Copyright 2022, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Anne Roberts

It was some Saturday close to Valentine’s Day in 2019. I had, what I thought to be, the greatest Valentine’s gift EVER for my then-boyfriend. I had special-ordered a small, heart-shaped, variety box of assorted animal jerkies from around the world and was anxiously awaiting the chance to give it to him. It was a great exchange. He loved it! After breakfast, he headed out into the garage for a bit. I assumed he was working on his old Chevy Nova, but then the front door opened and he walked in with a brand-new, full-suspension mountain bike and a smile. “This is for you. Try it. I hope you have some fun on it.”

I glanced back at my simple little box of jerky on the counter, embarrassingly laughed to myself a little, and walked over to check out my new ride. This was one of those days in life that I’ll never forget because it marked a turning of the page for me when I had been feeling a bit lost. I finally had come across a much-needed sporting outlet that sparked my interest after retiring from more than a decade of motorcycle racing.

A few years prior, all at approximately the same time, I made some life changes to allow myself to slow down, stop, smell the roses, and chase some of my new dreams. My teens and 20s were very busy and hard-working years as a young entrepreneur. I had finally finished my Bachelor’s degree that I had been chipping away at for seven years with the little time I had between my other ventures. During that same time, I made the decision to retire from racing at a professional level. I had some people near to me sustain life-altering injuries and decided that I needed to count my blessings and close that chapter. I was so immensely proud of my accomplishments and tenacity in my decade of racing that I was extremely comfortable with this decision, which I had debated internally for quite some time. Even a few years afterwards, I still felt like I had not filled that void and was looking for a new hobby that suited me.

At my core, I’m the type of person who tremendously appreciates the rewarding feeling of a long day of intense manual labor and also the effort and suffering of pushing my body to the limits with a hard workout or endurance activity. My personal philosophy is that wellness and happiness comes from living a simplistic lifestyle, close to nature, unattached to an excessive amount of material possessions. My biggest passion has always been spending time outside and moving my body, as we were intended to do since birth. As I started to ride this mountain bike on the local trails, my mind, body, and spirit became more fulfilled, harmonious, and more satisfied than ever before and my performance in other areas of life started to improve.

Fast-forward to 2021 when I had gained substantial skills and fitness on my gifted, entry-level mountain bike. That same boyfriend bought himself a Giant Trance, with every component and suspension upgrade possible. I took one ride on it, and it instantly became OUR mountain bike. As a typical powersports enthusiast, when I choose to own a product, I like to have the best of what’s available. This seemed to be it. I was fascinated with how well this new bicycle was built and how nicely it handled the terrain in the Southeast where we live. My area of riding focus was cross country endurance riding, meaning, I liked to ride anywhere from 2-5 hours at a time at about 70% effort. I liked this style because it allowed me to spend a considerable amount of time with myself in solitude, thinking about life and what direction I was headed both personally and professionally, soak up some sunshine, immerse myself in nature, and it had an acceptable risk level for me.

I had planned to purchase one just like it for myself, as I needed a smaller frame, but parts shortages and astronomical prices have kept me riding that same bicycle to this day, even though it’s a little big for me! I even got the bug to test out my new skills around other riders and entered my first three-hour endurance race in January of 2022. I proudly took second spot in the Sport Class in Chainbuster’s most popular “Gobbler” event, held at Georgia International Horse Park, home of the 1996 Olympic mountain biking trails. I have to thank my close friend and nearby neighbor, Scott Russell who gave me the push to enter, as he’s someone who has helped and mentored me in my racing (motorcycle and bicycle) and training over the years. I got the chance to mountain bike with him in Alabama after the Barber Vintage Fest a few months prior to this race and I learned so much, inevitably leading me to go at a quicker pace, while riding with substantially less effort and more control. Not only did I get to go to school watching Russell, I had Michael Barnes at home teaching me about this new dominant rear-brake style of riding and helping me make small suspension tweaks and tire pressure changes to accommodate what I wanted the bike to do.

Thanks to my motorcycle racing and industry connections and my work for Roadracing World, I was asked if I wanted to do a test review on a loaned Giant e-MTB (a.k.a. a mountain bike with an electric-motor assist system) and write a report after riding and returning the bike. I hadn’t ever ridden an e-MTB but said yes because I felt qualified and was confident in my skills and feedback as a rider. I knew this would be really interesting to our readers since, according to Roadracing World & Motorcycle Technology’s most recent 2022 Reader Survey, which I feel is highly representative of the powersports demographic as a whole, 65.4% of the magazine’s audience rides bicycles either as a recreational activity or to train for racing/riding motorcycles.

