The Yamaha Moro-07 is an e-mountain bike offering that's aimed at the all-mountain genre. There are aspects of this bike that deserve praise; the great build kit and motor at an extremely competitive price. But due to some strange geometry choices, among other aspects, the bike falls flat. Where it’s trying to pave its way in a marketplace that’s crowded with very good e-MTBs, the Moro-07 is an aspirational swing and a disappointing miss, holding it back from a rightful spot as one of the best electric mountain bikes.
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Yamaha Moro 07 e-MTB - Technical details
You may not know it, but Yamaha has been creating e-bikes for a good three decades, catering to the Japanese market and selling kits for several e-bikes in Europe. The Moro 07 is the brand’s e-mountain bike that was introduced in 2023 following Yamaha’s Switch ON strategy that was announced a year earlier, which highlighted the brand's intention of moving into the e-bicycle sector. With that, Yamaha stresses that this bike delivers the same level of tech, performance and reliability that’s associated with any of its products and, as the brand that brought Valentino Rossi four of his nine world titles, that’s an exciting promise.
The Moro 07 does things a little differently from anything we’ve seen in recent years as it uses what Yamaha dubs the Dual Twin frame. As the name roughly suggests, the frame is built up of two top tubes and two down tubes with the former wrapping around the shock, and the latter around the battery. This rather eccentric decision has been made to balance rigidity with feedback, says Yamaha. In the flesh, while futuristic this design looks to be a modern homage to the hair-brained designs of early MTB.
Of course, there’s a Yamaha PW-X3 motor on board that’s paired with a 500Wh battery, and for the money, it’s a great bit of kit. It knocks out 85Nm of torque, 250W of nominal power and 500W at maximum, and comes with a range of features that make it a force to be reckoned with in the e-MTB motor space. It’s equipped with five power modes: eco, standard, high, MTB, and Extra-Power which offers a wide range of all-out power and battery conservation modes – yet one of the most fun modes is the Automatic Support Mode. With this, simply switch it into this mode and the bike will do all of the mode switching for you, tapering its power to the terrain, gradient, and even wind to provide the best level of assistance all of the time.
The PW-X3 is controlled by the Yamaha Interface X remote which leans into minimalism, using just two bars of lights to indicate battery level and power mode. This is paired with a neat bar-mounted remote which also gives you access to the bike’s walk mode.
As for the rest of the bike’s features, they’re rather minimal. There’s internal cable routing but no space for a water bottle. Nor is there a Universal Derailleur Hanger, which has become standard on a range of bikes, be it mountain or gravel. It’s not a massive deal but it means that riders can’t take advantage of the most modern of kit, or the most readily available mech hanger should the current one need replacing. It also rolls on 650b wheels which is a bit of an odd choice given that the all-mountain space is dominated by 29ers. That said, fans of little wheels will praise the decision.
It does get a removable battery which is great to see. You will need two tools, however: a Torx and an Allen.
The geometry is a mixed bag. On all sizes, there’s a 66.3-degree head angle and a 70.3-degree seat tube. Yamaha’s geometry sheet states that the rear centre is 464mm long and that this large frame gets a 483mm reach. All in, there’s a 1,254mm wheelbase. Already, there are some figures here that don’t scream all-mountain with the head angle being the wrong side of 66 degrees, and some that are right on the money, like the reach figure for example, and the wheelbase, being just a couple of millimetres shorter than the Canyon Neuron: ON, which is an awesome bit of kit.
Yamaha Moro 07 e-MTB - Componentry
The kit that Yamaha has draped on its e-MTB platform is pretty admirable, especially at this price point. Its 160mm of front suspension is damped by a RockShox Lyrik Select+ and the rear 150mm is controlled by a RockShox Super Deluxe Select+.
There’s a Shimano Deore XT 12-speed drivetrain and the Moro 07 is slowed thanks to a pair of Magura MT5 brakes with 203 rotors at both ends. The dropper seatpost is unbranded but it offers 150mm of drop on this large frame.
