normal bike feel, the lightweight bikes are the go. If you are a bit on the heavy side and/or a bit unfit or just want to blast it to the top, the full powered bikes are what you would be looking for.

 

[TimoSD]

I kind of think if you are a seasoned non-Ebike rider, still pretty fit but just want something to ride longer and further but wants to have as close to a normal bike feel, the lightweight bikes are the go. If you are a bit on the heavy side and/or a bit unfit or just want to blast it to the top, the full powered bikes are what you would be looking for.

I like to think of myself as "still pretty fit", but, yeah, next year I'm 60. I really appreciate your point of view, and I'm still leaning towards the midweight Relay, even though I understand that I won't be able to keep up with my "full-fat" (in more ways than one) friends when they are burning electrons.

Thanks for your response!

 

[Paulquattro]

Welcome
And happy hunting

 

[Streddaz]

I like to think of myself as "still pretty fit", but, yeah, next year I'm 60. I really appreciate your point of view, and I'm still leaning towards the midweight Relay, even though I understand that I won't be able to keep up with my "full-fat" (in more ways than one) friends when they are burning electrons.

Thanks for your response!

I've been on a few large group Ebike rides and the thing I hear is "You'll get left behind on the climbs if you have a lightweight Emtb". While that is quite likely true, it's no different than any normal group ride on non-Emtbs where you have different levels of fitness in the group, plus in my case, I'm no slouch on the descents so I do tend to be waiting for the less skilled riders on their full powered bikes at the bottom of the descents.

 

[VWsurfbum]

What about a lightweight full powered Eeb?
it's high on my list of N+1

 

[Streddaz]

What about a lightweight full powered Eeb?
it's high on my list of N+1

Wouldn't be a bad option since you have to option of both a full powered bike and a lightweight bike. It's actually 18.8kg according to Giant, so closer to 19kg and 2kg heavier than the SL
The difference it pretty much in the battery and motor as the Giant's battery is 2.3kg and the motor at 3.1kg (5.4kg) while the SL has a smaller but lighter 1.83kg battery and 1.95kg motor (3.78kg).

 

[Tekmotiv]

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