Yamaha Wabash RT Gravel E-Bike Review 2024 | A Well-Crafted Ride for Gravel Riding Fun!
The Wabash RT is a road and gravel ebike from Yamaha they’ve been making ebike since 1993 so what difference does 30 years of experience make Let’s Take a Ride and find Out Hey fellow e bikers I’m John with electric bike report I had a lot of fun testing the Wabash RT but before we talk about that I’ve got to say that we are super stoked about hitting 70,000 subscribers so thank you to everyone who is subscribed and if you haven’t done
That already please do consider subscribing so we can share more reviews like this one and make our way to the 80,000 Mark with that out of the way let’s jump into the Wabash RT which we had really high hopes for after testing the crosscore RC from Yamaha just a
Little while ago there are a lot of similarities between the two bikes like the PW series St mid Drive motor which has 250 WTS of nominal output 500 WS of peak power and 70 newm of torque that motor uses yamaha’s quad sensor system that incorporates a torque
Sensor a Cadence Sensor a speed sensor and a slope sensor which all tell the motor to adjust its output based on where and how you ride most of the ebikes we test are assembled using a bunch of different components from different manufacturers but the core elements of this bike including the
Motor and Battery are also made by Yamaha and that’s a pretty unique thing it allows the company to maximize the performance of all of those parts put together one area where we saw evidence of that was in our range test I’ll talk about the specifics of that later but we
Were able to travel over 100 Mil on a single charge of the 36v 500w battery so the motor and Battery here are specific to Yamaha but I want to point out one major element of this bike that’s more of just a general gravel thing and that’s the set of handlebars on the
Wabash these are 44 CM drop bars and they have some serious flare all the way out to 55 CM from Center to Center on the drops those help the bike to feel really stable and confident especially when cornering or riding over more technical areas where I needed really
Precise steering let’s run through the rest of the specs quickly before moving on the bike comes in a single color option called Blue Steel but there are three frame sizes a small a medium and a large and there’s some spec differences between them that I’ll mention when they
Pop up first on the list is the Shimano grx group set that includes a 1×1 drivetrain with a 44 Toth chain ring and an 11 to 42 to cassette as well as a hydraulic disc brake system with two piston calipers a 160 mm rotor on the
Rear and a 180 mm rotor on the front the bike comes with a set of flat pedals on either 165 mm crank arms for the small and medium siiz frame or 170 mm cranks on the large Yamaha spec bike with 700c by 45 mm Maxis Rambler tires which are
The lighter weight EXO version with 120 threads per inch the bike can accommodate up to 53 mm wide tires although Yamaha suggests sticking with the stock setup and we found it to be a good middle ground the tires and wheels are tubeless ready though so with a
Little extra work you can greatly reduce the possibility of getting a flat there’s no front suspension on the Wabash but there is a limot tech dropper seat post with 40 mm of travel on the small frame or 60 mm on the medium and large and that includes 25 mm of
Suspension travel to make the ride a bit more comfortable and there’s a custom Yamaha saddle there as well the stem length varies from 80 mm on the small to 90 on the medium and 100 mm on the large and then up in the cockpit the right brake lever is also the shifter there’s
A dropper post lever on the top of the right bar and then there’s a small Bell on the left side as well as the control panel with a black and white display the bike doesn’t include integrated lights but there is the option to add fenders with a tail light and a cargo rack
Separately the Wabash is UL 2849 certified and rs weighed right around 48 lb this is also a class 3 ebike that offers pedal assist up to 28 mph but that about wraps it up let’s see what happened in our Testing so as I mentioned the Wabash RT includes Shimano hydraulic disc br brakes as part of the grx group set and we measured their performance in our brake test by pedaling the bike up to 20 mph applying the brakes and measuring how far the bike traveled as it came to
A complete stop we did the same thing three times and calculated an average stopping distance of 20 ft 8 in after testing literally hundreds of other ebikes we have a pretty broad span of results and anything around 20 or 21 ft is absolutely great considering that these are Shimano brakes we didn’t
Really expect anything less and their performance in the field was just as good I tested the bike on dirt and gravel roads out in the desert and came across quite a few really Rocky or washed out areas where I needed to control my speed these brakes had a
Really strong bite but they could still modulate speed really well and they proved to be really effective in keeping the bike under control so with that in mind we definitely consider the Wabash to be specked well with quality braks I performed our speed test with the
