DEVINCI E-TROY GX LTD EMTB REVIEW

A HARD CHARGING TRAIL EMTB

Words by Cole Gregg

When I hear the brand name Devinci, my first thought is Steve Smith. His name will always be synonymous with the brand. I did my best to channel my inner Stevie and ride the wheels off their E-Troy! This bike was revamped from the ground up with a focus on making it a do-everything bike, which Devinci delivered on.

Devinci’s story starts back in 1987 on the Eastern Coast of Canada. These days, Devinci’s Aluminum frames are produced in Canada, a selling point that really differentiates them from the major players in the industry. With full control and trust in their manufacturing process, Devinci stands behind their products with a Lifetime Warranty. Should you ever have an issue, they have you covered.

I received this bike late into summer in 2023 and rode it all over the Inland Northwest (Spokane – Coeur D’Alene area). From smooth flow trails to gnarly ORV park moto trails, this bike was put through the ringer with nothing more than a rock chip on the frame to show for it!

SPECS

• 150mm Split Pivot Suspension
• HTA 63.5
• STA 78.5 (effective)
• REACH 485mm (Large)

WE DIG

WE DON’T

ABOUT THE DEVINCI E-TROY GX LTD EMTB

DRIVE UNIT AND ELECTRONICS | The heart of the E-Troy is the Bosch CX power unit, delivering 85Nm of torque and 600W Peak Power. This is powered by a 625Wh Bosch PowerTube battery. Should you have an extra long day planned, you can mount the PowerMore 250Wh range extender, which adds roughly 3.5lbs to the bikes 54.3lbs total weight.

The GX LTD model on test has the Bosch Smart System. This is an integrated top tube LED display, showing the rider what mode they are in and how much remaining battery life the bike has at a glance. Additionally, the GX LTD has the super-sleek Bosch Mini Remote on the bars, letting you cycle through power modes on the fly and use Walk mode.

The Bosch CX power unit has 5 different power modes, Eco, Tour, Sport, Turbo and EMTB. The EMTB mode delivers power when you need it, and tries to extend battery life when you don’t. When asking the maximum out of the 85Nm motor, the system can deliver up to 340% of your input power. Should you need to fly with the bike, the battery’s dropdown-style removal is accessed with just a key lock making teardown a breeze. Our GX LTD model comes with Bosch’s 4A charger, which can deliver a whopping 80% of battery life in around 2 hours!

FRAME AND FEATURES | This 150mm frame is driven by Devinci’s Split Pivot suspension system. This platform received specific kinematic refinements specifically for the E-Troy’s added weight and power. I would say they absolutely nailed it! This new bike is a dedicated mixed-wheel shredder. A 29” wheel does the business up front, while a 27.5” hoop hosts a party out back.

The rear end is the classic Boost 148, with a 55mm chainline aimed at increasing tire clearance. Should you want to upgrade to Sram’s Transmission the frame is compatible with a UDH. Included on all models is a mini upper chainguide.

SUSPENSION | Our GX LTD equipped model comes with a 170mm fork, while the GX and Deore build kits come with a 160mm option. All models come with the same 150mm of Split Pivot rear travel, which is effectively a linkage driven single pivot design, which is equipped with a pivot around the rear axle to control braking forces.

For the E-Troy, Devinci optimized their Split Pivot suspension design for the different needs of eMTB. They revised the kinematic in order to keep the suspension moving freely while pedaling to provide grip and comfort – very important factors when trying to ascend the kind of terrain that an eBike begs you to climb.

GEOMETRY | For a “Trail” eMTB, the Devinci E-Troy sports some pretty rowdy numbers! The Headtube angle lands at an aggressive 63.5º, with a fairly slammed stack height of 624mm on our size large. Long legged riders can rejoice with a steep seat angle of 78.5º, thank you Devinci!

The wheelbase falls right into the ballpark of normal at 1270mm with a snappy 438mm chainstay. The 612mm top tube delivers a well-rounded 485mm reach.

BUILD SPECS | The 170mm of travel up front is driven by a Fox 38 Performance Elite fork with the Grip2 damper, and the shock is a Float X Performance Elite with a 55mm stroke. The brakes and drivetrain are all Sram, with Code R brakes and GX level gearing. The cockpit is a mix of Devinci’s in-house brand and SDG components. The bar and stem combo are the V2 Pro E models, and seatpost duties are handled by the SDG Tellis dropper.

