2023 Yeti 160e T1 Turq Review
Hi readers! In this blog I will review the new Yeti 160e with the T1 build in the classic turquoise paint job. I took this bike for a spin from Yeti's demo team when they stopped in at Bicycle Experience, in Colorado Springs. This is one of two Yeti dealers in the Springs. My friend and I took these bikes out for a mega two hour adventure and we covered a lot of ground!
Spec's and Value
Yeti Cycles are known as a premium mountain bike made for dentists and other high earners. The 160e is no exception as it is beautiful, well spec'd with premium components, and provided an incredible mountain bike experience with that motor. The T1 Turq is equipped with a Fox Factory 38 fork and X2 shock, Sram Code RSC brakes (220/200mm rotors), DT Swiss HX1700 wheelset, Shimano XT drivetrain, and the star of the show Shimano EP800 motor. Shimano is my favorite drivetrain and the latest offering was fantastic, double-upshifts and triple-downshifts were available! When I test rode the Specialized Turbo Levo I was limited to one shift at a time in either direction. Another tiny detail, this bike came with the XT chain, whereas the SB160 build kits came with cheaper GX chains.
The 160e T1 Turq has an MSRP of $12,700 and weighs ~49.7 lbs, we'll round up to 50 lbs. for the XL I rode. (note, the Yeti ebikes run a tad bit smaller than their conventional bike so the XL felt spot on)[the SB160 in XL felt enormous to the point I would choose the size L instead]. That's a lot of money and a lot of bike (At the time of this article Yeti has put these bikes on sale during their Electric Summer Sale marking the cheapest 160e C1 build down to $7,600)! Considering the MSRP, this is an expensive bike even in the field of ebikes, but we expected that from a premium brand.
Is it worth it? I'm new to ebikes and the experience they provide truly blows me away, and those sale prices have me seriously considering buying one. I have begun to recommend ebikes to friends and family so they too can experience mountain biking as I do. The powerful motors feel like the utopian combination of a fresh set of legs, a downhill, a tail wind, and crisp Red Bull all at once. Truly a whole new experience. The technology required to provide this experience on a bike that isn't a 100lb clunker is impressive, so the premium price difference of ebike vs conventional (or analog as we often joke) is justified.
Climbing & Pedaling
Yeti created a new suspension system called the Sixfinity link designed specifically for ebikes. This is a six-bar linkage design with a vertical shock, instead of their usual horizontal, promising better suspension kinematics for the big heavy ebike. Interestingly enough, this six-bar linkage is also on Richie Rude's special projects DH bike, read more about that here. While writing this blog, I learned that the SB160 has a flip chip to change the progressivity of the rear suspension, very cool!!!
So how does it pedal? It feel strong, fast, and light. Undoubtedly due to the powerful Shimano EP8800 motor paired to a 630 Watt-Hour battery. How about the suspension? I have no idea, the motor enabled such rapid easy climbing I never stopped to look for suspension bob. My friend and I saw our climbing speed exceed 18 mph up the road into the wind with only moderate pedal efforts.
The 160e has that nice tall bottom bracket that suites my style well, so technical climbs were enjoyable. I just learned that the bike comes with super short 160mm cranks further adding to the comfortable ground clearance. I usually prefer long cranks but once again with that motor, I didn't care. This bike just rockets up, down, left, and right! Until it doesn't lol.
My friend's 160e started out at half battery capacity and it died on our 14 mile climb up the mountains. That's when he got to feel the full weight of the bike and a loose fire road. I briefly turned off my motor while we conceived the best way to finish the climb, this bike is heavy and it feels like it. The short cranks did not help that heavy feeling. So if you treat yourself to a 160e know that half a charge, set to turbo, on a long climb will last approximately 10 miles. We ended up towing my friend up with my ebike which still had 3/5s charge. It was GOOFY but we did it.
Descending
Yeti cycles are known to be excellent descenders and the 160e is no exception. The Fox 38 and Sixfinity rear suspension performed superbly, unlike the SB160 where I had to turn down the fork's compression dampening to save my wrists. Traction was only limited when riding over the "baby heads", or loose rocks the size of softballs that roll underneath your tires, which no bike can conquer. The added mass of the battery and motor made this bike feel planted to the ground like velcro. Last time I felt this planted to the ground was on a dedicated DH bike with triple crown fork (Intense M9). This bike came with Maxxis Assegai F and Minion DHRII out back, this combo is becoming the standard for enduro bikes and for good reason, they are fast and grippy! I will note that only the rear was Double Down, the front was EXO+ which work well in Colorado but would quickly get torn to pieces in Arizona. Room for improvement for the racers out there. The DT Swiss wheels have a slower engagement and I would recommend upgrading that too.
When you want to go fast simply turn the cranks. The added boost of the motor on the downhills mean you can mob down that hill all day at mach-chicken. I turned down the motor to "Trail" as "Boost" was just too much out of the turns and I got sloppy. Even just coasting this bike gets going quick. Its heavy which means it has a lot of momentum and the chucky stuff did little to slow it down. What a great bike to spend more time at high speeds, great for those like myself trying to get comfortable with high speeds.
The big bike gets tricky on the slow, tight, and technical. With an XL frame, wide 800mm bars, and 50lbs of bike it takes extra concentration to get through the techy stuff. I found the Code RSCs where up to the job of keeping speed in check with enough modulation to keep the wheels rolling. So long as the trail didn't drop-off to the side, I found going up and over the obstacles to be more effective than trying to thread the needle. I feel this holds true of many enduro focused bikes these days.
One last thing to note, at 50lbs this bike was heavy enough to impede my jumping. Where normally I can hop right over a downed tree, I struggled to lift over a tall curb. Your riding style will need to adapt to the heavier bike. Much to my surprise, the impact on cornering/handling was minimal, it was just jumping that greatly impacted. I avoided some of the usual jumps as I just wasn't comfortable yet.
Drawbacks
Conclusion
Sources
1. https://yeticycles.com/bikes/sb160e
2. https://yeticycles.com/factory-demo
3. https://yeticycles.com/electric-summer-sale
4. https://yeticycles.com/technology/special-projects
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