Torque is my Scott Aspect eRIDE 910: midnight grey, unmistakably mine and named for the feeling that matters most when the trail points uphill. It is not a motorbike pretending to be a bicycle and it is not an excuse to stop pedalling. It is the machine that makes a bigger ride feel possible, turns a forestry track into an invitation and gets me home already wondering where we should go next.
A name earned on the climbs
I ordered Torque from Run and Ride in Milford on 4 June 2026 and collected it on 2 July. The bike cost £2,500, but the important part of the purchase was not the number on the receipt. It was the prospect of riding farther from my front door, taking on more of Cannock Chase and coming back with something better than another plan to do it one day.
The Aspect eRIDE is a hardtail mountain bike, which keeps the relationship with the trail wonderfully direct. There is suspension at the front and plenty of help at the cranks, but the rider still chooses the line, manages the grip and supplies the judgement. That balance is exactly what I wanted.
Bosch power, human decisions
At the centre of Torque is a Bosch Performance Line CX drive unit paired with an integrated 600Wh battery. The motor is at its best when it feels like a strong tailwind rather than a remote control: smooth assistance on a long drag, a useful shove over loose ground and enough support to keep a ride moving when my legs begin negotiating for an early café.
The Bosch eBike Flow app gives the electrical side of the bike a home on my phone, while Strava records what happened and Komoot helps decide what might happen next. I like the data, but it remains evidence of the ride rather than the reason for it.
On 13 July, one of Torque’s early outings covered 14.8 miles in 1 hour 36 minutes, climbed 1,178 feet and reached 20.1mph. Those figures tell part of the story. The bigger result was discovering that a substantial evening ride could fit into an ordinary day.
Torque does not remove the effort. It stretches the day, flattens the excuses and leaves more energy for the part of a ride I actually came to enjoy.
The Nix orange treatment
A midnight-grey bike was never going to remain anonymous for long. Orange pedals, grips and valve caps tie Torque into the black, grey and orange Nix world. They also make it instantly recognisable leaning against a trail sign, parked beside Vanilla or appearing in a photograph between the trees.
The practical additions matter just as much: Exposure Trace and TraceR lights, an Ergon saddle, SKS Mudrocker guards front and rear, a RockBros saddlebag and serious locks for the moments when the bike has to be left. My orange Scott helmet completes the look without requiring anybody to wonder which rider belongs to which bike.
Cannock Chase is the back garden
Cannock Chase is where Torque makes the most sense. There are miles of formal trails and bridleways, from relaxed gravel and forestry roads to the red-graded Follow the Dog and the longer, more demanding Monkey Trail. Loose stone, roots, mud, berms and rock gardens are all part of the local vocabulary.
My own rides are often less about ticking off an official route and more about linking familiar places in a new way. On 7 July we covered more than 20 kilometres around the Chase. On 20 July, the line ran from Tackeroo towards The Horns—a ride with a destination, a pause and a satisfying journey back.
That is the freedom an eMTB gives me. I can choose a café or pub, a viewpoint, a forest track or simply the turning I have always ignored. Torque makes the map feel larger without making home feel farther away.
Vanilla, Towzer and a wider radius
When the ride starts beyond the front gate, Vanilla carries the day and Towzer—my Thule Velolite rack—carries Torque. The names may sound like a small touring band, but the arrangement is genuinely useful: campervan as base camp, rack as dependable road crew and eMTB ready to explore wherever the doors open.
That combination also joins the two sides of Nix Drones. Vanilla reaches the landscape, Torque gets into it and a drone can finally reveal its shape from above. A single day can produce road photographs, trail-level memories and an aerial view that explains how all the pieces fit together.
Not cheating—choosing more ride
The tired argument about eMTBs being cheating misses the point. I still pedal, still breathe hard, still make mistakes and still know when I have climbed 1,178 feet. The assistance changes what I can include in the day; it does not turn the day into something effortless.
Torque has become part fitness tool, part exploration machine and part creative partner. It takes me to possible drone locations, supplies stories for Super Nix and creates the sort of ordinary adventure that does not need an airport, a week off or a grand excuse.
The best thing about the bike is therefore not a component or a statistic. It is the quiet question it asks whenever I walk past it: where are we going today?