eMTB Options For 2024

BillH said:
Anyone hear of or know much about the Fazua motor? I started reading about the system and there was a lot to like and some not so good. The good is that the motor and battery fit into a insert that goes into the downtube and connects to a gear box. The whole battery/motor combo can be removed and an insert cover is used in it's place so one can ride the carbon frame bike sans motor and battery.The bikes weigh about 43lbs with battery/motor and should be way under 40lbs without the combo in place. The bad is the weaker 250w motor and more so the 250wh battery.

I love the fact that they are almost indistinguishable from a 'acoustic' mtb.

View attachment 46500


This is the Bulls Wild Flow EVO RS

View attachment 46498


Lapierre EZesty

View attachment 46499
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FYI-Nice bikes! I reached out to Larry Pizzi of the Accell Group and he indicated that the Lapierre E-bikes are not available in the US. Bummer. Kinda like their line and the company culture for E-bikes.
 
Browneye said:
As an aside...another of my hobby interests is shoe cobblery. Yes, I taught myself how to sole shoes. I was cutting the soles off these and plunged a utility knife into my leg. Kind of left a gash. LOL
It healed up, and my chukka's got a new black sole instead of the unsightly white ones. I have a handful of pairs of redwing boots. If I need a job in retirement I can resole shoes, or repair smartphones. LOL

I'll try my work boots out on the trail and report. 😊

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You are a jack of all trades. Way to go! ;)
 
Stefan Mikes said:
Ah. That's the reason companies such as Specialized sell replacement carbon fibre frames for hefty money. The lesson learned ;)
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My son and I were in the LBS yesterday and he was looking at regular-non-e mountain bikes.
He was very interested in a carbon framed model and he got to talking to the sales guy.

They got to warranty and my son was asking about it and the salesman said "One year of normal use."
My son asked "What is normal use?" He replied, "If it goes air borne it voids the warranty."

My first thought was, how would they ever know and second, Wow, jumping a mountain bike will void the frame warranty!
 
ruffruff said:
My son and I were in the LBS yesterday and he was looking at regular-non-e mountain bikes.
He was very interested in a carbon framed model and he got to talking to the sales guy.

They got to warranty and my son was asking about it and the salesman said "One year of normal use."
My son asked "What is normal use?" He replied, "If it goes air borne it voids the warranty."

My first thought was, how would they ever know and second, Wow, jumping a mountain bike will void the frame warranty!
Click to expand...

I think you'll find alternative manufacturers have different approaches to frame warranty - but as a generalisation, when a carbon frame is chipped warranty is over. Alloy tends to fail at weld points so it's a lot easier to imply failures in build ( even if it failed from getting VERY airborne...).

The weight difference between alloy and carbon is less than a drink bottle, the price gap can be significant, so there is a lot to be said for spending the $ on a highest spec alloy bike and using the $ saved wisely.

As an example, my daughters scott genius 940 was $3 k ( oz - down from $4.6) , the carbon framed 930 retails at $5.4 ( cheapest I could find at the time was $4 k) - so lets call it $800 - 1 k ( 30% of the cost! ) Just for a carbon frame. Same components.

That's a set of carbon wheels! ( Unsprung weight loss and an opportunity to swap between 27.5 / 29 depending on terrain)

Or...$800 worth of lift passes / shuttles....or a skills clinic...imagine how much faster she'd be!
 
Browneye said:
Another good call on the sleeve armor - G-form Pro. Just awesome! Light and airy, fit perfectly, comfortable, great protection. Elbows knees and hands - the first thing to hit the dirt if/when you go down.
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I alternate between the base g form and the pro. The basic ones are MUCH slimmer and cooler, offer reasonable protection for x country and intermediate rides , fit below a long sleeve shirt so I'm less likely to get snagged . They're the armour you wear when you can't be bothered wearing armour.

But for a day of lift assisted down hill riding I put on the pros!!!! They're amazingly effective for how comfortable
 
PDoz said:
I think you'll find alternative manufacturers have different approaches to frame warranty - but as a generalisation, when a carbon frame is chipped warranty is over. Alloy tends to fail at weld points so it's a lot easier to imply failures in build ( even if it failed from getting VERY airborne...).

The weight difference between alloy and carbon is less than a drink bottle, the price gap can be significant, so there is a lot to be said for spending the $ on a highest spec alloy bike and using the $ saved wisely.

