FINALLY rode an MTB again... New eMTB spam!

Congratulations! Nice bike, the gate needs a coat of preservative though..

Congratulations on the new bike and moreso your recovery!

I really fancy a Wild

but I’ve changed the XT drivetrain out for Deore 11spd (eBikes don’t need 12spd!)

This seems a bit odd though - why?

I've put 12sp on my Kenevo - SLX cassette, mech, chain with an XT shifter and it performs absolutely fine

Congratulations!

From someone who's been in a similar situation ( I'll be celebrating 3 yrs in full remission next month), could I offer one wee bit of advice?

Don't get frustrated like I did by mistaking being better, for fully recovered. Your body's taken a good kicking over the last couple of years and it'll take time to properly recover. So don't be giving yourself a hard time if you can't make that climb you used to breeze up!

Drop me a line anytime if you want a blether about any of the other blindingly obvious mistakes I've made on the road to recovery. 😏

Oh, and very nice bike by the way.

Noice. Fellow Wild owner here.

Great to hear you've enjoyed getting out again 🙂👏

best thing I'll read on the internet today!

smash it mboy

Really pleased for you! Enjoy it!

Brilliant! So pleased for you.

Happy NBD

And congratulations  on your recovery 👍

Excellent news on the recovery and enjoy getting back out on the mtb 🤘

It’s good to be back guys! It’s good to be back… 👊🏻

👊

Awesome in every way!

That's ace! Keep on keeping on! 🙂

👊

She's a beauty!

Welcome back to off-road riding, perfect timing for them dusty fast trails.

Congratulations on your recovery. 💪

Welcome back - and I must commend your tyre logo alignment 🙂

but I’ve changed the XT drivetrain out for Deore 11spd (eBikes don’t need 12spd!)

No bike [i]needs[/i] 12 speed... but what was the reason for the downgrade?

Nice bike btw. I rode one in Spain a couple of years ago and had a fab time 😀

eBikes don’t need 12spd!

Depends where you live, surely?

Great to hear the good news.

Details and photos of the cockpit please

That's an ace build.

Depends where you live, surely?

regardless of location there's surely always a limit between riding at 15.5mph (or ahem 20ish) at a comfortable cadence; and climbing the steepest possible slope where tyres will grip and you don't flip off the back, at a speed fast enough that you don't tip over sideways, at a cadence that is both good for the motor and practical for the rider.

And the difference between these gear ratios is probably acheivable on an 11 speed.

Based on my (non-E) 12 speed experience, the bottom gear is useless for tech climbing. Whether its steps, a weaving line to take or just a generally loose surface, twiddling a tiny 32-52 gear is detrimental. Hauling myself slowly up a technically easy climb it is very useful.

Thank you for the kind words of support guys. 👍🏻

the gate needs a coat of preservative though..

Not my gate! 😂 I'm sure the Wyre Forest Forestry Commission would be grateful of the info though... 👍🏻

I’ve put 12sp on my Kenevo – SLX cassette, mech, chain with an XT shifter and it performs absolutely fine

Performance isn't the issue with 12spd Shimano drivetrains...

rom someone who’s been in a similar situation ( I’ll be celebrating 3 yrs in full remission next month), could I offer one wee bit of advice?

Don’t get frustrated like I did by mistaking being better, for fully recovered. Your body’s taken a good kicking over the last couple of years and it’ll take time to properly recover. So don’t be giving yourself a hard time if you can’t make that climb you used to breeze up!

Congratulations on your 3yrs remission... I'm a little over 18 months now. The best bit was me getting to celebrate 12 months in remission at the same time as my GF got to celebrate her 5yrs in remission last October! That was quite emotional...

But don't worry @beagleboy, WAY ahead of you already here... It's one area I've managed very well at with my recovery, I haven't set any goals on purpose. It's also a big part of why I decided to buy a full power eBike to replace my previous lightweight eBike, cos to stand a chance of keeping up with my riding mates in the near future I'll need the extra torque and battery capacity for sure for a while yet!

I appreciate the sentiment though... I have been very careful to manage my mental health during my recovery and a big part of that was removing any time frame and expectation on bike riding again, deciding that as and when it was going to happen would be taken as a bonus not as a setback. I have ridden motorcycles a lot more in the last 2 years to be fair (when I can, there's still been periods of weeks or months where I couldn't even sit on one of those!), which has helped with my mental health. I realised very early on that the physical pain would be fairly temporary compared to the torment my mental health was going to go through, so I prioritised formulating coping mechanisms very early on... 👍🏻

and I must commend your tyre logo alignment 🙂

It'd be a sackable offence in my job if they weren't impeccably aligned with the valves! 😉

No bike needs 12 speed… but what was the reason for the downgrade?

