I only spent about 10 minutes before ordering one of these. Like most of us, I spend too long evaluating each part and statistic of a bike to work out how close to perfect it will be in my perceived world of EMTB perfection ... This time I had a quick look, couldn't find what I was looking for on the specs and thought sod it, just buy it and ride it.
Vitus have churned out some amazing bikes. The first E-Sommet is still one of the lightest and most capable ebikes out there. (OK, this isn't light, but it's only the same as my Kenevo or Jam2)
I actually don't really mind how it looks. Yes, some of the gusseting is a little agricultural, but it's also probably strong as hell and if you're crap like me, that's pretty important. Trees and rocks are also pretty good at terminally modifying lots of expensive bike parts - so cheaper ones do have a certain appeal - especially if they perform within an acceptable margin of what you're used to.
The M510's been around about 18 months now and is on it's second iteration of controllers (FC2.0). By all accounts it's similarish to the other offerings, but hopefully cheaper/easier to repair/replace. It has the added bonus of no Shimano/Bosch rattle.
Vitus say they've done a lot of work with Bafang on getting the motor right and I know
@VMG Chris and their group spent a lot of time developing their own firmware for the VMG bikes (Cool Aussie bikes) , so maybe some of that has tricked down into the mainstream.
There's more battery options and it's not that hard to make one yourself if you want to do something different.
OK, it's not XT XT XT .. so it will be interesting to see how it actually feels, but I can't help but think that it's actually going to be fine. All of my bikes have had something I don't like about them, so it's to be expected.
You can Flash your own firmware with the Besst tool or one of
@Dado's K1 Flash or K1 Blackbox 3 boxes. These also let you set and configure most of the other parameters of the motor if you like to play around.
www.bikester.fr
& when I consider the specs, 66.5 head angle, 74 seat tube, 445 chain stay, I think it's more or less contemporary. I could easily bring the h/a to 63/64 with a £100 angleset, otherwise, the only things that stand out as being past it are the 27.5 wheels, that could be easily changed to a mullet, non boost frame & the funky mid 2010's paint job. Every time I think of selling it on for the latest & greatest, I can't really justify it, it's still a bob on trail bike.Mail order e bike with an off brand drive motor, what could go wrong?
