Commencal Meta Power SX Bosch Signature review

Commencal Meta Power SX Bosch Signature frame, suspension and motor

Made from aluminium, the Meta Power’s frame doesn’t look overly bulky or cumbersome and its outline is iconic thanks to its linkage-activated under-slung rear shock.

Cables are routed internally via ports on the frame’s down tube – instead of through the headset – and there’s plenty of driveside chainstay and seatstay chain-slap protection.

Out back, SRAM’s Univeral Derailleur Hanger isn’t included, with Commencal opting for a bespoke hanger.

This means SRAM’s latest Transmission gearing isn’t compatible with the Meta Power.

This size-large has just enough space inside the front triangle for a 590ml Fidlock water bottle, only missing the shock piggyback during suspension compression.

An upper set of bosses are also present, but there’s only enough space for a tool kit rather than another water bottle.

Suspension

The single-pivot suspension design – where the rear wheel is bolted to the chainstay – uses a linkage to drive the rear shock, tuning the kinematics.

This system dishes out 165mm of rear-wheel travel, which is claimed to be both “grippy and precise”. Commencal views the Mega Power SX as a shuttle bike, with an emphasis on downhill performance.

Motor and battery

Fitted with Bosch’s Performance Line CX electric bike motor, the Commencal has a removable 625Wh PowerTube battery that slots into the down tube’s opening. This is locked in place with a key.

Bosch’s usual Smart System components are all present, including the integrated top tube battery life and mode indicator panel and wireless handlebar Mini Remote.

The 250Wh PowerMore external range extender is compatible with the Meta Power, taking the water bottle’s place.

Commencal Meta Power SX Bosch Signature ride impressions

I tested Commencal’s Meta Power SX on my home trails in Scotland’s Tweed Valley. I took to the valley’s official and off-piste enduro and downhill tracks, used in international competition.

Technicality was high, gradients varied from mellow and flowy to steep and gnarly, and speeds ranged from rapid to slow. Not only were the trails suited perfectly to the bike’s intended use, they also put it thoroughly through its paces.

Setup

Setting up the Meta Power SX was relatively straightforward, but getting it punctured-proofed for its hard-hitting personality involved tyre swaps (more on that shortly).

For my 75kg weight, 178cm height and relatively aggressive riding style, I inflated the Fox 38’s air spring to 95psi and installed the stock three volume-reducer spacers.

I opened all the externally adjustable compression and rebound adjustments, which are tried-and-tested settings for a 38 fork.

At the back, I left the stock 0.6in³ spacer installed and initially inflated the air spring to 165psi, giving around 30 per cent sag.

During testing, I increased pressure incrementally to 185psi to tune the bike’s balance and feel. This pressure gave me just over 24 per cent sag, which is on the lower side, but is the setup that produced the best-feeling bike.

I fully opened the rebound damping and added plus four clicks (from fully open) of low-speed compression damping to help deliver mid-stroke support.

Tyre issues

I inflated both the front and rear tyres to my preferred pressures: between 25 and 27psi front, and 26 and 29psi rear, depending on conditions.

However, thanks to the skinny-carcass Super Trail Schwalbe tyre, during the first shakedown ride I punctured it beyond repair. I replaced this with a Maxxis DoubleDown Minion DHR II.

Then, on the second ride, I punctured the front tyre – also a Super Trail casing Schwalbe – beyond repair. I replaced this with another Maxxis DoubleDown, this time an Assegai.

In my opinion, lightweight trail-casing tyres aren’t appropriate for a gravity-focused electric enduro bike such as the Meta Power.

I fed this information back to Commencal and the brand said it would take it onboard. Fingers crossed that future iterations of the Meta Power will come with tyres better suited to its intended use.

Commencal Meta Power SX Bosch Signature climbing performance

Uphill, the Meta Power SX’s seated position is comfortable and relaxed. The steep seat tube angle places your hips directly over the bottom bracket, improving climbing efficiency but also seated control.

With your weight further forward between the wheels compared to bikes with slacker seat tube angles, it’s more evenly distributed. This makes driving traction for grip into the rear easier, without the pay-off of light steering.

The opposite is true; weight the bar for added steering control and the back tyre is harder to spin, even when you’re tapping into all the motor’s power or on a particularly steep gradient.

Generous 450mm stays help here, augmenting the mid-ship feel of the seat tube angle.

