[Music] We've become used to seeing e-bikes with price tags of 8, 9, and even 10 grand. But there are some amazing options on the market costing less than half that amount. For this test, we've gathered four models that deliver all of the power and excitement of a top-end e-bike at way more affordable prices. But which one should you buy? Before we answer that, Al, what are the four bikes on test? So we've got a Yamamoto 07, we've got a Decathlon Rockrider Exel 520s to give it its full name. It's pretty long, that one, right? We've got the Giant Stance E+1, and we've got the Polygon Sisut7e. Well remembered. The basic premise of the test was like, like you said in the introduction, it seems to be like an arms race to who can make the most expensive e-bike. But these four brands are actually going, Hey, hold on a second. E-bikes don't need to be crazy expensive. Before we get

started on the individual bikes what are the kind of similarities that bring them together well the key thing with these bikes is that they've all got aluminium frames. Obviously that's a cost saving. The next thing is that they're full powered motors. They're not sub power, mid power, they're like full power motors. And at the lower end you've got 75 newton meters, at the upper end you've got 85. So like you're getting all the power and the kind of feel you'd expect from a full power to E Bike. And the other thing is they that they have in common is that they all actually ride surprisingly well. We're going to get into this. I'm going to nitpick these bikes. I'm going to pull some of them apart and they've got faults but overall I was I was just blown away by like how much fun you could have on them. Well that's great we'll get to that in a sec. The last thing we should talk about quickly is the price range on these.

price range. We start at the cheapest bike, which is the Rockrider, that's three grand, and then the most expensive bike is the Yamaha Moro, and that's 4,150. So should we start taking a look at the bikes one by one then? Yeah. And seeing as this is our affordable e-bike test, let's start with the G this bike first. [Music] Perfect. So Al, you said this was the cheapest bike in the test. What is it and how much does it cost? Well, it's the Rockrider. I'm not going to go through the full name again. There's a few models in this range, and it's basically £3,000, and it's a 29er 140 mil travel trail bike. Rockrider, for those that don't know, that's a Decathlon brand. It is a Decathlon brand. So you basically go to Decathlon store or you buy it online. Bike turns up. You can do either way. Key thing about this bike is it's Category 3 rated. So it is rated as

a trail bike. Um, but what we, what you'll find out later on is that you can ride this bike way harder than anything it was designed for. So that's an amazing price, right? So do you give anything up in terms of motor power or anything? No, not really. I mean, this is, this is a Bros motor, 70 Newton meters of torque and 460 watts peak power. So it's kind of like a, like a modern mid-power bike, right? Like the most powerful mid-power bikes a little bit more power but like a little bit more torque. The key thing with this is like the other Bros Motors, it's super quiet. Yes, because they, they use a belt drive, right? Exactly. So there's none of the kind of freewheel mechanism in the motor clack clack clacking as you go on the trails. Also, it's really quiet in use. So like, I mean, I was out riding this bike with other people on like bikes acting like we said two three times the price and all I could hear were their bikes. No compromise there whatsoever. Um.

you've also got a 500Wh removable battery. It comes out the side of the frame, which we'll get to later. It's actually quite quite a neat feature, easy to remove. So you could in theory run a two-battery system on this bike. So yeah, you've got pretty much close to modern full power, and you've got a 500W battery, so the range is pretty good. And I think having that slightly lower peak power and slightly lower torque means that you actually get pretty good range out of this bike. I believe they're also offering a range extender on that. You can get a range extender. So yeah, you can go all in. So you said that you can ride this above its limit. So um, you know, what are the features that help you do that? Well, I think one of the key things is the sizing. This is an XL. It's almost got like a 480mm reach. So it's got a good, it's got a generous cockpit on it. It has got like a 460mm chain stay.