The e-MTB I ordered is made by Liv, a sister company to Giant Bicycles, crafted for, by, and with women. This may sound a bit harsh, but at first, I was skeptical about a product “made for girls.” My past experience with products made for women who ride–whether that be clothing, gear, etc.–had often been disappointing. I am a performance enthusiast. I’m talented in everything I put my mind to. I appreciate the highest quality standards for my level of performance and activity. But my contacts at Giant suggested that the best bike for me would be a Liv Intrigue X E+ 1 model.

I soon got a call that the loaner bike had been shipped from Giant headquarters in California to Roswell Bicycles in Roswell, Georgia, about an hour from my home, and would be waiting for me to pick it up! This shop is one of the best-known dealers and service centers in the Southeast, and when I went to pick it up I got a full consultation and learned about the bike and its charging system. Next came a custom set-up to make sure all the ergonomics and positioning were exactly to my liking, and the suspension was adjusted for my body weight and the type of terrain I’d be riding on.

Liv Bicycles are built by Giant, and I was impressed when the bike was fitted to me. The company builds bikes from the ground up with input and data from fast, professional women riders and racers. I appreciated the comfortable saddle (with dropper post!), shorter reach, and a handlebar width that felt like home. As an added bonus, I was able to leave my personal Giant Trance with the experts in their Roswell Bicycles Service Department to replace some bearings and give it a needed tune-up.

When I picked the test e-MTB up I also asked about gear. Typically, the trails I ride in Georgia (Blankets Creek, Charleston Park, Georgia International Horse Park, Hard Labor Creek, Yellow River Park, Big Creek, Sope Creek, Fort Yargo, etc.) are smooth and flowing terrain with light to medium technical obstacles. None of this calls for or requires full, hard armor-style pads. Like other riders in the area, I am usually perfectly comfortable wearing standard gear such as padded cycling shorts, a light jersey, cloth gloves, my Adidas FreeRider Pro flat shoes with hard toe box, and my 6D trail helmet. But at the ripe old age of 33, having ridden on two wheels for more than two decades, I know that with a bit of increased speed comes a bit of an elevated risk. For this e-MTB venture, and with guidance from Roswell Bicycles, I bought some sleeve-style elbow pads and some sleeve-style knee pads, just in case of any little tip-overs in the dirt. Although I never needed to put them to use, they were surprisingly comfortable and gave me a feeling of security. I’ve used 6D helmets for quite a few years, and when I started mountain biking, staffers Bob and Josh have always ensured that I am in the highest standard trail helmet. The company’s new ATB-2T with omni-directional suspension that I use has the highest safety rating of 5-stars from Virginia Tech and is e-bike rated for higher impact.

I transport my bicycles with a tailgate pad. Normally, lifting my 23-pound personal bike up and over the tailgate of my Ford F-150 from the ground is no issue. I had to make the loading process of the aluminum-framed, battery-powered, Liv Intrigue X E+1 a multi-step procedure, lifting the back wheel up first and then the front, due to the weight (approximately 52 pounds) and size. Maybe I need to work on my overhead press in the gym a bit more!

Throughout the next few weeks, I had a lot of fun exploring the wide variety of trails in North and Central Georgia. The Liv Intrigue X E+ 1 is an extremely well-balanced machine, without any significant weight bias to the front or rear. One of the things I most appreciate about this Liv Intrigue (and my personal Giant Trance 29er) is the amount of trail it has. I’ve ridden a few other brands of bicycles and these seem to have just a hair more trail, which creates a very confidence-inspiring amount of stability on descents and over rough surfaces. It’s very forgiving of little mistakes with the front end and looks to naturally correct itself when it gets out of shape.

Surprisingly, one of the things I enjoy the most is the added weight of the e-MTB. Carrying this extra weight around (nearly double that of my personal bike) really settles the chassis down over what used to be a bumpy ride and it also allows me to carry a surprising amount of corner speed. The bicycle feels like it is Velcro-ed to the ground. It is incredible! Also contributing to this “Velcro” feeling are the Maxxis tires. The 29-inch, tubeless wheels are outfitted with 2.60-inch wide Maxxis Assegai front and Maxxis Dissector rear tires. They’re both wide enough to offer a lot of control and aggressively treaded for maximum grip. And the disc brakes bite hard when I need them to, but are very easy to modulate, allowing me to put the bike on trajectories I’m happy with at most any time.

I’d never ridden on Fox suspension before. The Liv Intrigue X E+1 offers e-bike rated Fox Float 36 Performance Elite forks with a very nice 150mm of travel capable of handling almost any terrain. The (also e-bike rated) shock is a Fox Float X Performance with 140mm of rear wheel travel on Giant’s proprietary Maestro floating-pivot suspension system. In addition, the frame has a flip chip for adjustable frame geometry. I was really impressed with how well it soaks up the small stuff at speed, but also the precision with which it handles and navigates pronounced obstacles, especially while climbing.

