Ari Nebo Peak eMTB [Test Ride Review]

Photos: Evan & Melanny @outofthisvan

Full disclosure: this was a two-hour test ride, with no time to fine-tune or adjust set-up in any meaningful way. First impressions only.

I ride far fewer e-bikes than regular bikes, and Sedona has few trails you can legally ride them on. So this review of the Ari Nebo Peak really is a ‘first-impressions’ review. We messed around on the jump lines for about half an hour to test for general shredability and speed of lapping, and then took the bike out onto the jeep trails to ride over as many rocks and ruts as possible.

Ari Nebo Peak key specs

Rider Profile: 6’’1” and 220lb with gear. Size X-Large tested
Suspension travel: 150/140mm front/rear with flip chip in short position (default)
Frame highlights: Full carbon with a dual-position control on the chainstay
Geometry highlights: HTA: 65°, Reach: 505mm (XL), STA: 77.5°(effective), Chainstay: 434.6mm, Wheelbase:1,278.1mm (XL)
Price: $7,999 for the build as tested
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One day they’ll all be like this

As the boundary between heavy-duty trail bikes and lower-weight e-bikes gets ever narrower, you’re going to see more and more bikes like the Ari Nebo Peak. It’s a ‘lightweight’ e-bike, squarely aimed at the rider who wants one single bike that can give them as much trail action as possible, but with enough maneuverability and playfulness to get into some trouble on the fun stuff too.

It’s not ‘full powered. The Fazua system on this bike has a 430Wh battery, which some people are calling ‘mid-assist,’ roughly half the 700Wh on something like a Specialized Turbo Levo. The idea is that what you lose in power and battery life, you hopefully gain in agility and playfulness. There’s no bulging lump at the drivetrain here either, because the whole motor’s elegantly hidden in the oversized downtube. Other frame highlights include guided cable routing that has separate channels to keep cables away from the electronics, adjustable geometry in the chainstays to alter length and headtube angle, and what they claim is their lowest standover height and lightest e-bike frame ever.

It certainly looks good to me; the neat clean lines make for a distinctive profile and it turned some heads at the festival.

Take it light

The weight is immediately impressive. The Nebo feels light enough that you could complete your ride with a dead battery and still have a good time, rather than the death march home that running out of juice usually spells for a bigger e-bike. It also transfers power much faster. There was none of that ‘cycling through molasses’ drag as it powered into the pedal stroke, unlike some other bigger e-bikes I’ve ridden. The Nebo felt nimble and agile on squeaky, awkward technical climbs, gobbling up sharp rock ledges and slabs, daring me to take the lumpiest lines. The Nebo also got me out of trouble in moments of unexpected traction loss or poor body position.

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The Fazua system’s fun to use, too.There’s a thumb-operated ring control on the left hand side, a little like a motorcycle throttle, that you push upward to change modes. It felt intuitive and quick, plus it has a (their words)- ‘ludicrous’ mode, that gives you a 10s burst of above-turbo power if you hold the control up for three seconds. It’s kinda like a power-up in MarioKart, but without any turtle shells or lightning strikes. You’ ve also got XO Eagle AXS shifting too, for even more whirring and lights, with Rockshox Lyrik/Super Deluxe Ultimate suspension front and rear. The SRAM Maven brakes were entirely new to me, but gave me no doubts at all on the trail given the heft of the bike.

Flyboy

Overall, my brief encounter with this bike put a huge smile on my face. I love the looks, it let me play around with confidence immediately and it made riding up tough uphill rock gardens feel like cheating – but with someone fun. That lightweight design also made it pretty capable in the air, without the need for huge extra effort to tweak and tuck that a heavier bike requires. It’s still very obviously a chunky bike, and hasn’t created some magical hybrid of electrical power and featherweight handling, but If what you desire most in life is to get in as many laps on the jump trails and DH tracks as you possibly can, with climbs that you look forward to, then you could do a lot worse. I love the looks, it let me play around with confidence immediately, and I managed some respectable jumps within minutes.