on and it's got a relatively high BB. It's around like 350. The longer chain stay on the higher BB don't seem to compromise the handling, just the way the dynamic suspension sits in. So you've got plenty of pedal clearance for technical climbing, and the bike just sort of kind of sits up. And it's got a load of power for like torky kind of techy climbs, so it feels really good there. But the 29in wheels and just the proportions of the bike, it's got a long wheelbase. You can just, you can Raz on it. I mean, we did the video shoot for this, right? And um, you're having a blast. Well, I I've had a blast every time I I mean, I did that short where I was out riding in m and I was like, I can't believe how good this bike is. So there are limitations though, the key one really is that you can blow through the suspension quite easily CU like like I said this is a category 3 rated bike, it's ready for

trail riding. I was riding on andural tracks because it kind of felt like I totally could. Why wouldn't you, right? And other people are going to do that too. So my tip for the setup on this would be with the xfusion suspension would be to run it a little bit firmer than recommended, 'cause you're going to send it off drops, you're going to send it off jumps, you're going to send this bike basically. So I bottomed it out quite a lot, okay, so it could do with a little bit more progression. And the other limiting factors on it are that the tire compounds, it's their own Brand Tire, it's got a nice tread pattern, but the compound's quite hard, and that's a problem you're going to see pretty much on all of the bikes in this test. So it's probably going to help your range maybe, but totally help your range. And when the and when you're in the when you're in limp mode, it makes it easier because you're not pushing through the tire drag.

but in terms of like pushing hard and the hand and the way you want to ride this bike, the tires are a limiting factor. Okay, yeah. So what about the rest of the components? There any corners cut there for the price? No, not really. It's got a 10-speed microshift drivetrain, and that's actually got an 11-48 tooth cassette. So you've got a pretty wide-range cassette. So when you are in like one of the lower power modes or you're running out of battery, want to preserve your battery, you come to a climb, you've actually got the gears you still need to make it up those climbs. So you kind of don't run out of gears and then have to like just keep popping up the power modes. That's really cool. I like the fact that the suspension has rebound damping. It's adjustable, like I said. You just need to run a little bit firmer, and it is airspring, so you can totally tailor that to your riding style and your weight. It's got ergon style.

they're not eron grips. They're ergon style grips. They're really good. The cockpit's really good. The cable for the display runs in through the handlebar and back out through the stem. The saddle's comfortable. The dropper post works well. I mean it's got kind of everything you need apart from one thing. It's the only bike in the test that's got twin piston brakes, not four piston brakes, and you notice it, right? So when you get a bit over-enthusiastic, I got over-enthusiastic all the time on this bike, basically, and it's hard to get it stopped, yeah. So one of the things you'll notice here, I push the levers inboard so that I'm maximizing the mechanical advantage of the brake lever, um, just to try and get a little bit more power, and it's got 200 mil rotors. I think it just needs four piston brakes. So if you're saying that power and torque is kind of equivalent to a modern lightweight e-bike, um, is it similar?

weight as well no definitely not and not for three grand you wouldn't expect that right. It's 25.86 kilos okay not CRA not crazy heavy um for the price but yeah it's definitely getting into the into the heavier end of the market. Again the suspension feels Lively. The fast Rolling Tires help make it doesn't feel heavy because it's got Pace to it. Suspension is actually quite effective on it too so like I said you can ride it really hard. In fact the pivots came loose on the back end and they used Torx Keys here so you need to be careful. Like not to just round those off with an allen key. I had to run a Spoke key over the rear wheel to tighten that up but then like I was riding it Beyond it intended use cuz I could right well. I mean that that says it all really doesn't absolutely it's a great little bike. And I mean there's and there's a few things that I would do if this was

my bike. Personally, I'd upgrade the front tire to something with a little bit more traction, more grip, a softer compound, and keep that as a spare for the rear. I mean, it wouldn't take much just to kind of step it up a notch, but then I'm also recommending people to ride this bike way beyond what it was designed for. Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. What kind of rating did it get? So, I gave this bike an eight just because, like, 3,000. In fact, this bike's actually currently discounted to 2,699. That's incredible. It is incredible. And like the whole time I was riding it, yes, there are faults with it. I was just blown away by the level of performance for the price. So, it's totally deserving of an eight rating. So, this is the Giant Stance E+1. This bike is currently just under four grand, but it's also discounted too, so you can pick one of these for under three. Well, yeah, that's a lot of bike for