Getting that Bosch’s power to the ground are RaceFace Aeffect R30’s wrapped in Maxxis Minions. The front tire is a DHF in MaxxTerra Exo+ while the rear is a DHR II in the 3C Double Down casing. All in all this brings a size medium bike to a claimed 54.34lbs.

THE DIRT

SETUP | For the vast majority of my rides, I landed at 25% being the sweet spot of comfort and support, at roughly 173lbs with gear this was 225psi in the shock with the stock .4” reducer. I did not find a need to go up in volume reduction, as the bike’s linkage offered plenty of small bump compliance and end of stroke ramp. This lower sag figure gave me tons of support when pumping on more flow style trails. I ran the LSC right around the middle, sometimes bumping up 1-2 clicks firmer depending on the conditions.

Upfront I ran the fork at 95psi with 3 volume reducers. This figure is pretty standard for me with a 38 on the Ebike platform. When riding steeper zones, I did bump up to 102psi to help to keep the fork up in its travel and preserve the geometry better. For compression I was dead in the middle with both LSC and HSC. Rebound varied with trail conditions and temperature but was set quite fast to keep things active.

One of the things out of the box with this bike that surprised me was the need to lower the handlebars. Generally, I am adding as many spacers as I can to get that handlebar height up on typical test bikes. In the stock configuration, it felt like I had my weight too far off the back of the bike, which was making the front wheel light and leaving little-to-no pressure on the front wheel when on flat sweeping corners. This was likely due to a combination of the short rear end and slack Head Tube Angle. I dropped 12.5mm of spacers, which brought the bike to a comfortable zone to let me push hard.

ELECTRONICS AND INTEGRATION | The Bosch CX Smart System is well liked unanimously at The Loam Wolf. The simple and clean controller stays out of the way when riding but feels acceptably tactile and ergonomic. The integration of the power unit on the top tube never let me down, and the LEDs were clearly visible in direct sunlight. I did notice that the first bar would drop pretty quickly, with the second bar taking at least twice the amount of time to go away. This was a worry my first few rides as I was unsure how much elevation I would get on a single charge in Boost mode, but rest assured I rode until my arms were dead tired.

Using the Bosch app, I tuned the motor to give me the absolute most available power in Boost (I mean, is there any other way???). Other than adjusting that, I left all other parameters the same and felt comfortable across the range of scenarios. Accessing walk mode was easy enough, too, and made sessioning trails that little bit more pleasurable.

CLIMBING | First, the Bosch CX power unit was an absolute dream. I remember the first Bosch motor I rode was quite jolting and would catch me off guard from time to time. These days, the CX motor has none of those issues. Power delivery in all modes is smooth, precise, and reactive. Even in full-tilt Boost. It comes on very smooth and is predictable when doing half cranks up and over trail features. I remember on the older system, I had to plan those pedal strokes and kind of expect to be pulled where I didn’t want to go, but those days are over.

I climbed up a bunch of trails here at Beacon Hill that I’ve never done. Taking time to session climb features that I had only ever blasted down was super fun. I was really surprised at how well the power was delivered when I needed it. As far as the cockpit feel when climbing goes, the 485mm reach was spot on for me. I didn’t suffer from excessive hand pressure or a light front end when climbing steep sections of trail once I’d dropped the bar height. It was very balanced.

When it comes to long days in the saddle, the E-Troy is dang comfortable! The suppleness off-the-top across roots and rocks really makes spending hours in the saddle on the E-Troy an absolute dream, even with the low-speed compression on the shock being cranked up. Overall, all-day comfort is ten out of ten.

One of the drawbacks I found was the dropper post length, which was quite short at 170mm. For reference, I run a 240mm post on my personal bike with my 36.5” inseam. So, adjusting the dropper to give me a comfortable position for descents and climbing was a bit of a challenge. I played up and down with it and ultimately decided it was better served just as low as I could possibly stand it when pedaling. At the trails in my backyard having it lower was not an issue as the climbs are only about 5 – 8 minutes. On more sustained climbs, I did bring the dropper up on climbs so not to cause more fatigue in the quads and hip pain. The Seat Tube Angle was perfect for me though. I didn’t find myself being off the back when I had that dropper in the proper position, which I can’t say for every bike.

