TORQUE // THE E-MTB THAT CHANGED THE WAY I RIDE

There are bikes that get used, bikes that get admired, and bikes that quietly alter the way you think about where you can go.

TORQUE has done the third.

My Scott Aspect eRIDE 910 arrived in July 2026, finished in Midnight Grey and powered by a Bosch Performance Line CX motor with a 600 Wh battery. On paper, that makes it a capable electric mountain bike. In reality, it has become something much more interesting: a machine that has opened up Cannock Chase, longer rides, steeper climbs and spontaneous detours in a way a conventional bike simply never did for me.

And, because this is NIX, it was never going to remain completely standard. ⚡🚵‍♂️🧡

TORQUE was always destined to become mine.

THE MACHINE

At the heart of TORQUE is the Bosch Performance Line CX system.

That matters because this isn’t an electric motor designed simply to drag a bicycle along. The Bosch system amplifies what you put into the pedals. Push harder and it responds. Ease off and it settles down. Climb something steep and it feels as though somebody has quietly added another pair of very enthusiastic legs.

It still feels like cycling.

Just cycling with considerably more ambition.

The 600 Wh battery gives the bike enough capacity for proper exploration rather than short novelty rides. Range, of course, depends on terrain, assistance level, temperature, rider effort and how much climbing is involved, but the important thing is psychological: I no longer look at a hill and immediately start calculating how unpleasant it might be.

I look at it and wonder what is at the top.

That changes everything.

⚙️ BOSCH POWER

The clever part of an e-MTB is that the motor doesn’t remove the effort.

It redistributes it.

On flatter trails I can ride naturally and conserve battery. When the ground tilts upwards, Bosch assistance keeps the momentum alive. On technical sections the extra torque makes it possible to concentrate on line choice, balance and grip rather than simply surviving the gradient.

There is something wonderfully satisfying about climbing a forest trail that would previously have had me considering an urgent appointment with a park bench.

TORQUE just keeps going.

Not effortlessly.

But brilliantly.

THE FIRST PROPER RIDES

Cannock Chase was where TORQUE really started making sense.

One of the early rides covered more than 20 kilometres, followed by another memorable outing of 14.8 miles in 1 hour 36 minutes with 1,178 feet of climbing and a recorded top speed of 20.1 mph.

Those numbers tell only part of the story.

The real appeal was the freedom.

Forest roads. Gravel. Climbing. Descending. Narrow trails. Open sections. That glorious moment when you realise you have travelled much farther into the landscape than you would normally have bothered to ride.

Tackeroo became a natural starting point. From there TORQUE began exploring familiar Cannock territory in a completely different way, including rides towards The Horns and deeper into the Chase.

The bike effectively enlarged the map.

🌲 THE CHASE EFFECT

Cannock Chase is almost perfect territory for an e-MTB.

It gives TORQUE a little bit of everything.

Long gravel climbs let the Bosch system stretch its legs. Forest tracks encourage distance. Rougher sections test the tyres and suspension. Descents provide the grin factor. And because assistance reduces the punishment of repeated climbs, it becomes much easier to link different parts of the Chase together into one ride.

That is perhaps the biggest difference TORQUE has made.

Instead of thinking:

“Can I manage that route?”

I increasingly think:

“Where else can I add?”

That tiny shift in mindset turns a bike ride into exploration.

And exploration is very NIX.

THE NIX TREATMENT 🧡

Leaving TORQUE completely standard was never particularly likely.

The Midnight Grey frame already suited the NIX world beautifully, sitting somewhere between stealth machine and expedition equipment. Then came the orange details.

Orange pedals.

Orange grips.

Orange valve caps.

Small changes, but enough to give the bike its own identity.

They echo the same visual language used elsewhere across NIX: dark technical colours punctuated by flashes of orange.

Functional equipment doesn’t need to look boring.

TORQUE now looks unmistakably like part of the family.

LIGHTS, MUD AND REAL-WORLD KIT

A trail bike becomes much more useful when the details are right.

TORQUE now carries Exposure Trace and TraceR MK3 lights, giving it proper visibility without hanging oversized hardware all over the frame.

SKS Mudrocker mudguards front and rear help deal with the less glamorous reality of British mountain biking, namely discovering that half of Staffordshire appears to have attached itself to your backside.

An Ergon saddle improves comfort.

A RockBros saddle bag carries essentials.

There is even a hidden bell.

Because apparently civilisation must occasionally survive even in the woods.

None of these additions fundamentally change the bike. Together, however, they make TORQUE far more usable.

That matters.

A beautifully equipped machine that is awkward to use becomes garage furniture. TORQUE is being built to ride.

🚵‍♂️ NOT A MOTORBIKE

One of the most misunderstood things about electric mountain bikes is the idea that the motor somehow does everything.

It doesn’t.

You pedal.

You choose the line.

You balance the bike.

You decide how hard to push.

