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Vitus E-Mythique LT range starts at £3,299
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The Vitus E-Mythique LT is a brand new entry-level full-power e-bike model with 160mm of rear travel, alloy frame, mixed wheel size and a 95Nm Bafang M510 motor.
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160mm travel e-bike using Bafang motor
Bafang M510 gives out 95Nm, and 550 watts of peak power
Battery is 630Wh
Mixed wheel size (29in front, 27.5in rear)
Three models: VR, VRS, VRX
VR £3,299 srp
VRS £3,899 srp
VRX £4,399 srp
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The ‘Mythique’ part of the ‘E-Mythique LT’ name may need a bit of explaining – or clarification – for those who of you familiar with the acoustic Vitus Mythique, which is a 140mm trail bike.
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The E-Mythique LT is NOT the electric version of the regular Mythique. The LT suffix denotes that is Longer Travel. This e-bike has 160mm of travel at the rear. And this E-Mythique LT VRS model we have here has 170mm travel forks up front. And thank God for that. Full-power e-bikes should have loads of travel.
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Why E-Mythique?
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What is still very ‘Mythique’ about the E-Mythique LT is its price and performance combo. It’s a ‘cheap’ e-MTB clearly. But it’s also a cheap e-MTB that can be taken to proper mountain bike terrain.
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0:00
Hi, I'm Benji from Singletrack and today I'm here with the new Vitus E-Mythique LT
0:30
So, what is this new bike? Well, in a nutshell, it's a brand new full power e-bike from Vitus
0:38
with 160mm of rear travel, 170mm fork up front, alloy frame, mixed wheels
0:46
so that's 29 at the front, 27 at the back, and it comes with a Bafang M510 motor
0:53
The Mythique name may need a bit of explaining or clarification for those of you familiar with
1:02
the Acoustic Vitus Mythique which is a 140mm trail bike. The e-Methique LT is not the electric
1:10
version of this regular Mythique. The LT suffix denotes that is longer travel. This e-bike has
1:18
160mm of travel at the rear and this e-Mathique LT VRS model has 170mm travel forks up front
1:28
And I for one am very pleased it is not just a basic Mathique turned electric. A full power
1:34
e-bike should have full travel, loads of travel, 160mm, 170mm bring it on, it's just the way
1:41
it's meant to be. What is mythique about the e-Mathique LT is the price and the price and
1:48
performance combo. It's an entry-level e-bike clearly but it's also an entry-level e-bike that
1:55
can be taken to proper mountain bike terrain. There are three models in the e-Mathique LT range
2:02
There's the VR for £3,299, the VRS for £3,899 and the range-topping VRX for £4,399
2:13
You can see the full specs of all those bikes on the story on our website
2:18
See the link in the description below. So what about the existing Vitus E Summit range that has a similar amount of travel
2:27
160mm kind of enduro e-bikes? Well, those are still going to be around, but those are the bikes that are paired with the bigger mainstream brands and the bigger motors
2:38
So you'll get your RockShox and your Fox and your Shimano motors on those. The E-Mythique LT goes to the alt kind of brands
2:45
You've got your Bafang motor that we'll go into in great detail shortly, and the SR, suspension, and things like the TRP brakes
2:53
What's the remit of this new E-Mythique LT then? Well, it's steep stuff
2:58
It bears the enduro tag, but enduro has kind of become a bit meaningless these days, especially on e-bikes
3:05
The e-Mythique LT is clearly about riding steep stuff, steep climbs, steep descents
3:12
Of course, it can happily meander along any old mild terrain. All mountain bikes can do that
3:17
But it's raison d'etre, it's technical terrain and repeat runs of the fun stuff
3:22
The oft-mentioned power hour hot laps of your friendly neighbourhood woodland messabout spot
3:28
With any e the thing we all talk about first and foremost understandably is the motor quickly followed by the battery specifically what size battery does it have
3:40
So yes, the big news here is that Vitus have gone with Bafang for these bikes
3:44
We haven't seen much Bafang stuff on mainstream bikes before, but I think that's about to change
3:49
Bafang have been around for as long as anyone in the e-bike game and the e-Mythique LT models all use their M510 drive unit
3:57
