THE EMPIRE
Nick Takes a look at the Wisper Wildcat C
This bike is perhaps one of the top offerings available here in New Zealand from the Electric Mountainbike Market in terms of specs, thus is a great place to find out just how good this bikes are, or aren’t as we plan to find out
Specs
FRAME:
UD Carbon U700 150mm rear travel
DRIVE UNIT:
Shimano E8000
BATTERY:
504Wh or 418Wh Shimano E8000
FORK:
Rock Shox Yari RC150mm travel
DAMPER:
Rock Shox RS Deluxe RT
SHIFTING SYSTEM:
Shimano XT
FRONT BRAKE:
Shimano M6000 – 203mm
REAR BRAKE:
Shimano M6000 – 180mm
RIMS:
Alex MD 40 32 hole
SEAT POST:
KT LEV Integra 31.6 125mm Travel
TYRES:
Schwalbe Nobby Nic 27.5 x 2.8
WEIGHT:
With 504Wh battery 21.5kg
Without battery 18.9kg
So, there are always after thoughts when it comes to these reviews, or things that didn’t make the video cut or I forgot to write down. As this was more so an experience for the first time on an E-MTB I didn’t want to watch other reviews or even look at other bikes until I had made up my mind, now having a look at what else is out there – it’s become apparent that this bike aside from being carbon isn’t necessarily the best value – I had a quick google and Giant does an E version of the Trance which is a great bike, called the SX E+ Pro – which on paper seems to be a better deal with Fox 36’s and SRAM components. Giant didn’t list the weight on their site, but I can’t think it would be much heavier and once you get past a certain point in heavy bikes like this a small difference isn’t overly noticeable.
Upon further investigation, Trek do a bike called a Powerfly FS5 at just under $6000 and that has similar spec parts to the Wisper at almost $4000 cheaper – less the carbon frame of course however they did list the weight at 23.81kg with tubes. so is 2KG worth $4k to you? I doubt it
My big takeaway from this whole thing now, is that knowing how good this Wisper Wildcat C is – and lets be clear its a great bike that rides well and is well appointed; if there are other bikes out there that do the same job or better at a lower price point, that’s something awesome.
As I said in the film, I have nothing bad to say about the bike itself, the main thing for me was where I would use momentum or certain techniques to climb for example, a rooted step up section, probably off the seat and hopping or throwing weight around, because these bikes encourage you to sit in the seat and pedal through anything I did end up clipping the pedals on things pretty often – which wasn’t a huge deal, I didn’t get bucked off it was just something I noticed.
What this does make me want to do is try out this Giant bike which I would think if it performs the power delivery as good as the Wisper could replace 2 bikes as it seems like its going to be pretty damn good on the decents as well as the uphills so – that might be a good all rounder – we might have to take it to 440 park and try those new up lines to the down lines
– Until then, questions welcome and all that jazz – see you on the trails!
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