I’ve ridden a tuft of lower power torque sensing ebikes from the likes of Bosch and Yamaha over the last several years. I’ve unchangingly found the power wanting, as most are designed for the Euro 250W market. Some of the newer torque-sensing electric mountain bikes brag well-nigh 750W peak power, but with only 450W continuous. Bafang has released a new momentum unit tabbed the M600 which is designed for the US 750 Watt continuous market and the momentum can get 1000W peak. Lunacycle took that momentum and shunted the controller powerfully scrutinizingly doubling the peak power to 2000W for their new X-1 bike. I plunked lanugo a huge permafrost of my own whimsically earned mazuma when this velocipede first went on pre-sale scrutinizingly 4 months ago considering I knew it was the velocipede I had been waiting for Lunacycle to build. I got my first ride on it today, and it did not disappoint.

The X-1 is probably the weightier ebike I have overly ridden, it feels like a downhill bike, but with the power of a upper power ebike

It’s nonflexible for me to get bikes in my size as I am 6′ 9″ tall. The X-1 came in a 21″ size so that is what I ordered and it fits me perfectly. The front wheel is unfluctuating to a Rock Shox Debonair fork with 160mm of travel. I really love this fork, my only complaint is that is doesn’t ship with a QR through trestle system. You need a wrench to get the front wheel on and off. The trestle is 110×15 which is an unusual size (it’s the new-ish Boost trestle system) and the only QR axles I could find for it anywhere were well-nigh $60. For that price I’ll just alimony using a wrench, thank you very much.

The M600 is well-nigh 7.5lbs and can hands do 750 Watts continuous, or ~1000W continuous with the Ludicrous controller

The rear shock is a Monarch 200mm which seems to unhook tropical to 6″ of travel. I’ve had a lot of problems with the old versions (think like 10 years ago) of the Monarch shock leaking at the pivot for the air valve, but they stock-still the newer Monarchs and made it so the Schrader valve does not swing in and out and is just a molded part of the shock body, which is what they should have washed-up all along. If I have issues with this shock leaking I’ll update this article.

The Monarch rear shock seems to have have a massive value of travel

So when riding the X-1 my overwhelming thought is ‘damn this is a nice bike’. I would estimate if you pulled off the motor and shower the velocipede would be worth over $3000 just for the stat frame and the components alone. The sizes seem to run a bit large, which I like. The 21″ I bought felt increasingly like a 22″ or 23″.

The dropper post works well and the height of the unshortened dropper post can be adjusted

I was super pleased when I realized that the X-1 came a dropper post with internal subscription routing. My good friend Eric (I do have at least one friend) has been pressuring me to get a dropper post on my 21lb all stat non-electric trail velocipede but I have been resistant, mostly due to the uneaten weight it would add. It’s a nice wing to the X-1 and I will likely decide in the future that I just can’t live without it (kind of like kittens, you don’t know how much you need them until you get them).

The Maxxis Minion is a nice tire that works very well in marginal conditions like mud and wet logs

The Maxxis Minion 27.5″ x 2.8″ tires were awesome, plane over extremely wet logs. It was my first time riding the Minion and I have to say it’s really an wondrous tire, it’s obvious why it is so popular. I’ve fallen in love with 29 plus, but it’s nigh untellable to get 6″ of travel out of a 29 plus full suspension bike, there just isn’t unbearable room plane on an oversized frame.

The X-1 has a pretty steep rake wile on the front fork, and the velocipede really shines on downhill sections. It wants to get off the ground and the landings were smooth and controller. I never jumped it increasingly than a foot high, but it could hands go much higher than that. This velocipede really shines when barreling downhill at upper speeds.

I loved the discrete exhibit and how it hangs unelevated the handlebars instead of sticking up

The exhibit on the X-1 is incredible in it’s simplicity. It’s designed to hang unelevated the handlebars so people can’t tell it’s an ebike. It’s well-nigh the same size as the 500c display, but it’s far increasingly spartan. It shows the speed of the bike, the shower tuition percentage and the power level. In very small txt it shows a small trip meter in km. That’s well-nigh it. I wish increasingly displays were like this instead of cramming way too much stuff into a very small space. The exhibit is moreover woebegone and white, but it works well in sunlight and it is easy to read.