the money right that's sounds like a bargain. Yeah, and I mean I rode this in the shoot and um, I mean it was, it was, it was pretty cool. I actually really enjoyed it as well. Yeah, it's a really fun bike. What's the motor on this bike? So this is the second bike in test. I have a Yamaha motor. So this is giant SN Drive sport motor with 75 newton meters of torque. It's also got a 625 watt hour removable battery and it's just got a little hole on the side here, which probably had a key at one point, but now it's just a torx key. Pop it in there, pop the battery out. When you put it back in, you got to be careful 'cause it doesn't just kind of click in. It almost feels like you got to tighten it to secure it, but yeah, no issues with the battery rattling or anything like that. So, so is that one of the biggest batteries on test? It is. That's 625 and we get to the polygon.

in a bit which has got a 630Wh battery so they're the two bikes with the most range essentially. Yeah, okay. And because of that, Danny, it's also the heaviest bike on test. It's 26.440 um. And they have, I mean, there's a few little things on the bike like it's got EXO casing tires hard comp dual compound hard compound. So the bike's going to get heavier when you put proper tires on, yeah, but you get Max's Tires out the box, which is pretty cool, which is pretty cool, yeah, totally. And um, there is a weight-saving measure on there, which I guess hasn't done a lot, has it? Hasn't, which is the rear suspension design, which is there's, there's no pivot at the rear axle. So this isn't giant normally have a might they call their Maestro suspension design, which is a twin-link Design. This is the flex Point suspension design, so there's no pivot on the rear triangle. It's, it's an it's a flex State Design. So it's out the stay.

is just basically Flex to absorb the variation in the linkage, but it's still, it's still has this co-pivot kind of layout here, where the swing arm and the shock are all connected together through one big kind of oversized bolt, which is really cool. I mean, that leads me to something about, I'd say this is the best quality frame of the four bikes in this test. It's the one where it feels like the components are compromised, but the frame isn't. You'd hope to see that from someone like Giant, would you? Wouldn't you? I mean, they're one of the best bike frame manufacturers, and when they make frames for other brands. So yeah, you would hope to see that, but it's also Giants at a disadvantage in this test because all of the other brands are like direct to consumer, and you for Giant, you go through a dealer, yeah. So there's a margin in there, AB it's got to be worked into the price that the others don't, and that's kind of reflected a little bit in some of the components, but I cannot

fault the frame quality. I mean, this is the bike where your pivots aren't going to wear out in 6 months. Something's not going to fall off it. You're not going to have to keep torquing it up. It's super well made. So you kind of think of this as an investment that you're going to upgrade and build on. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like one of the compromises is the Shimano 10-speed drivetrain. And not because it's 10-speed. It's just basically got an 11-43 tooth cassette, which isn't a wide enough range on any bike. No, no. I mean, you know that because you do need to keep that cadence spinning, don't you? Keep, you need to keep the cadence high, keep your feet spinning for the steeper terrain to get the assistance from the motor. And also, if the battery runs out, you need easy gears 'cause you might still have to climb out of a valley to get back home or get back to your van.

whatever so like I'd like to see that. I mean, the performance of the shifting was really good. The link Glide chain and cassette feels really robust. And the other thing that on the bike, this bike's got four-piston Tektro brakes, but they had variable bite point on the rear brake. And I think that might be a consequence of the fact that the cables run through the headset. So at some point, the brakes been taken apart to be threaded through, and it hasn't been bled properly. So that's that was a little bit of a frustration on this bike, something to sort of make sure with your dealer if you're buying it from a dealer. Then you can take, you can just reel it back in and go, Hey, come on, my back brake's not feeling good. They can do a bleed and you're good to go. Yeah, I mean, that is totally one of the advantages. So the thing that's interesting with this bike is the suspension. It's got 125 on the rear and 140 in the front, and neither of

