Wabash RT 1000 mile Review

[tail-winds]

I purchased a Yamaha Wabash RT in October of 2024 when they were selling it for $1,842 (out the door). I have logged 1,162 miles on it. The bike rides great with stock setup, but I did the following upgrades, mostly for comfort.
Upgrades:
* Roval 30 Carbon Wheels, which nocked off 1 pound off rotational weight; the carbon wheels also absorbs some of the bumps.
* IRC Double Cross 700x38 Tires have a better rolling resistance than the Ramblers.
* Redshift Suspension Stem absorb some of the bumps.

My longest ride has been a Metric Century (62.2 miles / 3,000 ft. of elevation gain) with 25 percent of battery left.

The pros and cons below are my opinion, since this is my 1st Class 3 bike. I can only compare it to my Class 1 MTB E-bike, and Analog bikes.
Pros:
* Yamaha PW Series ST motor is best in class; Quite and powerful.
* Yamaha Control is easy to use.
* Yamaha Battery is well integrated into the frame and has sufficient range (~100 miles).
* Bike design components are good overall. I love the Shimano GRX groupset!

Cons:
* Yamaha Fork has a custom (1 1/8 to 1 1/4) tapered steering tube that is difficult if not impossible to replace with a suspension fork.
* Yamaha Aluminum Frame is too stiff for long rides (> 4 hours in the saddle).

Summary:
I am very pleased with the Wabash RT as an All Road bike, where you limit the off-road to smooth gravel roads (only). If I could replace the fork with a suspension fork, I could venture more off-road with it.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Nice review & sounds a great buy. Re the stiff fork, is it an alloy fork or carbon? If alloy might be worth looking for a carbon replacement to help with compliance, lot of alloy gravel bikes have carbon forks should be plenty around, that is if there are any in that awkward size. Does the Cross Core have same size fork? It has front suspension, though at that price point probably a heavy coil one.

Tyre choice can play a big part too. I find WTB tyres to have a large 'bounce' factor. On my Vado Sl I have WTB Byways at 44mm and they give great suspension to a similarly stiff alloy frame & forks. I did look into the Wabash here in the UK a while back (when I heard the discounts, probably Oct as well) but there were no deals and no support near where I live. The main Yamaha motorbike shop had no idea what I was talking about! Oh an e-bike? Said dubiously he could probably order one, but to be fair that did not inspire confidence! And it would have been full price anyway.

 

[tail-winds]

Nice review & sounds a great buy. Re the stiff fork, is it an alloy fork or carbon? If alloy might be worth looking for a carbon replacement to help with compliance, lot of alloy gravel bikes have carbon forks should be plenty around, that is if there are any in that awkward size. Does the Cross Core have same size fork? It has front suspension, though at that price point probably a heavy coil one.

Tyre choice can play a big part too. I find WTB tyres to have a large 'bounce' factor. On my Vado Sl I have WTB Byways at 44mm and they give great suspension to a similarly stiff alloy frame & forks. I did look into the Wabash here in the UK a while back (when I heard the discounts, probably Oct as well) but there were no deals and no support near where I live. The main Yamaha motorbike shop had no idea what I was talking about! Oh an e-bike? Said dubiously he could probably order one, but to be fair that did not inspire confidence! And it would have been full price anyway.

The Wabash RT has an alloy fork. The Cross Core frame uses standard (1 1/8 to 1 1/2) tapered steering tube. The shop I'm using replaced the heavy fork on a Cross Core with a nice RockShox model. I'm sure I can find a carbon road fork that will fit the Wabash RT, but it will drop the headset down ~1 inch. You may think that is not a lot, it changes the geometry of the bike so I think I'll continue to use my MTB E-bike for gravel.

 

[EMGX]

Great bike, especially at such a discounted price. Hopefully you got in on the second free battery offer while it lasted. I have a yamaha PW-SE equipped BH gravel bike which has been virtually flawless (except that BH had the walk assist disabled which has been a big negative for me when wanting to get off and walk for a bit on hills when riding a heavily loaded bike while touring).
You might have seen the Yamaha sponsored NIck Sanders world tour on a Wabash RT - definitely a capable bike.

 

[carl06]

I purchased a Yamaha Wabash RT in October of 2024 when they were selling it for $1,842 (out the door). I have logged 1,162 miles on it. The bike rides great with stock setup, but I did the following upgrades, mostly for comfort.
Upgrades:
* Roval 30 Carbon Wheels, which nocked off 1 pound off rotational weight; the carbon wheels also absorbs some of the bumps.
* IRC Double Cross 700x38 Tires have a better rolling resistance than the Ramblers.
* Redshift Suspension Stem absorb some of the bumps.

My longest ride has been a Metric Century (62.2 miles / 3,000 ft. of elevation gain) with 25 percent of battery left.

The pros and cons below are my opinion, since this is my 1st Class 3 bike. I can only compare it to my Class 1 MTB E-bike, and Analog bikes.
Pros:
* Yamaha PW Series ST motor is best in class; Quite and powerful.
* Yamaha Control is easy to use.
* Yamaha Battery is well integrated into the frame and has sufficient range (~100 miles).
* Bike design components are good overall. I love the Shimano GRX groupset!

Cons:
* Yamaha Fork has a custom (1 1/8 to 1 1/4) tapered steering tube that is difficult if not impossible to replace with a suspension fork.
* Yamaha Aluminum Frame is too stiff for long rides (> 4 hours in the saddle).

Summary:
I am very pleased with the Wabash RT as an All Road bike, where you limit the off-road to smooth gravel roads (only). If I could replace the fork with a suspension fork, I could venture more off-road with it.

I have a Bosch powered Diamondback Current e-gravel bike that is very similar to the your Wabash. I really like the bike but my biggest gripe is the harshness of the aluminum frame and fork. I also installed a Redshift suspension stem. My Current came with 50mm Ramblers which I have converted to tubeless. Haven't yet completely dialed in how low I can run the tire pressure but going tubeless has helped a lot. I still have extra front tire clearance so I may try a bigger front tire next. I ride a lot of rough gravel in the mountains and single-track. For pavement and smoother gravel rides, I have a different wheelset with 37mm Specialized Sawtooth 2bliss tires . I also have a e-mtb but I prefer not to use it on the bigger gravel rides due to it's more limited range and 20mph assist limit. The Current has a 28mph Class 3 limit.

 

[tail-winds]

Great bike, especially at such a discounted price. Hopefully you got in on the second free battery offer while it lasted. I have a yamaha PW-SE equipped BH gravel bike which has been virtually flawless (except that BH had the walk assist disabled which has been a big negative for me when wanting to get off and walk for a bit on hills when riding a heavily loaded bike while touring).
You might have seen the Yamaha sponsored NIck Sanders world tour on a Wabash RT - definitely a capable bike.

I missed the second free battery offer by the time I received the bike in October of 2024. But thanks for sharing the Nick Sanders video of around world e-bike tour. It's very inspirational and I will continue to explore options to ride the Wabash RT off-road comfortably.