E-MTBs

Just bought a Polygon Colosus N8E, they had a black Friday 20% off sale. I was a bike mechanic for 3 years in college, so the mail order assembly required isn't a concern. Should be at my house around Wed and I'll write up a review of the assembly. The specs are really good for the price, $3999, and the bike has good reviews. We'll see how it rides on the mostly xc trails in Kansas and the all mountain trails in Arkansas. I've never ridden an emtb, so my expectations are really high!

I borrow my Dads whenever I can. It’s pretty crazy. He’s never been a cyclist but now he’s been riding it quite a bit with some other guys who all got e-bikes. Love it

Got one for Christmas last year. I’m addicted to the thing. Been hitting the local trails 4-5 days a week after work. Most rides are 6-12 miles depending on how technical the trails are. Just hit 980 miles. 

Last nights rain turned the local hills into snot (like 1st  practice at Carlsbad snot lol) So went to Sano's. Wound up being super low tide this after noon. Rode about 19 miles and hit 1K on the odometer. That was my goal for the year. Pretty fun ride, not particularly challenging but but scenic and fun. Dog Park should be perfect tomorrow (unless it dumps again tonight). Probably hit Laguna if it does, it's sandstone.  Wednesday 12-13 will be 3 years since my Perris crash. This emtb was the best thing ever for getting back into any kind of riding shape. Ocotillo next weekend to try out my new to me YZ250x.  I don't think I'd be anywhere close to where I am strength and conditioning wise without riding 3-4 times a week on this thing. Yeah they're expensive but worth every penny !       

Awesome photos sumdood which bike do you have it looks like mine.

 I got a smoking deal on this specialized Turbo Alloy Levo It had 14 miles on it.

 I hadn't ridden mountain bikes for over 30 years this thing is a game changer and got me back out there-- really love it!

Mines a YT core 3 Decoy 29.  I like it. We’re lucky there’s lots of places to ride a short distance from me. I could easily ride to the dog park trails but k hate riding on the street and dealing with cars.  It sounds lazy but I’d rather drive the 10-15 minutes to not have to deal with it. Headed there in an hour, woohoo happy Friday 

Got the polygon today! I used to work at a Specialized/Trek dealer as a bike mechanic in college, so I've built a bike or two. It's been 12 years since I was a professional mechanic and bikes have changed quite a bit since. I'll write up a first ride this weekend, but this is my unboxing and building review.

First off the packing was pretty good. The box was shipped via FedEx and there were only 3 box damage spots, all on the corners. A quick check and it was obvious that nothing internal was damaged so I didn't have to deal with any of that! Back in my day bikes were shipped with plastic shipping strap/zip ties that were used to hold everything together. Polygon uses Velcro straps with foam pads, a single twist tie, and one big zip tie to hold the front axle packing block on. Overall I didn't have to cut anything to unpack the bike. Everything was good except there was some rubbing of the rear axle plastic shipping cap on the chain side seat stay. It appears to wipe off, but we'll see tomorrow if it all cleans off.

On the actual building, the bike came with a tool set that has a 15mm pedal wrench, and a torque wrench that goes up to 10nm with changeable tips. The instructions are generic for multiple types of bikes, so not great. I have never built an electric bike so I wasn't sure were to plug in the computer toggle switch or the computer to motor wire. I eventually found the wiring diagram for the ep801 computer via Google and got it wired in with the supplied installation tool. I had to do a little tweaking on the rear derailer to get it to lineup with the cassette, but I also had to do this a lot on the trek/specialized bikes I built back in the day so nothing new here. Brake rotors were pretty straight, front caliper took a bit of finagling to get it to have zero drag. The drop post cable outer jacket has considerable drag, so had to pull harder than I think you should to pull it up the seat tube for install and back to the handlebar for cable adjustment, the actual cable pull is just fine. To make it easier I suggest removing the battery. Most everything was straight forward, the handlebar needs center and degree marks for easier mounting. I didn't use the supplied pedals because I got some one sided SPD's to install.

Overall I'm happy with the packaging, the included tools, and overall quality of the bike/components. I will say this thing is heavy, at 56lbs it seems to be on par with most medium aluminum frame E-MTB's with 160mm of travel, but that's double vs my old 26er Camber Pro. We'll see what it's like on the trail, but my expectations are very high!

I picked up an Intense tazer fox pro so I could ride with my buddies who have gone to the dark side.

