"The sky is falling. The sky is falling"
Go to the ride day and have a ride on one. Then come back and tell us how 'horrifying' it was.
I went, and I rode for ~90 mins (Comm games, Aneurysm, Middle, Redgum, and Hug for those who know Lysty).
Thoughts:
On fire roads and flowing trails which allowed you to keep momentum up it worked ok. Anything where some pedalling finesse was required, it was poor. Descending, it was heavy and felt like it was taking me for a ride.
The power delivery is inconsistent and can cause issues. When trying to get around a tight switchback it would suddenly put in a heap of power even though my pedal strokes were smooth and regular. This led to me sometimes riding the rear brake up and around certain switchbacks as I tried to keep it “calmed down”, otherwise you’d just end up with the front end washing wide.
Any technical elements which just normally just require commitment and pedalling were a joke, you just blazed up and over them.
The top speed limiter is set too low. You’d just get up to a decent speed and the assist would cut out, leaving you to pedal a very heavy bike to get any more speed. On downhill sections this was not an issue; however, on flatter trails it felt like it detracted from the benefits of an E-bike. When you dropped below the top speed the power would kick back in, and then drop out, and then kick back in – it was somewhat annoying.
Descending: it was very stable in a straight line; however, it didn’t want to turn. The long CS and heavy weight made the front practically glued to the ground, lifting the front took some work. Oddly enough, even though the front is glued down it did unexpectedly power wheelie out of nowhere when I was climbing a rock armoured turn.
Dialling down the power assistance didn’t really make me work any harder; however, it did lessen the occurrence of unwanted power input.
Bottom line: The current crop of E-bikes are the first generation, not surprisingly they lack finesse in power delivery and timing. The geometry is compromised to fit the motor, and they are heavy. I left the demo thinking I don’t want one of these; however, in 10 years, when some more R&D has been spent, things might be different.
I had a mate with me who is new to MTB and is unfit. He almost keeled over last year when trying to climb the hill on Comm games, he breezed up it this year (he’s not fitter this year).
Absolute bullshit
"The S-Works Turbo Levo FSR 6Fattie is a trail bike with all of the hallmarks that our mountain bikes are known for. This means that you get a roomy top tube for an easy fit, ultra-short chainstays for nimble handling, and a low bottom bracket that makes the bike feel glued to the trail. Then comes the efficient and powerful Turbo technology, integrating a battery and motor into the M5 frame in a new way. The exclusive, custom-tuned motor smoothly and quietly puts out up to 530 watts of additional power to the pedals to make climbing the steepest of trails nearly effortless, and the output is fully adjustable to conserve energy."
Agreed.