Yes Merida’s new eOne-Eighty is a masterpiece of science and technology, but it doesn’t make me feel alive like the Yeti SB 165, and that’s why it’s my Bike of the Year 2024
It’s been coming for a long time, but 2024 was the year e-bikes steamrollered normal, analogue mountain bikes. Leading brands pumped more energy into the electrified sector than ever before, launched more SL and full power e-bikes, and crucially sold more and more e-bikes to a hungry public.
And riders have been piling on the pounds ever since. Yes that’s right, in case you haven’t guessed I’m not fully drinking the Kool-Aid that e-bikes can get me as fit as normal bikes… or that they’re as fun to ride.
Bikes don’t come more high tech than the DJI-powered Amflow PL, but that’s not the kind of thrill I’m really looking for on a bike
So, in the full knowledge that the best electric mountain bikes are sucking up the lion’s share of the research dollars, it’s an analogue bike that gets my vote for Gear of the Year 2024.
That’s because the biggest riding thrills for me this year were on a good-old regular bike on a long summer trip to the Alps, sampling and racing some of the best trails in Europe.
Mick’s Bike of the Year 2024
The Yeti SB165 is a bike for the heart strings, it’s a lively, thrilling and rewarding bike to ride
That machine was Yeti’s SB165 T Series T3. I’m not deliberately being a luddite or preacher by picking it as my favourite over an e-bike, it just really stood out as a bit of a classic. And that’s a classic in the context of having ridden almost every generation of long travel enduro bike abroad on an Alpine riding holiday for over two decades.
The Yeti not only looks fantastic (although I was slightly peeved it doesn’t come in Turquoise – c’mon guys!). It also had my back taking chances no one of my age ought to be taking racing Enduro2 in Meribel.
Enduro2 in Meribel is a great test of bike and rider
I might be biased as I always love bikes I get good results on, but I got on so well with the Yeti it would have to be my current pick of the multitude of enduro bikes on the market. The mullet bike has sublime rear suspension with the perfect amount of float/tracking vs support/progression and not a single bolt loosened or rattled after around 50,000m of vertical descending.
One particular off-piste trail in Pila in Italy on the SB165 is etched in my memory. It scared the life out of me at the speeds we rode it and had three of us whooping and hollering at the bottom about it being one of the top five trails in the world. And, trust me, I’ve ridden a lot.
The Yeti was just about the perfect companion for such a fast trail and took it all in its stride, including a terrifying section when the bike peeled off a huge rock face at warp speed yet seemed to calmly absorb the massive G-out at the bottom, save my ass and stop my heart leaping out of my rib cage.
Mick’s Bike of the Year 2024 – Runner up
The Merida eOne-Eighty is my pick of the e-bikes for 2024, it weighs a ton but the suspension is about the best out there
I didn’t have as many near death experiences reviewing Merida’s new eOne-Eighty 900 e-bike at its launch in Girona in Spain. That’s in part due to its ridiculously good suspension. Take RockShox’s latest Charger 3.1 damper in a 180mm Zeb, add the simply amazing Vivid air shock, bolt it into a heavy, ground-hugging e-bike and I’d better look for some other excuses for losing traction.
Merida’s longest ever travel bike is bloody heavy, at almost 28kg. But it’s the suspension and how well it’s tuned that gives it the ability to make a rider of any skill level feel like a bit of a hero. All the journalists I saw were having a blast on it, and while like most heavier e-bikes it’s definitely a bit of a tank, it wears its weight well and can pop about and jump well or even make quick direction changes if I kick into it a bit. Impressive, considering it’s pretty much Velcro-ed to the floor if I let it be.
Bosch has cleaned up its Purion display with the latest motor, and the power delivery is smarter
A major highlight is the new Bosch motor, alongside the DJI Avinox you’ll find powering Amflow’s PL Carbon Pro, it’s shepherded in this new e-bike dawn. Many brands made the switch to Bosch in 2024, looking for the German brand’s famed reliability, and they got more than they bargained for with what’s currently the most refined package on the market.
Danny wrote a full review of the Bosch Performance CX Gen 5, and while it’s not offering any extra power on paper over the old CX, it’s just so much quieter and more responsive. With neater controls, sensors that seem to read my mind and extra powerful cells, it feels like it totally redefines the e-bike experience and takes the way I interact with a motorised bike to the next level.
The Merida eOne-Eighty is a great runner up for me, I’ll hop on whenever it’s too muddy or I’m too tired for a normal pedal powered ride
Merida’s e180 is currently one of the longest travel bikes using the system, and seeing as the battery feels like it will last forever, why not have a bike with so much travel and grip? The e180 feels like the steeper it gets the better, either up or down. It’s a bike a load of people will love smashing around just about anything on, whether gravity is on my side or not.