Wabash RTE where the goal was to see how fast the bike could go in each pedalist setting with a moderate level of effort so let’s go see how that worked out all right we are here on the Yamaha Wabash RT for a speed test and I’m going here pretty fast actually without the
Motor uh kind of right around 13 1/2 mph maybe up towards 14 at times and I’m kind of going by this app because the bike’s display does not have tenth of a mph it just broke 14 there so anyway let’s go up to Eco plus mode it’s the first setting
Here shift up a gear and you know the difference here is pretty subtle uh getting about a mile per hour difference I would say on average yeah so we’re up around 15 right now 14 and 1 half 15 let’s go up to regular eco
Mode shift up one gear I went up two but I had to step back down still feels you know very much like riding a regular bike um going faster a lot faster but you know the ride experience is about the same looks like we’re going about 18 1/2 mph
Here so let’s go to standard mode definitely feeling more power here shift up another gear so looks like we’re right around 20 maybe 20 and a half or so all right let’s finish things off in high mode wow okay big difference there honestly there’s quite a bit of power shift up another gear
And yeah I mean my level of effort hasn’t really changed but we’re going a lot faster on your left so right around 24 mph from looks things maybe a little faster all right we’ll call that our speed test on the Yamaha Wabash RT that quad sensor system that I
Mentioned really came into play here so I did my best to keep my level of effort consistent so we could really see the differences between settings I started off without the motor and I was able to hit 14.1 mph thanks to the wob bashes aerodynamic riding position and it’s
Relatively low weight moving up to the lowest assist setting Eco plus I didn’t notice a huge difference but I got one extra mph up to 15.1 the next setting which is the regular eco mode was a lot more powerful and that brought me up to 18.5 mph in the third assist level standard
Mode I hit 20.3 mph and then in high mode which is the final setting I reached 25.2 mph there are just the four settings here which I really liked instead of the more standard five that we usually see the distribution of power between these settings was pretty good so whenever I
Moved up to the next highest mode I felt like I was getting a boost in power that made sense for the most part the subtle power of Eco plus might be something that traditional gravel Riders appreciate although I’d personally prefer a bit more power there and then
Of course High mode had a bit of an extra kick we usually prefer a little bit more of an even spread in power but we’re pretty happy overall when I was out riding in the desert I was really impressed by the feel of the bike Eco
Plus required a bit more effort to move it but all of the other settings were really effective even when I was going Uphill we tested the life and the efficiency of the Wabash RT’s 36volt 500w battery in our range test we we rode the bike in high mode and the regular eco mode until the battery gave out to get a minimum and maximum range which turned out to be 43.8 Mi up to a jaw-dropping
125.75 200 ft of elevation gain in the 10 1/2 hours that we spent on the bike in that setting so we think there’s potential for some Riders to get even more out of the bike we were totally fored by our results but if you do use the lowest setting or if you’re riding
On flatter ground you might do even better we perform our tests on paveed bike paths so if you’re riding on gravel you’re probably going to burn through the battery a little bit faster but as it is this is currently the longest distance we have traveled on any ebike
In our range test the fact that Yamaha makes the motor and battery is a huge bonus here that they’re able to make sure that both components work super efficiently together and that’s backed up by math based on the motor and battery specs we estimated that we’d
Only have about 2 hours on the bike in high mode but the extra 47 minutes we actually got showed a 39% boost and efficiency bottom line here this bike will keep you going for ages if you don’t mind putting in a little more effort and I mean that I honestly really
Like the power level in eco mode regardless whenever you do need to recharge the bike tops up about 4 Hours I’m going to pass you over to Justin for our Hill test he rides every bike up The Path at hellhole Trail so we can maintain consistency across all of our tests and he took the Wabash RT up in high mode so let’s go see how the bike
Performed okay so here I’m on the Yamaha wall bash really curious to see how this Yamaha motor does um so far out of the gate feels pretty good so there’s a gravel bike which you without a motor I could probably climb it but I don’t think I’d
Be going 10 11 m per hour right now through the Section initial Impressions from the motor there is kind of a it’s definitely making noise more on the lower end you know it’s not like a super high pitch or anything um trying to keep my pace and my water inputs that I’m doing
