Smilesy
Member
Very nice.
What have you spec'd it with?
VMG Typhon discussion thread
- Thread starter Thediesel233
- Start date
What have you spec'd it with?
Thanks.
Shock: 2023 Rockshox Super Deluxe Ultimate Coil B1 205 x 65 (550lb spring)
Fork: 2023 Rockshox Zeb Ultimate Charger 3 180mm
Bars: RaceFace SixC 35mm R 35 Ø x 820mm
Grips: PNW Components lock-on
Stem: RaceFace Turbine 35 Ø x 50mm Black
Headset: Cane Creek Hellbender ZS44/ZS56
Seatpost: PNW Loam 34.9 dropper 170mm
Pedals: Deity Compound flats (from old bike)
Saddle: Prologo Proxim w450
Tyre (F): Maxxis Assegai 29 x 2.6 Exo+
Tyre (R): Maxxis Dissector 27.5 x 2.6 Exo+
Insert: Rimpact Pro (rear only)
Wheel (F): Mavic E-Deemax S30 29” (30mm IW)
Wheel (R): Mavic E-Deemax S35 27.5" (35mm IW)
Brakes: 2012 Shimano M810 Saint (from old bike)
Rotors: Shimano SLX 220mm F, 203mm R
Pads: Cleanskin Sintered
Shifter: Approx 2016 era Shimano XTR 11 Speed (from old bike)
Derailleur: Shimano XT Shadow+ 11 speed
Cassette: Shimano Xt 11-46
Chain: Shimano XT 11 speed
I recorded the whole build with the intention of making a YouTube video of it. Just need to find some:
Time: spare
Last edited:
endo_alley
Member
How do you like the mullet setup? That is my only concern with Typhon bikes. They look like great bikes. I just have no experience with 27.5/29 mullet setups. And a fair amount of experience with 29/29 bikes.
So far, I absolutely love the bike. Every aspect of it. I'm not sure how much is due to it being a mullet setup, as I too had never ridden one. My previous bikes were a slack-ish 140mm 29er hardtail, and my old gen2 Nomad 26er (which this is replacing). Prob for the last 2 years, I was only riding the hardtail. Compared to that, I feel no disadvantage to having a slightly smaller rear wheel. But ... said wheel is also wrapped in much bigger, wider rubber, and has 160mm of plush coil-soaked travel on it. So I don't know if that's a fair comparison.
What I will say is, the Typhon looks and feels like a DH sled of not that long ago. It's longer and slacker than anything I've owned, by a lot. It's incredibly planted and stable at speed, and ridiculously confidence inspiring. But ... surprisingly capable and nimble in tight & twisty XC type stuff too. To the point that, combined with it having a very capable motor, I can't see myself ever needing or wanting to ride a different bike, ever again.
Final point, I was about to pull the trigger on a Rail 9.8XT because I wanted a 29er eMTB, having loved riding my 29er hardtail all these years. I test rode and was sold on one of them, and about to pull the A$13K trigger on a bike with what I considered sub-par suspension and some other components. This thing rides every bit as good as that felt, if not more planted and stable, and saved me A$4K and it's got the suspension and components I wanted.
bram.biesiekierski
Active member
Realistically, there is very little difference between 27.5 and 29. But there is some difference that you may be able to feel.
I think mullet is good unless you are a tall giant with super long legs. The advantage is you are less likely to buzz your bum on the rear wheel on big G outs on steeper terrain when your butt is out over the back.
The back is also slightly more manauverable. You might find it easier to jump/whip. Aswell as move the back around when needed.
As always, there is flipside aswell. Generally the 29 is considered better rolling. You might find it goes over choppy terrain just that little bit easier, helping you carry that speed a bit easier.
The mullet does also very slightly change the bike angles. Slightly slacker head, and seat tube angles. Slightly lower BB. Slightly decrease the reach etc.
But all these differences are small. There really isn't a huge difference with 27/29. I reckon if you put most people on a bike blindfolded and asked them what size wheels it had. They wouldn't be able to feel the difference one way or another.