As an example, my daughters scott genius 940 was $3 k ( oz - down from $4.6) , the carbon framed 930 retails at $5.4 ( cheapest I could find at the time was $4 k) - so lets call it $800 - 1 k ( 30% of the cost! ) Just for a carbon frame. Same components.

That's a set of carbon wheels! ( Unsprung weight loss and an opportunity to swap between 27.5 / 29 depending on terrain)

Or...$800 worth of lift passes / shuttles....or a skills clinic...imagine how much faster she'd be!
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yes sir,
I told him go aluminum, take the money you saved and put it towards a trip.
 
PDoz said:
Well, no screams and absolutely no need to have any fancy pliers for the tannus on 2.6 tyres! Bare hands, no worries - just a bit of common sense to make sure everything is lined up etc. The usual talc etc applies.

They claim it's possible to ride with a flat - you'd want to ride slow!

Slightly different feel - dull to compression and ever so slightly slow for rebound - about the same as a half click on the suspension. ( I tend to run low pressure)

It was more difficult getting the old tubeless valve off the rim than fitting the tannus.
Click to expand...

Got mine. Install went no different for me than you other than mine tires were still using tubes. No chance to ride on them yet. Snow should be melted away next few days just in time for some rain. 😞
 
ruffruff said:
My son and I were in the LBS yesterday and he was looking at regular-non-e mountain bikes.
He was very interested in a carbon framed model and he got to talking to the sales guy.

They got to warranty and my son was asking about it and the salesman said "One year of normal use."
My son asked "What is normal use?" He replied, "If it goes air borne it voids the warranty."

My first thought was, how would they ever know and second, Wow, jumping a mountain bike will void the frame warranty!
Click to expand...
That is a funny story between your son and the sales people. Sounds a little moronic for the sales guy to say something like that during a potential sale.
Does not sound like he has a whole lot of experience in his field. Jumping=Voided warranty. Good one!😝
 
Browneye said:
Like. 👍
What's with those cables??? 🧐

Another good call on the sleeve armor - G-form Pro. Just awesome! Light and airy, fit perfectly, comfortable, great protection.
Elbows knees and hands - the first thing to hit the dirt if/when you go down.
Click to expand...

It looks like they forgot to trim the dropper post cable... BBB is clearly not used to new bike assembly. ;)

Where did you get the sleeve armor? Good looking fit and function.
 
ruffruff said:
yes sir,
I told him go aluminum, take the money you saved and put it towards a trip.
Click to expand...
Carbon is a pretty durable frame material. Most stunt planes are now carbon. Experience has shown that you can wreck an aluminum frame pretty much the same way you can a carbon one. Depends on what you wrap it around or strike:). Quality carbon is certainly stiffer where it needs to be, and compliant, by design, where it needs to be, making it the racers choice for those who need razor-sharp response to steering input.
The SRAM XD driver is unique. It seems a bunch tougher than SRAM and Shimano regular aluminum drivers (by the way, SRAM and Shimano and most Sunrace standard cassettes all fit the same driver, Campy is the unique one. The XD driver appeals to hard riders who are tired of stripping hub/cassette interfaces. XD equipped hubs are more expensive and offer only better quality ie. $$ cassettes that fit it. When your in a shop look at the $400 XD cassette and the $90 XT one. Extreme weight difference. Comes down to how much are you willing to pay for lost grams.
Both carbon and XD are very nice to ride, but I have switched to buying lesser bike and adding nice carbon wheels to the bike. As PDoz suggests, you feel the difference right away with a nice set of carbon wheels.
 
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FlatSix911 said:
It looks like they forgot to trim the dropper post cable... BBB is clearly not used to new bike assembly. ;)

Where did you get the sleeve armor? Good looking fit and function.
Click to expand...

@PDoz is a goldmine of how-to here. 👍 Both knee and elbow guards came from Amazon. Much as I hate to buy everything from them, it's convenient. Another '$200-store' like Costco. Anyway, good stuff.

I've worn my RedWing work boots for the last three rides and I really like them. They're not heavy, and the sole is just the perfect grip on the new Stamp1 pedals. Super comfy and leather over the ankles. My speeds are coming up so guards make sense. 25mph downhill feels fast on a mountain bike - the downhill sections are still a little scary. But these are smooth trails for the most part so it's never unnerving or out of control. The suspension is all dialed in now, made a lot of adjustments, got a Fox suspension pump and dialed everything in. Stopped on the trail today to adjust the derailleur, then did a full tune-up when I got home and now it's shifting like butter. I've been wearing my hydration pack, couple of liters of water, a pump, tube, tools.

