Devinci E-Troy Lite GX AXS

Devinci E-Troy Lite

The Devinci E-TROY LITE GX AXS 12S is a 9700 CAD, Made in Canada, Aluminium-framed lightweight E-MTB. There is a 400Wh battery feeding a 600W / 55Nm Bosch SX motor mated to a 12s Sram GX Transmission driving a 27.5" rear wheel. A 160mm Lyrik(hell yea) up front and a 150mm Split Pivot suspension isolating the rider from all the noise from the trail and a RaceFace cockpit and wheels round up the package. The tested weight is 44.2lb (20kg)

I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into with this bike. Having gone through the process of working out the kinks of full power E-MTBs, like the very expensive Canyon Spectral:ON and the more pedestrian Rossignol Mandate Shift, I wasn't sure I was ready to hand over the 30Nm of torque and 500Wh of juice in exchange for...lightness. The experiment taught me a few things and I am glad that the E-Troy Lite exists, just like the full power E-Troy and just like my pure protein powered mountain bike.

Bosch SX

Let's get this new motor out of the way before we talk about the way this Devinci schralps corners or nibbles its way through the chunk and stuff.

The new Bosch SX motor is housed in a magnesium enclosure and weighs in at 2kg / 4.4lbs. The full power CX motor comes in at just under 3kg in comparison. While this will allow for some weight reduction, best way to make a bike lighter is to put less batteries in it. So the 400Wh battery helps the all-aluminium Devinci to come in at 42lbs / 19Kg. That is Tim Coleman's Norco Range "XC" bike weight territory and is not all that bad to deal with on the trail.

The Bosch SX motor does things a little differently than its cool uncle the CX. So much so that the generation gap is quite obvious depending on who you are riding with. While I don't have concrete facts for the person the system is best suited to, I've explored a few different avenues of justification for this new bike that seem to offer almost a new sport to the interested. But, specs first..

The test bike is the top spec with a SRAM GX Transmission drivetrains and Rockshox Super Deluxe ultimate, Lytik Ultimate Suspension. There is also a cable-actuated GX build with Fox Performance Elite level 36 and Float X and a NX build with Yari and Deluxe suspension. The build is sensible in GX Transmission trim while the price tag is not. While making things in Canada is not cheap, I think nearing 10,000 CAD out the door is a lot of money to drop on an aluminium bike with a motor. There are cheaper aluminum bikes with motors that can do 150km/h at that price. You do get lots of great parts that won't break on the first outing however. Some of these parts are well chosen and some of them could be improved upon.

Suspension

The 160mm Lyrik is a thing of beauty. It is the right amount of stiff and light and even with the Charger 3 damper, it works well on this chassis. I was initially worried about how slack the bike is at 63.6° headangle with this fork. Would it bind due to flex? Would it fold under at the bottom of a rock roll? Nope. The Lyrik works well under all conditions. Same goes for the 185x55 Super Deluxe air. It is tuned very well for the weight of the Devinci E-Troy Lite. Sensitive up top and supportive at the middle and end. It wasn't like that from the get-go, but once I figured out what the kinematics wanted, it delivered in traction and support.

Brakes

These are the biggest departure of all for me. I have never used Magura brakes longer than a parking lot test, or a short trail section. The Devinci comes with Magura's MT5 brakes with their 2-finger brake lever blades. These 4-piston discs are not the most powerful Magura offers but they were surprising for me. Initially in a bad way, but after a few rides, in a good way. The first 3 rides included some of the more frightening experiences I've had a long time. No matter how much I squeezed the brakes, I had no brakes. This was not a good feeling. The slack bike with the motor wanted to go and the brakes did nothing. I ran into Devinci rider Steve Vanderhoek and he was keen to go for a ride on some of the steeper trails on the North Shore. Never one to turn down the offer to go for a ride with him, I told him I had no functioning brakes on the bike. The steep and deep ride would have to wait until I sourced some new brakes.

Something happened on the third ride. I went for a casual cruise up to some of the lower angled trails on Seymour to work out the kinks and all of a sudden I almost went over the bars trying to scrub some speed coming into a corner. Had I hit a root or a rock? Did I find the limits of the slack as hell head angle? Nope, the MT5s had decided that the smoke break was over and they would get back to work flipping the human burger. I had brakes, and man were they good!

The Magura MT5s have become one of my favourite brakes on any of the bikes I have ridden lately. Now full disclosure, I have not had the chance to ride the Devinci in cold and wet winter months, but in the dry, the 9.P pads and the flat 2-finger lever design feels extremely responsive and powerful with excellent modulation. So much so that I screamed my opinion at the NSMB chat group and met with skeptical responses from far better riders, telling me I might be wrong. To this day, after 650kms of riding the Devinci, I am absolutely in love with the way the MT5s feel and perform. Apart from the fact that I can not get them to stop rubbing the rotors. This I find is a Magura feature and gets worse as the level of brakes increases. The Devinci comes with 203mm Storm HC rotors on the front and the rear. The frame is 200mm rotor minimum and comes with 1.5mm washers under the caliper, which is fine.