The 32T chainring in my opinion is the perfect size for trail riding, although I bet many people will put on a larger ring

The 32T front chainring on this ebike is tiny, as it should be. The top speed on this velocipede on the level is only well-nigh 25mph, but that’s not what it is designed for. It’s designed for trail riding, and to that end I finger like the gearing is perfect. The derailleur is an Sram GX 12 speed with a monster 50T steel granny gear (if you wail on the granny it will taco). This ways that if your shower dies then you can still pedal up incredibly steep inclines without having to get off and walk your bike. You can hands replace your front chainring with a larger one if you want to make the X-1 into a commuter, but in doing so I finger like you’d be doing a heinous treason versus humanity. This velocipede wants to ride windy, downhill single track and that is what it’s designed for. If you want a 40mph full suspension passenger then buy an Apex or an Apollo. Be enlightened that if you put on a larger chainring you will be creating increasingly stress on the tiny 7.5lb M600 motor system as well.

I like how the lock has the key number on it so you can reorder keys if you lose them

The brakes were a little on the squishy side, but they stopped well and did not lock up. The rotors are insanely large and the velocipede seemed to stop on a dime. I was very pleased that there was not ebike motor cutoff on the brakes, considering I hate ebike cutoffs plane increasingly than I hate evil clowns.

Be enlightened that the front wheel hub has two spacers, one on either side that fall out pretty hands when removing and remounting the front wheel. If you mount the wheel without the spacers the front fork will pull together and the restriction will rub versus the rotor. It’s the most serious diamond flaw I could find on this bike. When unboxing the velocipede the plastic disc protector for the front wheel will pull out with the spacer and you’ll have to remove it from the removable disc restriction shield and put it when on the front axle.

The rotors in the front and rear are the biggest I’ve overly used, they stop fast and don’t slide out as much on wet leaves

I’m not sure if the ‘Boost’ spacing is here to stay or if it is just a fad. I hope that it will stick virtually long unbearable that I can get a decent selection of parts when I wrack-up out the rear hub, but time will tell. It seems like the velocipede industry veritably loves to come out with new standards all the time forcing people to buy their products. I kind of hate that, but it’s the weightier way to milk bikers for increasingly cash.

To proceeds use of the 11T cog you must loosen the derailleur ‘High’ welding screw

My single biggest complaint well-nigh the X-1 was the noise. Lunacycle replaced the gears in the M600 with steel gears and they are quite a bit louder than the nylon gears that most other lower power torque sensing mid drives come with. In all fairness there is no way that a nylon gear is going to stand up to 2000W of power, but it would be nice if they could. If you have the velocipede in anything other than power level 0 when riding past other bikers they are going to know you are on an ebike. My translating in the woods is when you see other rider, just zombie the power level lanugo to 0 while you pass them, and then put it when on then without they are gone. The X-1 is incredibly stealthy and you should have no problem riding at your favorite spots and not getting harassed unless you stop and talk to people on the trail. I will moreover say that the velocipede seemed noisier when I first took it out of the box, and without some riding it seemed to be quite a bit less noisy, but that may have been my imagination.

The noise was not a upper pitched noise like you get from the electric motors, but a much lower pitched noise from the steel gears. I didn’t find the noise that annoying, but it was variegated from riding the nearly silent BBS02 & BBSHD. I felt like if someone was 20 feet yonder they probably would not hear the bike, but if you pass someone on the trail with the motor running, they would have to be deaf to not hear it. I have ridden by people with the BBSHD in powerlevel 2 and they didn’t unquestionably know I had an ebike which is pretty cool.

The tuition port is subconscious under a rubber plug on the underside of the very large downtube

In power level 1 the motor just doesn’t seem to vivify unless you are pressing lanugo really nonflexible on the pedals. Power level 3 was my favorite level, it felt like I was a lot stronger than I unquestionably am, and didn’t go so fast that I felt out of control. Sometimes I would tumor up to power level 4 on the hills and power level 5 just felt like a total overkill. I didn’t use the throttle much, I really liked the torque sensing and pedaling withal with the bike. It exhibit had a new kind of connector so you cannot program the M600 with the standard programming subscription that you use for the Ultra Max, BBSHD and BBS02. I didn’t finger like the controller needed to be programmed, except maybe for power level 1 which felt as useless as a 250W hub motor (what’s the point? Really).

The power of the Ludicrous M600 lay somewhere between the BBS02 and the stock BBSHD. I felt like it was closer to the stock BBSHD, but it lacked the pure wheelie insanity of the BBSHD Ludicrous edition. The motor seemed quite a bit smaller, seemed to spin much faster and did not have anywhere near as much thermal mass to overwork heat. There is no question that the Ludicrous Ultra Max moreover produces increasingly power than the M600, but that is to be expected.