the fork nor the shock came with O-rings on them. For you to set the side, I notice your zip tie down. I've got a zip tie on there, and I think maybe I got one of my old hair bands on here from when I had a top knot. Basically, I kind of put that on the fork, so that's a little bit of an oversight. I don't know how much it cost to put an O-ring on a fork or a shock, but really you do need it to help set the suspension up. And setting the suspension up in this bike is not entirely straightforward. There's a very narrow usable range of rebound adjustment on the rear shock where it kind of feels right. Um, so it's worth spending time getting your sag and your rebound setup, and this sort of same goes for the fork, but the fork. Fork's much easier to set up because it's got recommended settings, but the Fork's got this. It's got this real pitter-patter action like it's super smooth feels like

almost it's got no damping in the initial part of the stroke, but when you hit something real hard and real deep, it's almost like it sucks at the bottom and holds down there for a second, and you get a little moment of fear, and then and then it recovers. So the suspension feels, it felt amazing on the blue runs and stuff at bik part whales because you've got this super free, super fast action, like as you go across all those high frequency bumps, and like me and Jamie were riding this bike and another bike there, and we were both like, oh my, oh my Lord, this bike just feels so smooth. But when you start hitting the brakes and start riding terrain where you've got, you're riding more dynamically pitching and stuff, yeah, you don't have the damping support within the fork, especially in the fork, it's noticeable. Um, you kind of get pitched onto the fork a little bit more. That's where the real compromise is on this bike, is that it probably needs a better Fork, yeah. So again, we're talking about a

sort of terrain that maybe this bike is not really intended for, but yeah, yeah, but I mean you can, you ride it, you can totally ride it on that terrain, right, and um, and like I said, it's a really solid package, it just doesn't feel like it's going to fall to bits on you, yeah, I mean, I noticed that, and uh, and I would concur about the suspension as well, front and rear, it's felt almost like frictionless to almost like you're just floating on a sort of, which is amazing when you're on a consistent gradient, it's just when that gradient changes rapidly that's when your weight shifts around and the kind of suspension just becomes a little bit like kind of wallowy, especially on the fork, the rear is not so bad 'cause only got 125 M travel, I'd also say that what's really interesting with this bike is that the geometry is not that different from the high-end bike that we had in our ebike of the Year test, but I had no issues

really with like getting the front end up on this bike. And I think that's just a result. It's got a higher front end. It just, it's maybe it's a little bit shorter in reach, little bit less travel to pull through. But yeah, it's just it. And also maybe that feel with the suspension. It's easier to kind of push into, makes the bike feel you can destabilize the bike more easily by that. You're kind of talking about the change, the length to a degree, aren't you? It's a long chain stay there, long chain stays. Yeah, yeah. So that, I guess that helped the climbing as well. Yeah, I mean it does, Ian. It helps position your weight forward for climbing. And then obviously you've got like a, you got a 75 newton meter torque motor. You've got power there. And I really like what Giants kind of moved away from. It's kind of, you know, used to have the little kind of LED display. That now got a proper display so you can see metrics on

there you've got like your battery life. The only thing about it is though where you turned the bike Upside Down Danny you scratched it. Sorry, yeah so it is something to be it's that's a disadvantage of having it here rather than Behind The Handlebar is that it is more prone like if you crash or if turned it upside down you can see the scratches on the display so uh really great quality frame. Really Supple suspension that works great on the sort of smoother Trail blue trails and stuff and a decent component package. The component package has got some little flaws in it that that you could kind of work around and live with you're right you're basically you're getting a really top quality frame that that you can upgrade as you go along and a and a good price at the moment if you quick it's at a disadvantage because you buy it through a shop so that means that the components can quite be as high as the other bikes in this test so I also give this bike an eight you get that support.