The MT7s on the other test bike I have confirmed this as well. You can't have your cake and eat it too but it's a small price to pay considering the motor on the Devinci makes up for the lost watts and the noise.

Raceface Wheels / Maxxis Tires

The Raceface Arc30 Wheels with Vault hubs are a workhorse setup. The engagement on the Vault is excellent and the buzzing from the freehub is similar to that of a Hydra from Industry 9. These are alloy wheels with J-bend spokes we love so much. The 6-Bolt interface is also well received. The 29" / 27.5" wheels come wrapped in modest spec Maxxis Rubber in the form of Minion DHF EXO MaxxTerra on the front and Dissector EXO+ MaxxTerra on the rear. The influence this combo has on the E-Troy Lite is positive as the fast rolling Dissector / DHF combo really energizes the bike rolls. The cornering traction is ample on the front of the bike and the rear likes to slide around more than some people will find comfortable. I found it absolutely hilarious the way Dissector gives away traction and some of the most enjoyable trail moments were due to this. On one lap being chased by Geoff Gulevich down Dark Chrystal in Whistler was a review highlight in the loose dusty conditions. So many near-death moments kept in check by the excellent geometry of the Devinci and the 160 Lyrik gluing the DHF to the ground. After 650kms, the Dissector is bald and missing side knobs indicating a Nicolas Cage of a good time in Las Vegas. A DD rear casing would have been appreciated and possibly in a different tread pattern from Maxxis. The Dissector does the job well, but not for a long time.

SDG Tellis V2 and Belair V3

The 170mm SDG Tellis V2 does the up and down job well and without fuss. I reviewed the post recently and found it to be a great performer. The Belair V3 saddle that seemed to work on some of my other bikes doesn't feel great on the E-MTB because of the long seated periods. 20kms is about how long I can take the punishment. Any longer than that, I will reach for my padded shorts. Just not in the summer.

Next R Bars 800mm

20mm rise Next R bars are stiff and direct. I don't love these bars on my protein bikes all that much. On the heavier Devinci they seem to do a better job helping me pilot the ship precisely. 617mm Stack on the size Medium is also plenty for the intentions of this bike combined with the 20mm rise bars. Riding steeper stuff, I would switch to 35-40mm rise ERA bars.

Setup

On the first few rides, I set the bike up for a little over body weight for 30% sag on the rear. This resulted in what I would call a "dead" feeling bike. The ride felt harsh and unresponsive even with a fast rebound. While I generally prefer fast rebound settings on my bikes, I have been coming around to enjoying a calmer bike with slower rebounds in the summer heat. As the oil thins and air pressures increase with heat and altitude, I am beginning to slow down the shaft speeds on my shock for a calmer, better balanced ride.

So To find this sweet spot, I started adding air to the rear shock on the Devinci. I ended up at;

Rockshox Super Deluxe

192psi

LSC -1

Rebound 8 ( from closed )

Lyrik Charger 3

80 Psi

LSC -3

HSC +1

Rebound 8

When I started increasing the pressure in the shock, I noticed a smoother top 30% of the travel and more supportive mid stroke behaviour. I imagine the increased air pressure put me in the better part of the Anti Squat Curve and woke the bike up in the best way possible. Rebound settings started to make more sense and the "dead" feeling bike woke up to face the Woody Harrelson in Zombieland.

I would consider the geometry of the Devinci to be ideal for me. Sub 64° Head angle, 461 Reach and 438 rear center all controleld by the Split Pivot Suspension similar to the one one my daily driver Orbea Rallon makes this bike good, anywhere. I really don't think the smaller rear wheel is necessary and would have loved the opportunity to try the bike in a full 29er setup but the way the Devinci rides is intuitive and fun.

The single pivot suspension doesn't try to kill you on big jumps either. We had a few laps down A-line and Dirt Merchant with a camera pack on my back and nothing strange to report. The Devinci rides so damn well. It corners like an absolute monster too. The worn out Dissector makes cornering a little more exciting than I would like sometimes but with a fresh rear tire, the bike is easy to lean over for Matt Hunter levels of bar drag.