They are deeply discounted at the moment.

I normally ride a Yeti SB140 which while not considered plush it is a very stable handling bike.

Was surprised to see the Intense handles every bit as well. haven't ridden the Yeti since I picked up the Intense.

Checking out the new trails at Vail Lake near Cahuilla

transition relay PNW

My old backyard... I'm up at the end of Arboles by Wildwood now.

I dig my canyon. 

Ride Review:

I cut 11/16 (17.5mm) off each end of the handlebar to make it right at 30" (762mm) wide. It now fits me much better, never liked the super wide bars. I think I'll actually run the stock stem for now, narrowing the bars really help the whole bike feel better.

My first trail ride was a 7 mile prairie trail with short (1/8-1/4 mile) steep climbs/drops with some sand, hard clay, rocks, and occasional root. The base that's 80% of the trail is hard pack clay. This was my first e-mtb bike ride and I'm hooked now! The Shimano ep801 worked great and assist engagement was very smooth, but matched my pedal effort very well. So if I started slow, it ramped up slow, but if I gave it the beans the motor followed immediately. I know there's some people talking about it rattling, but mine has zero rattle so far. I even posted a YouTube video of me testing it on a stand and the only noise is the freehub. So I'm not sure if Shimano changed something, or if there's something going on with the one way clutch in some motors, but I'll keep tabs on mine and if it starts making noise I'll tear into the motor to investigate.

Tire pressure, no idea didn't have my pump with a gauge because I was at my parents house for the weekend, it's why I built it in a living room. Probably 25-30psi. The tires were aired from polygon, but I added tire slime I found in my parents garage because goat heads and prickly pear. My brother had a road bike pump, so a couple hundred pumps per tire later and I figured it was good enough.

Suspension setup, lockouts full soft, no adjustments on the low/high speed compression or rebound on the shock. Pressures were whatever polygon set at the factory (didn't have my shock pump either), which seemed like too much for my 185lbs. I'll have to check the recommended pressures when I get home, but probably less than I currently have with a little more compression damping. 

No big jumps on this trail, but I did get airborne several times and had a couple ~4ft drops. Overall I'm happy with the suspension, it never did anything weird and the bike is very stable on the downhills. On g-outs I didn't bottom, even with the soft compression, and it never deflected on the roots/rocks. There were several switch back tree sections and even though its stable it also feels very nimble. Now I will say with my old 26er I always have an issue starting a ride where I turn too soon the first few corners, I didn't have that issue with this bike. The more slack bias on these newer bikes fits my dirt biking riding style.

The rear stays active during braking, but doesn't bob while pedaling. Now, I do ride clipless and I'm good about spinning, not pumping, so I've not really needed lockouts or pro-pedal settings on FSB's. So I'm not a good tester for bobbing, but this seems to move less than my Camber Pro while climbing. There was plenty of chatter and I had zero issues with my hands going numb, which has been an issue with other bikes. I was contemplating keeping my Camber, but after this ride I don't really see a point in keeping it, because I'll never ride it. I started the ride in off mode, then went up 1 at a time until mode 5. It was a good setting and I kept the trail speed between 11-15mph. I haven't tried boost yet, was under a time crunch today and wanted to get a good workout in. I am looking forward to taking this bike to Arkansas now though! 

I finally went with a Trek Rail. It was easily winning the Trail Bike class (150 - 160 mm travel) two years in a row on the Loam Wolf shootouts back then and the reviewers said it had no problem hanging with the longer travel sleds. I had ridden a friends long travel bike with 200mm and it was just too soft for all-around riding and climbing. There's a local trail called G-Out and if you're hitting it at a decent clip it's got some serious g-outs that really stress the bike and suspension but the Rail's suspension handles it easily with no bottoming.

2021 Trek Rail 9.8 XT w/carbon frame, wheels and bars. Custom Project One purple color (it has that trippy paint that morphs from Purple to Blue depending on the different light hitting it). Mainly I wanted that Bosch motor on whatever bike I got!

I didn't really want to go carbon frame but got a decent deal on it plus some upgrades. Upgraded the brakes to 4-piston XT (because of the extra weight and speed most e-Bikes need a lot more braking power). Upgraded the RockShox ZEB Select (38mm) fork to full ZEB Select Plus fork.