that you might not get with some of the other brands. Yeah, so you're paying a kind of insurance policy down the line pay for service. Yeah. [Music] Yeah. So, I mean, the Yamaha, right, we've had this before in the show and stuff, but this is a really, really distinctive bike, isn't it? That's one way to put it, Danny. But what's interesting is I had quite a few people come up to me when I was testing it and say they really liked it, like they like the fact that it looked different. I mean, I think it's cool that, you know, motorik brand has come into the market and they've taken their knowledge from a different, slightly different form of two-wheel transport, and they're applying it to this, and it's different to what bike companies do, right? Absolutely. And what they're calling this, this frame layout is they're calling the Dual twin because you've got twin top tube and a twin down tube, and they put the shark in the middle and the battery sits in the

middle. So, I kind of like the fact that they've taken their own spin on it, and this isn't actually Yamaha's first e-bike. Apparently, they've been making e-bikes for 30 years. This is their first eMTB though. Okay, yeah. So, a Yamaha motocross bike has a larger front wheel and a smaller rear wheel like a mullet bike, right? But they haven't done that on this bike. No, they haven't. So, this bike was released two, three years ago when they first showed it, and then it was kind of, it was late coming to market. So, it's got 27.5-inch wheels front and rear with 2.6-inch tires. So, kind of like a sort of 2018 spec of wheel, yeah, exactly. It kind of dates it a bit. So, when we get into the ride performance of this bike, I actually don't think the smaller wheels detract dramatically from, and may actually have some benefits. Okay, but before we get to that, it is a Yamaha, so we should talk

about the Yamaha motor totally. So you said this motor has a bit more go than the one on the giant, right? This is the PW X3, and it's got 85 newton meters of torque, and you feel it like you feel the bikes. It might have a higher peak power too, I don't know, but you just feel it's got more get up and go. It's also got that same feel that you get on the motor in the giant where when you put your foot on the pedal, it's kind of like there's an eagerness for it to go, which is tunable within the app. So you can kind of tune that. You can tune that initial pickup back or increase it, so it's kind of really advantageous for steep technical if you stall on a climb or something like that, you get going again. But like you said, when you're not used to it, you can be sort of sat on your bike, put your foot in the pad, a chat to your M.

shoot from underneath you. Yeah, like whiskey throttle, right? It's like, and there's another really interesting thing about this motor because it's a Yamaha with a Yamaha motor. They don't have to hide the fact, so the motor is really visible. It's not got loads of casing and housing and kind of like different brand names on it and stuff. It's like, it's just, they're showcasing it there, aren't they, really? See? And it's got a really narrow Q factor. Now, if anyone's watching this and they don't know what Q factor is, it's basically the distance between the outside edges of the crank arms. So, how basically far your feet are apart, yeah, exactly. Um, and this one is, I mean, I compared it to five other bikes we had in the, and it is by far the narrowest. So, while everyone's obsessed with having really short crank arms for obvious reasons, right? Because it allows you to spin your paddles and not clip them on the ground, narrow is good too, because one, it increases your

efficiency in terms of how you pedal, but it also means that when you're Lent over, or when you're trying to climb up through like a gully or something like that, the edges of your pedal clearance exactly so I re I really like that about it. All the bikes here have kind of fully enclosed batteries in the down tube, but the one on the Amar is kind of semi-enclosed. Is it, it is, it is semi-close, and it's removable. So it's a 500w hour battery. You got your little charging port up top here. To remove it, you have to take the cover off. There's some bolts there, and then there's a bolt down to the bottom for removing the battery. So you could run a two-battery system with this bike quite easy, a little bit more fast than just putting an allen key in the side or pop one in the bottom. Like it's not something you'd want to be kind of like having to do mid-race or something like that, but it's totally doable disadvantage of that.

approach no water ball yeah kind of sucks yeah I mean you wouldn't you probably wouldn't get one in there anyway would you well no you probably wouldn't but you definitely wouldn't want to drill holes in your batter to attach a b what about travel on this bike what sort of bike is it this bike is kind of heavy hitting bike it's got a 160 mil travel lyric fork and then it's got a Super Deluxe shock on the rear and they claim it's got 150 travel on the rear but I only measured it at 139 so it doesn't quite deliver the travel they claim and I don't know maybe that's the thing from the motorbike world too or Bicycle World or maybe maybe they just wanted to make it sound better but it's a pretty high-end looking shock and Fork though it's a pretty high-end component package Al together Danny so we've got you've got a high-end fork and shock you've got mura mt5 brakes you've got a XT drivetrain

