The Yeti MTe Made Me Stop Debating About E-Bikes

Who's talking: 35, six feet, 240 pounds with gear, behind a computer six days a week. I'd like to ride weekly; lately it's monthly. On my regular bike, a good day is 15 miles and 1,500 feet, and that's my ceiling, not my preference.

On E-Bikes Generally

I've ridden the Bosch CX, Shimano EP, and Fazua Ride units. Impressive, and some people need that power to ride at all — disability, older riders, guys coming back from injury. Not interested in gatekeeping that.

But a full-power e-bike isn't the same activity. You stop pacing your body and start pacing a battery. And the weight and torque tears up trails. Braking bumps come faster, corners blow out sooner. Ride the same trails enough, and you've watched it happen.

So I figured lightweight assist was a compromise that satisfied nobody. Had that wrong.

The Motor

The TQ HPR60 puts out 60Nm and up to 350 watts. It's well short of full power, which is the idea. Three assist levels; level 1 is subtle enough I'd forget it was on. I lived in 2 and 3.

The number that matters: my normal ride is 15 miles and 1,500 feet. On the MTe, I averaged 21 miles and 2,570 feet, with the biggest day being Pine at 25 miles and 3,000 feet. Same legs, double the mountain. That's terrain I couldn't reach before.

This is where people assume you're fooling yourself, so — I was wrecked at the end of Pine. Tired in a good way. The assist scales with how hard you're working rather than replacing the work, so you cover more ground with similar effort. On full-power bikes I've finished feeling like I was along for the ride.

It's also strangely quiet. TQ's oscillating cycloidal gear reduction applies power evenly rather than in surges — no whine, no rattle. I could hear my tires. And at just over 38 pounds for the lighter builds, it's light for anything with a motor, which is what matters for trail wear.

Range, Actually Measured

• McDowell Mountain (desert): 20 miles, 2,200 ft, 55% battery left
• Pine (mountain): 25 miles, 3,000 ft, 35% battery left
• Prescott (jump track): 19 miles, 2,500 ft, 45% battery left

Call it 35 to 45 miles a charge as actually measured in levels 2 and 3, not creeping around in eco to make it look good.

The mileage spread is wide because mileage is the wrong measure. All three rides land between 4,500 and 4,900 feet of climbing per charge, highly consistent even though the distances varied by 30% and the terrain had nothing in common. Add up your vertical feet, not your horizontal miles.

Which leads to a spec decision. Yeti offers a lighter 290Wh battery, and I was tempted, since low weight is the whole argument here. But my vertical jumped 70% the second I had assist, and at 2,570 feet a ride, the 580Wh barely covers two days. The 290 wouldn't reliably get me through one. Spec for the rider you turn into on this bike, not the one you are now.

The Bike Underneath the Motor

Geometry comes from the SB160 balanced against the SB140, and holds up in 29 or mixed wheels: settled at speed without feeling like a barge when it gets tight, which is usually the tradeoff you're stuck with.

145mm out back on Sixfinity, 160mm fork. At 240 pounds, I'm normally the guy finding the end of a shock's travel and I was never getting there on the MTe, jump track included. 

It also turns better than it should. Most e-bikes handle like a refrigerator; this doesn't. I went looking for something to complain about and never found it, which is a weird thing to write in a review.

Airpark Bike Co?

Demos out of both Scottsdale and Phoenix, and demo spend goes toward a purchase, which is how I got 64 miles across three trail systems instead of a parking lot lap and a hunch. At ten grand and up, that's not a nice-to-have. Staff ride, nobody read specs at me, and they build everything in-house so you can change parts before it leaves.

Scottsdale
Phoenix

The Price

$9,850 to $14,300. That's a used car, I won't beat around the bush. But it's one bike instead of two — desert, climbing, jump track, no compromise on any of it. Yeti's frame warranty is lifetime against manufacturing defects for the original owner if you register it and buy through an authorized dealer. The warranty frame only, since the motor and components are covered by their own manufacturers. And Airpark will still pick up the phone in three years, which is a big help when there's electronics involved.

So...

This didn't make me an e-bike guy. It made me a lightweight e-bike guy, which is a different thing. It's a mountain bike that happens to have a motor, not the other way around.

If you're like me — desk job, not enough saddle time, a body that remembers being in better shape — this gets you out the door and gives you twice the ride once you're there.

Go demo one. Try not to buy it.

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Author: Jorden Whicker