Pace Cycles Unveil a New 170mm eMTB
Photo by Sam Flanagan
Press Release: Pace Cycles
Little fish catching the big sharks.
Big days out shredding big mountains- the core of mountain biking and often the stuff of legends. Demands on body and mind often limit your scope in this terrain but in this case not the bike. With big 726wh battery capacity, burly long travel coil suspension and progressive geometry the 170e just keeps on giving well beyond the point where most E-Bikes have turned back for home.
The Features:
• Material: Pace custom alloy frame. High strength and durability- Hand made, tough T6 heat treated & beautiful in natural polished finish.
• Wheelsize: Mixed wheels 27.5" rear and 29" front or both 29". Built in shock flip chip.
• Travel: 170mm. Rear Travel: 170mm. Both coil, a new plush E Bike riding experience
• Shimano EP8 motor. Light, more efficient and more powerful.
• 726Wh compact battery. Long Range and low centre of gravity. Easily accessible housed in the broad spar alloy downtube.
• Latest general integrated E-Bike lights. Extend your big day even when the sun sets. Worlds first road-legal high beam/ dip. The headlight has 10 automotive LEDs, non-submerged deep beam developed for long travel bikes and high/broad high beam for curve illumination.
• Efficient Pace 4 bar suspension system. Maximum control with minimum squat & pedal feedback.
• Twin Carbon-Fibre Rockguards. 1x high strength motor Skid Plate combined with 1x rock deflector.
• Adjustable Radiator Vent. Assists battery temp for longer range and battery life.
• Low profile frame. Allows long drop seatpost. 213mm drop on large as standard.
• Efficient Pace 4 bar suspension system. Maximum control with minimum squat & pedal feedback.
• Twin Carbon-Fibre Rockguards. 1x high strength motor Skid Plate combined with 1x rock deflector.
• Adjustable Radiator Vent. Assists battery temp for longer range and battery life.
• Low profile frame. Allows long drop seatpost. 213mm drop on large as standard.
Photos by Sam Flanagan
The combination of bikes and motors have a long history in the Pace family business- the boss Adrian, raced enduro motorcycles on a National & International basis and that's how Pace Cycles started 30+ years ago. Adrian designed his own mountain bike to help him keep race fit...and that's when the RC100 was born. Cathy Adrian's wife rode a Yamaha trailbike and daughters Aimee and Sophie often rode shotgun round the paddock. So the RC170E takes the family business back full circle in many ways to a time when mountain bikes and dirtbikes were a constant in family and business life. It wasn't a matter of 'if' just a matter of 'when' Adrian was going to design an EBike and he had no doubt that the RC170E was going to be the most complex but equally thrilling design he has done yet. Developing a motorised mountain bike is anything but sticking a drive unit into the BB and its this long heritage which has produced the highly evolved, practical cutting edge design of the RC170E. And for a small company like Pace Cycles developing an EBike is both challenging and exciting expanding the product line up from hardcore steel hardtails and carbon-fibre trail bikes into high-performance aluminium E Bikes.
With numbers that would make an EWS bike blush the all alloy 170e is built for speed in trashy terrain either up or down- long low and slack doesn’t even cover it- low enough so even an average Joe can use the full 213mm dropper. 29er wheel up front for control and roll over matched to either a 27.5” out back for turn in speed or 29er for flat out hauling. Either way consistent geometry courtesy of a Flip-Chip in the coil shock.
The tough all alloy chassis is designed to keep the mass low and central complimenting the coil suspension to deliver lively yet stable handling, all centred with a flat motor orientation (more a motor is rotated up the higher the mass) and a battery that’s at least 40mm shorter than even a 625wh. Your big day won’t stop when the sun sets either courtesy of built in front and rear lights- socially responsible with headlight dip and bright enough to compare with an enduro motorcycle.
Complemented with the latest tech spec’ including Shimano's high torque and supremely controllable EP8 motor (protected with carbon skid plate) & 12 spd transmission, Hope V4’s hauling you to a stop with 200/220 rotor combination, Marzocchi Coil suspension and finishing kit from the worlds best brands.
Geometry
Benefit from the same ride experience as latest gen manual bikes featuring short chainstay, low BB, steep seattube and long reach combined with slack headtube angle. Full figures to be announced once we have the production model here. But to give you an idea on the large proto...
•Headtube Angle 63
•Seat Tube Angle 78
•BB Height 334
•Chainstay 444
•Reach 504
•Seat Tube Length 410
The RC170E is still in development so watch out for further spy shots and teasers as the full EMTB story unfolds during 2021...make sure to sign up to our Newsletter at the bottom of this page for all the very latest news on it and how this little fish is doing in the big pond.
www.pacecycles.com
Photo by Sam Flanagan
Author Info:
Member since Sep 5, 2018
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There are actually very few, proper, gravity oriented eMTBs.
I currently have a Commencal Meta Power and it takes quite a lot of component swap outs to reach its full potential (-2° slackeriser and getting rid of the stroke restrictor in the rear shock for a start). This bike from Pace looks ready to go from stock
The stroke limiter on Fox shocks is just a little ring, but it's on the damper shaft so requires a full disassemble to remove (sigh).
Whoever thought these were a good idea wants a strong kick in the balls.
If you want your bike to have 160mm travel, design it properly that way! Don't fit use some retro fit bodge to the shock, it totally ruins how the shock was originally designed to work.
You wouldn't fit a clamp on the outside of a set of forks and call them "travel reducers"
You are also right about the lack of long travel e bikes. It's pathetic that there is only one manufacturer that makes a downhill e bike; Husquavarna.
www.amazon.de/-/en/Husqvarna-Extreme-Cross-EXC10-Pedelec/dp/B07PNR1LHM
Personally the PACE and swop the Bombers for Ohlins Coils front and rear and done. And do like a bit of disco.
Overly high saddle height and weird knee feeling are a couple, but there are more.
Also 150mm cranks feel so weird, like riding a kids bike.
Still got my MK1 Pace RC35 sussy forks from 1991
I currently ride a modded Kenevo with 29 wheels and a 360 BB. Long WB combined with slack HA reduces or eliminates the issues with high BB's.
Looks really decent but no built in lights please. I dont want them & If I did I would bolt them on afterwards.
Really, that's what we do when we're looking at non-eMTB weights, but we're using our own (perceived) power as the only source. With an eMTB, you have your own power plus the motor power. So even though the bike/rider weight combo increases by about 50%, the total power increases by almot 200%.
Am I making sense?
"Am I making sense?"
None whatsoever
"More relevant is the power to weight ratio, because that's what decides how well the bike gets off the ground."
If you mean airtime, weight (and gravity) is what matters.
"So even though the bike/rider weight combo increases by about 50%...."
An e-bike by itself may be 50% heavier than an equivalent bike without motor. But you add the rider and that % drops precipitously, unless the rider is an ant.