Finally, the wheels are also unbranded but there’s a mega-wide 40mm internal width and a 2.6in Maxxis Minion DHF at the front and a 2.6in Maxxis Rekon at the rear. Both tyres get Maxx Terra compounds and EXO+ casings.
The only qualm I have with the build kit is that the wheel’s freehub engagement is fairly slow. Though, in the grand scheme of things, I can’t complain too much here.
Yamaha Moro 07 e-MTB - Performance
With the Moro 07, it’s clear that Yamaha has put a lot of brain power into this bike, as is evident in its wild Dual Twin design and there are some definite points to appreciate about the bike. But even just swinging a leg over the bike is proof that this bike is unlike any other but not for the right reasons.
Its seat tube is very slack which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as seat tubes like this do work on cross-country bikes where the ability to weigh the rear wheel while saddled and utilise low-rise stems to weigh the front is key. When paired with its respectfully long reach, it’s limiting, to say the least.
All that combined with a lengthy chainstay, there’s a tonne of weight distributed towards the rear wheel, and as the cockpit is so stretched as a result of that reach that when saddled arms are bolt straight when gripping the bar. This makes it incredibly difficult to lift the front wheel over tech as there’s no available room to move weight rewards. The body’s position is essentially already in the position required to get the front wheel up, only with both wheels on the ground. Saddled, this bike’s position isn’t too far from that of a Raleigh Chopper.
The Moro 07’s massively rearward-biased weight distribution also makes climbing steeper gradients a bit of a battle. Here, you don’t want the front wheel to lift, so weighting the front is imperative but as weight is so far back, as is the position over the bike, it takes a comparatively monumental effort to keep the front in check. Even though the lengthy chainstay keeps the bike reasonably planted climbing out of the saddle is a must to keep the weight balanced.
When standing on the pedals, the bike evens out drastically, simply because weight is much better distributed by default. Thanks to this and a reasonably well-sorted suspension kinematic, the bike settles and makes much more sense on the descents but even then, I’ve struggled to feel at home enough aboard it to attack my relatively mellow local trails. There are areas where there’s a twinkle in its eye, however.
Despite its length, it’s one agile and manoeuvrable bike due to those little wheels. It’s lively and responsive and its rear suspension does a fantastic job of keeping the rear wheel glued to the ground, working well to hide the 650b’s inherent nature to hang up on bumps. And again, although its length is more than is familiar, the bike feels small with loads of room over the bike to move around, and less hefty to shift due to the extra rotational forces of 29-inch wheels. This is also aided by a super short seat tube, although Yamaha hasn't taken advantage of it by equipping a long-travelled dropper post.
But as we’re on the rear suspension, although it’s tuned for this bike I feel that it's a touch overdamped. I was running the shock with the rebound completely open and it still felt a bit on the slow side. Quicker riders will notice this. It’s fairly linear too which can be appreciated as it dampens an awful lot of trail feedback but not enough to keep it from little trips through the air.
When descending, the bike is more comfortable, but as I said before, I’ve not felt confident enough on the Moro 07 to ride it at full chat and that’s wholly down to the head tube. Yes, 66.3-degrees is very steep for a bike of this type and when it comes to sudden rolls in the trail, it struggles to support the front of the bike, tipping weight more forward than necessary. When the gradient gets steeper, the front end becomes super twitchy as a result.
So with all of that in mind, the bike’s remit of comfort, confidence, and general performance lies within tracks that don’t contain that much gradient, which isn’t ideal for an all-mountain bike, especially one with so much suspension travel. But on flatter trails is where the geometry makes the most sense. The steep head angle combined with the 650b wheels make for a responsive front end which then makes the whole bike fairly agile but its overall wheelbase then keeps it from becoming a rowdy mess, where it rustles up useful stability.