.... right before they hit that tree they couldn't see
I don't know if it's what you're describing, but I notice it's slightly easier to lift and redirect my front wheel in tight stuff, with my rear axle being closer to the front with a smaller wheel, compared to the longer stays of my 29er.
thaeber
Well-known member
But only in case You have a flip chip to adjust rear chainstay length….... right before they hit that tree they couldn't see
I don't know if it's what you're describing, but I notice it's slightly easier to lift and redirect my front wheel in tight stuff, with my rear axle being closer to the front with a smaller wheel, compared to the longer stays of my 29er.
Smilesy
Member
I built up my Typhon over the weekend and had my first ride tonight. I'm absolutely stoked so far, it's a really confidence inspiring bike. I was really just tuning the suspension and tweaking my cockpit setup, but felt really good straight away and ended up with a Strava PB.
Also having a battery that big is great, I was smashing down, then going straight up the fire trail in boost for an hour and a half and still had 70% battery left.
Also a massive thanks to Chris for answering all my questions during the build.
Also having a battery that big is great, I was smashing down, then going straight up the fire trail in boost for an hour and a half and still had 70% battery left.
Also a massive thanks to Chris for answering all my questions during the build.
Smilesy
Member
Time for an update on my early experience with the Typhon.
TLDR: I love it.
My previous ebike was a 2019 Giant Trance e+ SX which I really enjoyed, but the 500Wh battery was too much smaller than all my riding mates who had 600+ Wh batteries. I started looking around at what was currently available, and what I was finding is that most bikes I could afford I didn't like the spec of, or were way outside my budget (looking at you Specialized). I saw Rob's cheeb video a while back and thought it looked like a fun way of doing it, but the Chinese frames (E10 etc) all seemed to have pretty dated geo. That's when I came across the VMG Typhon, and it quickly had me interested. I emailed Chris and he quickly replied back, and everything looked good. I had a think about it over Christmas, and after riding the Epic at Mt Buller (42km with 1200m of climbing) and running out of battery I decided to pull the trigger.
I ordered a frame, wrap and headset through VMG just after Christmas, then went on a buying spree in the boxing day sales. I love researching parts and trying to find bargains so I really was a kid in a candy shop at this point. What I bought was a mix of new and used parts, cutting the corners which I feel don't really effect the performance and spending where I think it really matters. The parts started to build up in my home office, then it was a the waiting game for the frame to arrive (the headset supplier shutdown over Christmas so that pushed things back a few weeks). I've listed the spec below.
Once everything arrived, I started by applying the wrap. I thought this would somewhat annoying task, but it was way more fiddley that I imagined. Buy the end I was getting much better, but if you haven't done it before, pay someone to do it for you, trust me it's worth it.
With that done I started putting it all together. Everything went really smoothly and I didn't have any build issues at all. Being a somewhat cheaper Chinese carbon frame, I was wondering if I would run into any issues, but happily there weren't any. I setup the suspension with 30% sag front and rear and followed the Rockshock trailhead app's recommendation for rebound.
I'm really happy with the look of the bike as well. You can only get the frame in black, but after the fluro orange and blue of my Giant I wanted to go the other way. Looks certainly weren't the top of my criteria list when shopping for parts, but when possible I did go for black parts to match. It's ended up looking really cool to me with nearly everything being black, then the fork, shock and wheels having silver stickers.
For my maiden ride I took it to Red Hill which has a few very rutty and rough tracks with fire tracks back up, which are a great place to setup suspension. I started on an easy green run (East Link) to give the bike a shakedown and to make sure I hadn't stuffed anything in my build. By the end of that track I was already impressed, it just felt really comfortable and I was going into turns faster than I really intended to before the run, it just gives you confidence.
I then rode up a pretty basic climb (High Roller). Chris had asked me if I wanted the firmware with more or less overrun and I went with less as it's what I'm used to. Even with that firmware there was still quite a bit more overrun than I'm used to and a couple of times I stopped pedalling into a switchback and I kept accelerating. The first few times definitely took me by surprise and I grabbed a load of brake. It's certainly something you need to get used to. The motor has masses of power, but it delivers it differently to the Giant Yamaha motors. The Giants are best when you are in a higher gear and at a lower tempo, the Bafang seems to be more like the Shimano or Bosch motors and like you to keep the tempo up a bit more. Now that I've had a few more rides and I'm getting used to the overrun, it is really useful for climbing tech, and also for riding switchbacks. You stop pedalling just before you get into the corner, then to overrun powers you through it.