Swapped out the stock pedals for Deity TMAC (flats) ... and proceeded to SHRED my shins and calves ... twice! I replaced the pins with half height ones. Just didn't need that much grip and tired of bleeding all over the place! Currently running Maxxis Assegai 2.5 (with CushCore) in front and Maxxis 2.4 Minion DHR (with CushCore) in back. Seems to be the setup for SoCal conditions. I added the CushCore as I've never run carbon wheels and they give you some extra protection. Usually run 22 - 24 lbs. 

Been having an absolute blast on it. You can go up stuff that's hard to believe. The first day I got it I went to my old practice DH trail and went straight UP it. No more shuttling required. Or pushing up. As far as a workout, it depends how you ride it. On a group e-bike ride your tongue is still going to be dragging in the spokes. Everyone is just full on the gas trying to get to the front and drop the guy behind him. Same as before except now you are covering so much more distance at so much faster speeds. You're flying up hill ranges that you didn't even try before because you'd blow up your legs right away on a regular pedal bike.

Some guys go Turbo right off the bat but normally I stay off that and save it for any end of ride charge or climb. The other thing is if you're coming off the couch and haven't ridden in a while you can dial in the amount of assist you want.

One thing I've had some trouble with is jumping it. It's my first 29" bike and a much longer wheelbase than I'm used to. (I'm 6'1" and went with a Large frame. A Medium was just too tight. I wish they had a Med / Large option but they don't). Between that and the extra weight (the carbon keeps it just under 50 lbs) I'm still not able to launch it like my previous bikes. I need to build some easy jumps and just get the feel again!

Last note - before I rode it I did the full RideWrap on it to protect the carbon frame. NOT AN EASY JOB. You can see YouTubes of people that just gave up halfway into it. But if you take your time and think / plan it all out it can be done. (A few local shops charge $300 for a RideWrap job, other shops refuse to do it at all because customers balk if they see air bubbles, etc.)

But kinda disappointed in the amount of protection it gave. Already scratched up the carbon and the RideWrap didn't do shite. It's too thin. I told them they need to double the thickness so it actually protects the bike in a crash. Might want to look over some of the other options and compare thicknesses.

BTW - eBikes are not cheap! You may want to consider stashing an Air Tag on it. You can see in the current Racerhead at RacerX  https://racerxonline.com/2023/12/01/racerhead-48  - scroll down to The Mini O's Bike Bandit - where they actually caught a scum-fock who had stolen several eBikes and minibikes thanks to an Air Tag.

My recommendation to anyone looking at E-MTB'S, just get it and ride! I'm assuming most are similar in the motor department, I'm very happy with the Shimano EP801. Some guys were worried about noise on vitalmtb, but mine is very quiet while pedaling and silent when coasting. No rattle or funky weird noises, but mine is labeled as a 24 model year so not sure if something changed vs the 23. The Polygon Collosus is a very good deal, but I think every brand has good sales happening right now. It's not quite dirt bike level for me, but the amount of trails and ease of transport means I'll be on it more than my YZFx. 

Thread revival time. My day today, snapped a chain 6 miles from the truck, then picked up 2 ticks pushing the bike out. One in my shorts, (shown) and another one had made it's way into the top of my butt crack. TMI but I just took the longest hottest most thorough shower of my life and gave myself a buzzcut only my wife will see. FUCK ticks, god I hate those things. Every piece of clothing is in the wash and I've been over the truck with a fine tooth comb. So far just the two. Creepy little mother fuckers. It could have been worse, we were close to civilization even though we were a ways from the truck. My son was nearby so he scooped me up and took me back to the truck. The ride was shortened but breakfast was right on time so no harm no foul. Anyway that was my ride today. Do you guys change your chains and or sprockets at regular intervals ? Or just wait for a problem to arise ?  That was the stock chain, and the bike has 2,156 miles. The sprockets looked pretty worked too so new chain, front sprocket and rear cassette time for me.  You guys been out pedaling ?  

I measure mine every 500 miles or so and replace it if its nearing the end of its life. Makes the sprockets last much longer and keeps shifting crisp,

I noticed you are in SC. I work in the business park there and ride the dog park trails a couple times a week at lunch. No one at work rides so I am looking for some peeps to ride with. Let me know if you are ever around mid day and looking to ride.

And I got hit by a tick from that area a couple months ago right in the arm pit. Rode around noon and found it at around 5 and it had already dug in. Ripped that bitch out of there but it left a huge bruised area and hurt for weeks. Hate those MF'ers.