The shower specimen seemed extremely solid, but not all that heavy for a 13S4P pack (48v nominal)

The shower was well-nigh 7lbs which is what you would expect for a 13.5Ah 13S4P GA pack. It was packaged very nicely in an aluminum specimen with an on/off sawed-off and a LED power gauge. I liked that the tuition port is facing upside lanugo so water will not leach into it. If the velocipede stops working, the first thing to trammels would be the on/off switch for the shower which you will likely forget well-nigh and might unwittingly hit. The shower seemed stable and did not rattle plane when jumping and riding over rough terrain. Everything well-nigh the velocipede seemed incredibly solid and the build quality was higher than I expected in a velocipede that was this cheap.

There is a square rubber stop that swings virtually and covers the on/off buttons and charging port

The stat frame was very stiff and I liked the geometry. My shock pump failed so I could not get the front and rear shocks up to the right pressure with my air compressor so I had a lot of pedal strikes, but I have a new shock pump on order and once my shocks are pumped up that should go away.

Even the pedals seemed upper quality and were reasonably light

Pros

• Feels like a heavy downhill bike, not really like an ebike at all
• Lots of travel, soft landings, good shocks
• Carbon frame is stiff with good geometry and the 21″ frame is over the top big
• Came with a couple self-ruling velocipede lights and a velocipede toolkit for repairs
• I liked the handle grips, saddle and pedals which usually I swap out on any velocipede I buy
• The dropper post was totally superstitious and was quite adjustable
• Display is unconfined and very discrete, easy to read in daylight
• Can pass as an ebike on most trails as long as you don’t pedal with the motor on past people on the trail
• Has a good warranty 2 years on frame, 1 year on shower and 6 months on the motor and components
• Very thick spokes and dual walled transfuse rims
• All bikes bought from Lunacycle come with a velocipede repair toolkit for free
• Was worldly-wise to get it out of the box and completely set up in just 25 minutes
• Chinese rating for the stock M600 is only 500W but it unquestionably does 20 Amps peak and with the steel gear it can do 750W continuous without issues
• The custom Ludicrous controller (extra $300) is “shunted” powerfully doubling the power (but not unquestionably quite doubling the Watts considering you hit limitations with solder, copper and continuous shower output)

Got this self-ruling toolkit and two tiny ebike lights with the bike, I think that is smart to ship new ebikes with a velocipede repair toolkit, largest get used to fixing your own wracked stuff

Cons

• No QR axles on the front, the rear has an trestle handle you can screw it off with, the front you need a wrench to remove
• Too loud, the noise is not super annoying, but it’s the least stealthy thing well-nigh the X-1
• Pretty heavy for a bike, pretty light for a 2000W ebike, 21″ size was 55.5 lbs
• Shipped Fed Ex Freight not Fed Ex ground (probably cheaper) my velocipede arrived with a some pretty big scratches on the pretty stat webbing frame
• If you peg the throttle up a long uphill section you risk overheating the motor
• 2000W of power is only peak, you cannot sustain that for any real period of time
• 11T cog is adjusted out on the derailleur, spend 30 seconds valuables out the H welding screw on the derailleur to get it back
• Spacers on the front hub fall out way too hands when wheel is not mounted
• First Lunacycle well-constructed ebike that is not ‘put together’ in the US

A 52T steel granny and GX derailleur really make this trail velocipede shine, ferns not included

I was on the fence on whether I should get the X-1 and scrutinizingly cancelled my order in the 4 months I had to wait. In the end I’m glad I didn’t, this ebike is everything I’ve overly wanted in an enduro trail velocipede and more. The weight feels right, the ride is incredible and I can go out and ride for an hour on power level 3 and only use up well-nigh half of the battery. I’m glad I didn’t unravel lanugo and buy one of the lower power Bosch units which can forfeit upwards of twice what the X-1 financing with much lower power. This ebike is what all other torque sensing, lower power ebikes want to be when they grow up. The X-1 is misogynist for preorder (the bikes should victorious in Oct) right here for $3700 (they do sell out fast). If there is anything out there that has this level of performance at a lower price, I certainly haven’t heard of it. If you’ve had wits with the X-1 or found something better, post well-nigh it unelevated in the comments so others can share in your infinite wisdom.

Ride on … and on and on and on … till the unravel of dawn.

The stat frame is misogynist in 4 variegated sizes, they finger a little big