A SyncDrive Pro, powered by Yamaha, 80nm motor propels the bike. A small pod on the left handlebar let me choose from one of five power levels (on the fly) and it has an added walk-assist feature in case the rider gets stuck and needs a push. But this is not a dirt bike with a throttle. It requires actual work, but takes substantially less effort to ride than a regular bicycle. I only got help when I was actively pedaling, only when a pedal has a load on it. Shifting gears took me a few minutes to get used to because it was easy for me to be a little bit flippant about what gear I was in since I was getting assistance. As I clicked off miles, I developed my own style and was quickly shifting like a champ. Level One gave me a little assistance. Level Five absolutely blew my mind. At a few points in one of my rides, in the most powerful setting, my GPS read 23 mph through the woods. I could get it to easily loft the front wheel while climbing under power and even spin the tire a few times! Tons of fun, but I quickly backed it down a few notches, because I didn’t want to have any up close and personal encounters with stationary objects! I preferred to ride in Level Two or Level Three, which gave me enough power to have long-range fun, but still gave me a great workout. The motor is super smooth and quietly hummed along underneath me, making the bike sound a little bit like a small space ship. The future is here.

I was also impressed that the battery outlasted me! The EnergyPaK Smart Integrated 625 battery charges to 80% in 2.5 hours. Depending on what power level is selected, rider weight, headwinds, amount of climbing, tire pressure, terrain, and outdoor temperature, the bike is able to get between 28 miles and 110 miles range on a full charge, which equals hours of fun.

I really love the battery assistance, because it makes it possible for me to explore places and trails I would have never even attempted before. Climbing feels like I have a tailwind at all times or like a hand is gently pushing on my seat.

I had a lot of questions about the bike when I picked it up. One of the things I was most worried about was what would happen if the bike got wet. I was told I could do most things as I normally would, including riding in the rain, splashing through puddles, and most importantly, washing the bike. But the unit is water-resistant, not water-proof, so it can’t be submerged and it’s not recommended to use a high-powered pressure washer to clean it, as it could force water into the electrical components and cause pre-mature wear and corrosion. I use the “less is more” approach and lightly hose the bike off, directing water away from all things electrical, mostly just wiping the unit down, drying it off, and spraying it with some Maxima SC1 (a high-gloss clear-coat protective spray) to prevent dirt from caking and to give it a nice shine–plus, I can appreciate the product’s cherry smell!

One thing I find difficult is chain maintenance. On these bikes, the chain does not move backwards when the pedals spin backwards, so to clean the chain, I had to either set the bike on a stand or have a buddy pick up the back end so I could clean and lube the chain before every ride.

All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed riding the Liv Intrigue X E+ 1. There are only a few things I might change due to personal preference, things I’ve grown accustomed to that make my ride more enjoyable. First, I’d like to upgrade the pedals. I enjoy riding flats. I do not like to be clipped-in on a mountain bike. Having the ability to quickly dab a foot in times of need is something I value and something that makes me feel comfortable. The Liv’s stock, plastic, flat pedals do have spikes on them, but they don’t give a lot of area for the foot. I prefer a pedal with a wider base for more control, and ones that have metal spikes that can be changed out when they get worn down. Secondly, I’d like to upgrade the grips. The stock grips on the bike are thin rubber and my hands are almost closed when I’m gripping them. I like a thicker, more pillow-top grip that allows me to grip with my fist wider open. I felt myself getting arm pump and finger cramping with the stock grips because I was holding on tightly with what felt like a closed fist.

The e-MTB is a unique product that is appealing to those that may not be able or willing to stick with standard mountain biking, but also for those who absolutely want to rip through trails on a performance-oriented machine. Truthfully, standard mountain biking is really hard–especially at first before you build up the fitness for it, and I vividly remember those days. Before riding this e-MTB, friends told me about how riding an e-MTB has changed their life for the better. It’s heartwarming to see folks able to get out and exercise again after injury; to use it to build up fitness; to enjoy pedaling trails again and keep up with their children (or grandchildren) in their (relative) old age; and moms and girlfriends taking part in activity with their significant others. All of it makes mountain biking truly a family activity.

Then there are those who struggle with PTSD or emotional turmoil and use these machines as a means to get outside, enjoy a new hobby and sport, living life again at which ever pace they choose on that day. One of the most touching accounts someone told me was that when they are in a deep depression, the last thing they want to do is put in the effort to go exercise. With the e-MTB they can spend hours cruising through the woods without feeling drained and they feel like it breathes new life into them. E-MTB’s are great in that they truly can have a place in everyone’s life. You’re able to make the experience what you want it to be with a simple push of an up or down arrow on the handlebar pod. If you’re interested in picking one up, they’re available to order at Giant Bicycles dealers. The Liv Intrigue X E+ 1 retails for $6,400 MSRP. For men wanting an equally sick ride, the gentleman’s equivalent of this high-performance e-MTB would be any of the Giant Trance X E+ models.