So I put some time in on the 150 RS - no trail riding, but got to put the motor through its paces, and check out the general build quality. They have clearly put a lot of thought into the design and spec, with everything beefed up where it needs to be, and easily accessible.
The bike rides very nicely and I instantly felt at home on it, it is easy enough to flick around for an EMTB, you can definitely feel how the weight placement has paid dividends as its easy to get the front end up and bunny hop. The bike feels very well put together, and its hard to fault anything spec wise on the RS, there's nothing that needs upgrading on it IMO out the box, save for the contact points being changed to an owners personal preference. Was definitely a bike you could tell from the first few pedal strokes will be a lot of fun to ride.
The motor is interesting - this is the second Gen 4 Bosch bike I have ridden, the other being the new Focus Jam. Its a huge improvement over the older Bosch system, there is no noticeable resistance past the power assistance cut off, and its very smooth to ride. Noise is hard to describe, its not noisy but kind of an electrical whine, I would say quieter than a Shimano, but its a totally different noise. When backpedaling you hear what I assume are the pawls or similar in the motor engaging , and I would assume that if descending and rocking on the pedals you would hear this noise.
The biggest thing for me is the amount of overrun on the motor when initialising pedalling - i.e the motor continues supplying power to the drivetrain for a bit after you stop peddling. Its better than the older Bosch, but still noticeable if coming off a Shimano - IMO one of the best things about the Shimano is how natural it feels, because it doesn't do this.
TBH I find it very hard to tell the difference between most of the current motors, they all do the same thing very well nowadays, and reliability, user customisation, and user interface would sway me on choosing a motor over power outputs etc. The Gen 4 works well, and doesn't have obvious traits that would be annoying day to day, and the overrun thing is something others like.
The main point I would make about the bike, is that whilst you can remove the battery, the bike is not designed to do this on a regular basis - this is definitely a bike where you are going to want to be able to charge it where you keep it. it is a PITA to take it out, and probably a 5 - 10 minute job if you want to do it properly with risking damaging any cabling.
Firstly although you probably can take the battery out with the bike turned upside down, I couldn't, because there is no way to pull it out without IMO risking damaging the connectors and wiring, and we had to flip the bike onto its back wheel to get the battery to slide out one I had disconnected the wiring.
Ideally you would put it on a workstand, remove the bash guard, which is held I place with a bolt, then you have to remove another bolt under that which releases the "cap" which holds the battery in the down tube, but also connects the battery to the motor cables. You then have to move this out of the way and slide the battery out. The bolt at the top of the downtube merely holds the top of the battery in place, preventing it sliding too far up the down tube.
The cabling from the motor to battery, and the whole assembly of the battery holder etc in the downtube is designed in such a way that it is clearly not meant to be removed on a regular basis, and I would be worried about damaging this wiring by removing the battery too often. You also have to ensure that all the internal routing it clear of the battery when you put it back in, as unless its in the channel on the top of the downtube it gets in the way.
Anyway from my brief ride I would say definitely a welcome addition to the EMTB market, not a bike for anyone who needs to remove the battery easily/regularly, and I cant wait to take one for a proper ride as it was a bike that encourage you to play around on, and I suspect will be a proper weapon on the trails.
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