Review: GasGas ECC 6 - More Speed Than You Need?

Frame Details

The ECC is fairly simple when it comes to frame details, which is certainly welcomed considering the inherent complexity e-bikes bring to the table. Cables are internally routed, but can be helped along through the frame by removing the battery. Luckily that's an easy process, requiring no key - just the quick turn of a 5mm and a quick release mechanism.

SRAM's Powertrain packaging is clean and minimalistic, with all controls carried out by the AXS pods on the left and right sides of the bars. Through a combination of short and long presses, you can get the system to toggle through modes, change gears, actuate the dropper, and toggle Autoshift mode. The screen mounted atop the top tube lets you know all the pertinent details, and displays battery percentage as you chug through it.

The full-carbon frame has one trick up its sleeve, in the form of a moto-esque plastics kit. Certainly an unusual sight in the mountain bike world, but perfectly normal for moto, the plastics don't really do anything for the bike's performance, but they might help prevent surface damage in the event of a hard crash. Luckily, they are removable, just popping in and out of the embedded mounts in the frame. GasGas even provides some rubber plugs should you eschew the plastic flair. I ended up riding without the kit, because it had a tendency to rattle against the cables on the descents.

Geometry & Sizing

The geometry of the ECC is a unique mix of extreme and more normal figures, with a couple outliers that seem to define the ride characteristics. The 64° head angle is far from unusual, and reach numbers are well within norms as well - 450mm, 475mm, and 500mm (tested) fill out the size range. The seat tube angle is listed as 75°, but after some measurements of the bike on test, it was clear that the listed figure was the actual seat angle, with the effective seat angle sitting closer to 79°. Steep by any standard, but comfortable and appropriate-feeling for the bike.

The more extreme elements are in the rear center length and the stack heights, with 461mm, 465mm, and 469mm chainstay lengths on the three sizes, respectively. Stack heights are very tall, hitting 649mm, 663mm, and 676mm with a 170mm fork installed. Additionally, the 31.5mm bottom bracket drop means you're really set inside the bike, with a very upright body position coming naturally.

All of this makes for a bike with a huge footprint, both in wheelbase and in general fit. The less extreme head angle helps reel things in a bit, but ultimately there's quite a bit of bike to manage, depending on what size you opt for.

Suspension Design
The ECC utilizes a pretty typical Horst link suspension layout, allowing Kiska (the design firm behind the bike) to control a few key variables to land on the ride characteristics they wanted.

The bike implements a 205x65mm coil shock with a trunnion mount to provide the damping.


The leverage rate of the ECC is fairly neutral, with about 20% progression through the shock's stroke. This leads to an even and predictable feeling rear end, without any erratic movements at the top of the stroke or sudden ramps as you approach bottom out. The damper tune on the DVO coil shock is quite light, providing an active feel over chattery terrain.

The anti-squat figures are quite high at the start of travel, but fall rapidly to low values as the suspension compresses, with the bike sitting around 115% at sag. Anti-rise is pretty even between 46% and 50%, meaning braking characteristics should be consistent through travel and maintain ride height without diving or extending too aggressively.


The DVO suspension on the GasGas comes with a slight twist, in the form of some damping technologies brought into the fold by WP. Another common name in the moto world, WP has a long history in the suspension game, but hasn't been present in the pedal-powered side of things for some time. Their addition to the DVO package comes in the form of their Cone Valve technology, which they claim helps keep the ride height high without sacrificing small bump support. In simple terms, it's a blow-off in the high speed circuit that can be tuned to change the feedback and support you experience in the fork and shock.

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The only component I changed out during the majority of testing was the handlebar, as the stock Newmen bar's 8° up 8° back sweep geometry never felt right to me. I installed a familiar bar and it felt like home. Towards the end of testing, I swapped the stock Code RSC brakes for some Maven Bronzes, just to see how SRAM's budget big brakes stacked up. More on that at a later date.


Testing Info

High speed is the name of the game on the ECC, so I'd recommend finding an area that has a steady supply of fast tracks. Trails without too extreme a grade seem to highlight the bikes strengths the best, and Prevost has those in spades. Add to that a friendly road to access the drop-ins, and you've got yourself a great day out. I think this is well within the bike's battery range, though you may want to be economical with your Rally/Range split if you're on the heavier end of the rider spectrum.

Climbing

Joking aside about how easy the climbing on this eMTB was, the ECC really is a comfortable climber. As we'll get to more in the descending ride impressions, the suspension character of the bike really likes to sit in and chug through rougher terrain, and that comes through on the climbs provided you're moving fast enough.

The geometry is roomy and puts you in a very upright position, thanks to the low bottom bracket and very high stack height. The seat tube angle is steep enough, but it doesn't completely help the bike feel more agile on steeper and trickier climbs. In those scenarios, I found it more comfortable to drop the saddle a bit and attack the climbs standing up, taking advantage of the massive rear center to keep weight over the front. You have to plan your lines carefully, as it takes a bit more body English to swing the bike through tight turns.

Longer traversing pedals are comfortable and balanced feeling with plenty of traction shared between the wheels and quick enough handling to not feel overly sluggish.

