Got the polygon today! I used to work at a Specialized/Trek dealer as a bike mechanic in college, so I've built a bike or two. It's been 12 years since I was a professional mechanic and bikes have changed quite a bit since. I'll write up a first ride this weekend, but this is my unboxing and building review.
First off the packing was pretty good. The box was shipped via FedEx and there were only 3 box damage spots, all on the corners. A quick check and it was obvious that nothing internal was damaged so I didn't have to deal with any of that! Back in my day bikes were shipped and plastic shipping strap/zip ties were used to hold everything together. Polygon uses Velcro straps with foam pads, a single twist tie, and one big zip tie to hold the front axle packing block on. Overall I didn't have to cut anything to unpack the bike. Everything was good except there was some rubbing of the rear axle plastic shipping cap on the chain side seat stay. It appears to wipe off, but we'll see tomorrow if it all cleans off.
On the actual building, the bike came with a tool set that has a 15mm pedal wrench, and a torque wrench that goes up to 10nm with changeable tips. The instructions are generic for multiple types of bikes, so not great. I have never built an electric bike so I wasn't sure were to plug in the computer toggle switch or the computer to motor wire. I eventually found the wiring diagram for the ep801 computer via Google and got it wired in with the supplied installation tool. I had to do a little tweaking on the rear derailer to get it to lineup with the cassette, but I also had to do this a lot on the trek/specialized bikes I built back in the day so nothing new here. Brake rotors were pretty straight, front caliper took a bit of finagling to get it to have zero drag. The drop post cable outter jacket has considerable drag, so had to pull harder than I think you should to pull it up the seat tube for install and back to the handlebar for cable adjustment, the actual cable pull is just fine. To make it easier I suggest removing the battery. Most everything was straight forward, the handlebar needs center and degree marks for easier mounting. I didn't use the supplied pedals because I got some one sided SPD's to install.
Overall I'm happy with the packaging, the included tools, and overall quality of the bike/components. I will say this thing is heavy, at 56lbs it seems to be on par with most medium aluminum frame E-MTB's with 160mm of travel, but that's double vs my old 26er Camber Pro. We'll see what it's like on the trail, but my expectations are very high!
I finished the bike this morning by checking tightness of the factory installed bolts, they were all good. The flat pedals that come with the bike aren't great, glad I ordered the one sided SPD's with the bike. The flats are aluminum, but the bearings are adjusted too tight and they just feel chintzy. I'll grease and adjust them properly and give them to whomever buys my old bike as starter pedals.
I'm really interested in this bike, seems like an awesome value at its current price. How tall are you, and what size frame did you buy? The sizing chart on their website seems to recommend sizing up for most people based on the reach numbers provided. I realize the seat angle is steeper than my last bike, but 490 reach for me at 5'9" seems a bit crazy.
I'm 5'7" barefoot and got the medium frame. The stem is crazy short, but stand over is just about right with a 31" inseam. At 5'9" I'd go with a medium and put a longer stem on it. I'm probably going to put a little taller and longer stem on mine, and cut the bars down ~an inch per side, they are way too wide for me. I haven't had it on a trail yet, but my parents have 3 acres on a hill and ditch along the back with a pretty good dropoff I played around on to get a feeling on everything.
Let us know how the rear suspension feels when you get all your settings dialed in. I'm pretty intrigued by the six bar linkage.
First ride review:
Stem is low and short was the first thing I noticed. Next was the bars are way wider than I like, on my dirt bikes I run around 29-30 inches on my bar width. This bar feels like a yard stick, so I'll be removing an inch per side. I was trained in BG Fit back in the day and got the initial setup really close, I think a longer higher stem will dial in the feel for me. I played with the tuning app and currently am running the 7 preset steps. I figure I can really dial in a good feeling assist and then transfer the power levels to the 3 step eco, trail, and boost. The assist with the EP801 is very smooth and I think I'll actually turn the response up a little bit to help pop the front when needed. It's very quiet, I don't hear it at all, no rattling or weird engagement noises. The suspension is really good out of the box and I'm looking forward to playing with the settings.
Update, actual trail ride review:
I cut 11/16 (17.5mm) off each end of the handlebar to make it right at 30" (762mm) wide. It now fits me much better, never liked the super wide bars. I think I'll actually run the stock stem for now, narrowing the bars really help the whole bike feel better.