Hustling the bike up square-edged root or rock steps, or blasting up technical, twisting climbs, requires minimal rider input; the bike is inherently well-behaved, responding obsequiously to commands.

Fire-road slogs are also comfortable; the sit-up-and-beg ride position that’s beneficial where it’s tech-heavy serves the winch-and-plummet rider just as well.

Your weight is focused through your sit bones rather than your hands, alleviating the shoulder fatigue and hand soreness that's often common with lower ride positions.

It rides lightly, too. This is unsurprising given the sub-25kg figure; picking between lines, switching direction and generally bounding about the trail has a raucousness to it that weightier electric mountain bikes don’t.

A good chunk of that peppiness is down to the suspension’s supportive rather than traction-rich feel.

Small bumps aren’t glossed over; comfort – while not lacking – isn’t equal to other bikes with the same travel figures. Rumbling fire roads transmit a chunk of its vibrations through the bike to the rider.

Bigger bumps – such as roots and rocks – are dispatched with a little more ease, but the ride is far from luxuriously cushioned.

In this respect, its light feel and sporty suspension defy both its travel figures and enduro bike moniker, feeling much closer to a shorter-travel, trail-focused ebike than the plough-through-all ride you may expect.

Motor performance and battery life

Bosch’s Performance Line CX motor is both frugal and powerful.

Motor assistance feels rewarding; the harder you pedal, the more the motor gives you, not tapering off at higher cadences.

That power is also easy to control because the motor’s sensors provide high-quality data to the drive unit; regulating output so you don’t spin the wheels is simply a case of applying less pressure through the pedals.

Overrun is also perfectly timed. The lower the assistance mode, the less overrun there is. In Turbo, propelling yourself through technical sections only requires opportune pedal strokes, rather than continuous rider input.

While the 625Wh battery delivers less range than the brand’s bigger 750Wh unit, it still has plenty of life. I racked up over 1,400m of ascent on a single charge using Tour+. Dropping to Eco would extend this further.

Commencal Meta Power SX Bosch Signature descending performance

The Meta Power SX’s ride is at the sportier end of the spectrum. I had to double-check how much travel it has after some initial shakedown rides, thinking it had closer to 130mm than the 165mm on tap.

On the trails, this is both a blessing and a curse.

If a light, proactive style is your bag, you’ll love the way it rides. Bounding from one side of the trail to the next, pushing, pumping and working bumps, drives speed and delivers bucketloads of fun directly into the palms of your hands.

Handling is nimble and quick; tighter, high-tech trails are engaging to ride because you can place the bike onto your chosen line with pinpoint accuracy.

The Meta Power's manoeuvrability is admirable; shifting your weight creates a dutifully responsive change in grip, direction or balance.

It hooks corners impressively and turn initiation is smooth and predictable. Finding the tyres' edge, feeding in grip and control, while maintaining balance isn’t a complex juggling act. The bike squats into turns on command and then generates speed as you push through the apex, launching you out the other side.

Squaring turns off feels great, too. It’s got plenty of snap when it’s driven hard into a banked corner, furthering agility on the trail.

The way it behaves defies its headline chainstay, head angle and reach figures, plus its weight. The on-trail manners suggest Commencal has successfully balanced its figures to create one of the snappiest-feeling ebikes around.

The geometry figures would suggest otherwise; 450mm stays, a 63.6-degree head angle and a long 1,297mm wheelbase doesn’t usually equate to snappy.

Maybe, therefore, it’s the relationship between all these figures and how they interact with the rider.

I felt frequently as though I was ‘mobbing’ the bike with my body, being in contact with every part of it once. This certainly didn’t feel bad, but wasn’t how I expected the Meta to ride. Taking advantage of this gets the best from the bike; you need to exert precise control over its trajectory.

It's definitely not a plough bike. Dropping your heels and letting it run over techy or high-speed terrain is neither efficient nor fun; you need to work hard to get the most from it.

A lot of that is down to the suspension giving it an inert, almost dead feel. This isn’t because it absorbs every imperfection and detail, and neither is it because it doesn’t pop or bounce over the terrain – rather it just isn’t very plush.

That’s not to say it doesn’t track the ground; the audible damper suck as the shock works hard is testament to just how active it is, but there’s a lack of outright smoothness you’d expect for a bike with this much travel.

When the trails get super-techy or very fast, you may be left pining for a little more comfort and control, something other ebikes with characteristically active suspension dole out in spades.