I’ve had my pnw alloy relay for a month now and it has over 300 miles on it already. My favorite bike ever! I sold my sworks sj Evo for this one and I couldn’t be happier. Best bike purchase I’ve ever made and I’m smiling every time I ride it! I live in bham Washington and I ride majority of the time with the battery in. But when I go to Steven’s, snoqualmie, or even whistler bike park then I take the battery out.
@@romma11 I’m 5’8 and went with the size medium! It fits perfect! I got short legs and currently running a 170mm dropper and it’s almost fully slammed into the seat tube. The size feels great!
I am 5'7" and weigh 155 lbs, riding a medium alloy PNW Relay. It fits perfectly for my sizes, riding style and riding area in NorCal. I am still trying to adapt to jumping it as I would on my pedal MTB that weighs 15 lbs less .... 😢
Been loving mine. Just ordered a push coil and will run it 170/170 in the full 29” configuration. I can keep up with full powered bikes if I really put in my own power but on longer ascents they’ll pull away on me. I ride it with pedal bike people too but usually just in eco to relax, haha. Taking the battery out it’s still a hefty girl. I’ll take the name calling haha the bike is too much fun.
Thanks for the review. For me the Relay is a great e-bike and also works for lift assist with the battery removed. I really enjoy mine but it performs much better with a coil shock. But I'll stick with the Smug for the pedal days!
Good concept and i hope more ebikes adopt something like this. It makes them more appealing especially since my wife world say i am in the latter category.
I'm 6'2" and 235 pounds. I had a levo sl and just couldn't get the range. I roll with full power bikes now. That bike looks pretty sweet. More power, more range and the travel I like, especially the pnw version.
I’d really like an e bike thats got full power but about 35lbs. Easy to pedal, 140 travel and if you get low on power not an absolute killer to climb hills. Maybe someday this will happen.
Thanks for that review, it is the first one I have seen where the ride without the battery seemed to get some due time in the review, and I feel like more advanced riders, in age and experience, are really trying to split hairs on what this bike can do/is like. Appreciated!
So I own the transition relay top build as I wanted the sram transmission and carbon wheels. Zero regrets buying it. Wasn’t sure how much I was going to ride without battery but it’s probably 70% of time with battery. There is No resistance from motor and I don’t mind it at all uphill. I’m east coast and I’ll do wednesduro nights at highlands sometimes with battery sometimes without. It’s no xc bike but it’s not much slower uphill than my scout and it’s way more capable downhill than the scout. My only complaint is the FAZUA ring is conceptually designed well just not put together the best. Assume a v2 will come out at some point.
When and how will the range extender be released, and also how/where will it be attached? This is really important question -it's battery is not big enough for seriously long rides.
I am considering this bike. I currently have a gen3 levo Pro, and love it. My question is since you have a full power e-mtb, would you give it up for this bike? That's what I'm wrestling with. I can't find one to rent before I buy one.
That motor has issues. All things fazua are bad, the ring is utter trash, the indicator is junk and the motor is not reliable. Like he says that ring is not good enough for a wall Mart bike. Worse yet is the motor build. My relay is in the shop for its 3rd motor replacement. 😢
Hands down, best review of this bike!!! The battery being charged from outside of the bike is a positive for me. If I'm at a place where I can't take my bike inside for charging, this is a plus. If it's really cold out, I'd like to be able to charge the battery inside instead of out. Good to hear the motor is quiet and that their is no resistance when not powered.
I test rode the Relay PNW vs the Trek Fuel EXe and did not get along well with the Relay. It was too heavy (almost 50 lbs in that build kit), rattled loudly, frame details and paint quality weren't great, the controller felt super cheap, and the display really just doesn't provide enough info. $11k for that build kit with alloy bar/stem/wheels. The Fazua motor was jerky and not very natural feeling. The Fuel EXe however pretty much had none of these problems. It has a super natural feeling TQ motor, weighs almost 10 pounds lighter, has a better equipped build for the price, and just felt overall like a higher quality bike with higher quality parts for the money. Yes it has less travel, but I rode similar terrain and felt plenty confident on the Trek even on super chunky black tech trails.
Fazua did mechanized testing of the battery latch mechanism for millions of cycles, along with vibration and many other types of tests. well beyond what any user could ever manage.
I also had concern about the removable battery's latch mechanism until I saw a video on how Fazua tested it. I have no issue except for the occasional user's error to latch the battery in properly.
Bout time ya slacker. I been waitin for this. Lol. I love this concept. I want an emtb to get me to those steep, techy, gnarly mountain DHs that usually require a shuttle (or someone younger and fitter than me) and to be able to do more of those laps. But if I’m on a trip, also be able to take the battery out and take it to the lift assist bike park near wherever I’m traveling, or if in no ebike zone, ride it sans battery. It would be great not to have to bring two bikes on trips. This is not for my home trails- they just dont require an emtb. Demoed a couple of full powered emtbs- the Heckler and the Turbo Levo and they were just too damn big and heavy. They were fun in their own right of just absolutely smashing all the things (I have a vid of a rocky pedal trail that is a mile that I put the Heckler in trail mode and just went all out), but the type of trails I really want this for I want a bit more nimbleness and less heavy handedness. I also found I just don’t need all the power of a full power emtb. I was happiest in eco mode with a quick switch to trail for the techy burners and never used Boost mode except once on a jeep trail double track just to see how ridiculous it was- the answer was mighty ridiculous. I’m really considering this, but I know Santa Cruz is gonna release soon a Fazua powered lighter emtb and I wanna see what they come up with. Maybe don’t be slow with a review of it when comes out ha. Lol. Love your reviews- they’ve become my go tos for trusted advice. 🤙
Yeah having a removable battery is great, but most if not all ebikes allow that. This is the only ebike I've ever seen without an external charging port, though.
Yeah but that length is what gives it it’s stability. It sets it apart from a lot of the other mid and lightweight eMTBs too. Those are all fairly “trail” while this is more capable.
