- Get it together, Mike.
Come on, you got two and a half more to do.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
- Hello. My name is Henry
and welcome to Pinkbikes summer field tests.
This is very exciting
because this year we have E-bikes.
We're in Sun Peaks and we have
the brand new Yeti 160E.
Now this, as the name suggests
has a 160 mil travel at the back
peds or 170 mil fork,
and it puts it firmly in the endure category.
But how does this bike compare to offerings
from Norco, Commoncal and Specialized?
Some of whom are old hands
at the e-bike game by now.
Well, we've come here to put it to the test.
So the geometry.
This bike uses modern,
if not particularly aggressive geometry
with a 64.5 degree, head tube angle
combined to a nice and steep
78 degrees seat tube angle.
In regards to reach, a small starts at 430 mil,
and it goes all the way through
to an extra large for the Arctic monkeys fans
at 505 millimeters of reach.
Now I'm six foot on the nose or 183 centimeters,
and I ride this large, which is 480 mil.
It also has a nice and long,
uninterrupted seat tube to give
the riders a wide array of choice
when it comes to the amount of drop.
So now for the main event,
what you're all here for, the suspension system.
So this sixfinity suspension layout,
which has apparently been developed
behind the scenes by Yeti for years,
isn't totally dissimilar
to the switch infinity layout,
you might be more familiar with.
That's because the lower link
changes direction partway
through its travel, much like
the switch infinity system you may well
be aware of.
The six bar suspension system comes
with three different chips
to help you choose the amount of
progression on your bike.
So it's a 25, 30 or 35%,
and those adjustments do affect the rear travel
by a small two millimeters.
You do so by changing the chip
just at the low of the shock,
and I think it's a really cool adjustment
and I would love to see more bike brands
take this approach.
The Yeti uses a Fox 38 with 170 mil travel
on the front.
Now this fork has a Grip2 damper
with an E-bike tune from Fox.
Now what that essentially means is that
it just has a bit more compression
compared to your standard tune.
Now the Burly fork is paired
to a Fox X2 at the back,
but how do we get to the top of the Ruddy Hill
in the first place?
Well, that of course is where the motor comes in.
With this bike, it uses a 630 watt hour battery
in a Shimano EP8 system.
It has 85 Newton meters of torque
with a 500 Watts maximum.
What does any of this mean?
Well that's why we took it up on the mountain
and compared it to its rivals to find out.
(upbeat music)
- All right.
It's finally time to talk about
how this brand new Yeti e-bike
works on the trails,
but first to get to the good stuff, as always,
we've got to do a whole bunch of climbing.
So let's talk about that.
- Yeah. So this bike I'm predominantly
rode it on technical single-track globes,
like most of these bikes,
and I found that it had really good grip.
It's actually slightly more conservative
in the angles than something
like the Commoncal or the Norco.
- Yeah.
- And that's where it kind of reaped the benefit.
It has loads of support,
especially when it's got that nice balance
it's supported, but also it really grips.
- Right. I would agree with that.
So I did a ton of Fireroad climbing on this bike,
doing the battery testing
and 4,569 feet in an hour and 20 minutes,
before the battery cocked out.
So a whole bunch of Fireoad climbing.
- Now this was a bike that
it definitely really enjoyed,
and it was actually very good
and not necessarily taking things fast
and trying to trick your way up there.
It had enough grip
that you can put it in the eco mode.
And actually for me,
it had more than enough grip
just to always make its way up.
- Matt, would you agree?
It sounds like Henry is saying
that this is the best technical climber
of the bunch, thanks to a lot of grip
and a relatively steep head angle
compared to some of these other E-bikes
we have here.
- Yeah.
I think this one's sat at 64 5
and it had quite a low front end,
which definitely helped you climb
obviously with the powertrain
and the really active suspension,
as long as you kept those short cranks spinning,
you had traction for days
and you could climb pretty much
anything on this thing.
(upbeat music)
- Okay. we're talking about descending now
and does that suspension
and how active it is, how supple it is,
does that help the bikes cause on the descents,
or does it hurt it?
- I really liked the feeling of this Yeti.
