I must admit that the last two and a half years have been quite barren on the MTB front, mainly because after nearly a decade of being single I actually got a girlfriend, moved in with her and am an unplanned step-dad. It further doesn't help that I live even further from my happy trails than I previously did (which wasn't particularly close).
I missed the trails quite a bit but I am lazy chubster and have never been particularly fit so didn't miss cycling up the hills. A 15 mile ride around Peaslake would have my knees and back throbbing to the point of taking ibuprofen and codeine for a couple of days.
I've been mulling over an e-mtb for a while and having hired one the last time I was at BPW cemented the idea, the problem was convincing myself it would be money well spent.
I got a really good, unexpected bonus from work this year and my girlfriend was happy with me treating myself so it was off to eBay. I lost out on a couple of Specialized Levos that I quite fancied but stumbled upon a Trek Powerfly 9.7 in my price range. The main spec is carbon frame, RockShox Yari fork, RockShoxDeluxe RL shock, SRAM NX gears, Shimano 4-pot brakes front and rear with dinner-plate sized discs, Bontrager XR4 tyres set up tubeless and the cherry of a Bosch Performance CX motor.
The suspension has 160mm of travel front and rear which is completely overkill unless I go to BPW (and even at my weight there are only a couple of trails where that much travel is beneficial to me).
(Apologies if the photos haven't uploaded, I'm still learning my way.)
The bike has marks you'd expect on a mountain bike, all but two of them are on the invisiframe/ One of the marks is on the fork bridge, the other is down by the motor. Otherwise it's immaculate and rides like it's new.
Took the bike to Peaslake today. It made the climbs so much easier as you'd expect. Slightly slower going down the way, the weight is noticeable, and I didn't want to charge down a trail I hadn't ridden in ages in case I came a cropper on an unknown-to-me jump or drop. Some people would say the weight makes the bike less fun but even on a regular mtb my weight dampens a lot of the pep. I couldn't tell if the 27.5 plus sized tyres gripped any better than the 'normal' 27.5 tyres on my Whyte T-130, they certainly weren't any worse and I suspect I'll push them a bit more as I get used to the bike. Both front and rear were set to 20psi. Can't comment on the suspension other than to say I'd set the sag at 25% front and rear which seemed to do a good job at keeping the wheels on the ground without jarring my hands when I battered my way through the roots. I only did 9.5 miles but felt like I could quite easily go further.
I don't know if heart rate is a good measure of effort but some anecdotal stat is that today's heart rate average was 120bpm whereas the same ride in 2016 on a regular e-mtb was only slightly higher at 125bmp. The motor obviously helps but you do have to put some effort in and on the tough technical climbs I was still breathless at the top, just not dying. I used eco mode on all but one climb.
Haven't had this much fun in ages. It's a lot of dosh for a toy but then so is a motorbike/going skiing/racing/so many other things.
*Edit - photos haven't uploaded.. Will work on that.
