Ducati MIG-S – DM Review | POV Test Ride

I didn’t expect to love the Ducati MIG-S electric mountain bike as much as I did. But I didn’t want to give it back, ever.

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Look at this climb look at this climb woo hey everybody it’s Charlie from daily motor and I am about to embark on a mountain bike ride that is about 7 and2 miles and they estimate they being the internet estimates it should take you just over 2 hours to

Complete because it is up some fairly steep hills it is a pretty big elevation climb that we are supposed to go up and come down but I reckon it’ll take me about half that time because I am riding this this is the ducatti migs E mountain bike it’s a class one electric assist

Mountain bike produced in partnership with Ducati and forgive me if I’m mispronouncing but th th I assume I’d like to say th th bikes it’s about $6,000 and it’s got the maximum amount of power in electric assist that you can have on a Class one mountain bike that

Means it’s entirely legal and acceptable for me to be using it on normal mountain bike trails like this but it allows me to ride much steeper Hills than I would be able to typically ride on a standard mountain bike and do it in much less

Time than I would be able to on a standard mountain bike because in its maximum power mode it’ll provide up to 400% assist going up the hills allowing me to essentially feel like a mountain biking superhero not only does it have the power assist but it’s got some great

Hardware on it as well we’ve got 35 mm forks from Rock shocks giving us a great front suspension disc brakes front and rear although not the largest disc brakes I’ve seen on an electric mountain bike after all these things are heavy I’ll have to look up the exact specs I

Think this one’s 44 lbs as we’re looking at it so that battery definitely adds some weight in that electric Drive motor got 12 gears a single gear set in the back just the one up front there and of course a rock shock rear shock as well on the Fly adjustable

Height for the seat so I’m going to throw the GoPro on here we’re going to go for a ride first off this Trail known as the L requires a few miles of Road running right off the bat and once you dip off into this section it’s pretty steep I

Don’t know what the grade is on this but it’s got to be somewhere between 10 and 15% it’s a it’s a steep one but I’m already in full assist mode boost how they call it and with a good amount of effort here the legs pumping

I’m keeping up about 10 mph up this hill and just for curiosity sake woo okay holy cow taking the all the assists off I feel like the bike is in mud I’m struggling to even do what is this 4 milph not only that but but I got

Traffic coming up on me so I’m going to go through the Eco and the trail modes back up the Boost and then dip off a little bit here let some traffic go by shift a few more times and I’m back up to 10 mph even more so about 11 now so before

Even hitting the trail the electric assist is allowing me to shave serious time off of this ride and this is a perfect example of why I’m a big fan of this electric assist is that it’s about 3:45 right now in the afternoon now of course I’m blessed to be able to do

Things like this with my day-to-day with my work day in fact I’m required to in order to shoot this video but let’s not act like it’s not a little bit of fun as well so I’m doing this now let’s say gets off work around 5:00 she’s going to

Be home by 5:30 or so so the way I see I’ve got about 2 hours to get this done and get back home in order to spend quality time with her so if I want to go out and ride one of the top rated trails in the

Area there’s no way I’d be able to get through it on my standard conventional mountain bike in time I’m I’m just not in that level of shape but this bike is going to not only allow me to get there and do these mundane sections but it’s going to have the kit

Equipped in order to have uh a fun and safe time riding it once I turn off right here making our way up the hill here you can see the views are absolutely gorgeous but you can’t focus on them too long because this Trail is demanding you

Got to pay attention so here I am in very very first gear riding up with no assist you can see how much I’m struggling even just going right up into Eco then right there is giving me 100% assist so for every bit of power I’m putting in with my pedals it’s matching

Me one to one then hop up to Trail mode that’s giving you a two to one so the idea is Eco obviously if you’re going to go out for a super long ride you really wanted to stretch your charge level out you’d run in that and just take what you can

Get got to catch my breath a little bit here in fact let’s go up into boost so I can do that Trail is what you’re going to want to run if you’re just plan on going out and doing a a solid ride maybe doing a good amount of elevation you want to make

Sure you got battery for the whole thing but you want a good amount of assist as well Trail is the top level that actually feels natural if I go back into it here it just feels like I’m really strong like I’m going up this hill and

I’m like all right yeah I got to put work into it I’m leaning forward I’m pedaling hard but I’m still going much much quicker than I’d be able to without the help boost that’s what gives you the max amount of assist 400% so every bit of power you’re

Putting in the bike’s giv you four times that and that makes it so it’s easy it really is I mean I’m not out of shape but I’m also not really in shape pretty average and I’m going up this hill Sun blazing on me like it’s nothing I’m