All-mountain bikes are designed to be super versatile and capable of offering a competent and confident ride through all of the things a mountain can throw at it. Where the Moro 07’s window of descending performance is very narrow, it makes me wonder whether this bike has been miscategorised where it should have been given less suspension and touted as a trail bike. But even then, that wouldn’t fix the issues that come as a result of that slack seat tube.
Ride issues aside, the componentry on this bike is cracking for the money and, for the most part, I simply cannot complain. The Magura MT5 brakes are excellent and it's tough to fault the Shimano XT drivetrain. The suspension, while far from sophisticated, isn't too shabby either, especially considering the price.
However, the Interface X remote is far from straightforward, which is a shame considering its simple design. The PW-X3 motor has an impressive number of modes to flick through and it feels as if this display is oversimplified for the job at hand, as it took a rather serious read through the user manual to figure out what was going on. Adding more information, or just more colours of light would make this an easier unit to read. It doesn't match up to the aptly named Display A screen that provides more information in a similarly sized bar-mounted unit.
As is usual, there are three colours of lights that denote which mode the motor is in but on this system, there are five power modes and more but bare with me here. The assist mode bar of lights is then split into four. If the bar is green, with two of those lights on, that’s Eco mode. If that bar is green and all the lights are on, that’s Eco+ and so on. Compared to other motor systems, this feels unnecessarily convoluted, despite the clear pursuit of simplicity.
There’s Yamaha’s very cool Automatic Support Mode which is another combination of light colours altogether. There’s just a lot going on here, and a surprisingly complex language to learn to understand what’s happening. It’s very different from Bosch’s system and Shimano’s EP8, where the latter tells you what mode you’re in using actual words.
But the motor is great. It delivers its power naturally and the Automatic mode is very impressive and ideal for quick lunchtime jaunts. It offers tonnes of adjustment through its five power modes so regardless of its 500Wh battery, smart users could eke out plenty of miles.
However, to wrap up, I worry about the Dual Twin frame design. Where it’s claimed to offer good rigidity, it’s rather flexy. That alone isn’t a bad thing but the fact that there’s torsional flex present in the two downtubes and that there’s a battery sandwiched between the two doesn’t seem like the cleverest of ideas. I may be overthinking here, but it would be a shame to wreck a battery due to a frame's flexion.
One benefit it does pose is that the shock's settings couldn't be more accessible.
Yamaha Moro 07 e-MTB - Verdict
The all-mountain segment of e-MTB is rife with excellent bikes but one thing that the Moro 07 has on its side is bang for buck. Few bikes come with the quality of componentry that this bike carries but here, it’s very much a case of great componentry vs great geometry and the latter is more important to a good, fun, and confident ride. A great example is Haibike’s AllMtn 2. It’s pricier at £4,600 and it doesn’t get as good a build kit, apart from the same PW-X3 motor. The AllMtn's geometry is much better suited to the riding that an all-mountain bike is designed for though, with a 75-degree seat tube angle, a 64.5-degree head tube angle, and a 475mm reach.
A bike that seriously rains on the Moro 07’s parade is the Vitus E-Mythique LT in the VRS or VRX build (here’s our review of the Vitus E-Mythique VR model). The range-topping VRX will set you back £4,400 and for the extra money, you’re getting a better-designed geometry and reasonably good componentry, although not quite as solid as the Yamaha’s. The Yamaha Moro 07’s motor is better but again, geometry is king.
Even though the Yamaha Motor 07 shows excellent value for money with a great componentry list that can’t be found at this price point, it’s vastly overshadowed by bikes that might have lower-grade kit but with far better geometries. Unless you’re a die-hard fan of Yamaha’s motorcycles or keyboards and must have a Yamaha brand e-MTB, it’s a seriously tough sell. There is potential here though, the suspension kinematic works well and of course, the PW-X3 is a pleasure, Yamaha just needs to go back to the drawing board and have another go on the geometry.
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