Consistent but I’ll be quiet through this section so you can hear it and focus on that motor so yeah like I said you can hear a little bit of a wind little bit of motor noise but can be solid right 9 10 mph on that and overall if I’m coming
From a non bike gravel I probably feel like super human um so my initial take on the motor we’ll see what the results say but fairly impressed so far so we’ll see what the time says first things first sorry about the camera wobble it’s a little tough to
Find a good angle with a GoPro with such a low riding position on this bike but anyway Justin pedal up the hill in a minute and 28 seconds while keeping an average speed of 12.3 m per hour I compared this data to all of the ebikes
We’ve tested with 250 wat mid drives and The wob Bash came out pretty close to the top of the list when it comes to speed I want to compare the wab bash’s results with those of yamaha’s crosscore RC since they have very similar specs including the same motor and Battery the
Wabash was 7 seconds and almost 1 mph faster than the crosscore and we attribute that to its weight and its riding position the Wabash is about 5 lbs lighter and it’s more aerodynamic with the drop bars so it has a bit of an easier time on Hills when I was out in
The desert on those dirt and gravel roads I came across some hills that I really wouldn’t have wanted to Pedal up on an analog bike but the Wabash made the job incredibly easy bottom line since this bike uses a mid-drive motor you’ll have to put in a little bit of
Effort but you’re not going to have any problem pedaling up just about any Hill in your Path there are many factors that contribute to a bike’s ride quality including its sizing its riding position its suspension and its motor among many others so let’s go out on the Wabash and chat about those things so you can get a feel for the bike all right we are back on the Yamaha
Wabash RT to give you a sense of what it’s like to ride this is a hybrid Road SLG gravel bike leans a little bit more into the gravel side of things but as you might expect you get a fairly aggressive forward lean to your riding position although with the flared 440 mm
Drop bars uh you’re not stuck in the same spot all the time you have some flexibility in how the bike feels and responds based on where you hold on to it there’s uh not a ton of adjustability here um but there are three frame sizes a small medium and large those fit ride
Uh Riders from 5’1 up to 6′ 7 if I remember correctly but uh you know standard style stem so your handlebar height and your reach are set unless you add spacers or swap out the stem entirely but you do have some adjustment in the saddle height and you have a dropper post there
With either 40 or 60 mm of travel there’s no suspension on the bike but uh there are 700 C by 45 mm tires so uh you know you have good steering good precise handling from those but they’re wide enough that you can air them down a little bit and uh these are the
Maxis uh Rambler tire so you know they’re made for gravel have some nice textured tread on there to give you a little bit of extra grip and then let’s talk about the motor that is a uh 250 W mid drive it is the PW series St from
Yamaha uh 500 wats of peak output there but you know it uses their quad sensing technology to uh just respond very intuitively and quickly I mean I have it in the auto assist mode and you know as soon as I pedal harder I’m getting more power from the motor so that’s a you
Know combination of four different types of sensors to give you a really nice responsive feel but uh let’s call that here and we’ll bounce back to studio and talk a little bit more we compared the Wabash RT to other gravel bikes on the market and notied some minor differences
In its geometry that were primarily in its stack and wheelbase measurements you can check out my written review which has a bit more detail through the link in the video description down below but basically the riding position here is a little more upright and the wheel base
Is a little longer so I found that to generally be a bit more comfortable and feel a little more stable I mentioned the three frame sizes so the small fits Riders from 5’1 to 5′ 7 the medium goes from 5’5 to 6 ft and the large ranges
From 5 5′ 7 to 6′ 7 we had the medium size which I thought worked really well for me and I’m 5’11 in terms of handling I thought the bike felt really Nimble and I didn’t notice any major effects from the longer wheelbase cornering felt really tight when I was using the drops
And I definitely have to give those tires some credit for chewing through some really loose dirt but still feeling stable the weight of the bike helped it feel really planted and just generally a lot of fun to run to clarify one thing I said in the video
Clip there is no front suspension here but of course there are 25 mm of travel in the seat post I really like the dropper post it was nice to be able to get the saddle out of the way when I needed to shift my weight back and the
Suspension seat post made a big difference in Comfort although I’d probably swap out the saddle and also add a suspension stem there were a couple of minor areas that I think could be improved and the first is the dropper post lever I found that kind of awkward