Doing what 5 m hour right now I could easily upshift few gear I’m doing 7 and 1/2 pretty easily up that fairly steep incline let me actually turn I got the chest mounted GoPro on that’s what we just wrote up and doing so in boost mode there

Really no problem at all now I will say there have been times where I’ve been riding and I’ve dialed down from boost to Trail because boost can give you so much power that if you’re in a really steep slow technical situation you can spin the rear tire and then lose all of

Your momentum so I did a trail last week where it was really steep I was in first gear and just kind of making my way I mean I had exposed rock that I was kind of just carefully making it up and I dialed down to Trail because it

Was still giving me a lot of help even at the slower speeds and it was keeping me in a in a safer predicament now when I first headed out on this bike for my initial ride few weeks ago I first started an Eco cuz I was like all right

Well I’m going to be out for a few hours I want to make sure it’s going to last and then I I jumped up to trail and I was riding around for and Trail for a while going uphill it was all uphill from my house and the battery bar down

Here it never even moved I was like oh wow I’m halfway through my incline cuz obviously you ride up and then you got to come back down down I was halfway through my climb and the the battery bar hadn’t even moved so I was like oh well

Shoot what am I doing down in trail let’s use boost and sure enough you can go for hours of riding with a good amount of elevation in boost mode and the battery is totally fine I don’t think I’ve got too much further to climb today and I’ve done

Some extra riding and I’m only down one battery baroo all right speaking of elevation looks like I got some downhill here it’s a good time to talk about speed and brakes so one thing you should know about speed due to at least European regulations I don’t know if we actually

Have official rules here in America especially at the federal level but at least in the EU and the UK Ducati has to limit the electric assists to 18 mph is roughly 18 so you can be pedaling along accelerating and once you hit 18 the electric assist cuts out so that

Doesn’t mean you can’t ride faster you’ll see when we’re going downhill we’ll get plenty faster than 18 M hour and even on a flat ground I can pedal this thing manually and get it well over 18 but just know that the electric assist part is only going to help you up

To 18 and honestly I’ve been totally fine with that because you got to understand the key distinctions between class one class 2 and class 3 Electric assist bikes this is not what you would generally call an ebike it’s an electrically assisted bicycle and that key distinction comes in that I do still

Have to do the pedaling there’s no throttle there’s no uh acceleration lever on my right hand that I can use in order to make the bike accelerate without my help and honestly there are plenty of people riding level two and electric level three electric bikes that are essentially unlimited at the level

Three level that are not riding them safely they’re going out and doing motorcycle levels of speed on a machine that’s just barely capable of it when you’re talking tires brakes and suspension and riding skills that probably aren enough to Snuff and the lack of the safety gear so 18 mph

From this level one electric bike actually keeps me from getting in over my head in a lot of these trails and makes it so I’m not riding faster than would be safe which trust me can definitely still happen on this but it’s helping me it’s helping to

Prevent me from being in an unsafe situation riding well above my skill level and not only that keeping me from being a danger to others and it’s keeping me from tearing up these mountain bike trails so if you see someone out with a a level one electric

Bike like this don’t be don’t be mean to them there’s plenty of reasons why someone would choose to to ride a bike like this I’ve already gone over some of them we’ll talk about some more in a minute but they’re not hurting the sport they’re helping it quick pause for this

View pretty gnarly too bad it’s a bit hazy today but it’s going to be even better once we get up there so let’s talk practical uses for these bikes and I talked about it a bit earlier when I talked about how I’m able to get a ride

Like this done in a fraction of the time that I would be on a conventional bicycle but what about for Riders who might be entirely prohibited from riding and doing mountain biking without some level assist think elderly people or weak or feeble or even just someone who’s not uh an intense Rider someone

Who’s just more of a casual bike rider but you still want to be able to go out and do trails with them for example I would love to ride this trail with Alyssa or my brother or my father and my brother and my father could probably do

It with me who both had traditional bikes although it would take much much longer but Alyssa she’s not a big biker she essentially rode a rode a bike in college to help get through between classes and then doesn’t really do much biking other than that but I could put

Her on an electric an e assist mountain bike and do an easier Trail like this now I wouldn’t push her down the single track and steep sections that we’re going to be going down here in a little bit but these wider more two track levels and areas yeah why not the ass is

Just going to help her do the climb without killing her right away okay this is looking like a pretty intense downhill section we’re about to run maybe I missed the opportunity to get a good view photo but uh here we go listen to that it’s so quiet out

Here downhill section is a perfect opportunity to talk brakes and suspension I did take this bike into a local bicycle shop one that oh this is gnarly a shop that does a lot of competition performance mountain bikes [Applause] oh and I I said to the owner I said

