I finally took delivery of my S4 Core T3 model last Friday that I ordered in the end of may but only got one ride in last Sunday under some rainy and really muddy conditions. I changed out some parts (suspension, contact points and wheel set with tires).
First impressions are pretty good. Motor power is insane coming from a 85Nm Yamaha PW-X3 powered e bike. Boost is ridiculous. Short test with a double 30 secs boost took 5% battery. I guess I won't use that all that much.
Pointing this thing downhill felt really good as well. Not done with adjustments of the damper though. 35% sag seems a bit too much. Will try 30% next with faster rebound. Rear end felt planted but agile and poppy at the same time if you want it to get of the ground. It is by no means a fully blown enduro bike (although the geometry with a 170mm fork would be). In comparison to my v1 dread and v2 druid it is somewhere in the middle between both despite the weight normally helping the plushness. It's not a plushy ride like the planted v1 dread but in return more nimble and agile. I felt at home, even though I had to reduce 2 or 3 spacers below the stem when switching over the fork of my druid. I am sure with the normal stack height, it would be even more comfortable to pedal and in the steeps. I tend to agree with some reviewers after the first ride that the rear travel does punch above its weight class, but its not a 170mm equivalent either.
I am pleasantly surprised by the entry level maven brakes. They do feel kind of cheap but they worked really intuitively.
The mechanical transmission drivetrain works like a charm as well. I only think the shifter could be more ergonomic and a single up and down shift lacks somewhat...
Software integration is top notch. I don't have any experience with other systems besides Giants Syncdrive. Still fiddling with all the support settings and trying to find some eco and auto mode parameters to fit my riding profile.
As a german saying we tend to say "Not all that glitters is gold" when there are some bad parts as well. For me personally not being able to pedal the bike without motor supporting as an "eco" mode caught me a bit off guard. It does work as long as it is hard pack ground and relatively flat. On even light ascends the rider input screen directly showed wattage numbers above 200-250W. On really hard ascends that I cleared on the last ebike with some effort I wasnt able to hold the power long enough (500W+)... While this is a little setback I just need to adjust to the concept of the bike and run it in tuned down modes to achieve certain meters of elevation and range.
The first rideout was around 33km and 950m of elevation (20,5 miles and 3110feet elevation) with some tests in boost and turbo for the lolz... mostly in eco and auto mode experimenting with settings. Some quick ascends on turbo.. Used up around 60% of the 800wh battery at 5 degrees celcius outside (41F). We had a strong guy on a pedalbike with us so the speed was accordingly. On a better day without testing, boosting and so on, I think I could squeeze around 1600-1800m elevation out of the pack. I doubt that I get more than 1200m elevation on our terrain when charging in heavily
So overall a really nice bike. Stock weight without pedals was around 23.5kg. Swapping out ZEB/Vivid for the Intend parts took the weight down by 400g. The Syntace wheel set another 600g. I am fine with just under 23kg including pedals. Thats almost 4.5kg less than the previous bike with only 625Wh battery.
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