with a 10-51 tooth cassette, so you got a really wide gear range. It's got a good bar, it's got good bar width, it's got a decent stem, it's got a really cool saddle. This is a Yamaha saddle. It's got a little grip pad at the back for like steep climbs. Best of all, it's got like you tuck your fingers in here and it's a little handle for like putting it in out of the van or put and it's really comfortable too. So the Spec's amazing. It's the only bike on test that's got good rubber compound on the tires. These are Maxxis Minion DHF front and rear. So on the rear tire, the Recon, it's a little bit shallow. And I rode this bike in the winter too and um, you definitely don't have the traction you need for climbing. Um, so I'd like to see like a DHF or DHR II or something like that on the back just to give it a little bit more bite. But EXO+ casing and Maxxis rubber like

night and day better than the tires on any of the other bike loads more grip. Basically, and with the Plus Tires as well, I mean, you know, we, we sort of do them a disservice. Now by, you know, they're not fashionable, but when they came out, there were a lot of positive things about them. There are and there some positive things about them on this bike too. What happens is that you, you'll remember this when we first started riding plus-size tires, is that the tires give the bike bounce. So this bike's actually way more dynamic than the shock tune of the geometry would suggest. It's quite playful, it's quite easy to move around, and it's really easy to make a mistake with the setup on this bike because it's also got really wide rims. So although they're only 2.6 in tires, they've got a really wide rim, which helps like kind of bring the whole tire volume up. So you really do have to run like 20 psi or below, especially for like if you're like 85 kilos. If you go 23, 24

PSI, basically, you feel like the suspension is just too harsh, and it's because the tire is not working properly. Yeah, so it's got a really good spec on this bike. So does that impact on the scales? Is that an advantage? Yeah, it's the lightest bike on test. It's 23.62 kilos, so that's quite a difference. Uh, then moving up to the kind of giant is almost almost 3 kilos. Yeah, yeah, away. The wheels, they've got really wide rims, and if they just went to like a standard 30 mil rim width, they could probably shave like 300 g off the wheel set. So they could almost get it below like 23 kils, which is impressive for a full power D bike. Yeah, absolutely. So were there any other aspects of the ride that kind of stood out to you? Yeah, I mean the bike just feels really solid. You know when you're riding the decathlon bike or the giant, they kind of feel a little bit more like flexy and flimsy. And again

that could be result of like they got spind L not spindle Force, but the damping's kind of Freer um. They've got 29in wheels, which is more Flex than that. This bike feels like you can kind of charge into like way rougher terrain, and the bike's not going to kind of deflect. I'd like to see a lighter tune on the shock just so you could allow the rear suspension to be a little bit Freer on it because currently I run it wide open, and I'm 85 kilos. So if you're lighter than me, you're going to struggle to get the rebound fast enough, and it's one of those shocks where if you crank the rebound all the way around and push the bike down, it'll go y so it's unusable basically. Absolutely, they totally need to shift the range um to make it lighter in compression too so the rear suspension is a bit bit more Supple so you're not relying on the tire for that traction so much, and then it gives it.

gives it a wider range of Rider weights that it can accommodate. So for a first attempt, e-Moun bike yamah hav seems to have done a pretty good job, right? They had done a pretty good job, and obviously they could have hit the ground running a little bit faster with just some simple tweaks. Like if they got an MX so had a 29in front wheel, um, maybe a slightly shorter chain stay. I don't mind the long chain State on the size large, but like on the small and medium, I'd like to see a shorter chain State just to balance the weight distribution. But there's not much else you can kind of fault it for. So what was the rating then? I give this bike an eight because obviously it's the most expensive bike on test, and things like the shock tune, things like the chain stay length for the smaller sizes, people are just basically, even though I don't think the 275 Wheels front rear really impacts the handling, it's just not on Trend, and people just aren't

