Review: Ride1Up TrailRush Electric Mountain Bike

Buying a direct-to-consumer bike can be almost as big a gamble as investing in cryptocurrency. While a customer is not likely to lose their shirt investing in a new electric bike, buying a poorly made one may result in a serious crash or catch the garage on fire. For these reasons and more, it’s wise to do some research before clicking on the Add to Cart button.

The highest-end legacy-brand e-MTBs retail for upwards of $14,000. So what do you get for $2,095, the price of Ride1Up’s first-ever electric mountain bike, the TrailRush? At first glance, quite a lot. The California-based company has been around since 2018 and differentiates itself from other direct-to-consumer brands by speccing its bikes with solid components, providing a quality-to-price ratio that it promises “can’t be beat.”

Solid Parts

Photograph: Stephanie Pearson

The TrailRush is a Class III ebike, which means that it doesn’t have a throttle, and the motor maxes out at 28 mph. It's an aluminum-framed hardtail with a Shimano Deore 10-speed drivetrain, a 120-mm RockShox Judy Silver TK Air Fork, and Tektro Orion Quad Piston brakes—all products with track records that promise solid performance.

It also comes with nice extras, like a 150-mm Exaform dropper seat post and chunky Maxxis Minion tubeless-ready tires that are 29 inches in the front and back—a reasonably priced, high-performance set of tires often preferred by enduro or downhill riders. Interestingly, instead of Presta valves, the tires come with Schrader valves, which is a nice feature if you plan on filling up on air at a gas station.

For e-components, the mid-drive TF Sprinter motor is made by the Brose, the German company that Specialized uses for most of its drive technology. With 90 nm of torque and 250 watts of sustained power, it’s on the low end of force for an electric mountain bike. The 36-volt, 504-watt-hour removable battery runs the length of the down tube and promises 30 to 50 hours of range.

The bike’s front shock has a very big 120 mm of travel, which is common on a cross-country bike, but the frame is overall more relaxed. For example, the size medium frame has a more relaxed riding geometry, with a very long 1,216-mm wheelbase, which gives it more stability. Overall, the TrailRush was built to handle a little bit of everything a trail can throw your way.

Smooth, Quiet Ride

Photograph: Stephanie Pearson

At 57 pounds, the TrailRush is 2 to 12 pounds heavier than the other e-mountain bikes I’ve tested and more than twice the weight of my non-electric cross-country mountain bike. Whether you’re entirely new to mountain biking or amping up your ride from an analog version, it’s imperative to understand that e-MTBs bring great joy, until they run out of battery and you have to push them home. Or, worse, they end up on top of you in a fall, which can be lethal.

Luckily, neither happened during our testing, which consisted of my partner and I taking turns riding it to run errands around town and on sections of the Duluth Traverse, a 40-mile-long singletrack system that runs the length of the city, ranging in difficulty from green to black, and climbing and descending more than 4,000 feet.

Confident in the components and geometry, I expected the bike’s weight to be the limiting factor on trail. I was delighted, however, to find that even with the 90-nm-torque motor, the TrailRush offered a quiet, intuitive, and nimble ride, especially in Sport, the second-most-powerful mode. Whether around tight switchbacks or over tricky technical spots like rock gardens, the bike had consistent, even power that felt just right.

Riding it on trails in the least-powerful Eco mode, however, brought me to a standstill on uphills, while Boost, the most powerful mode, made it feel a little twitchy, like I was over-caffeinated and riding an excitable baby horse.

The bike surpassed my expectations on the trail. Surprisingly, however, the one time the bike fell flat was while riding it up a steep, 20-percent-grade paved Duluth hill after picking up my summer farm share vegetables at a local cidery. Riding side by side with my partner, who was on a similarly priced e-MTB that had a motor with 100-nm of torque, the TrailRush couldn’t keep up. It wasn’t exactly wimpy, but it also didn’t have that adrenaline-fueled rush provided by motors that have more torque.

Some Things to Consider

Photograph: Stephanie Pearson

A few other factors to consider before buying: The bike’s display screen provides ample information, including ride mileage, length of the ride, average speed, max speed, and average cadence, among other numbers, but the screen is 1.5 inches in diameter, roughly the size of a matchbook cover. Even with good eyes, it’s nearly impossible to see while dodging technical features on a trail. And unlike many other e-MTB systems, this one doesn’t yet offer a companion app (at least in the United States) that's compatible with either an iPhone or Android that provides more data.

Also, while we were impressed with the quiet, intuitive consistency of the Brose motor, not all bike shops are certified to fix it, as is the case with Duluth’s Continental Ski and Bike, one of the most comprehensive bike shops in Duluth. “This is one of the biggest issues with direct-to-consumer bikes,” says Cedar Webster, the shop’s director of service and warranty. “A lot of them use motor systems that we’re not licensed to work on, and we end up turning a lot of people away.”

To assist buyers, Ride1Up provides a comprehensive manual plus videos, tutorials, and robust customer service through its website. But if you run into serious motor trouble, you may be SOL in some places.

A common issue with ebikes is battery safety. The TrailRush’s Chinese-made Phylion lithium-ion battery displays a CE certification, the European marking that indicates the battery conforms with European laws. But it is not currently UL certified, which is the gold standard in certification that indicates the battery has been inspected by a third-party and meets local and federal U.S. environmental and safety standards.

When I reached out to Ride1Up regarding the lack of certification, the company noted that it is currently taking feedback before locking in certifications for long-term production and that the bikes go through nearly the same level of QA/QC testing as the UL-certified models. With the exception of New York, most of the United States does not have strict UL certification requirements. The battery and motor do have name brand components, and the lack of marking doesn’t necessarily indicate that the battery is unsafe. But it does give customers a reason to pause if charging the battery unattended.

Finally, the bike comes in two frame sizes—medium and large—designed to fit a range of riders from 5'5" and 6'4". That size range likely covers the majority of cyclists, but if you happen to fall out of those height parameters, this bike is likely not the right fit. But if you happen to be the right size and will have safe charging practices at home, this is a great bike for the price.