It isn’t quite as fast on long, sustained climbs on double-track roads, but it shines in a way unique from many other esteemed mid-drives in its low cadence capabilities. If you’re ever guilty of bad shifting habits and not downshifting properly, this is the type of motor you’ll love as it’ll make up for those tendencies. You’ll also notice it if you lose some momentum before starting a climb; that’s where you’ll really appreciate the power this motor has.
This differs from other motors where it seems like power levels build up and peak in the high cadence. It’s somewhat an inverse of expectations, but it gives it a unique property we liked once we adapted to it.
The motor has five different assist modes: ECO, Standard, High, MTB, Extra-Power, and an adaptive mode that’ll try to assist you by spanning across the middle three PAS levels.
Personally, I didn’t sync up too well with the adaptive mode and largely used the same two or three settings on most of my rides, but it’s worth playing with to see if it works better with your pedal cadence.
Each assist level feels distinct with nice, incremental improvements to work with. The motor itself has a little quirk to it, it feels a bit twitchy when doing trackstands. You can feel a bit of a vibration through the cranks as the motor wants to engage. It’s something you quickly get used to, but it might catch you by surprise on your first couple of rides.
Some mid-drives have a bit of a rattle or clunk to them, but this motor sits near-silently on the bike. It’s always appreciated to have fewer detractors when riding, although there will be some inevitable motor whir when operating the bike with higher PAS levels engaged.
The battery is on the more modest side at 500Wh. It helps keep the weight a bit lower, but does yield slightly shorter rides than other eMTBs (more to come on that in the range section).
Finally, and this is more of a frame note than a battery one, with how the battery sits in the downtube, and with the unique Dual Twin frame patent Yamaha has with its headtube, there are no bosses for a bottle cage, so investing in some sort of bladder system to stay hydrated is advisable!