I put a riser stem on my Explore so the stock one has about a 10-degree rise compared to the Trance flat stem, and about 10mm longer, and now I can use a 31.8 bar - got a nice riser set from RaceFace-Atlas bars, same width, a little taller. I'm more happy with the stance now. My guess is it's about an 3/4 to 1 inch so taller- the stock bars are 20mm rise, these are 32 plus the stem, probly another 5 to 8mm.

My dealer is going to trade a seat out for me, something more like what I have on my Explore, with a little more padding. Even with bike shorts it's small, and hard. LOL





I've done three loops on this trail now, it's 12 miles, and way scenic and fun. Gaining confidence and comfort on the trail. There are a couple hills that are pretty tough for the acoustic bikes, but this Trance just climbs right up effortlessly. 5th pass level and second gear and it goes right up. Pretty amazing. I use about 40% of the battery on a 12 mile loop. So I'm giving this bike a 30 mile range, but could likely stretch it out by riding it mostly in level 2 instead of mostly in level 3. I surely get a work out, but it's just so much fun to have the assist, it's super addicting.






Lots of single track, smooth and easy to ride fast.




 
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bob armani said:
That is a funny story between your son and the sales people. Sounds a little moronic for the sales guy to say something like that during a potential sale.
Does not sound like he has a whole lot of experience in his field. Jumping=Voided warranty. Good one!😝
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There really is a difference in the warranty wording between brands, so the sales person may have been telling the truth! Possibly an extremely good investment in PR - lose this sale but get decades of trust?

I can't remember if it was our norco or focus, but the warranty pretty much said jumping breached warranty.

Giant apparently ask for pictures of the bike and break, and the people I know who have snapped giant frames say it's a straightforward replacement. Apparently the alloy frames have " lifetime" warranty for the original purchaser. Unfortunately the " lifetime" of a mtb is only a few years - st least that's what I was told when I asked what would happen if I managed to snap the frame on my 15 yo trance that you can no longer buy shocks for......
 
BTW, I was curious about just how much change in technical terms the stem dimensions make. Here's a cool calculator where you can enter your current spec and proposed - in my case the red is the new and the blue the old.

A shorter stem and wider bars gives a little quicker handling. If I find it slowed down too much, which I doubt, I could go with a 60mm length of the same rise degrees, which would put it 3mm shorter reach with 28mm taller.

I found this to be very helpful for understanding exactly what I was doing to my bike. Also, based on my inseam length, I should have got a size M frame - 17.5, instead of a L frame - 19" Oh well, eh?? Sure feels great to me. LOL

The calculator: http://www.yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/stem.php

My specs calc'd - blue stock - flat stem, 20mmrise, 50mm length - and red with riser bars and 5* rise 70mm length. 29mm =1.14 inches, the reach another third of an inch. I think it's do-able.

 
FlatSix911 said:
Here is a nice deal on a brand new (0.2 miles)... $3,582: 2019 Cannondale Cujo Neo 130

BicycleBlueBook

www.bicyclebluebook.com www.bicyclebluebook.com

View attachment 46624
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I noticed REI has them for a few hundred bucks less. Not sure if it's the exact same bike but you can't beat REI return policy and full warranty:

www.rei.com

Cannondale Electric Mountain Bikes | REI Co-op

Shop for Cannondale Electric Mountain Bikes at REI - FREE SHIPPING With $50 minimum purchase. Curbside Pickup Available NOW! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee
www.rei.com www.rei.com
 
tomdav said:
I noticed REI has them for a few hundred bucks less. Not sure if it's the exact same bike but you can't beat REI return policy and full warranty:

www.rei.com

Cannondale Electric Mountain Bikes | REI Co-op

Shop for Cannondale Electric Mountain Bikes at REI - FREE SHIPPING With $50 minimum purchase. Curbside Pickup Available NOW! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee
www.rei.com www.rei.com
Click to expand...

Different bike... check out the model number. Neo 130-2 vs. 130-4.
 
150-160mm fork would make all the difference, but those look like a very good deal.
I nearly bought a Canondale pedalic a few years back - nice bikes. 👍
 
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