I Rode A Lightweight eBike For 30 Days. I Didn't Expect This!

It's been almost a year since I rode my first ever e-bike, and I have to admit they've completely won me over. I've ridden full power e-bikes on everything from trail rides to bike parks, and I totally get the appeal. If I've only got a few hours after work, they're a great way to squeeze in more riding. There's always been one type of e-bike I've never really understood, The lightweight e-bike. It's not because I have anything against them. I've just never really understood them. If I wanted to ride an e-bike, well, I'd ride a full power e-bike. And if I want to ride my mountain bike, I guess I'll just head out on my mountain bike. So for the next 30 days, I'm putting that question to the test on the Propane Sresh SL. By the end of this video, I'll know whether I've been missing the point or whether my first impressions were right. To understand why I want to spend a month on this bike, I probably should explain my relationship with e-bikes first. My background is in racing cross-country, and while I don't race so much anymore, staying fit is still a really important part of why I ride. Unfortunately, I'm just too competitive to let go of that feeling of having to beat someone up a climb. These days, though, with a proper job and a few adult responsibilities, I actually have to fit my riding around other things in life. Monday to Friday, most of my riding is actually just commuting, and then on a weekend, I'll hopefully get out for a big ride on the trail bike with a few mates. Up until last year, I'd never actually even ridden an e-bike. I didn't have anything against them, but being a cross-country racer, I just didn't really see how they fit into my program. After joining GMBN, I tried one with Neil, and immediately, I was sold. Suddenly, I could squeeze a proper ride into just a couple of hours after work. I actually found they were brilliant for exploring all the new trails on my doorstep without having to worry about how far apart everything was. Actually, as I was a little bit less fit now, I enjoy just heading out on them and not completely having to empty myself every ride. Despite all that, I still actually don't ride an e-bike that often. Most of the time, I still find myself reaching for my normal mountain bike. Whether that's because I'm training for a race or actually just enjoy the physical side of riding, the normal mountain bike is still my default bike. I've ended up in this strange position where I genuinely like e-bikes, but I just don't use them very often. I guess that's why lightweight e-bikes have always confused me. In my head, I'd already split mountain bikes into two different categories. If I wanted assistance, well, I'd ride a full-power e-bike. If I wanted a workout, I'd ride my normal bike. I just couldn't really work out where an SL bike fitted into all of that. Maybe that's exactly the point. For the next 30 days, I'm putting the Propane Thrasher Cell to the test to see if I've been missing something. Okay, so I find bike treks really boring, so I'm going to try to keep this brief. Three, two, one, let's go. So what is the e-bike I'm riding for 30 days in? This is the Propane Sresh SL, a 160 front, 150 rear, mid-power, lightweight e-bike. It uses the TQHBR60 motor, which means it's got 60 newton meters of torque and 350 watts of peak power, and the motor only weighs 1.924 kilograms. Right, that was a lot of numbers, but what does that actually mean? Well, 60 newton meters of torque and 350 watts of peak power, it's actually quite a lot less than a lot of modern day e-bike motors have, but this isn't a full power, full fat e-bike. I think this is the mountain bikers e-bike. It's not just for people who want to winch to the top of climbs and shuttle descents. This is people who want to enjoy the experience of riding. For me, This feels actually quite a lot like a normal mountain bike. That motor is only 1.9 kilograms, and that feels actually really good when you're descending. We see a lot of downhill pros adding one to two kilograms of weight to their bike, and I actually think it really enhances the ride experience. I've got the 560 watt-hour battery, and I actually don't run the range extender. I don't think I need it. I don't like the extra weight on the bike, and I think 560 watt-hours with that motor is plenty of range. You can also run a main battery that's 360 watt-hours if you want it a bit lighter. That weighs only 1800 grams. Now we also have 160 watt-hour range extender which slots just where the bottle cage goes and this weighs only 960 grams so it's really light and it can give you a total battery capacity of 740 watt-hours which is really impressive for long rides. Sorry, I almost forgot. A few extra things. You can run this in MX, which means 27.5 in the rear and 29 in front, or a double 29. That does adjust the geometry slightly. With a double 29, it's got a 64.3-degree head angle, or with the MX, it's 63.8. Now, I've tried both, horses for courses. Steeper places, run the 27.5 rear. More longer adventure rides, I run the double 29. It's got 160 mil of front travel and 150 mil of rear, so it's in that trail bike territory. But with a big 38 fork on and a coil shock, it can definitely handle a little bit of gnar. It is day one of 30 on the lightweight e-bike, and it's an absolute scorcher. I must admit, actually, that this isn't my first ride on this bike. I