test | They won Raid 60: Central Empire

Before we look at Ride 60, it’s good to remember where the Fazua came from. In addition to its pioneering aspect of integration into the frame and lightness from every point of view (4.6 kg battery, 250 Wh and 60 Nm), its predecessor, the Ride 50, was interesting with its modular design. In fact, the system was made up of three parts and not two, as we are used to: the motor was separated from the “bottom bracket” unit, which was responsible for transmitting power to the cranks.

So you can not only remove the battery but also the motor, to keep just the “bottom bracket” part on the bike and “turn” your AE mountain bike into a classic mountain bike. An amazing concept, however, that didn’t work out at all. Admittedly, we gained over 3kg but the friction remained higher than that of an unassisted mountain bike because the gears of the transmission part were still there. In the Lapierre E-Zesty AM Test (Read the Test | Lapierre Zesty & E-Zesty: Natural or Enhanced, Always a Fresh Cocktail!), we wrote “It’s nice to have that possibility ‘just in case’ (participating in an event that doesn’t accept clips, …) but in practice it’s very likely that they will be used very, very little by the owners” And after 4 years, we don’t know of anyone using this feature.

On the interface side, the Ride 50 had two lives. Between 2017 and 2020, the assist behavior could clearly be improved: (very) reduced autonomy, few knocks, very linear. Fazua then released the “Black Pepper” update, which completely overhauled the assistance management to bring it more in line with a mountain biker’s expectations. However, the system remained limited by design and facing increasingly pressing competition, Fazua had to update its offering.