E-MTB vs E-MTB Lite

Climbing an E-MTB is not a byproduct of riding an E-MTB; it is often the main act. Sorting the upper body, the braking points, assist modes, gear selection and saddle height all play into how hard of a climb one can clean on the bike. I can climb some steep and rough terrain on a full power E-MTB and will often choose to do so, pointing the bike at uphill trials moves and seeing If I can make it. There is one particular Slab on Anal Intruder Trail in Whistler that is a perfect example of " there is no way you can climb that"

The 85Nm+ power output of full-powered E-MTBs has been really fun for unlocking said climbs. I expected similar results from the Devinci. I was not immediately rewarded with incredible technical climbing skills. I felt like a Ferrentino on the North Shore trying to attack climbs I had easily cleaned on the bigger bikes before. It wasn't until a few rides in before a new technique I had to employ to unleash the real potential of the Bosch SX motor. Unfortunately, the 55Nm Bosch SX doesn't give up all its juice anytime you want. The cadence needs to be in the 80-100rpm range to tap into the power and feel any noticeable level of assist. 90 rpm is a lot of crankspin to maintain over rough stuff and to achieve said cadence you need to be in lower gears than you are used to on 85Nm bikes. This also means more mechanical advantage and it is now easier to bump the rear wheel off the ground and spin it out. The braking finger will be doing triple duty dealing with this kind of nervousness. Like a morse code reader, tatatattaattatatattattata, the constant fight to keep the real wheel from losing traction makes you wish for a traction control feature on these bikes (be careful what you wish for Deniz!)

There were a couple of instances where I was in a higher than optimal gear and the motor did not have enough torque to assist me I "stalled " the bike. The assist level display on the top tube, which is also the only display you have for simplicity, blinked orange and I had to restart the bike after finishing the climb without any assist. Painful!

From those experiences, I learned that the Bosch SX likes the easier gears as a protein bike rider would too. Making the Devinci more of a sibling to your regular bike than to that of a full power e-mtb. I started loving this discovery about the new platform. An E-MTB that feels similar to my pedal bike was what I was really after. It is still different enough that It would not fully replace my pedal bike but I can see a place for these SL platforms in many situations.

Pros and Cons

As a few of us with a spectrum of bikes pedaled up to Gargamel in Whistler, there was an interesting dynamic in the group. Strong pedalers Emma and Zach with their protein bikes chugged their way up while Cam and Pete were on full-blown E-MTBs chit chatted their climb away. Mike Ferrentino with the range but a lower-powered bike could keep up with them without range anxiety while I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Wanting to preserve my 400Wh battery and ride in solidarity with the XC people, I ground my way up the steep as hell climb in Eco mode. The experience was slightly easier than pedaling an enduro bike but similar to pedaling a 25lbs XC bike. It was work and it was hard. I wished I had a range extender, which one can eventually buy to boost the total battery capacity to 650Wh. With a 400Wh battery a fit 160lbs person can comfortably do 1000m of climbing in EMTB assist mode. 1500m is possible if you can put in the work and run ECO for a while. So this platform is not great for big days but great for quick local rides where the assist can make some of the more challenging bits of riding more accesible. Or maybe for a person who wants to ride with their very fit pedaler and survive the ride, or a fit person hanging it with the big boys and girls on their full power E-MTBs. There is a place for the Bosch SX platform and I am glad it exists. I would not be surprised to see a bigger wave of SL bikes coming to market in the next couple of years.

The App

The Bosch Flow app is a companion to the discrete system on the bike. The app will connect to your bike whenever it is awake and allow you to keep track of your accurate battery levels, milage, stats and even lock your bike remotely for anti-theft purposes. Being a test bike, I did not register and set it up for that but I can see it purpose in certain situations and commuter bikes especially. The anecdote I've heard is Matthew wanted to borrow Cam's test bike when he was away which has the lock activated. He failed to turn the bike on without Cam's phone present and within Bluetooth range. So make sure you have your phone on you and it is charged when you want to ride your bike. What if your phone dies mid ride? I am not sure what happens then. Cam? (you need to remember to disengage the lock before the demise of your phone battery - Ed.)

Value

While the 9700CAD GX Transmission bike is a big spend, the GX and NX builds offer greater value especially when you consider the Made in Canada aspect and Lifetime Warranty. The way this bike rides actually piqued my interest in the Troy Pedal bike. The geometry that invites bad decisions and helps you get away with it is what mountain biking is all about for me. Devinci designed a bike that will bridge the gap between fitness levels and can still hang with higher output motors on short and twisty rides. I would be replacing the rear tire with something burlier for better piece of mind and traction. The shock tune and geometry built around a boost 148 rear end really makes the E-TROY Lite a bike to beat. With a range extender, which unfortunately will add another bill to the price tag, and better tires, you'd be having bigger and rowdier adventures. I've used the Devinci for recovery rides to keep my heart rate in a certain zone. I've used it to haul heavy camera gear in and out of the trails, I've used it to commute and go ice cream tasting. There is a use for a lighter assist bike in most of our lives. If you are Lite eMTB curious, I would highly recommend find a shop to demo one of these .

Devinci E-Troy Lite GX Transmission