Yep, colour me interested. Saw a couple of first ride video’s yesterday and it’s gone to the top of my ‘new bike’ list already. Been um’ing and ah’ing over a few bikes, both E and normal and this could well be my First Ever E-Bike(tm).

Price not withstanding, it looks like a goldilocks bike to me, just about right in all the important areas. Mainly weight and handling, I dont want a monster truck/shuttle bike and an Orbea Rise was on the list for tha reason, but this my have the juice and power that the Rise doesn’t.

Edit: my only concern would be an untested motor from a new manufacturer, what’s the warranty like ben?

Oddly, of the non E bikes i’m looking at, a Top Fuel is up there as well, Trek do make some good bikes these days.

5. It’s from a big brand

Isn’t it pretty much just like an Orbea Rise? In all kinds of ways, yes it is. But not in one crucial regard: Trek is one of the biggest bike brands in the world.

The entry level Orbea Rise seems to be roughly £900 cheaper than the entry level Trek, with a better spec, slightly more powerful motor and similar weight. What benefit does Trek’s size bring to this?

It’s a trek, if it’s anything like that last two or three treks i’ve dealt with there will be one critically important widget that only trek make and is only available through trek dealers and must be installed by a trek dealer. 6 weeks after they shift to the next version of the frame, they’ll stop making it.

Kicker:- it’s a bearing that could easily be a ISO size, but instead uses a non-standard imperial size that has been defunct since the 1970’s.

I don’t see it Johnny, you’ve got warranty and several companies are doing full repairs on motors now, the more people buy them, the more the repair companies will pop up.

For those of you not yet au fait with Nm, the Fuel EXe’s top power level of 50Nm is 

Um. Since when has Nm been a measure of power?

Interesting to see weights of the cheaper models rather than the all dancing singing version.

I think bringing this motor tech to more moderatly priced Aluminium frames and builds over the coming year, will be a welcome move.

The trouble is, when the “entry level” model is £5700, who do you market the £5000 aluminum one at?

Won’t the most important bike of the decade (assuming all the way to 2029/30) be the bike that can do all that this one can but for £3k* and maybe 35lbs?
At the moment it’s beyond the reach of most people and is therefore only as important as any other bike over £7k^?

*choose your own arbitrary price for a ‘good value and good performing’ bike!

^choose your own arbitrary price for a ‘expensive and therefore niche’ bike!

Yeah bike companies definitely arent over reaching as we teeter toward a global recession
and they are investing heavily in eBikes that have eyewatering price tags

also have motors with high failure rates & batteries that loose efficiency over time
oh and both of these are constantly being improved upon, so go obsolte quickly

whats depreciation like for resale?

Seller “Buy my ebike, used for 1 season- bargain at £10k”

Buyer “Does it have transferable warranty on the motor/battery?”

Seller “no”

Buyer “How much is a replacement motor/ battery”

Seller “£1000/ £400”

Buyer “does the latest version of this bike use a compatible battery/ motor?”

Seller “no theres a new version out”

Buyer “will you take £500?”

Seller “but it cost me £15k!!” …..

But you don’t get the benefits of being motorised because the battery and motor aren’t upt o the job compared to other motors.

Utter rubbish. I’m hardly an athlete (unless eating chock Hob Nobs is an Olympic sport) and I ride a Kenevo SL with a 35Nm motor. It’s plenty, unless you get your kicks from riding up hill like your arse is on fire. I used to ride a Trek Rail with 85Nm and the KSL is more satisfying in every respect.

Naysayers aside that is the first eMTB I’ve seen that I would consider buying.

Definitely more interesting to me than pretty much all other e-mtbs. I don’t need full power, I just want everything to be a little bit easier. But, too expensive for me still.

everyone is too poor to afford one, hence interest free credit on new ones! same applies to all top end MTB’s and the industry relies on it.

It’s not even a bike it’s a motorbike. It has as engine. Just think how much you could save if you spent a fraction of the cost on getting a bit fitter

At the moment it’s beyond the reach of most people and is therefore only as important as any other bike over £7k^?

Based on the number of eBikes I see at the likes of the Golfie, ridden by folk that really don’t look ‘minted’ I’m not sure I agree with you.

Will these low power bikes get you up as steep a hill as a more powerful one?
If I was to get an ebike I want to climb the steepest hills around.

I was pretty scathing about the idea in a thread a while ago but I’m warming up to it now. I’m guessing a piggy back battery is available too.

I think if I go there I’ll be late to the party as I only bought my main bike (non ebike) last year and I can neither afford or justify the addition/swap any time soon.

I think for me something like this with a piggyback might be what I’d go for when……..reliability is a default given. Until then it’s just too much cash for the level of risk they seem to come with.

Yes, it’s the ‘unknown’ motor that really puts me off this bike just now.
It might turn out to be a good one, but guess it needs a few thousand of them to be out in the real world for a couple of years to see how they hold up.

IME, not all ebike motors are troublesome fragile things. The Bosch Performance CX in my Trek Rail has been flawless – just over 2000 miles in 2.5 years and still feels and sounds like new. (Used all year round, but I’ve never jet washed or modded it). A friend has a few Rails on his hire fleet, which get much more use and abuse (and jetwashing!) than mine and they’re also still going strong. He’s been hiring out and servicing lots of bikes and ebikes for years and says the Bosch motors are generally the toughest and most reliable out there. Not the quietest of motors, but the CX does feel robust.

Stealth ad warning – it’s a shame I’ve got to flog my Rail to fund the Orbea purchase.

Kimbers sums up all my issues with ebikes pretty well!

Really need to be more maintainable. 2 years non-transferable warranty for motor/battery is not enough IMO. What happened to sustainability? Could this be part of the reviews maybe? Can this motor be fixed anywhere outside warranty or is it like Shimano?

Maybe you clip a pedal (not uncommon) and damage something in the motor not covered by warranty, what happens?

weeksy

I don’t see it Johnny, you’ve got warranty and several companies are doing full repairs on motors now, the more people buy them, the more the repair companies will pop up.

Last time I checked NO-ONE but Bosch can do a full repair on a Bosch motor… they won’t sell the control board even to partners.
Kimbers sums it up pretty accurately^^^ , essentially ticking financial time bombs after warranty or if warranty isn’t transferred ..