To adjust on the Fly since it could require a lot of movement depending on what position my hands were in Shimano makes a left brake lever for the grx group set that includes a dropper post lever and I’d suggest that Yamaha go that route in the future we also noticed
Some paint wear on the head tube from one of the brake cables that was too close which isn’t something anyone wants to see on a bike that goes for a little over $44,000 so we’d like to see improved Cable Management to make sure that doesn’t happen but there’s one more
Feature that I really loved about the Wabash and that’s the auto assist mode Let’s go out one last time so you can see how that works all right we are here on the Yamaha Wabash RT and I wanted to show off the auto assist setting here so uh
Let’s see right now I am in the high highest assist setting which is called high uh got to hit the up arrow button to turn the auto mode on there’s a little a that pops up there and then it reduced the power to standard mode but
Uh let’s get moving here and I’ll kind of show you a little bit about what it does get my seat post adjusted so you can see the display kind of adjusting the setting right now I’m pedaling really soft it’s an Eco and then if I start applying
Some more pressure to the pedals now we’re in standard and then if I really give it some gas we’re up into high and then I just kind of want to like bring this up to top speed and uh you know show you that it’s pretty easy to do that and
It’s very functional and it’s very responsive so getting up to about 26 mph here might be able to do yeah there we go 27 so that’s about the max I’ve been able to hit but anyway we’ll bounce back to the studio and talk a little bit
More that was by far my favorite way of riding this bike with the quad sensor system here the Wabash felt incredibly natural and responsive in all of its settings but in my opinion the auto assist mode kicked that up to another level I really like that I could just
Hop on the bike and go without messing around with the control panel and I’ve got to give Yamaha some serious kudos for how dialed in this setting Felt our contact at Yamaha told us that the Wabash RT was inspired by the randur style of endurance cycling where Riders often cover distances of 200 km or about 124 miles considering the results of our range test where we hit 125 Mi I think they nailed it but they also included
Wide handlebars and plenty of bosses on the frame and fork to make it possible to carry luggage if you like a sportier style of bike we think the Wabash would be a great option for bike packing and touring as well as commuting to work or just dedicated gravel riding this is
Definitely a bike for those who enjoy cycling and who want to preserve the feel of an analog bike but who also want the option of a much easier ride yamaha’s 30 years of ebike experience definitely made a difference in the feel of this bike it really easy to feel like
Superman on The wob Bash and we had a lot of fun no matter where we were riding with it it did a great job in every part of our testing and while we do have some critique about the dropper post lever and the cable management we think those things are pretty easy to
Overlook we give this bike two very solid thumbs up and if you want to take a closer look at it we’ll leave a link to yamaha’s website down in the video description along with another one to our written review please do use our link if you you decide to pick one up
For yourself as it allows us to keep making highquality reviews with no additional cost to you and don’t forget to like And subscribe so you can see more of our reviews which we release usually a couple times a week that’s all for today though thanks for taking a
Ride with me again I’m John with electric bike report and this is the Yamaha Wabash RT [Applause]
For current pricing on the Yamaha Wabash RT, click the link below:
https://ebrdeals.com/ebrYamaha-WabashRT
For a full detailed written review of the Yamaha Wabash RT, click the link below:
The Wabash RT is a road/gravel e-bike from Yamaha. As pioneers in the industry, the company made their first e-bike in 1993. We expected a lot from the bike – find out what we thought in this Yamaha Wabash RT review!
The bike’s 250W mid-drive motor is made by Yamaha. With 500W of peak output and 70 Nm of torque, it packs some punch but never overpowers the ride. With the brand’s quad-sensor system, the motor engagement feels natural and smooth.
Yamaha makes the 36V, 500 Wh battery as well, so the brand has prioritized its efficiency with the motor. We traveled a huge number of miles in our Range test – check out our review to learn more!
We loved the motor and battery but also its wide flared drop bars. These helped the bike to feel stable and allowed for precise control of its steering. On top of that, they allow the handlebars to accommodate luggage when bikepacking.
For more information – and to see how the bike performed in our testing – check out our Yamaha Wabash RT review!
0:00 Yamaha Wabash RT Review
0:45 Overview
5:23 Brake Test
6:30 Speed Test
10:49 Range Test
12:32 Hill Test
15:39 Ride Quality
22:34 Yamaha Wabash RT Conclusion
#yamaha #wabashrt #electricbikereview
