# Most controllable motor/EMTB for technical trails and trials riding?



## Gruitr1 (Mar 18, 2011)

Hello All,

I'm looking to purchase my first Emtb. I've ridden the Pivot shuttle and Specialized Levo but only in a parking lot for a brief spin.. I come from a motorcycle trials background(rode mototrials for 25+ years) and started mountain biking 10+ years ago. Fell in love with mountain biking and especially the hard tech trails, climbs, and descents.. My biggest concern with Emtb is having controllable power when you're in rock gardens, hopping bike, track standing, setting up for obstacles, on and off the pedals, etc.. Is there any motor or Emtb that is known for very accurate and controllable pedaling? Just starting to dig around and investigate all the options.

Thank you for any advice in advance!! Feet Up!


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## Bigwheel (Jan 12, 2004)

What you are looking for is instant engagement of the PAS. I'm not the expert and haven't ridden one but the Yamaha system is purported to have the most sensitive of that lot plus incline recognition.

https://ebike-mtb.com/en/yamaha-pw-x2-2020-review/

Doesn't sound like the testers above liked the instant engagement feature that much however. But if you are used to all the other motors that have a bit of lag I can see why it would be noticeable. But for trials type riding when that first burst is key it might work for your needs. Haibike and Giant have Yamaha motor models I believe.


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## Old & Slow (May 3, 2020)

You need to watch some of the reviews from EMTB Videos. The channel is based out of Norway and he rides exactly as you describe: technical.

Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpSsSCSkBfJcGXdn631neUg

I personally went for a Bafang conversion because I wanted a throttle. Don't use the throttle a lot but definitely comes in handy at times.


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## Gruitr1 (Mar 18, 2011)

Thank you for the link and responses


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## rangeriderdave (Aug 29, 2008)

I too come from off road moto's (enduro) ,been riding mountain bikes for 25 + years. I got a Trek rail 7 (Bosch ) in July . I have ridden it around 200 miles, I'm still learning how to apply power in tech sections . The surge from a dead stop is a little too much sometimes. There are ways to lessen that ,be in eco mode is the easyist . You can reprogram the inputs on many of the motors ,there's a thread here about that.


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## GregB406 (Dec 19, 2005)

I think this GT model is Euro only but I'm not sure. It has a Shimano power unit. While Chris could make anything look good it's obvious he is able to get just the right amount of power and control when he needs it. (url)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqtWx3d_zR0(/url)


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## rocwandrer (Oct 19, 2008)

I just built up a bafang mid-drive powered E-bike. On this platform, for $12 you can buy a usb cable. For $0 you can download software. Then you can tune the amount of assist, the relationship between cadence and assist amount, the off delay vs minimum cadence for activation trade off inherent in all pedelecs, the throttle behavior, etc. The stock programing from bafang is garbage. The custom programming from the vendor I bought from is much better, but being able to tune it for off road use made it go from good to awesome. For the commercially available ebikes, do any of them allow consumer tuning of setup parameters?

I don't have a throttle on the bike. I have no detectable off delay and fairly seamless integration of power. For my frame with the motor forward of the downtube, the reduced breakover clearance would be a deal breaker for trials. Also, for any maneuver where you want assist before you've pedaled one revolution, you are going to want a throttle, and probably a torque simulating rather than a speed control based throttle. For trials, the quickest engaging pedelecs are almost certainly going to still be too slow unless they are running purely torque sensing without cadence input.


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