INTENSE TAZER PRO REVIEW

THE DIRT
Climbing: eMTBs are more than capable of getting you up some gnarly climbs, and the Tazer did not disappoint. We found that with that 27.5” rear wheel we were able to navigate extremely tight switchbacks easily. While you do sacrifice some square edge rollover resistance with the smaller rear wheel it was a good compromise that made this bike stand out against the rest of the Enduro category bikes.

Another area the bike stood out, and not in a good way, was how it handled chattery and square-edge bumps. When coming off other eMTBs with softer, plush feeling rear ends, the climbing comfort and planted feel was very different. This is a characteristic we also noticed on the downhills and we will discuss it more there. We played with the shock on the Intense Tazer more than any other bike in our shootout trying to get it right. We played with sag settings, volume reducers and found that completely opening up the LSR definitely improved the ride feel but that “chattery” feeling was still there. The JS Tuned link kept us high in the travel and would say that the upside to this firm feeling suspension is efficiency and speed. So, if you regularly ride smoother trails, fire road climbs or flowy singletrack, this bike will be quick and efficient.

The 75.4-degree seat tube angle kept us in a great climbing position when things got steep. There were no questions about the geometry of the cockpit when it came to mashing up hills. The 450mm chainstays added to the confidence when things got steep, there was no random wheel lifts and traction was excellent when our weight was shifted forward on hill climb challenges.

The EP8 motor was consistent with its smooth power delivery, while it may not be an outright torque monster that the Bosch system is, there was really no feeling of needing more power.

Descending: The balanced geometry of this bike made it a confidence inspiring machine when pointing downhill. Something all our testers loved about the Intense Tazer was the feeling of being “In” the bike. When standing in attack position all our testers felt comfortable and powerful. It really gave us the feeling that we were part of the machine and as we turned and leaned, so did the bike. The 27.5” rear wheel made it really snappy through chicanes and allowed us to change lines with minimal effort. For riders coming in on the inside line, the bike worked well as it liked to square up corners and change directions quicker than some of its 29/29 competitors in this category. Slalom-like corners, big sweepers and high-speed berms all make the rider and bike smile.

Getting away from the smoother bits of trail and fun corners we want to talk about something every one of our testers felt and ran into during our time in St. George. Each rider noted that the bike felt very harsh on square-edge hits, skipped the back tire around and caused foot/hand fatigue on long descents. When placed side by side with other eMTBs and coasting downhill fire roads of embedded stone, the Intense Tazer decelerated and hung up more than other bikes and quickly fell off the back.

Since Cole just came off the Primer with some great experiences, he took his love of suspension tuning and accepted the challenge to make the Tazer feel better. Before we talk about what we did we want it to be known that we went from 200psi and ended up with around 285psi in the shock, and test rider weight varied from 160lbs to 175lbs. So, quite a lot of psi in there for our weight. We opened the shock up and inspected the reducer size and swapped it out for the largest option from Fox. LSR was dead center, and we put the shock down to 220psi hoping our issue was solved, but it was not. We went back up to 250psi and completely opened the LSC. While this made a difference, the problem was still there. We were continuing to bottom out aggressively and had some crazy feedback in the pedals from the shock. This really takes away from the traction on high-speed flat corners where small chattery rocks lay in wait. After a few days I was able to adapt and expect the rear to pack up and kick out, not ideal but we made it work. I landed on 270psi in that DPX2 to give us enough support while still having some small bump compliance. We know that DPX2 is a great shock and has been one of our favorites in modern bikes, but we feel that it was just not up to the task paired with this linkage. The X2 offered in the XL’s could theoretically provide better ramp up and more fine tuning with HSC.

With that issue aside, this bike was one of the better cornering bikes in the category. It absolutely ripped steep berms as I hoped it would. The reach and chainstay length combo really hit home for me and I would not want anything different in that regard. When it comes to jumps it is livelier than some of the bikes in category like the Niner WFO, but we would not go so far as to say it was the lightest or poppiest in group. You still had to work for those little gaps as you do with most eMTBs. There was one section of trail we hit multiple times that had a 10 to 12 foot stepdown into an awkward uphill rock roller. We were very comfortable scrubbing the stepdown and managed to keep enough speed to triple up and out of the next feature. Depending on your local terrain and ride type, this bike could be a fast, cornering weapon, or not.