Descending

This feels like a big bike. Not just in travel numbers, but in pure footprint on trail. The rear wheel is way out behind you, and the front center has quite a presence as well. In conjunction, they make for a wheelbase that can be a bit tricky to navigate in tighter terrain, but really rewards you when you can open it up in faster sections. I actually struggled to find trails fast enough to make the bike feel nervous here in Bellingham, as the stretch limo wheelbase really carries speed with zeal.

On the other hand, I had an easy time finding terrain too steep for this bike, as that large footprint starts to bite a bit when things get slower and more vertical. The sensation boils down to the rear wheel being so far behind you that it's still hung up on obstacles you thought you passed a while back, making tight and feature-heavy trails a bit more of a handful. This effect made the ECC quite physical to ride on my typical eMTB test laps, where steep climbs beget even steeper descents, where the brakes get cooked and suspension support gets put to the test.

I found the DVO fork a bit lacking in the support department, preferring to ride deeper in travel once you broke through the initial portion of the travel. That firm top-end made the fork feel a bit insensitive over small chattery terrain, unless you really laid into it and kept it low in travel. When done right, it did perform very nicely in chunky higher speed terrain, where the damping kept you controlled in the middle of the stroke. It's hard to say whether that harsher top end is due to the OTT or the Cone Valve blow-off, but playing around with both settings didn't yield drastic differences.


Jumping the GasGas felt very easy, provided the lips were big and the speeds high. This is not a light bike, and the suspension preferred to sit in and plow rather than pop off smaller side hits and dance over root sections. This bike does best when you just push down through that stuff and let it soak up the bumps. Fast and well-supported turns are a treat on the ECC, where you can really shove your weight into the bike and let it sprawl out to provide traction and plenty of balance between the wheels.

I found the choice to spec 29" wheels front and rear a bit surprising, considering how many long-travel eMTBs are coming with mixed wheels these days. I think that mixed wheel choice is for good reason, as something about the handling characteristics of heavier e-bikes in steep terrain makes the rear tire buzz problem a little more pronounced. I had a few skimmers with the ECC's rear wheel, and ended up erring towards a more aggressive forward-biased position to make up for it.

In addition to being difficult to handle in steep terrain, the extremely long rear center made for one more negative: this bike is damn near impossible to manual. It can be done, but you better be ready to put your back into it.

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How Does It Compare?

Both of these models are eMTBs meant for racing, with aggressive geometry and powerful motors meant to rip up power stages and handle serious descents. To that end, I'd opt for the Canyon, mostly due to the Bosch motor system and a few geometry details that I preferred. The Strive:On has geometry that looks radical, until you compare it to the massive wheelbase and very high cockpit of the GasGas ECC. The ECC is definitely the more stable bike in straight line speed and long corners, but when it comes to more dynamic terrain the Canyon pulls away.

Canyon's frame design allows for either a 625 or 750Wh battery, so you can opt for range or weight bias depending on your use case. The GasGas' 630Wh does the trick, but there were times when I was wanting for more range out of the system. It's hard to overlook the clean packaging and system simplicity of the SRAM Powertrain on the ECC, but the Bosch CX Race motor's more effective power and mode fidelity makes it more usable for me.

I enjoyed the stability of the ECC on certain bits of trail, but found the tradeoffs to be a bit of a setback on the trails I like to ride most. A shorter rear end (albeit still pretty long in the scheme of things) kept handling tighter, and the slacker head angle meant steep tech was easier to manage given the weight of the bike. The higher BB and shorter wheelbase also made the Canyon easier to muscle around up and down the hill.

Which Model is the Best Value?

Of the three options, my pick here is going to be the lowest pricepoint ECC 4. The motor and battery system are identical across all three, so the heart of the bike remains unchanged and equal. The Mach1 Trucky wheelset with GasGas branded hubs would be my only concern price-wise, but that's only because they're unproven - they might just end up being great.

In truth, I think I'd prefer the suspension package that comes on this cheapest build to the high end option, mostly because the Zeb / SuperDeluxe Coil combo is simple and easy to set up, especially relative to the DVO OTT system present on the other models. I don't really feel much benefit from the OTT or the WP Cone Valve, so I'd err on the side of simplicity in the end.

Technical Report

DVO x WP Suspension: It's hard to test suspension on e-bikes, because the higher system weight can mask a lot of the weaker points in a fork and shock. In this case, I think the harsh top end of the fork was overcome by the mass of the bike, allowing it to ride deeper in travel so long as you kept weight over the front wheel. Deeper in that stroke, the fork lacked support when trails were very steep, requiring a very stiff setup to keep the front end up. Luckily, the back of the bike felt comfortable riding deeper in travel as well. Though it allowed some significant bottom-outs, the coil shock kept the rear wheel tracking nicely. I'm skeptical of the WP Cone Valve doing much to save things here, as I couldn't find a setup that produced the effects advertised.

Newmen Evolution SL EG Wheelset: I was impressed by these wheels' durability, especially considering their low overall weight. They weren't without damage after months of eMTB abuse, but came away better than I would have guessed. I trued them a couple times, and in the end there was just one flat spot in the rear rim that I wasn't fully able to round out.

SRAM Powertrain: I like the simplicity of the motor/drivetrain/dropper system at play here, but wish it allowed for a little more user control. My complaint mainly comes down to there being only two modes to toggle through, as there are plenty of moments where something between the two would be ideal. Being able to shift while coasting is a great feature, though Autoshift never felt quite right to me.

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Pinkbike's Take

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