- Okay.
Do I get a break now?
No break?
(upbeat music playing)
Hey everybody. I'm Mike Levy
and we're here at Sun Peaks for the 2021 Summer Field Test.
Now the bike park is about a mile that way,
but here I am standing in the middle
of yet another gravel fire road climb
with five of the latest enduro bikes.
And that only means one thing,
it's time for another efficiency test.
So today we're gonna try to figure out
which one of these five bikes wastes
the least amount of watts.
And yeah, I know that these are enduro bikes
and climbing isn't really their specialty.
But I wanna know which one sucks the least
when it comes to a huge day in the saddle
or a long transfer stage.
And hopefully, you do as well.
So while Matt and Henry are over there
riding the lifts in the bike park,
I'll be over here doing laps up this gravel fire road.
So what about all those E-bikes that we have here
for the field test?
Well, something tells me that
they can get up this climb just fine.
But just for some perspective and so we can see
how much faster they are, I brought along Norco's Range VLT
to compare it against the regular bikes.
So here's how we're gonna do this.
I've got two Freelap cones.
One at the start line down here,
and one at the top, about half a kilometer away.
I've also got a set of
Garmin's, new Rally XC power pedals.
And those talk to my 1030 head unit
where I set up a power zone
to make sure that I'm putting out
the same amount of effort each time
up this gravel road.
So to keep things fair, all the bikes are wearing
matching Maxxis control tyres.
And because Kazimir got stuck at the border,
I've been demoted to unpaid intern to make sure
they're all inflated to the exact same tyre pressure
to keep things fair.
All of the suspension has been set up correctly
for my weight.
And of course, we're leaving the suspension open
on all the bikes for every climb.
One thing to keep in mind is that
while the time gaps might be relatively small
for our little test today,
if you extrapolate that out over a huge day in the saddle,
whether that's a big epic or a huge enduro race day
with long transfer stages,
it's gonna add up to a pretty big difference.
And yeah, you know, I know this isn't lab science,
but here we are out in the wild.
And just like the impossible climb,
there's definitely something we can learn from this.
So that's how we're gonna do it.
Those are all the bikes,
and the only thing left for me to do is to start pedaling.
(deep sensational music playing)
So our first bike up is the new YT, it's very turquoised.
Let's get it.
(deep sensational music playing)
(heavy breathing) Okay.
2:04, little quicker.
And a few of them, power was good being on.
Bike felt quick.(continues breathing heavily)
Give me a minute.
All right. Next up, we have Transition's all-new Spire,
170 mils of travel, very purple.
I'm not sure that's gonna help me, but let's find out.
(deep sensational music playing)
2:03, everybody, for the Spire.
(heavily breathing) That felt good.
It feels it's not moving around a bunch.
Feels lighter than it is.
(heavy breathing)
Maybe I'm just getting fitter.
Okay, next stop.
Norco is all new high-pivot Range.
The boys say it's pretty quick on the descents.
I'm not sure about the climbs though.
Let's hit it.
(deep sensational music playing)
It feels like I should be doing shuttle runs.
2:13.
Felt like five minutes.
All right, next up is the We are One arrival
made here in Canada, just down the road in Kamloops.
It's the lightest bike here.
It also feels like the most efficient on the trail.
We'll see what happens on the efficiency test.
Let's get it.
(deep sensational music playing)`
(deep sigh and heavy breathing)
We Are One's Arrival.
I arrived at the top in two minutes flat.
That's three seconds faster than the Transition Spire.
It feels about 20 seconds faster.
All right, it's time for the other high-pivot bike
in our test, GT's All-New Force.
It has an idler pulley down there.
I'm not sure how much that's gonna help on this climb,
but let's find out.
Let's go.
(deep sensational music playing)
Okay.
Big GT Force.
Time is 2:10.
We've got the same powers as the other bikes.
It didn't feel great, I'm not gonna lie.
All right.
And finally, we have the big E-bike, Norco's Range VLT.
Seems to weigh about 80 pounds, but then again,
I do have the upper body strength of a 12-year-old boy.
So thankfully it has a motor. Let's get it done.
Turbo mode.
(deep sensational music)
(sigh with heavy breathing)
Dude, I must be getting pretty fit, 1:07.
So the Norco Range VLT E-bike put up the same 300 watts.
It's literally twice as fast as the slowest bike,
which sorta doesn't come as a surprise, I guess.
So are you doing twice as many runs
or are you doing half the time?
That's the thing with E-bikes.
I feel like you should,
like, I still want to pedal just as hard,
but you're going up the climbs twice as fast.
I mean, it's not a terrible feeling, Max.
All right. That is another efficiency test in the books.
I said I was never gonna do this again, yet, here I am.
We had a 13-second spread between the slowest bike,
which is Norco's new high-pivot Range with an idler pulley,
and it feels very much like that on the trail.
So if you're the kind of rider
who's looking for a heavy hitting bike,
you don't care about the climbing,
well, that Norco Range might be right up your alley.
Now, if you're looking for something with a little bit
more energy and life to it,
well, a lot more energy and life,
that's gonna be the We Are One Arrival,
that came in at two minutes flat.
As for me, I'm tired.
I think that's it for today.
Make sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss
any more field test videos.
I'm gonna go get some donuts.
(deep sensational music playing)