My first trail ride was a 7 mile prairie trail with short (1/8-1/4 mile) steep climbs/drops with some sand, hard clay, rocks, and occasional root. The base that's 80% of the trail is hard pack clay. This was my first e-mtb bike ride and I'm hooked now! The Shimano ep801 worked great and assist engagement was very smooth, but matched my pedal effort very well. So if I started slow, it ramped up slow, but if I gave it the beans the motor followed immediately. I know there's some people talking about it rattling, but mine has zero rattle so far. I even posted a YouTube video of me testing it on a stand and the only noise is the freehub. So I'm not sure if Shimano changed something, or if there's something going on with the one way clutch in some motors, but I'll keep tabs on mine and if it starts making noise I'll tear into the motor to investigate.
Tire pressure, no idea didn't have my pump with a gauge because I was at my parents house for the weekend, it's why I built it in a living room. Probably 25-30psi. The tires were aired from polygon, but I added tire slime I found in my parents garage because goat heads and prickly pear. My brother had a road bike pump, so a couple hundred pumps per tire later and I figured it was good enough.
Suspension setup, lockouts full soft, no adjustments on the low/high speed compression or rebound on the shock. Pressures were whatever polygon set at the factory (didn't have my shock pump either), which seemed like too much for my 185lbs. I'll have to check the recommended pressures when I get home, but probably less than I currently have with a little more compression damping.
No big jumps on this trail, but I did get airborne several times and had a couple ~4ft drops. Overall I'm happy with the suspension, it never did anything weird and the bike is very stable on the downhills. On g-outs I didn't bottom, even with the soft compression, and it never deflected on the roots/rocks. There were several switch back tree sections and even though its stable it also feels very nimble. Now I will say with my old 26er I always have an issue starting a ride where I turn too soon the first few corners, I didn't have that issue with this bike. The more slack bias on these newer bikes fits my dirt biking riding style.
The rear stays active during braking, but doesn't bob while pedaling. Now, I do ride clipless and I'm good about spinning, not pumping, so I've not really needed lockouts or pro-pedal settings on FSB's. So I'm not a good tester for bobbing, but this seems to move less than my Camber Pro while climbing. There was plenty of chatter and I had zero issues with my hands going numb, which has been an issue with other bikes. I was contemplating keeping my Camber, but after this ride I don't really see a point in keeping it, because I'll never ride it. I started the ride in off mode, then went up 1 at a time until mode 5. It was a good setting and I kept the trail speed between 11-15mph. I haven't tried boost yet, was under a time crunch today and wanted to get a good workout in. I am looking forward to taking this bike to Arkansas now though!
Checked my tire pressures today, and boy was I off 😂. Both were about 12psi, I pumped them up to ~20psi but after today's ride thinking about dropping to 18psi. These 29ers can go surprisingly low compared to my old 26x2.2"s. Suspension also surprised me, shock was 10psi low compared to recommend setting and fork was right on.
Rode a couple technical trails today with lots of rocks, roots, roots and rocks... It was quite a bit tighter than yesterday and I ended up riding in mode 4. This bike has a 12 speed cassette, but I think I could do with a 4 speed for most of my trails. During some extreme climbs I down shifted and found the assist is pretty incredible in the lower gear range, mechanical advantage and such. Was hard to keep the front wheel down at first until I got the feeling of how hard to start after getting hung up. I'm working on shifting more to keep the correct cadence and utilizing the dropper post more often. Other than that this bike is amazing and definitely worth the $3999 price tag. I'll update this thread for long term and durability reports but I'm through the first impression stage. If you're looking at one, just buy it and ride!
Update: the Collosus is still chugging along and the EP801 is still silent. I'm trying the 3 mode setting instead of the 7 and I'm really liking the "dynamic" trail setting. It starts off slow, but get on a hill or spool up 80+rpm and it allows the full 85nm of torque. Polygon did a great job with this bike, and I'll give props to Shimano for the EP801. I know they fucked up with the ep8, but people shouldn't be worried about the 801. I said it on another platform, but they really should have called this the ep9 to help emphasize the differences between the 2.
Hey Timo,
Thanks for your review and detailing your thoughts on the bike. I just wanted to touch base to see how it was holding up (if you still have it). I’m looking at picking up the 2024 model.
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