paired to their own battery. Vital stats time. The Bafang M510 kicks out a top newton-metres torque
4:05
of 95 newton-metres with a peak power watts of 550. Like colloquial terms, that's, like, off of the express
4:14
it's 400% of whatever you put in. Like, four times you. The battery has 630 watt-hours capacity
4:24
It can be charged in the bike in situ or removed and charged externally
4:27
You'll need the key to remove the battery from the bike to do that. I'll go into the power delivery of the motor shortly
4:35
Onto the user interface. The controls, the buttons and the display type stuff basically
4:40
Now this has always been, when I've had a Bafang bike, the weak link in the system
4:44
It used to get controls near the grip that would get in the way of your brake levers and
4:48
and not play nicely with dropper remote levers, and the screens kind of look like the original
4:54
Mark 1 monochrome Game Boy displays. Not good. Vitus clearly spotted these problems
5:01
and worked with Bafang to really improve things massively. The bar remote near the grip
5:08
is a simple but effective three-button affair. An up button for more power
5:12
down button for less power, and the third smaller button, the middle side, is the on off button
5:18
And whilst it's on, it also acts as the info scrolling button for the display next to the stem that cycles through your various stats, range, cadence, trip distance, etc
5:29
And this remote near the grip, hooray, plays nicely with brake clamps of any flavor and normal shifter style dropper post lever remotes
5:39
The display itself is actually one of the best e-bike displays I've seen so far
5:44
It's a good size, it's not too small, not too big. It is colour, but it's not a mess of colours
5:51
It's actually a real Goldilocks-style display. And kudos to Bafang and Vitus, whoever made it happen
5:58
We have battery power as a percentage, rather than blocks that you don't really know what's going on
6:04
I mean, who has their phone set to be a decreasing bar picture
6:09
No one does. We have percentage, because that's what we need to know. Hooray
6:14
The display shows you what mode you're in, there's five modes in total, Eco, Eco Plus, Trail, Boost and Race
6:24
Now I've already mentioned the vital stats of the Bafang M510 motor, 95Nm of torque, 550W of peak power, 400% of you and all that type of stuff
6:35
But as is often the case when pontificating on about e-bikes, numbers don't tell the whole story, which is a bit of a cliche but it is true
6:44
How that power is delivered and when it is delivered is absolutely vital to the ride experience of these things
6:51
And it's that which gives each motor its particular characteristics when you're actually riding the things
6:56
For once for a motor manufacturer Bafang are pleasingly transparent about how the power assistance is delivered They have graphs and everything Again check out the store on the website if you want to pore over the numbers at your leisure geek
7:12
Fundamentally, the absolute maximum assistance, that 95 Newton meters and 550 watts
7:18
is only accessible when you're in the race mode setting. The same 550 watts of peak power is acceptable
7:26
in the mode down, the boost mode, but it comes in a bit later
7:30
And the top torque of the boost mode is 85 newton meters rather than 95
7:37
Now, those of you who've ridden e-bikes for a while know that while all these top power ultimate settings get all the headlines like 95 newtons, 85, 500, whatever watts of power, you don't use them very often
7:51
When you're in top power mode, it's maybe for your power hour blast
7:54
What you will find when you actually own one of these things and want to go out for your usual weekend type of ride
8:00
is the trail mode that you're in almost all the time. Now, it's trail mode that is the most important mode
8:08
On the Bafang M510, trail mode gives out a maximum of 75 Nm of torque and 495 Watt peak power
8:18
And it's the trail mode that has the most interesting and significant power delivery method
8:24
You don't get trails peak assistance until you are inputting about 250 watts or more yourself
8:32
And the assistance is delivered in an exponential curve. So pootling about, soft peddling, 100 watts or something, will get you a pretty meager amount of assistance
8:42
Putting in some effort will get you a lot more assistance out
8:46
It's this power curve that dictates how the system feels to ride. It's going to be very interesting to see how this Bafang system compares to the main players
8:54
Come on. Oh, good bike. Good bike. The final two settings that I've not covered are Eco Plus and Eco