The smaller 27.5” wheel out back didn’t cause any issues. The geometry is well sorted to account for it. I did have a few motor strikes during testing, but this is pretty common on one particular feature local to me. When blasting up rock gardens, the supple suspension ensured I did not encounter much harshness or a lack of grip. We have a really fun multi-directional trail here that has really supportive corners, and with that dropper all the way up you could absolutely rip it up in Boost. One day I actually lapped those three times in a row, just to see how committed I could be going uphill.

DESCENDING | One of the first things I noticed on my descent was just how plush the back end of this Devinci felt. Even with my first air pressure set up, which was over sprung, it just wanted to hug the ground. I remembered Drew talking in the Dissected video [link] about how he sped up rebound to give it a little bit more of a lively feel. I took his advice, and it really brought the E-Troy alive.

It took me a few days to really get used to having that 27.5” wheel out back. My lean angles and corner approaches are ingrained in my muscle memory from being on a full 29” setup. So finding that traction point took some time, but once I got used to it, I really used it to my advantage. The bike was super fun on those tight trails where I would use hips to maneuver the bike.

I found out that the bike feels like it has two modes. It has a kind of slow speed mode and then high speed mode. When you’re going slow, it really takes a lot of body English to get the bike to do what you want it to. However, the faster you go, the less body English it takes to play around. Because of this trait, it egged me on to ride faster. I ended up setting some PRs on this bike, which I am quite surprised at because at times it didn’t feel fast. I think that the shorter wheelbase and the 27.5” inch rear wheel allowed me eke out a few seconds here and there in tighter sections, without sacrificing confidence at speed.

On my first few rides aboard the E-Troy I experienced the bike quite abruptly standing up in the corners when getting on the brakes. While all bikes will do this to a certain extent, it seems to be amplified on the E-Troy compared to other bikes I have recently been riding. Of course, you should be off the brakes in corners, but often that is easier said than done. A few rides in I got used to the feeling and adapted my riding. Ultimately, this meant coming into corners slower and powering out. For more beginner level riders I could foresee this being frustrating, but it is something that is easy to overcome with time.

Another interesting riding characteristic the bike has is that the weight feels to be quite high in the frame. Almost as if part of the battery was in the top tube, not the down tube. This is quite a different feeling than other eBikes I have rode, and was really the only true negative I found when riding the bike. The feeling did go away as I spent more time on the bike, but it never completely disappeared.

Even though it is a “trail” focused bike, you would never know the Devinci E-Troy only had 150mm of travel out back. You could have told me it has 170mm or even 180mm, and I might have believed you. It rides very much like it has more travel, without being overly soft and hard to maneuver. The bottomless feeling was notable, and when paired with the supple feel off-the-top, it made for a very comfortable ride across all types of terrain. Even when undersprung and getting to the end of the travel, it avoided being overly harsh.

FINISH AND VALUE | In today’s market, the E-Troy does come in at a fairly premium price, but Devinci has delivered a premium product. Made in Canada and with lifetime warranty, it’s an impressive bike that’s unlikely to leave you wishing for more.

At the beginning of the testing period, the quick release rear axle backed right out. I pulled it out, added Loctite, and I think I tightened it a total of four times throughout the test. Otherwise a couple of shock bolts came loose after a few rides, and that is it. Quite standard procedure for a bike bedding in.

During my many hours in the saddle on the E-Troy I never found any of the components to hold me back on the trail. I also experienced no failures of any kind, I was lucky enough to have this bike longer than most and subjected it to all sorts of conditions. Usually, with this much time on a bike I have those nagging parts that are ready to bite the dust at any point. I am happy to report that is not the case here!

Throughout the entire test, the only bit of labor I put into the bike was tightening the rear axle. The wheels, brakes and derailleur all were never adjusted or messed with. Everything just kept trucking along worry-free.

The Wolf’s Last Word

The E-Troy allows you to push your own limits with great reward while not beating up your body on the climbs. It is a very well balanced all-around ripper of a bike that ticks the boxes for a multitude of riding zones and skill levels.

Price: $7,999
Weight: 54.3 lbs
Website: Devinci.com