did ride it back in November, but it was such terrible weather, I couldn't see anything, I was soaked, I was miserable, that I didn't have a good time regardless. So I'm going to clean the slate, and I'm going to say that this is my first ride on it. I'm going to hit a few laps after work on my local trails, and I'll let you know my first impressions on the bike. Sometimes you spot a track, and because it's got such a horrible climb to get to it, you kind of don't want to go and do it, in case the track's actually not as good as you thought. You waste all your energy going to the climb, and you're like, oh, well, that was disappointing. But for me, on the e-bike, actually, I'm like, oh, well, I'll give it a go, because the climb's fine on the e-bike. Means I end up finding so many more new trails. It is dry at the moment, fun little track. All right, can cruise back up now. Now, if I'm being totally real with you, I'm pretty knackered today. Just come back from a few busy days in Germany shooting a video with EMBN and Steve, which will be out soon, but it's sort of one of those days where if I was on my normal bike, I might have chosen not to ride. My legs are pretty goosed, it's really warm. I actually quite like having the e-bike on these days because it just helps me get out of the door a bit easier. When I know that I'm not going to be suffering quite so much, I can ride easy if you want. Now I've got the power up on this TQ and I'm only doing 100, 150 watts. So it's really nice just to be able to get that endorphin hit and a bit of dopamine and get outside, even on a day where I'm feeling a bit knackered. And I actually probably would have stayed at home, put my feet up. Nice case there. As a bit of a self-confessed data nerd, It's the top tube display, so tells me how much power the bike's putting out, but also tells me how much power I'm putting out, which you don't need, but someone who's trained and used power meters for a long time, it's quite interesting. You definitely can still pedal hard on this bike if you want, or what I'm doing right now, pedal quite easy. It's quite cool to see that in live time rather than looking at it once you finish the ride. That's as quick as I've ever rode that. That was brilliant fun. On the jumps. I actually haven't jumped an e-bike much. Nice case, James. Hey, so I've just finished my first ride on the Thrash SL. Initial impressions, took me a while to get used to, actually, I think I was trying to ride it like a full power e-bike to start with, just wanting to put it in the highest power mode, shut up the climbs, but it's a different bike to that. I think it feels more akin to riding a normal mountain bike. One of the things that I noticed straight away, actually, was the build on this bike. Now, it's an SL e-bike, but it's got a 38 millimeter stanchion fork on it and a coil shock, which, Looks a bit strange to me to start with. Why do you have an SL build with such burly bits on it? But I actually loved it because it meant I could get a bit rowdy on the descent. The bike didn't feel sort of under-biked. I felt like I could handle everything I threw at it. I think it's something I'm still going to have to get used to, the slightly less power, but no, I enjoyed it. Even today when I wasn't feeling so fresh, it was plenty enough. Looking forward to the next 30 days. It's week two of lightweight e-bike ownership. I have to say, Since doing that initial ride on it, I actually haven't picked it up once. Now, it's not because I've got anything against it, it's just I'm actually trying to get fit at the moment. I've been doing some training for a few events and goals I've got coming up. Previously, I've not rode my e-bike when I'm trying to get fit because I have a tendency whenever I'm on it just to stick it in boost and have an easy ride. But I thought since Steve's telling me how hard and how physical e-bike rides are, I've set myself a bit of a challenge. Okay, so the plan's pretty simple. I'm going to treat it a bit like an XCO-style training session. So short climbs, short descents, and I'm going to be doing no stopping. So the plan is, the moment I get to the top of the climb, drop straight back in, I'm going to aim to do about an hour and just see sort of what my average heart rate's like, what my heart rate spikes are like, and also how I feel on the descents, because that should rack up a lot of elevation and descender time. So let's get into it. Okay, I'm going to start it. I'm going to lap the Garmin. Let's go. Starting off with a quite natural fun descent. Oh, bloody hell. It's been a tree down there. A bit of a traverse and then we'll enter our first climb. Trying not to be lazy, so I'm going to try ride hard-ish and see how high my heart rate gets. It's less of a torquey workout in your legs, but cardiovascularly, definitely breathing. That rate's not really come down. 150 and straight back in. I don't know if I'll do an hour of this. Not let the heart rate go down if we can. Fresh as you'd like to be. Oh my god. I'm just back from my ride on the Thresher Cell trying to do a bit of a workout and I've got my stats which are pretty interesting to me actually. So I actually did about half an hour of work time so a bit less than I said I would but it was around... sort of seven climbs and seven descents which is way more than I'll be able to do on my XC bike and a lot more than I'll be able to do like the equivalent trail