It climbs really well, and it descends also
with that same feel of lots and lots of
grip, however, and there is a bit of however,
when you're riding on really steep trails
and you're riding it fast,
that slightly steeper head tube angle
combined with the bike
that doesn't sit too far deep into it's stroke,
which effectively slackens it out.
It means a little weight of an e-Bike.
You almost kind of at a risk
of overtaking the front wheel.
Obviously you never would,
but compared to something
like the Commencal of the Norco,
which felt a lot more planted,
a lot more stable at high speed.
This felt a bit more restless, I'd say.
- Okay.
Could you also say that it felt
a bit more playful and maybe
compatible with tight corners
and stuff like that?
- Absolutely.
This bike is for me compared to something like,
the Norco with the Commencal, is night and day
with how maneuverable it is
and how you can kind of shuffle the bike
around, you know, as you play
with the levels of grip.
I mean, I think this bike,
in terms of the descending.
Yeah. Again, we spoke about the other reviews,
but some people come to E-biking
after mountain biking for 20 years
and they want something
that is like a Norco is like a sled.
Other people actually kind of newer to it,
and they want something that is,
it's less than intimidating prospect.
I would say that Yeti
kind of falls into that gap, it rides
like you expect it to ride.
It's not very extreme
and on flatter trails
and not forgetting that everyone has
some big spike park on their doorstep.
It really comes alive.
- Matt, you did some time testing on this bike,
which means you were going pretty quick on it.
Can you speak to the handling a little bit
at that limit?
What does that feel like?
- Yeah, it was pretty surprising.
I did one of the first laps on the Yeti
and it happened to be a time lap
and it actually went faster
than the previous two.
Also one of the Knievel laps
I thought was going to be the fastest
and the Yeti topped it.
And I can't really explain why,
I felt like it was a little bit more nimble
in terms of the front end handling.
It was a lot of heavy on the front wheel feel,
but yeah, that rear suspension
was really, really good.
We rode it in the linear setting
and then in the progressive setting,
but I've found the linear setting
to be more than enough
bottom out control and midstoke.
- All right. What about in the tight stuff?
So Henry talked a little bit about
the bikes heading, which is a touch steeper.
Does that help the bike in the tight stuff?
I mean your time was faster,
but I want to talk about feel,
how does it feel in that steep stuff
and tight stuff?
- Yeah in the steep stuff
it put me a little bit more forward,
but the chain stays are relatively short
for the E-bike in comparison
to the other on tests.
And once we got into the tighter sections,
I could really get up on the front
and turn quick.
- All right. So you guys are going to go
for an E-bike ride.
We're here in BC.
Matt, I know you really liked that Norco VLT.
Where does the new Yeti sit
compared to that monster truck?
Is the Yeti close to that in its abilities
or is it a different kind of E-bike
maybe a little bit more playful and nimble?
- Yeah, I would say it's a little bit more
playful and nimble.
It's a little bit lighter.
This one's at 51 pounds
and it has a little bit more
conservative geometry
that might reward more of an all-round rider.
It doesn't quite have that some plow
or push through feeling where the front wheel
is going to go over things first.
It's a little bit more behind you feeling
as you are on top of the bike.
But this suspension holds up
and it works really well.
(upbeat music)
- Okay. And that brings us to the component,
highs and lows.
Number one, this thing had an access dropper
on it Henry, I love that thing.
I noticed that you had it listed here as a pro.
Tell me about it.
- The reason the access is so good on E-bikes
is one, there are already too many wires.
And that just doesn't look very nice,
quite frankly.
- It's horrible. Yeah.
- Completely.
And secondly, when you on an E-bike,
because you might find yourself
going up techier stuff more often,
or actually trying to make a day
just riding really tech stuff.
Just being able to press the button
for half a second
and know you're going to lose that much height,
just to get the saddle out the way of touch.
- Speaking like someone who loves tech climbs,
Henry.
- It actually. really works. That's great.
- All right.
Let's move on to cons Matt, take it away.
- Yeah. I mean, we did have
the top end Yeti E-bike build.
So of course it's pretty hard to fault
all the Fox factory suspension
and the wireless dropper.
One thing that did stand out though,
was the brakes we had the Code RSCs,
which are awesome.
And I had a 220 upfront,
but why not throw a 220 Outback?
