I did my first ride on my 9.8 XT today. I have a broken fibula that is still healing, but the ortho said I could resume activities, so I went for a morning trail ride. The injury still hurts a little, and I've lost fitness from not riding for 4 months, and I'm over 60, so I took it pretty easy.
I did most of the ride in the middle assist mode. I did use the high assist on a couple of the climbs. The ride was about 1.5 hours, and there was about 45% battery remaining at the end of the ride.
A lot of the reviews say that it rides just like an analog bike, but I do notice the extra weight, especially going over logs or bunny hopping obstacles. It weighs about 12 lbs more than my analog trail bike, so this is not surprising.
At first the cockpit felt a little short, but I got used to it very quickly. My regular trail bike is a Pivot Trail 429, and it has a bit longer reach, but only about 5mm, so I wouldn't expect to feel much difference. I might try moving the saddle back on the rails a bit before the next ride. The handling of the EXe felt very neutral. On the Pivot I sometimes have to make sure to pressure the front tire in corners, but the Trek just felt very neutral and balanced. Stable going downhill, and no front end wandering going uphill. Compared to the Pivot it isn't as lively/poppy, but it feels more planted, probably due to the extra weight, but maybe also the suspension.
The RSL one-piece bar/stem combo felt okay, but might have too much upsweep for me. I find that having more than a tiny bit of upsweep puts pressure on the outside of my palms, so I usually roll my bars back to reduce upsweep, but these don't have that adjustability, and I did feel some discomfort on my outer palms.
The XT drivetrain worked awesome, as expected (I have XT on my hardtail and on my son's bike too.). However, the 4-piston XT brakes and big rotors didn't feel as powerful as expected. It almost felt as if the brake pads are contaminated, so I will try replacing the pads.
The suspension felt pretty good, but not as plush as I'd like. I didn't use full travel during the ride, so I will try lowering pressures.
The Bontrager SE5 tires worked great. They had confident grip, even in damp leaves. They did slip a bit on damp rocks, but I think almost any tire would have. I initially thought I might swap them for something lighter, but their grip and durability are a good fit for this bike. They felt a lot like Minions, which is not surprising since the tread looks like a cross between a Minion DHF and DHR.
The Bontrager dropper post worked fine, but it does require more force to push down than the Fox Transfer I have on my other bikes. The return speed on the Bontrager post is also slower than I'd like. I don't think there is any way to adjust this. More air pressure might speed up the return, but it would also increase the effort to push it down.
The motor noise was noticeable to me, especially at higher cadences, but it's not any louder than the rear hub. So you get the motor whine when pedaling and the hub sound when coasting. I don't think other riders in a group would notice the sound at all, though.
Overall it was really fun. The pedal assist was really nice on the climbs, especially since I wanted to take it easy today, and it was fun to ride some of the trails faster than I usually do. The assist also helped power through rock gardens.
For these short morning rides I will probably still choose the analog bike most of the time, and use the e-bike for bigger rides with longer climbs, or for group rides with younger, faster riders.
