Ive had my E-Escarpe for a short while and only got to ride locally before lockdown stopped me testing its limits. Its an amazing bike, so capable (in my limited experience) that it had me wondering if i should have bought the sommet to really smash stuff. I bought it for Trail/XC but after a few rides i was just going straight to the tech sections and skipping anything else. If youve got a good fun techy trails itll be a great bike. If youve got lots of long easy XC, maybe a more XC biased bike would suit better. From what i can tell its the same frame as the E-Sommet, just shorter travel shock. If you plug the E-Escarpe numbers into a geometry spreadsheet and then swap fork/wheel to E-Sommet spec, the numbers end up identical, and the pictures certainly look to show no differences.
The Z2 on the base model i have is a super fork and the rear suspension matches it very well.
This is my first e-bike and the stability i feel from it certainly comes from the weight, but the geometry and suspension give it a very stable, planted and dependable ride. Im no jumper but this thing was floating off lips better than ive ever done. Ive had no surprises from it, perhaps some might say its not as lively (i dont know ive not ridden other E's) but im very very happy with it.
My normal ride is a Scott Genius and that thing was a revelation, at 6-4 long reach figures have brought my riding on a leap, and this E-Escarpe is right there too, just hitting the limit of the travel, likely due to the weight.
Issues?
well the cable routing is an absolute chore, try swapping dropper outer and brakes and you need to strip the whole bike down, inc motor out. Just yanking will cut them on the roughly finished frame edges. Ive dealt with internal routing many times, this one is terrible due to the way the have to go around the motor and battery cables.
The geometry, fun for downhill, not so much tech uphill, but no worse than any bike with 65degree head angle. At least the seat tube is nice and steep which is a big positive. For road climbs a rear lockout might be nice, not for bob (your higher cadence on ebike means you dont really get that slow lolling bob) but just to prop it up a little more so you can really just chill out and spin.
Lack of bash guard, didnt think it would be an issue, already smacked motor off a load of things i didnt expect. Need to resolve that.
Water ingress, ive not had a problem but check other threads for this on Vitus e-bikes. You can see once you get it where some extra protection will go a long way to protecting your motor.
Final thought, tempted to try a 29er rear wheel, looks like it might fit?