I mean, we're trying to slow down
an E-bike doing some big descents
out here in Sun Peaks.
(upbeat music)
- Okay. Let's move on to models and pricing.
And I've already mentioned the price for this one.
We have to T1 Turq,
that's the most Yeti of all the Yeti's
it's $12,300.
It comes with access seat post
high end suspension,
and a higher end frame
that apparently a little bit lighter.
the cheapest option,
the least expensive option, $10,100.
So that gets you
a performance 38 SLX drive train,
and a Fox FloatX shock,
as well as Code R brakes.
That's $2,600 cheaper. What are you doing?
- I mean, it's a lot of money,
either way for an E-bike.
- I couldn't spend
more than 10 grand on a bike.
- I mean $10,000. That is that's, you know,
that that's get a big chunk of cash,
especially when you compare it to things like the
Commencal, where their builds starts around six,
but the Norco immensely without a battery,
but start around five.
- That, the Commencal though, to be fair,
it is not the Yeti.
Like the Yeti has finished beautifully.
It feels like a much more cohesive package
than the other E-bikes.
- It's a slightly more, you know,
slightly more high brow than that,
but I mean, it's a huge amount of money
for a bike, especially
when they're things like Commencal which will
do the job are available.
- Yep.
(upbeat music)
- Okay. We're onto pros and cons.
We're going to start with the good stuff. Matt,
tell me the things that you liked.
- Yeah. I really loved this suspension.
It was pretty mind blowing. Actually.
It just stayed on the ground
and felt really active
and lively without doing anything weird
and really good small bump.
It had really good mid stroke
and good bottom out support too.
Just always felt like it had traction
and good support
to even pick the bike up.
For an E-bike,
this is not super characteristic of those
and the geometry is a little more conservative,
but I think it's going to work
for a lot of people in a lot of different places.
- Yeah.
More all around than focused
on just being a monster truck
through this stuff.
- Yeah.
(upbeat music)
Henry, tell me some cons.
- You know, we've talked about the geometry.
One thing that is probably
just on the wrong side of the
arbitrary line is too long seat tubes.
It comes in at 450 mil for a large,
and that, you know,
we were talking about earlier on today,
it felt like we going to sell that
around 440, 445. You could just
by the skin of your teeth
get away from it, 450 is getting quite long,
especially with the 78 degree seat tube angle,
it could run into some problems.
Although I would say it does have
a very long insertion depth,
if that gets us any kudos back.
And the last thing would be
that handling that isn't going
to intimidate some people,
it will not be slacking of others
because let's not forget,
this is a bike that Yeti
have had in the works for years.
And they'll probably stay in the line for years.
And I would imagine in three years time
by geometry be all the more progressive still,
and this bike is still going to be sold, you know?
And I think it will be overtaken,
although it's quite
sort of contemporary right now.
- Yep.
(upbeat music)
- All right. We're almost out of here, but first
we have to talk about the type of rider that the
Yeti 160E best suits,
as well as the type of terrain.
But first Henry,
what kind of rider is this bike best suited for?
- We've seen some of these bikes
that the Norco is basically
a downhill bike with a motor.
The long rear end, the slacked out geometry.
I think this is a great E-bike
as someone who knows
they don't want the downhill bike.
A bit more all-rounded.
They're not looking for something
that's just going to slug out laps
or something maybe a bit more nuanced than that.
- Right.
And someone who maybe doesn't mind
some good technical climbs, right?
- Absolutely.
This bike was by far my favorite E-bike to climb.
- Right.
- Matt, I want you to tell me
the type of terrain that this bike best suits.
- Well, we know Yeti's from Colorado
and I can definitely see it being tailored
to some of the more technical climbing,
tight switchbacks, but still working well for,
I would say the average rider
on like rolling single track.
You're not going to lose a lot of energy
if you have to pump this bike,
even though it's an E-bike and it's heavier,
that suspension is just amazing.
It's really rewarding and has lots of grip.
- Right. There you go.
That is the gist of the new Yeti 160E.
We've got more reviews coming.
So make sure to subscribe.
So you don't miss any of them,
especially the Huck to flat
and the impossible climb.
You're up for that Matt?
- Oh boy, here she comes.
- We'll see you guys there.
(upbeat music)