You know what they say about Vala's? They're fun!

Written by Mitch - Mechanic extraordinaire, E-bike enjoyer, Woronora frequenter 

Lets start with the specs of the bike and what I changed on the bike straight away

the bike came with a set of zeb base as the fork, a super deluxe air spring, sram DB8 brakes and eagle 70 as the drivetrain

I did change the brakes and rotors out straight away as I feel the DB8s are not up to par with how I like my brakes. I went with the lewis LHP U4 as my brake of choice, paired these with galfer rotors 223 front and 203 rear and a set of galfer advanced pads. we ended up putting a set of cast tyres on the bike for the length of me using the bike. aswell as carbon bars and my choice of grips and saddle

first impressions of the bike were outstanding, I went out on my first ride and straight away i felt at home and like i have ridden this bike for a long time. however i was struggling with the fork as it felt like it was diving alot more on the front end and using up all its travel when the rear was not doing the same, to counteract this i did end up putting 3 tokes in there and that got me to a really happy place. But to touch on setup this bike other than the tokens was by far the easiest bike i have ever setup. Set sag in the rear at 28-32% and 20% on the fork and the rebound just slow enough that when i do a full bunny hop compression it just pops up and doesn't bob up and down, and the setup felt perfect! The motor on the other hand i did have to do some fine tuning with it as i did come straight off the LEVO and i wanted the bikes profiles to match what that bike was doing. But after a few minutes this was al sorted out nice and easy with the use of the Flow App by Bosch.

Now into riding and living with the bike for just over 3 months.
I did ride this bike alot it felt like in the 3 months that i did own it and thats for good reason, the bike was just blowing me away at everything i would chuck at it and how confidence inspiring it felt. It does feel like alot of people say that comment these days but i do mean it with this bike, as in the past if i was up against a new feature or trail i would wish i had my own personal bike to go down/tick it off my list, but with this bike it did feel like i could take on anything with it without the worry that i would want my personal bike. The suspension in the rear end of the bike feels ridiculously supple yet i always felt like i had the midstroke support there for me to push through berms or pre-hop trail gaps and find the smaller more playful lines on the trail. The bike was an amazing jumper and was so easy to get off the ground that sometimes i didn't even feel like i was on a E bike (i can only imagine the carbon one feels even better) But when the trail did get rowdy i didn't feel like it packed down it still stayed supple throughout and riding a mates one with a coil on it made the bike feel like a machine through the chunk and repeated hits. This being the alloy model may make you think that the bike feels heavy, but with santa cruz's choice to go with the 600wh battery the weight of the bike never felt like to much sititng at 24kgs. Now with that battery, i did struggle with range on the really big large steep elevation days but i was never riding battery conscious i was riding like i was on a e bike (emtb or boost) but i did not feel like i wasn't getting a long enough ride, just coming off the levo these rides i would have 20% or so left and this bike would be down to that 1-5%, i guess this is where the compromise is with the lighter weight with that smaller battery, but in saying this i did do a large ride with 4 other people on valas and they ended up having much more charge left than me (maybe im just lazy when it comes to the climbs). I did only run into one issue with the bike the whole time using it and that was a creaky linkage, this was fixed quickly with a simple strip down and re grease off all the bolts and this did not come back.

now to touch on a few extras with the bike that i think are great to mention. this bike does come with the reserve alloy wheels and these wheels come with a lifetime crash replacement. i didn't break a rim but a friend did casing on a square edge and reserve did get him a rim sorted straight away! having this on a e bike is a great addition in my opinion. aswell as the lifetime bearings. Santa Cruz always comes to the party with the value addons being great from the brant itself.

We have chatted on how the bike performs as a bike but what about the motor and how that is to ride with. The Bosch performance like CX is a great drive unit and was the gold standard of drive units (until that other one flooded the market) with a whopping 750w and the newly released 120nm update it has more than enough power for us Aussie riders as we are stuck with the 25kph. The drive unit is so quiet you only hear a slight whuur when climbing up the hill and with Bosch changing the motor up with the gen 5 that motor rattle is gone. It is very responsive and with the use of the app you can fine tune it, as i stated before i did find where i liked it and i never once felt like i needed more power or the motor to do something more for me at any given time on the trail.

Who is this bike for?
This bike is a great one because the geometry and travel numbers put it in a perfect place for me to say this bike can really suit anyone wanting to tackle the dark blue trails all the way up to the steepest black tech lines out there and then a sprinkle of jumps throughout. yeah sure it can ride the green trails and the fast DH but i do think this bike is more suited to the person looking to get a ebike that has their back on any trail they throw themselves at and not being locked into a certain end of the travel category especially with all the new gravity parks opening up without chairlifts :( the Santa Cruz Vala AL is the perfect bike for you.

Your mechanic

MITCH