Multi-faceted answer to be fair...

• In 2020-21 across a period of 6-7 rides, I destroyed 3 SLX/XT 12spd mechs and chains in a totally innocuous fashion. Shimano weren't interested in warrantying them. Shimano have since kind've admitted there is a design flaw in these mechs that makes them incredibly weak across the parallelogram of the mech, which even the slightest amount of side load can cause them to bend or snap. At a cost of £50 per ride in broken mechs and bent chains, I vowed never to use it again given it is an incredibly sub standard product longevity wise (it shifts beautifully when new, don't get me wrong).
• A brand new 12spd XT mech/shifter and SLX cassette and chain is worth a LOT more than a setup that's been used for 2/3 rides and the mech is snapped in half, the chain twisted etc.
• I already had the 11spd Deore kit, it came on a one ride old cheap hardtail I bought not long ago for the frame.
• Deore 11spd is more robust than any Shimano 12spd kit in my experience. The 11-51 range still gives a crawler bottom gear, and gets rid of the redundant 10T cog that nobody can pedal on a UK/EU restricted eBike anyway as you're above the 25km/h threshold by the time you are pedalling a 10T cog.
• Much as I love my SRAM 12spd kit, it's an eBike. It doesn't need closer ratios or more expense in the drivetrain.
• I still have about 4 chains worth of KMC X11-93 left on a reel from when I owned my shop, and a load of spare 11spd Missing Links. 12spd chains are bloody expensive!
• I already had a spare HG freehub body for the DT Swiss 350 rear hub the bike came on, so it wasn't any extra expense.

My only quandary was whether or not just to go with 10spd Deore (have one of those setups kicking about too) with 11-46 cassette, but I reasoned the odd occasion I wanted a lower gear (I sit and spin, using as little torque as possible on an eBike, only used 34% of the battery in 16 miles and about 800m of climbing the other day!) I would miss the 51 of the 11/12 speed, and though 10spd chains aren't expensive, I didn't have any spare already...

Details and photos of the cockpit please

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You can see a bit more in the pic above... Ditched the integrated stem/headset upper system and went for the upper headset that allows you to run conventional spacers and a normal stem. Currently got a 50mm Syncros stem and Nukeproof Horizon 25mm rise carbon bars on (both 31.8). Looking for a "goldilocks" 45mm length stem now though, as 40mm is just a touch short on it and 50 definitely feels a bit "oversteery". Also got my favourite ODI Elite Pro lock ons on it... And kindly got sorted out with an SQ Labs 610 Ergolux saddle in a massive 170mm width to help with the obvious issue that is relieving pressure from my posterior, by Sean who's the UK agent for SQ Labs too... 👍🏻

Brakes currently still Deore M6120 4 pots but looking at alternatives currently. Might spring for some Hayes Dominion A4's soon... Though trying to be sensible and not spend any more money whilst we are buying a new house too... Also debating going for a 200mm dropper post as the 175mm I put on still has loads of room left to slam it (bike came with a 150 drop fitted, it looked comical!). But these bits can wait I guess.

Nice one mate. Keep well and keep riding.

Deore rules. Have long since lost any interest in spending more on a rear mech, for any bike.

Thanks for cock pit details and pic. Does the fork clear the frame ok without the spin block or did you have to add some kind of lower spacer?

...and frame size?

Sweet ride

Was riding with a lad on the same colour one last week, it looks really good for an eeb

A brand new 12spd XT mech/shifter and SLX cassette and chain is worth a LOT more than a setup that’s been used for 2/3 rides and the mech is snapped in half, the chain twisted etc.

Interesting! Like you've made the decision it'll get mangled on your ebike without riding it on your ebike? I've never bent a mech, but I did snap the chain with clumsy shifting on the Wild I rode, so hmm.. maybe wise. My ebike's 12 speed has been faultless for almost a year now. Be interesting to see how it survives a lot more use over this summer.

Nice one Mark! Good to see you back on the MTB, even if it is cheating option!

Will have to catch up for a ride over the wyre soon.

Excellent stuff.  Keep riding!

Fantastic news about getting back out again, here's to ya!

And: "Say, that's a nice bike" 🙂

Great to see you back on the bike!

Looks great, congrats on getting back out!

My ebike has always been on 11 speed. It’s now on LinkGlide which is proving way more durable than HyperGlide 11 speed, which couldn’t handle the torque of short full power (me and the motor) commutes. But it seems much less of an issue for longer rides that use more of the cassette.

That's a long time poorly Mark, I bet it feels fantastic to be off road again, bring on the cyclotherapy 👊🏻