I then rode up the fire trail to Rock Salt which is a hard blue run. It has a bit of everything, berms, little drops and chunk in a pretty short run so is great for testing. The first run a took it pretty easy and was pretty happy with my setup. I rode back up and hit it a bit faster, then faster again. I did 5 laps with a few suspension tweaks each run and was pretty happy with my setup by the end of that. I also ran into a guy up there was really interested in the bike. Having something different is always a conversation starter.
I rode for about 2hrs in the end, with quite a bit of faffing around tweaking things but still only went through 35% of the battery doing 750m of climbing. I certainly don't think the battery will limit my riding time now, my fitness might though. At the end of the session I found I had a Strava PB which shocked me, the tracks were dry and I wasn't trying to push hard at all. It just shows how capable the bike is that on the first ride I was feeling that comfortable.
I've had a couple more rides since and haven't come away any less impressed. The bike chews up the chunk as you would expect a 170/160 bike to, but the cornering ability is what has really impressed me the most. I don't know what it is, but I am going into corners so much quicker than I ever did on my Giant and is just keeps gripping. I've done a few 5 footish drops and the bike eats those, again with decent suspension I wouldn't expect less but the frame has taken it all in stride.
So far the only thing I don't love the controller and display. The controller is just bigger than it needs to be and where the cable comes out gets in the way of the dropper unless you angle it further forward than you really want to. The display is good but the mount is only designed for 31.8mm bars not the 35mm I have, so I have to do a bit of a hack job to get it fitted. I will have a look at the new DP C245 controller and display and I can find them anywhere (it sounds like Chris is going to get some).
My build
Fork: 2021 Rockshox Zeb Ultimate 170mm
Shock: 2021 Rockshox Super Deluxe Select with MegNeg
Brakes: SRAM Code RSC with 200m SRAM HS2 rotors
Wheels: Zipp 3zero Moto
Tyres: Michelin Wild Enduro 2.4 front and rear (rear with Cushcore)
Derailleur: SRAM GX Axis
Cassette: SRAM XX1 10-52
Bars: Renthal Fatbar 35 Carbon
Grips: DMR Deathgrips
Stem: Kona 40mm
Headset: Cane Creek Hellbender 70
Seatpost: PNW Rainier 170mm
Saddle: Ergon Enduro Comp
Pedals: Nuke Proof flats
Total Weight: 24.3kg
TLDR: I love it.
My previous ebike was a 2019 Giant Trance e+ SX which I really enjoyed, but the 500Wh battery was too much smaller than all my riding mates who had 600+ Wh batteries. I started looking around at what was currently available, and what I was finding is that most bikes I could afford I didn't like the spec of, or were way outside my budget (looking at you Specialized). I saw Rob's cheeb video a while back and thought it looked like a fun way of doing it, but the Chinese frames (E10 etc) all seemed to have pretty dated geo. That's when I came across the VMG Typhon, and it quickly had me interested. I emailed Chris and he quickly replied back, and everything looked good. I had a think about it over Christmas, and after riding the Epic at Mt Buller (42km with 1200m of climbing) and running out of battery I decided to pull the trigger.
I ordered a frame, wrap and headset through VMG just after Christmas, then went on a buying spree in the boxing day sales. I love researching parts and trying to find bargains so I really was a kid in a candy shop at this point. What I bought was a mix of new and used parts, cutting the corners which I feel don't really effect the performance and spending where I think it really matters. The parts started to build up in my home office, then it was a the waiting game for the frame to arrive (the headset supplier shutdown over Christmas so that pushed things back a few weeks). I've listed the spec below.
Once everything arrived, I started by applying the wrap. I thought this would somewhat annoying task, but it was way more fiddley that I imagined. Buy the end I was getting much better, but if you haven't done it before, pay someone to do it for you, trust me it's worth it.
With that done I started putting it all together. Everything went really smoothly and I didn't have any build issues at all. Being a somewhat cheaper Chinese carbon frame, I was wondering if I would run into any issues, but happily there weren't any. I setup the suspension with 30% sag front and rear and followed the Rockshock trailhead app's recommendation for rebound.
I'm really happy with the look of the bike as well. You can only get the frame in black, but after the fluro orange and blue of my Giant I wanted to go the other way. Looks certainly weren't the top of my criteria list when shopping for parts, but when possible I did go for black parts to match. It's ended up looking really cool to me with nearly everything being black, then the fork, shock and wheels having silver stickers.