going to they're not they want the latest thing yeah. [Music] so our fourth bike and our winning bike. Our Winning bike look at it here. It looks super modern looks super aggressive kind of doesn't look like it belongs in this category yeah. I mean it is I mean they've nailed it right. It's got a low top tube. It's got a slack head angle. It's got adjustable geometry. 29inch Wheels front rear. It's kind of build as like e and Juro Trail and Juro so yeah it is it is an aggressive bike and it's price the price is £4,000 but to get it for £4,000 this bike comes from go Outdoors you need to have the discount card which costs 5 so yeah5 well spent that is it is isn't it absolutely so it looks aggressive does the travel match that purpose absolutely it's got a 150 mil Fork but nowhere on the website could I find the travel on the rear I don't so obviously I measure all of that so it's got 144 Mill of

travel in the rear, okay. So yeah. So I'd also say that the geometry was slacker and lower than claimed too. So it kind of went from actually being sort of Trail geometry into full Enduro geometry. So we're looking at like it's got 63-degree head angle. It's not meant to have. It's meant, I think it's meant to have a 65-degree head angle. This, this in the low position. It's got a 325 mbb height. It's low. It's low, exactly. It's got a 1265 wheelbase. And it's the only bike in this task that doesn't have like a 460 mil chainstay. The chainstay length is 445. Sounds like a killer set of numbers. Well, they are, even if they're not the right numbers. They're not. They're not the numbers they're going in the right direction. They're not the numbers the Polygon website. They are. They're good numbers. Yeah, that makes a huge difference. And the other thing with the bike is that the suspension's like it's

fully adjustable. So you've got rebound and compression adjustment on the shock and on the fork. I'd actually say they've gone a little bit too far with the shock because you can even adjust the IFP pressure. So there's a second valve here underneath this little cap where you can. You've got a quite a narrow band of adjustment but you can change the. And I actually think unless you're kind of really in the suspension, basically do not touch it. And there's a risk that someone will actually attach a pump to it and think it think where you put the air in the shock. So I actually think they should expect a shock where they blank that off completely. Yeah, okay. But yeah, it's got like a bolt through Fork piggyback shock. I mean it's Suntour stuff, right? Yeah, it is. Oh yeah, this is where this task gets messy. So I blew the shock on the second ride. Okay. So had zero damping. And before the shock blew, the battery fell out. Okay. So you've been on a journey with this bike, right?

have been on a journey with this bike. I mean, so if you can see, I've got like a I've got a nuke Pro proof tool strap wrapped around the down tube because basically the battery comes out. It's a basically bottom loading battery um and when I was at bike part Wells testing the bike, I jumped into a section and just whatever way I landed kind of like there was kind of big GeForce and a big bump um the battery just fell out hit the front wheel and spun down the trail. That's pretty scary. It scared me big time and I thought well okay maybe we hadn't located the battery correctly so like benefit of the doubt slammed the back in real hard rode off jumped into the section on rim Dinger and it did it again and that was really scary so I actually rode it without the battery in it for a little bit and then the shock blew but what was really interesting was with no battery and no damping I had to ride it back to the van.

with no assistance, and this bike's got a Shimano ep01 motor, and like there's just so little drag in it. Okay, it was the only time during the test I actually thought, you know what, these hard compound hand-stamped tires, I'm so pleased they're on the bike, because when I was pedaling up the fire road back to the van, I was like, okay, there's no resistance in the motor, there's very low resistance on the tires, this is brilliant. And I'd actually written the bike off. So I had a conversation with Polygon and Go Outdoors. They sent a replacement shock. The replacement shock's been fine, so I don't know what was wrong with the first shock that was on the bike. It was really easy to fit to, and they actually got me a sizing tool from Shimano to check that the battery mounts were positioned correctly. So you met me in the car park on bank holiday Monday, and I do not recommend anyone trying to do that in a

car Park. I was there for quite a while, but I got the connectors out, checked the mounts, used the tool, put it back in. What was interesting was that the mounts were too close, so although you think that would make it tighter, I think what it meant was that the mechanism couldn't engage fully. So once I sized them correctly, slammed the battery in, I couldn't get it to fall out, whereas before I could basically bounce the front end and the battery would just fall onto the floor. But I still rode it with a strap on, yeah, because now that it's happened, it's hard for me to trust it. And that's my only real concern with this bike, is that if you've got one of these bikes and it hasn't been checked, I'd recommend that you go and get the battery checked, or that you run it with a strap on on the down tube, because it is scary. Those things aside, it is still the best ride-in bike in test. First ride was in Seran. I was.

