Review: REI Co-op Cycles DRT e3.1 Electric Mountain Bike

Full disclosure: I’m a runaway fan of commuter ebikes because they eliminate the use of cars and make mundane errands way more fun. Electric mountain bikes, not so much. For an able-bodied cyclist, adding an electric motor to the equation feels like overkill. Plus, in my unscientific opinion, because of their weight and gravitational force, e-MTBs seem to do more damage to dirt trails, freak out other riders and wildlife, and feel less safe than conventional mountain bikes.

To my surprise, however, I found that two of these three issues are debunked in a 2022 ebike research report formulated by the Federal Highway Administration Western Federal Lands Highway Division and the US Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center. Per the report, e-MTBs on trails displace soil and frighten wildlife to no greater extent than conventional mountain bikes do (with the caveat that not much research is available on the latter issue). In terms of safety, it’s not clear whether the report is specifically referring to e-MTBs, but it states that ebike and conventional bike injury patterns are similar, although ebikes tend to have a higher rate of brain trauma injuries. Further, ebike-related injuries are more than three times as likely to involve a collision with a pedestrian.

I’m old enough to know better than to tempt fate when my brain is in the balance, but I’m still young and stupid enough to crave speed and fun. And if there’s one reason people ride e-MTBs, it’s because they are fun. REI’s new electric mountain bike is a response to the public’s seemingly insatiable desire to amp up that factor.

There are multiple scenarios in which e-MTBs can be really helpful. They’re great for people who can’t ride a conventional mountain bike for whatever reason, for emergency responders who need fast access to hard-to-reach areas, and for hunters who want an alternative to a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle. They are also increasingly the choice for mountain bikers who live in actual mountains and want to cover long, steep uphill climbs in short order in able to go down faster. With all this in mind, I suspended my moral handwringing for a few weeks to test REI Co-op Cycles’ new DRT e3.1.

Photograph: REI

When the bike arrived, I was impressed with its specs. The Class 1 bike, which offers pedal-assist up to 20 mph, has an aluminum frame with a Bosch performance-line mid-drive motor and a 625-watt-hour battery in the downtube. The bike also has a dropper seat post, 140 mm of travel in the front RockShox Recon Silver RL Solo Air Fork, and 130 mm of travel in the rear RockShox Deluxe Select Plus RT shock, all of which puts this in the mid-travel trail bike category, able to handle most any kind of singletrack that non-enduro or downhill riders will want to tackle. The 12-speed drivetrain is Sram SX Eagle, and the bike rolls with 2.5-inch-wide Kenda Nevegal tubeless-ready ebike tires. The smaller frame sizes are outfitted with 27.5-inch wheels, and the medium through XL frames get 29-inch wheels. All that, and the olive-green matte finish has class.

Photograph: REI

Unlike every other ebike I’ve tested over the years, this one doesn’t have a traditional ebike computer screen for displaying information and controlling the motor drive. I like this. I find such screens to be distracting and almost always too small to read, especially while riding fast on trails or in traffic. Instead, all the controls and displays are mounted in convenient places. The bike fires up with an on-off button near the left brake. Also on the left is a simple push-button control near the dropper-post lever that scrolls through the motor’s power modes with easy-to-see coordinating colors: green for eco, blue for tour, purple for sport, and red for turbo. There are also five easy-to-read bars that allow the rider to see, with a glance, how much juice is left in the battery. Riders who want more data, like mileage, battery life, and other metrics, can download the companion Bosch Flow app on their phone and mount their device to the handlebar.

I always like to ease into ebike testing, so my first spin was an ebike date night. My partner Brian used the DRT e3.1, and I used a lighter carbon-framed commuter ebike with a slightly smaller motor. He enjoyed how the DRT e3.1’s plush dual-suspension system handled the rougher sections of our city streets, while I enjoyed easily cruising past him up or steep 13-block climb back home on my lighter, nimbler street bike.

Photograph: REI

When I piloted the DRT e3.1, it did feel heavy and sluggish in the first few rides on paved roads, but that feeling was diminished on trails. Over several rides on singletrack, it felt a lot heavier than my conventional carbon mountain bike (that has 120 mm of travel in the front and 110 in the back), but also smooth and powerful, especially in tour mode. Eco mode torqued my knees because it provides minimal assistance on such a heavy bike, while the stronger sport mode made the bike jerky in technical sections of the trail. Turbo is always a kick, but it felt too powerful while riding on a two-way trail, so I reserved it for long, untechnical climbs with good sight lines or for getting me quickly home from the trailhead at dusk.

One late afternoon I took the DRT e3.1 out on my regular 15-mile, out-and-back singletrack ride that offers a bit of everything: switchbacks, technical sections over bedrock and scree, bridges, and flowy trail in between. It was so much fun that I almost forgot I was riding an e-MTB save for the constant, quiet whir of the motor. The downhills and flatter rock gardens were especially awesome, because the bike felt solid and stable, able to hold lines and power over anything. And the uphill sections that normally made me sweat were a breeze, even in tour mode.

Photograph: REI

There were a few technical sections that tripped me up, sections I can always handle on my conventional mountain bike. One was a tricky uphill that starts in a rock garden and ends by topping out over steep, rounded granite bedrock. The entire feature is only 100 feet long, but it requires speed and power in the beginning to avoid jamming the front wheel into a deep crevice between smaller rocks at the base. I thought tour mode could handle it, but I came in with too little power and was fearful of amping it up while simultaneously trying to climb on tricky terrain. I didn’t have the natural strength to jam uphill in tour mode on a 55-pound bike, so I was finally forced off in an awkward spot that could have ended badly. I didn’t crash, but I did have to push the bike up a steep section of the trail, which was tougher than I expected.

One other glitch came when downshifting during a descent through switchbacks. For a few seconds my pedals jammed, and I heard the ugly sound of chain suck. I couldn’t tell whether the mashing came as the result of a slight hesitation in the motor or from my inappropriate shifting. Either way, it happened only once.

After several rides, I found the DRT e3.1 to be a comfortable, well-built machine. It gobbles up singletrack like Pac-Man while churning through surprisingly little battery power, especially in tour mode. On my longest ride, a 20-mile out and back of technical trail, I used two-fifths of the battery. In the waning days of summer, it almost made me a convert to electric mountain biking, because it allowed me to cover more distance before the sun went down. The bike also gave me a huge psychological boost: In turbo mode, I might actually have a chance to outpace the cougar who has been sighted near our city’s mountain bike trails.