Greyp has just initiated a new, high-tech 100km electric trekking bike!
Greyp high-tech e-bike
Nestled on the outskirts of Zagreb, Croatia, is an unassuming building where some of the world’s most high-tech electric bicycles are dreamed up, designed and then manufactured. Greyp applies the same forward-thinking methods as its electric supercar parent company, Rimac, resulting in high-performance and high-tech e-bikes. The company has now branched out into another e-bike category by tackling trekking bikes with the new Greyp e-SUV T5.
And to help me get a better understanding of what goes into these e-bikes, Greyp brought me to their headquarters and gave me the honour of the first external test of the new bike.
Trekking bikes fill that grey area where road and mountain bikes overlap, offering a more rugged and comfortable ride than gravel bikes but better off-road performance than a typical hybrid bike.
They are usually equipped with fenders, racks, lights and other components required for street and utility use, but with wider tires and handlebars especially suited for riding in less than ideal conditions.
And with an additional electric motor, trekking e-bikes help riders push higher and farther on all kinds of adventures.
The Greyp T5 builds on the tech-infused platform developed for the Greyp G6 line, including the same motor and battery setup, but implements it in a completely new frame and loadout that’s better suited for trekking-type adventures.
Make sure you check out my first test ride on the Greyp T5 as I explore the beautiful Croatian countryside, then continue below for my full thoughts on this new electric trekking bike.
Steep hills and Regulated wheels
The Greyp T5 is designed to handle everything from a morning commute through the city to a week of bikepacking through the Alps.
Its aluminium frame marks a departure from Grey’s expertise with carbon frames, but is slightly more forgiving than a carbon frame and helps keep the price down.
Adorning the frame is a host of high-end components, each of which affects the riding experience. Flying fast on dirt trails, I had the confidence of a dedicated mountain bike, yet I felt quick and agile in the city โ not like I was lugging a mountain bike through the urban jungle.
This is thanks to the hybrid design of a good trekking bike like the T5, which can split the distance between two different segments.
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Making its designs comes right all the way down to the proper layout and the proper components.
Wide mountain bike style handlebars offer great control on the trails. And while they don’t rise with a tall stem, the bike’s geometry cuts a good balance between a comfortable, upright riding position and enough tuck to feel nimble in the saddle.
The RockShox Debonair fork with 100mm of suspension provides proper handling when the terrain is rough โ i.e. tree roots or potholes. It keeps that big 29″ front wheel on the deck and saves your wrists from a world of injury.
The adjustable rear wheel doesn’t benefit from suspension โ true to trekking bike form โ but it keeps the bike’s weight and price down.
Powering the bike is Grey’s signature 700 Wh battery which is a key design element on the bike. It was originally developed as a floating central battery for the G6, but now rests in a holder on the downtube.
There’s also a new locking mechanism built into the frame, which is obviously important for a bike that lives half its life in the urban utility role.
With a 700 Wh battery โ larger than most trekking e-bike powerpacks โ achieving a range of 100 km (62 miles) is certainly doable with pedal assistance.
The MPF mid-drive motor powers the bike up to 25 km/h (15.5 mph) in EU settings, although the US model offers higher speeds. The drivetrain consists of a SRAM GX Eagle 12-speed with custom grape cranks, and high-end Formula Cura dual-piston hydraulic disc brakes bring the bike’s speed back to zero.
The wide gear range from the 11-50T cassette made it easy to switch from fast flatland pedalling to more gruelling hill climbing, and the motor assist certainly helped with that last bit too.
The power isn’t overwhelming, but the 90Nm of torque was a welcome addition on some of the rocky climbs I’ve completed.
When I wasn’t chewing gravel, I was pounding the cobblestones of adorable little Croatian villages in the countryside. There I become capable of enjoying the greater commuter pleasant facet of the bike. Built-in mudguards add custom racks and accessories like Ortlieb panniers directly to the bike with mounting points.
And the T5 comes standard with high-powered Busch+Mรผller LED lights โ not just some dinky e-bike lights. These decorative lights provide focused lighting and actually throw out some real lumens.
But what really sets the Grace T5 apart is the embedded technology. All Grey’s e-bikes come with a built-in e-SIM that provides constant connectivity to the cloud.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to test the app integration yet as I’ve been doing my testing since the bike was finished a few months ago but the app is still getting its last few touches.
We’ll let the Greyp team talk about the unique features and benefits of the app though:
“A Greyp bike might now no longer be a Greyp bike without its included eSIM, which offers normal connectivity and for a whole enjoy, the Greyp app affords severa extra reachable features. The Greyp app can be used in two modes: dashboard and remote. Dashboard mode turns the smartphone into an extended dashboard and turn- It offers access to various features such as bi-turn navigation, terrain-based range, camera and retro video, while the remote mode can be used as a remote control of the bike, so users can send a text, take a photo, remotely lock the bike or activate the kill switch to shut it down completely. .
We got a taste for the bike’s high-tech flair on the previous G6 model, where we were able to experiment with differently.
With front and rear mounted wide-angle waterproof cameras, it’s really fun to be able to capture your adventure rides from multiple angles to share later. And with a bike designed for the road, the ability to use the cameras as a dash cam is a huge advantage. You can always keep them running to capture your entire journey as an added layer of safety and documentation.
Hopefully you’ll never have to rely on them that way, but getting a licence plate number is a lot easier when you have a continuous front and rear HD recording of your ride.
The biggest difference in the Greyp T5 compared to other e-bikes I’ve tested is how much attention Greyp has paid to detail. They construct the whole lot in-residence and that offers them last control. They program their own motor profiles to give riders the right kind of power application and ramping. They design their own buttons and keypads to provide as much usability as possible in an easy-to-use package. They also design their own frame tubes to get the exact style of bike they want. As Grape explained to me, โSome companies just pick an e-bike from a catalogue and sell it. Others go further and choose a frame from a catalogue. Others are more involved and choose from a catalogue of tubes to build the frame. We start from scratch and design our own tubes.
Basically, Greyp builds these e-bikes from the ground up as Greyp bikes โ not just any e-bike with a logo on it. And the level of design is readily apparent in the finished product.
You pay for that level of quality and design, and with an MSRP of โฌ4,499 (approx. USD $5,300) it doesn’t come cheap. But there is a distinction among Greyp and different companies. Greyp is cramming its offices with engineers, designers, mechanics, battery builders, testers, salespeople and salespeople, all living under one roof, something most companies can’t claim.
As a premium model, this is certainly not an e-bike for everyone. But for those who can afford it, the quality and ride experience is worth every penny. I would kill to have one in my garage, that’s for sure!
Credits Micah Toll