You still arrive back covered in dust, mud or both.

Your legs still know that you have been cycling.

The difference is that assistance stretches what is achievable.

A climb that might once have ended a ride becomes another section of it.

A route that previously looked slightly too long becomes realistic.

A distant trail junction becomes irresistible.

That extra capability is addictive.

THE BATTERY CHANGES YOUR BRAIN

Range anxiety is an interesting thing.

At first, you watch battery percentage constantly.

Every few minutes there is a little glance towards the display.

Eighty-two percent.

Seventy-six.

Sixty-eight.

Eventually you start understanding the system.

You learn that battery consumption is not linear. You learn that climbing devours more energy. You learn that Eco and Tour-style assistance can preserve enormous amounts of capacity compared with riding everywhere at maximum assistance.

Most importantly, you learn to stop treating the battery as something precious.

It is there to be used.

The best ride is not necessarily the one where you return with 70% battery remaining.

Sometimes the best ride is the one where you return with tired legs, mud on the frame, a camera roll full of photographs and just enough battery left to prove the route was ambitious.

That is what TORQUE encourages.

GO FURTHER

There is a wonderful side effect to owning an e-MTB.

Curiosity becomes cheaper.

Not financially.

Physically.

Taking the wrong turn becomes less annoying because riding back up the hill is no longer a disaster.

Seeing an unfamiliar trail becomes an invitation.

Spotting a viewpoint on the map becomes a reason to investigate rather than something to save for another day.

The assistance buys exploration.

That might be the single best description of TORQUE.

It buys exploration.

📍 TORQUE + NIX

TORQUE fits unusually well into the wider NIX world.

Vanilla gets me to the landscape.

TORQUE gets me into it.

The drones show it from above.

The cameras capture it from the ground.

And the bike connects all of it together.

That creates some interesting possibilities for future adventures.

Vanilla parked somewhere spectacular.

TORQUE unloaded from the back.

A trail disappearing into woodland.

DJI gear packed.

Action camera running.

No timetable.

Just ride.

That combination could become one of the strongest parts of NIX over the next few years.

CAMPERVAN + E-MTB = FREEDOM

This is where things get particularly interesting.

A campervan already gives you geographical freedom. Add an e-MTB and the effective exploration radius around every campsite or overnight stop becomes much larger.

Park Vanilla.

Make coffee.

Unload TORQUE.

Suddenly a five-mile radius around the van becomes accessible without moving the vehicle.

Forest trails.

Canal paths.

Country lanes.

Photography locations.

Viewpoints.

Villages.

Pubs.

The last item may occasionally influence route planning.

Purely for geographical research, obviously. 🍺

It is a remarkably efficient combination.

One vehicle provides the base.

One bike provides the local transport.

A drone provides the aerial view.

And somewhere in the middle sits a bloke wondering how he managed to turn going for a bike ride into a complete technical ecosystem.

THE DATA SIDE 📊

TORQUE also appeals to the data-obsessed part of NIX.

Bosch eBike Flow records the bike side.

Strava records rides and performance.

Komoot helps with navigation and route discovery.

Apple Health ties activity into the wider picture.

Suddenly a Sunday ride isn’t just a ride.

It has distance.

Elevation.

Speed.

Route.

Heart-rate information where available.

Photographs.

Maps.

Weather.

Battery usage.

Locations.

That means TORQUE can become more than a bike inside NIXDRONES.COM.

It can become a documented trail machine.

Every ride potentially tells a story.

THE NEXT CHAPTER

TORQUE is still relatively new.

That is probably the most exciting part.

There are enormous numbers of trails still unexplored.

More of Cannock Chase.

Longer routes.

Campervan trips where the bike becomes the main local transport.

Photography expeditions.

Possibly European rides.

And eventually those wonderful days where the statistics become almost irrelevant because the route itself was simply unforgettable.

The bike has already proven something important.

E-MTBs do not make adventure easier in the simplistic sense.

They make more adventure possible.

That is a very different thing.

THE NIX VERDICT

TORQUE has changed the radius of a day.

Before, distance and climbing placed fairly obvious boundaries around a ride.

Now those boundaries have moved.

The Bosch motor provides the extra shove.

The 600 Wh battery provides the endurance.

The Scott chassis provides the platform.

But the real upgrade is what happens inside your head.

You start wondering what is around the next corner.

Then what is beyond the next hill.

Then whether that tiny line disappearing into the forest on the map actually goes anywhere.

And before long you are twenty miles from where you started, covered in dust, grinning like an idiot and already thinking about the next ride.

That is TORQUE.

Not simply an electric mountain bike.

A beautifully engineered excuse to keep going. ⚡🌲🚵‍♂️🧡

NIX // TRAIL RIDE FARTHER. CLIMB HIGHER. FIND OUT WHAT’S ROUND THE CORNER.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Scott+Aspect+eRIDE+910

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