like, hey, this bike's really good. It's really good shape. And then we went to Bike Park Wales, and I was just like I was having like one of the best before the battery fell out and the Shar BW. I was having one of the best days ever 'cause the riding position is really good, and the geometry is really good. It's got SLX brakes, four piston. No inconsistency, feels super good. Even the grips, it's got these kind of little kind of desk grip ripoff grips. They're excellent. You've got Shimano motor, you've got a really neat display behind the bar. You got the new controller, which is kind of the did like it's got a little bit more functionality than just like the two buttons. The position on the bike feels excellent. I was just having a total blast. And then everything went wrong, but they fixed everything really quickly too. So, a lot of e-bikes with Shimano motors come with third-party batteries, right? Is that the case here? No, that's a Shimano um 630w battery, okay, so genuine.

Shimano battery, yeah, I could see that when it land on the yeah and actually and this, this bike as a package is 24.6 kilos pretty decent. It is pretty decent for a 4,000lb aluminium full-powered e-bike, yeah, it's got a really good specification now that the battery mounts have been sized correctly. I'm not really concerned about them. There's a little bit concerned over the reliability of the Sun Tour suspension components and like and getting those service like down the line whereas we know with like the Yamaha bike, it's got RockShox on it. If you need a shock service or if you want a different, I mean that's the thing with the Yad, you could just, you just literally go and get the shock retuned like anywhere. It's really easy to do. I'm not, I'm not so confident about that but then if you do have any problems with your suspension again, you can roll back into a go Outdoor Store and say hey, you guys, you need to fix this but the ride.

quality was standout like I rode all the trails of bipart Wells that I normally ride, and I'm so pleased the battery didn't fall out in any of the big jumps. But yeah, the bike Dynamic, so this is the best riding bike, best handling bike of all four bikes by a country mile, absolutely. And my only reservation from like I'm so I'm going to rate it a nine because I want to separate it from the 38s that are in the test. It needs better tires, deserves better tires. It deserves that needs because they're a hard compound um, and they just don't have the traction for the kind of terrain you're definitely going to take this bike into. They don't have the traction in the climbing, and they definitely don't have the traction for like when you want to slow down on like super steep gnarly tracks cuz you're going to want go and ride all those tracks on it. So it needs better tires, and that's really the only shortcoming.

in the specification, so that's why I couldn't get a 10. And then I've got that bit of reservation about the reliability of the with the shock blowing so so quickly. So it sounds like, uh, you know what was basically a write-off bike. You know, we had a nightmare day and um, it's completely turned around and we've had a pretty happy ending, really. It is the best bike in test. And I'd like to say that like all of these bikes have compromises. That's to be expected when you're trying to build an e-bike to such a competitive price point. It's not that they're cutting corners, it's just that you don't have the options. You can't just go and spec a or the new Lyric or the new 38 or Oh, let's have tea type or Oh, I'll have a wireless dropper. You don't have any of those luxuries. Right, the people that are putting these bikes together, it's so competitive like.

they're trying to get the best bits on the bike for your best value for money, and sometimes they get it wrong. I think the key takeaway from this whole task is that all of these bikes were so much fun to ride and test, and I think like if when brands are making more affordable e-bikes, I think we're just going to see more and more people on them. Yeah, that's got to be good. Yeah, totally. So that's a wrap for this video, but if you want to find out more about each individual bike in this test, we're going to have the reviews, the full reviews online on m.c. and we're going to do some deep dives on each individual bike, so look out for those videos coming soon.

Best Budget Electric Mountain Bikes | Decathlon vs Giant vs Polygon vs Yamaha

Best Budget Electric Mountain Bikes | Decathlon vs Giant vs Polygon vs Yamaha

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