Point blank what is this looking at this bike the sticker price is $6,000 is it a markup cuz I was expecting that DTI essentially took a $4,500 bike from sock slaps their name on it and is charging $6,000 at their motorcycle dealerships while prospective owners are waiting on

Their tonos and their RSV 4S they say hey well get a little little tubby there mister how about you head out on one of these and have some fun and lose some of that weight but no he said this the componentry that he sees and he wasn’t

Super he wasn’t familiar with th but he was familiar with rock shocks and said yeah that that actually seems like a a well-priced bike for what you’re getting and that made me happy he did point out that the typical bikes e assist bikes electric mountain bikes

They sell go from 7 to $12,000 in their shop so this is definitely not the most expensive sort of electric bike that you can find w look at this climb look at this climb woo nice I keep forgetting we don’t have a head-mounted GoPro right now we’ve got the we’ve got

The chest mounted GoPro so I actually have to turn my body for you all to see everything I’m seeing this is the type of thing that you get to experience when you’ve got some electric assyst help you get out here into the boonies so I was happy to hear that the

Bike’s got all of the uh proper mountain bike kit that you need in order to be out here and and do Trails like this now keep in mind all the the gear in the world and all the componentry in the world is not going to make up for

Being a novice Rider so make sure you always ride safe careful uh relatively within your limits and wear some safety gear always wear a helmet I’m just taking it nice and easy down here I guess the only thing I’d like to see improved upon with the bike would be

Some larger brakes now that’s not to say I’ve gotten any fade but I get the feeling that you’re you’re slowing down all this weight and if I were something like a 200 plus PB Rider I mean this is a medium frame so maybe if I were a few

Inches taller and a few inches wider You’ be well over 200 lb couple that with the weight of the bike and these brakes are having to stop 250 lb or so and and it’s not necessarily the stopping it it’s this maintaining the the braking all the way

Down these steep hills I mean I’m essentially going to be on my brakes for the next probably 5 minutes or so of just going down this hill and they’re going to get hot I mean I’m sure they’re getting really hot in there it’s hot outside they’re probably fine Scotty

Probably did the math they’re probably fine but that’s probably the only thing I’d really like to see improved if I were a more experienced rider I bet I would be asking for some more suspension as well but I’ve got it dialed in a little on the soft side I could probably

Stand a little bit extra air but it’s it’s making the ride comfy for me and that circles into who I think this bike is really for I don’t think Ducati is aiming for True mountain bike enthusiasts oh be careful down these I don’t think Ducati is aiming for True uh

Experienced Advanced mountain bikers with the Mig S I think they’re aiming for people more like myself who enjoy going out for mountain bike rides but it’s not their main thing Ducati aimed this bike at people who are going to go out maybe once a month you maybe

Maybe a few times a month and they’re going to ride trails that are probably less intense than this I mean if you find yourself out here you can baby yourself through the way I am but they knew that if they put the cost too high then it would just seem silly

People are like I could buy one of your motorcycles for that price I’m good but it’s $6,000 I think that puts it into a into a price bracket that more people can justify and actually go out and have a a pretty fun machine I’m going to have a really tough

Time giving this back it’s allowed me to explore so much of this beautiful area that we’ve recently moved to and do these type of trails and get exercise but also uh see the world around me and be out in nature and kind of expand upon a hobby that I’ve had for a while

In such a unique way it’s cool getting back into some of these uphills again so thankful for the E assist already getting fairly close to the end of this trail and I don’t even think it’s been an hour and I’ve stopped a few times for filming reasons I will say you do

Sometimes feel like a bit of a cheater on these trails with one of these electric bikes versus the standard one especially when you go passing someone crawling up a steep incline and they’re on a conventional mountain bike but as I said I really do think if you’re someone who

Supports mountain biking you should be supportive of these bikes as well because all it’s going to do is bring more people into a fun and healthy Sport and keep Trails like this protected I mean if you don’t have enough people using and supporting these type of trails then eventually they’re going to

Go away and people are going to use for the reasons developments are going to happen urban sprawl and the like and you’re going to lose mountain bike trails so if you do want to keep this sport uh a thing to keep the sport around you should be supporting these type of

Bikes this whole ride I’ve done today still got uh four fifths of my battery left thank you all so much for watching thanks to Ducati for hooking me up with their migs e assist mountain bike here I’ve had a blast with it I highly recommend checking one out if you got a

Ducati dealer near you or I mean I’m sure a lot of electric bikes are going to do uh kind of fit a similar Niche but this one has that extra flare to it and we’ll see you on the next one I’m Charlie from daily motor and as always we’re On oh and it took me 50 minutes