bike and while I wasn't probably working as hard as I would have done on those bikes I was hitting around 160 beats per minute on most climbs sometimes up to 170 beats per minute and my heart rate was elevated on the descents as well because I was getting to do a lot more of it so I averaged around 140 beats For the full half an hour. Which sort of is around zone two for me, so definitely not that hard. But to reach that sort of 160, 170, that's sort of hitting zone three and threshold. So definitely getting a good workout. Now, what I would say is, while it's a good aerobic workout, because you've got the e-bike motor, it's definitely a lot less torque in your legs. So you don't feel that same strain and sort of leg burn you get on a normal bike. But in some cases, that's quite good. Because I think the problem with mountain biking is, if you do a lot of it, It's really fatiguing, whereas you could do sort of a lot of workout time on this e-bike and it wouldn't zap your legs so much. It's a bit more like a sort of road workout. So definitely you're not going to replace my XC and sort of trail bike training sessions, but I think it's a good alternative to them and you definitely can still get fit on an e-bike, I'm pretty sure. Okay, so it's just about the end of week two of lightweight e-bike ownership. So I thought it'd be a good time to reflect on my first two weeks of riding this bike. Now, I actually haven't rode it as much as I thought I would. And it's not because I have anything against e-bikes or this specific one. I just find I actually don't have a need for this bike as much as I thought I would in my life. My weekend rides, I still like riding my normal Trail Biker X e-bike. Where I have been riding this a lot is actually Monday to Friday, those after work rides. Now, I like riding to stay fit still. I've got a few challenges later in the year, I want to get fit, and I thought this bike, I'm guilty of a full power e-bike, of riding it on boosts the whole time, but actually, with this one being slightly less powerful, 60 Newton meters, I find I can still get a good workout on it. And actually, I can double the amount of riding I can do for the same period of time. So in an hour, I can do a lot more descents, a lot more climbing. So I'm working on my technical skills as well as doing more climbing. So it has been great for that. I'm a little bit of an e-bike skeptic. Not a skeptic of the actual system, but I don't find a place where they slot into my life yet. So I'm going to see how I get on in the next two weeks. Maybe I'll find I'm reaching for this a bit more than my normal bike. One thing I'm really enjoying on this bike is just how well it descends. It feels like it really tracks the ground well, and I feel like I'm cornering better than I ever have. I think because this is a slightly lighter motor, it doesn't feel like too much because I'm quite a small rider. I just feel like on the corners and on this rough, chattery route, I'm getting more grip than I ever have done, especially with the coil shock as well. Power numbers, watts, newton meters aside, this is definitely a fun bike. I'm having a real good time. I love an e-bike and traditionally, they're great because you ride up climbs, but for filming purposes, I'm going to push it and e-bikes are not for pushing. Thank you very much. Thank you. I have to say, today has been a total revelation for me on this bike. I'm having a whirl. I don't know if a whirl is the right word. I'm absolutely loving descending it. It's probably the most The most confident I've felt going downhill in ages. Traditionally, I think a medium would be a bit smaller. It's 450 reach, 450 rear end, but it's so fun. And yeah, there is no doubt of this bike's descending capability because I'm having an absolute hoot. So it is week three of riding this Thrash SL. I'm doing something that I'd never normally do, and that's ride my e-bike close to home. Now, I never normally ride my e-bike sort of from my front door, just because I'd say my local trails are mainly XC trails. It's not very hilly where I live. You have to sort of work the bike a lot on the downhills because there's not that much gravity to drop. So I often find myself just reaching for my XE bike to pedal from the front door. I've also got to do a little bit of road when I leave the house. So previously, when I've sort of had full-fat e-bikes, sort of enduro ones with 170, 180 mil travel, bigger, heavier motors. 24 kilo plus, I've just felt sluggish on my local trails. I've not really can justify taking it out. I love that bike, but unless I was riding something sort of really gnarly and with a steep climb, it just didn't feel very good. So I'm interested to see today how the lightweight e-bike feels. Slightly shorter travel, lighter weight motor and battery. And also, something I've noticed from riding the TQ motor for a few weeks now is, actually when you get on top of the limiter, It's over 25K an hour in the UK. Doesn't feel as hard to pedal over the top. Some of them feel like a lot of resistance, the motors, but this actually feels quite nice. So yeah, I'm going to see how it feels on these sort of flatter, less gnarly trails and see if it's changed my mind. And also, it has taken the sting out of these, although little, but draggy hills. I've changed actually a few settings on the bike today and I've actually gone to a 29 rear wheel because I knew I'd be doing sort