GHOST E-RIOT TRAIL PRO

We check out the top trail bike in Ghost’s new E-riot family to see how 140mm of travel and a carbon front end handle the hits

£6,299.99 / 29in / hotlines-uk.com

Ghost recently revamped its e-bike range. And while you can still buy the excellent Hybride ASX with mixed wheel sizes, the new E-riot platform is now the basis for Ghost’s 29in Trail, All Mountain and Enduro e-bikes. Travel increases in line with application, so Trail has 140mm, All Mountain gets 160mm and Enduro boasts 170mm of travel.

In the Trail category there are four models – two carbon and two aluminium – and the Pro featured here is the second-string carbon bike. Only the front triangle is carbon however, the one-piece links and welded swingarm are both made from aluminium. The bike is available in four frame sizes and features geometry that has been extrapolated using Ghost’s Super Fit algorithm. As far as I can tell from my measurements, it is pretty standard stuff in terms of angles and lengths. That said, the size Small does have proportionally shorter chainstays and 27.5in wheels. The other three sizes in the Trail range roll on 29in wheels and Ghost also runs wider handlebars and longer dropper posts on the bigger frames.

The Ghost E-riot Trail Pro sticks with the tried and tested Bosch Performance CX (Gen 4) motor with a Powertube 625Wh battery and Purion display. The battery is housed in the down tube and, while there’s a discreet charging socket next to the motor, the battery can also be removed for charging indoors. To offer some splatter protection, Ghost uses a plastic cover on the underside of the down tube that hooks into tabs at the bottom and is then secured at the top with a captured thumb screw. I’ve had similar plastic covers work loose and even fall out on other e-bikes, but the one on the Ghost has been rattlefree so far.

Ghost uses another plastic cover on the top of the down tube to hide the cables. It’s sort of like internal routing but at the same time you can access the cables by removing the cover, which makes servicing and replacement that much easier. However, it’s debatable how useful this feature is because at best you replace outer cables maybe