For my maiden ride I took it to Red Hill which has a few very rutty and rough tracks with fire tracks back up, which are a great place to setup suspension. I started on an easy green run (East Link) to give the bike a shakedown and to make sure I hadn't stuffed anything in my build. By the end of that track I was already impressed, it just felt really comfortable and I was going into turns faster than I really intended to before the run, it just gives you confidence.
I then rode up a pretty basic climb (High Roller). Chris had asked me if I wanted the firmware with more or less overrun and I went with less as it's what I'm used to. Even with that firmware there was still quite a bit more overrun than I'm used to and a couple of times I stopped pedalling into a switchback and I kept accelerating. The first few times definitely took me by surprise and I grabbed a load of brake. It's certainly something you need to get used to. The motor has masses of power, but it delivers it differently to the Giant Yamaha motors. The Giants are best when you are in a higher gear and at a lower tempo, the Bafang seems to be more like the Shimano or Bosch motors and like you to keep the tempo up a bit more. Now that I've had a few more rides and I'm getting used to the overrun, it is really useful for climbing tech, and also for riding switchbacks. You stop pedalling just before you get into the corner, then to overrun powers you through it.
I then rode up the fire trail to Rock Salt which is a hard blue run. It has a bit of everything, berms, little drops and chunk in a pretty short run so is great for testing. The first run a took it pretty easy and was pretty happy with my setup. I rode back up and hit it a bit faster, then faster again. I did 5 laps with a few suspension tweaks each run and was pretty happy with my setup by the end of that. I also ran into a guy up there was really interested in the bike. Having something different is always a conversation starter.
I rode for about 2hrs in the end, with quite a bit of faffing around tweaking things but still only went through 35% of the battery doing 750m of climbing. I certainly don't think the battery will limit my riding time now, my fitness might though. At the end of the session I found I had a Strava PB which shocked me, the tracks were dry and I wasn't trying to push hard at all. It just shows how capable the bike is that on the first ride I was feeling that comfortable.
I've had a couple more rides since and haven't come away any less impressed. The bike chews up the chunk as you would expect a 170/160 bike to, but the cornering ability is what has really impressed me the most. I don't know what it is, but I am going into corners so much quicker than I ever did on my Giant and is just keeps gripping. I've done a few 5 footish drops and the bike eats those, again with decent suspension I wouldn't expect less but the frame has taken it all in stride.
So far the only thing I don't love the controller and display. The controller is just bigger than it needs to be and where the cable comes out gets in the way of the dropper unless you angle it further forward than you really want to. The display is good but the mount is only designed for 31.8mm bars not the 35mm I have, so I have to do a bit of a hack job to get it fitted. I will have a look at the new DP C245 controller and display and I can find them anywhere (it sounds like Chris is going to get some).
My build
Fork: 2021 Rockshox Zeb Ultimate 170mm
Shock: 2021 Rockshox Super Deluxe Select with MegNeg
Brakes: SRAM Code RSC with 200m SRAM HS2 rotors
Wheels: Zipp 3zero Moto
Tyres: Michelin Wild Enduro 2.4 front and rear (rear with Cushcore)
Derailleur: SRAM GX Axis
Cassette: SRAM XX1 10-52
Bars: Renthal Fatbar 35 Carbon
Grips: DMR Deathgrips
Stem: Kona 40mm
Headset: Cane Creek Hellbender 70
Seatpost: PNW Rainier 170mm
Saddle: Ergon Enduro Comp
Pedals: Nuke Proof flats
Total Weight: 24.3kg
iscander13
Member
Chris are you using FC2.0 motors or FC1.0 as well? The latest FC1.0 revisions have a different bootloader and earlier firmware cannot be loaded on it. Is the your firmware identical between diffent revisions of motors? Thanks!
We have FC1.0 with the firmware we developed with Bafang that fixes the cutouts. We have a few versions with different amounts of overrun and power
We also have a limited number of FC2.0 that customers can upgrade to.
We also have a limited number of FC2.0 that customers can upgrade to.
Nice to put a face to the voice.
Took the Typhon to Lake Mountain again on the weekend. It is such an awesome bike. I'm so glad I waited those extra few days to decide what bike to buy back in '22 such that I discovered this thread and decided on this bike.
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