of a more cross-country ride. I just wanted to see what it felt like with the slightly bigger rear wheeling. I have got this still built in a very burly setup. I've got full enduro case and tires, a 38 mil stanchion Ohlins fork and a coil spring. Definitely doesn't complement the sort of terrain I'm riding on so much, but it's carrying its speed well. What's nice about this is I could probably make it into a lot lighter build, an air shock, maybe a 36 fork on the front and some sort of trail casing tires. I'd drop a few kilos and it probably would lend itself more to riding the sort of trails I'm on today, but it's just nice to have a bike where all the parts are fit and forget, I find. I like having it sort of slightly overbuilt, so maybe it's a bit harder work when I'm riding around here, but if I go to some real gnarly trails, I don't feel out my depth. To be honest, with the lightweight motor and the lightweight battery, it still feels like a lightweight capable bike. Feeling good so far. I'm not really Too much over the limiter, so dry. Feels really light to hop, actually. Into this sort of slightly better, you carry a bit more speed now. Oh, I'm having a bit more grip than usual. Love this trail, rocky down here. Nice having those bigger tyres. Forgot I had the 29, buzzed my ass on the tyre. Just riding back from the trails now on the road, back into town, and you know what, it definitely doesn't have the efficiency of an XC bike. Of course it doesn't. It doesn't feel too bad actually. I think I'm probably a bit ambitious in thinking I will always ride over the motor limit. I'm probably not. It is quite hilly back to town. It just actually doesn't feel that draggy when I get over the limit anyway. I might find myself riding this from my front door a bit more often now, I think. It is my fourth and final week on the Propane Thrash SL. I found myself actually reaching for this bike more and more now. I've dialed in my two-bike mountain bike garage. I've got my XC bike for long peddly days. Actually, if I just want to ride trails, I just reach for this bike now. It's funny, in the e-bike world, there's a lot of chat at the moment about peak torque, And actually, when I ride this, I forget about all those numbers because for me, this is more about actually the descending experience rather than the climbing experience, which I really like. It's still enough power that it's a lot easier to ride than my normal trail bike because I like having big heavy casing tires on. I like having a big fork and a coil. Actually, this just takes off the sting and the edge off that climbing experience, but it's still a really fun bike to ride downhill. Been using this a lot after work, but hang around because I'm going to tell you my overall thoughts and conclusion on this bike Bike in a bit. Okay, there it is. That is the end of my 30 days of riding the lightweight e-bike. So what are my thoughts on it? How have the 30 days been? Well, to be honest, when I first got this bike, I was a little apprehensive. We see so many things about power numbers, torque on e-bikes right now. Straight away, I was thinking, this ain't got enough power. This ain't got enough torque. And all I could think about for those first few weeks was how much less power this had than other e-bikes. And then actually, I just started riding it and forgot about all those power numbers and torque numbers and had a really good time, I think. In the e-bike world, and we're really guilty of it on GMBN and EMBN, we get bogged down with the numbers and actually forget about the ride experience. I've had a really fun time riding this bike. It's a bit lighter, the motor's lighter. The assistance feels more intuitive, I think, than other motors. It feels more like you're just a really fit mountain biker or you've just got a little bit of assistance to take that edge off. I actually really like that. I'm guilty on full power e-bikes for just sticking it in boost. It takes that mountain bike experience away from you. It doesn't feel like a mountain bike ride. It feels like two separate sports, whereas this actually felt a lot more like a mountain bike. Don't get me wrong, I think there's still a place for super high power, high torque e-bikes, but I think if you are an out and out mountain biker and you're an e-bike skeptic, this might just be the bike for you because I've really enjoyed it. And like I said earlier, it's almost replaced my normal mountain bike in some circumstances. I always like a pedal bike for big adventures, but I've actually found myself changing my two-bike garage to an XC bike for pedaling. Actually, when I want to do some trail riding and enduro-style riding, this is the bike I go for, that mid-power e-bike. Yes, I've had a really good time. It's totally changed my mind on this bike. I was a total skeptic for lightweight e-bikes The bikes were a waste of time, and now there's definitely a place in my garage for them. It might not be going back after 30 days. I might have to keep hold of this one. Let me know in the comments down below what you think. Are you someone who looks at the power and torque figures of this and sniggers a bit, thinks that's nowhere near the power of mine? Or are you a believer that these lightweight, mid-power e-bikes are the future? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, guys. I hope you've enjoyed this one. Leave a like if you have. I'll see you in the next one.