9:05
Eco Plus gives you a peak of 412 watts with 55 Newton meters of torque
9:11
And the lowest Eco mode gives you 35 Newtons of torque and 302 watts of peak power
9:18
There is also off if you're insane. Onto the frame itself, the bit that everyone glosses over while we focus on newtons and watts and pricing and stuff
9:29
What does the frame have? Well, it doesn't have a flip chip, it doesn't have through the headset cabling, it doesn't have any carbon
9:36
and it doesn't have accessory bolts under the top tube. Whatever. But what does it have? Simple internally routed cabling, bottle bosses on the down tube, a down tube protector, a sump guard
9:49
a motor cover which is another thing that Vitus Badger's been trying to actually produce
9:54
Plenty of dropper seat post insertion, this large we have here, you can fit a 210 in there
9:59
as a future upgrade, only comes with a 170 as it is and it's generally a really sorted out bike
10:06
Okay, onto some suspension geekery. The leverage progression is 27% which if you don't know
10:13
percentages which is fine that just means it's really progressive. The leverage force begins
10:18
really high and that means it's really easy to get that shock moving combined
10:22
with the trunnion mount really low breakaway force and it ramps up quite
10:26
quickly quite high so there's loads of support in the mid-stroke and you're not
10:30
going to bottom the whole thing out just by jumping off the curb it will deal
10:34
with big old stuff big landings really well and should you want to put a coil on there in future it perfectly ready to accept one Anti which basically is a force that coats with pedal bob the anti never
10:48
really goes over 100%, which essentially means the rear suspension stays supple and tractiony
10:54
no matter what you're doing with the pedals. It's an e-bike, so it's not overly concerned with ultimate pedal bob efficiency
11:01
system prioritizes grip, traction and comfort. On to the geometry. Well starting
11:08
front to back, head angle 63.5, seat angle 77.5, bottom bracket is 26 mm BB
11:17
drop, the reach on this large is 476, the chainstay is a 445 mm and the seat
11:25
tube quite dinky, nice loads of insertion, even on this large it's only 440
11:30
mill tall. How has Vitus hit this impressive price point? It's a combination of a canny choice of alt brands and own brand stuff
11:43
They're alt brands like Bafang, Suntour, TRP, Vitaeco, own brands from Vitus, Nukeproof
11:49
and Brandex. The two big brands here are SRAM for the drivetrain and WTB for the wheels
11:57
In terms of spec, this bike doesn't have any surprises, disappointments or restrictions
12:01
to it. There's nothing on this bike that you're going to want to change after a couple of rides
12:05
or you're going to have to need to replace because it's holding you back. Everything on here can do the job and do it really well
12:12
And what's more, this bike has oodles of upgrade potential. This bike you can have for a while, a few years and replace bits and bobs as you go
12:21
save up some fancy forks or something like that, but you don't have to
12:25
This bike could be with you for a long time. Right, let's do my best to reel off the spec
12:31
It's almost all highlights, so let's try not to miss anything out. We've got Sticky V tyres, we've got SRAM NX Genuinely Wide Range Eagle drivetrain
12:40
The cranks on the Bafang. Fighters have asked Bafang to go back to the drawing board and give us some nice looking
12:45
cranks that are 165mm long and don't stick out miles below the pedal hole there
12:51
So pedal strikes, much greatly reduced. Brand X 170mm dropper post. Nukeproof saddle, RockShox Deluxe Select R rear shock
13:02
Battery cover, downtube protector, nukeproof headset, nukeproof stem, good length. Nukeproof bars, good width
13:09
Nukeproof grips, actually nice and comfortable. Finishing it off, SR Suntour Duraluxe 36 with a mudguard
13:18
Bespoke mudguard that isn't attached with zip ties. it's got four bolts holding it on there
13:24
Removable for when, as if, you'll ever remove it. But you can remove it if you want, but it's there, ready to hit the dirt
13:32
So there we have it, the new Vitus e-Methique LT. Available to order right now, vitusbikes.com
13:37
If you want to read more about it, all the spec charts, geometry, the graphs, all that sort of thing
13:42
we've got a pretty in-depth story on our website right now. That's all from me. I'll see you next time
13:47
Head over to singletrackworld.com. Goodbye
#Electric Bicycles