This isn’t a bike review brimming with head tube angles and hardcore details about Audi’s two-wheeled trail steed.
OK, there’s a little bit of that stuff sprinkled in here and there; it’s still a review, after all. But rather than dive into the minutiae you might find in a mountain bike magazine where every degree of geometry is broken down in intimate detail, this writeup is all about the ride experience. Because at the end of the day, that’s what matters most.
Wait, Audi Builds Bikes Now?
If you’re asking yourself that question, you probably aren’t alone — and the simple answer is no, Audi doesn’t have a division dedicated to bike building. Instead, the brand turned to the pros at Fantic Motor, the Italian firm that makes motorcycles and, more recently, electric bikes for varying disciplines.
In spite of its hardcore looks — the automaker says the design was inspired by its RS Q E-Tron Dakar rally racer and it shows — this Audi is an enduro bike, which is a sort of multipurpose ride made for devouring big descents and climbing back up to the top again. It’s essentially a reskinned version of the Fantic XEF 1.9 Factory, which sits at the top of its enduro lineup.
That means the Audi electric mountain bike (eMTB) is decked out with some impressive components, while other stuff is just OK. For example, a full Öhlins suspension setup — including a 180-mm travel fork — and hydraulic brakes from Italy’s Braking is exactly the kind of equipment you’d expect to see on a bike like this. That the drivetrain is mechanical instead of electronic sort of runs counter to the bike’s very essence.
For what it’s worth, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the Sram GX Eagle 12-speed drivetrain that comes on the bike; it’s the same groupset I run on both my mountain bikes to great effect. But for an electrified showpiece such as this, more wizardry would be welcome — like, say, Sram’s AXS wireless shifting system.
Electric Assist, Not Electric Drive
Joining those components is a Fantic 720-watt-hour battery pack, as well as a Brose electric motor that generates roughly 66 lb-ft of torque. But this isn’t a throttle-controlled electric bike; instead, it’s a pedal-assist setup that supplements the rider’s effort with power from the battery pack.
There are four different assist settings to choose from — eco, tour, sport, and boost — with each chipping in with more electric help than the last. According to Audi, the assistance works at speeds as fast as 32 km/h, with the battery providing usable range between 20 and 150 km, depending on conditions and system settings. (Naturally, climbing steep ascents in boost mode will burn through the battery more quickly than cruising along flat sections of singletrack.)
The electric assistance can be tweaked — or turned off entirely — using an integrated display and control module mounted on the handlebar. Battery life, speed, and assistance level are fixed on the screen full-time, while parameters like an odometer can be called up alongside those data fields. Meanwhile, thumb-operated buttons are used to control how much help the system provides.
But What’s It Like to Ride?
Despite being a bit too big for the bike — it comes in small, medium, and large frame sizes, with even the latter not recommended for riders taller than about 6-foot-1 — I found the relaxed riding position easy to grow accustomed to. The mixed wheel setup is a quick and easy way to make even a heavy bike like this one feel nimble (29-inch up front, 27.5-inch in the back for what’s affectionately known as a mullet), and despite tipping the scales at 25.5 kg (56 lbs), this eMTB manages tight turns with quickness while climbing up and over obstacles with ease.
That’s also where the electric assist comes in handy, if you choose to use it — and that’s sort of the whole point in the first place. Hauling around that hulking battery just for the sake of it doesn’t make much sense, while laying down all that torque when the trail gets tough does. It also helps when climbing back up to the top of a hill you absolutely mobbed for another run, and that’s where Audi’s eMTB truly shines.
Even after 25 km of tearing around my favourite local trail network, I still had tons of energy to keep riding — and so did the bike’s battery. I burned through just 20 per cent of the pack’s charge in the first two hours we were out there, including a modest 253 metres (830 ft) of ascent and a mixed mode use, including blasting up a hill with boost engaged.
Bombing down a short black diamond-rated downhill trail, the weight of the bike — and, of course, me — was enough to test the resolve of the brakes that weren’t quite properly bedded in beforehand. But with discs measuring a massive 220 mm up front and 203 mm in the back, both of which are grabbed by calipers packing two pistons each seemingly the size of nickels, the system was able to shed speed with ease in spite of a total weight of nearly 136 kg (300 lb) split between bike and rider.
Final Thoughts
As a first-time eMTB rider, I can certainly understand the appeal of being able to hit the trails for longer — but I couldn’t help but feel like I was cheating while I was in the saddle. That doesn’t mean I’m against them in any way, but as my friend and favourite video producer, Will Johnson, put it, riding an electric mountain bike is all the fun without the fitness.
Fine — it’s less fitness, not none at all. And in fairness, electric assistance unlocks a whole new level of amusement neither of my own mountain bikes are able to offer. There’s a sense of unadulterated joy that comes with actually building speed while ascending a hill that would otherwise leave you feeling gassed. That this version has Audi badges all over it means you’ll be the talk of the trail from top to bottom. And back up to the top again.
The Audi electric mountain bike has an MSRP of $8,900 in Canada. It’s available now.
