New Forestal Siryon 2020 now available for limited orders! A light eMTB crammed with superlatives and promising features

For the past year, we’ve been reading all sort of news about the new Forestal Siryon. Now the cat’s out of the bag. The new Andorra-based brand around freeride star Cédric Gracia presents a super light eMTB packed with technical highlights. But even if everything sounds very promising, there are some unknowns on the invoice when you pre-order.

It’s been almost a year now since we first reported on the new Andorran brand Forestal. Since then, the team around freeride star Céedric Gracia has been busy hitting social media with all sorts of details about the new bike. Until today: Because now the Forestal Siryon has officially been presented and can be pre-ordered directly from the manufacturer. If you look at the key data, the team seems to have worked tirelessly over the past few weeks. Because Forestal not only presented their own frame but also released their own motor, the EonDrive. This and the 350 Wh Aurora battery were developed together with Bafang. But these are not the only peculiarities of the Siryon. A large 3.2″ touch display with several interfaces and sensors is integrated in the top tube and a compact Smart Trigger Remote on the handlebars allows you to switch between support levels. On top of that, for the official launch the team has also developed a dedicated app, which lets you upload and share your rides to third-party platforms. The app can also be used to analyse and evaluate the bike and/or the drive system.

The heart of the Forestal Siryon – the frame

The Forestal Siryon is a 29er enduro rig for riders who love getting rowdy on the trails. It comes with a whopping 170 mm of travel which are managed by Forestal’s proprietary Twin Levity rear suspension system. It’s a single pivot link with a multi pivot linkage driving the shock. The bike features a monocoque carbon frame, which is said to weigh just 2.4 kg (without motor and shock). The Siryon is available in four sizes, all of which feature adapted kinematics and modern geometry. Bikes in sizes S and M have shorter chainstays than the bigger L and XL frames. The head angle is very slack (64 °) and the reach is long (488 mm in size). L) Due to the strong offset of the seat tube, the actual seat angle is probably slightly slacker than the stated 77°. While it’s hard to tell how the bike will handle in real life just by looking at numbers, the focus is clearly on downhill fun and rough terrain.

Size	S	M	L	XL
Top tube	579 mm	609 mm	648 mm	673 mm
Head angle	64°	64°	64°	64°
Seat angle	77°	77°	77°	77°
Chainstay	436 mm	436 mm	446 mm	446 mm
BB Drop	25 mm	25 mm	25 mm	25 mm
Wheelbase	1,208 mm	1,238 mm	1,284 mm	1,311 mm
Reach	428 mm	458 mm	488 mm	508 mm
Stack	612 mm	612 mm	625 mm	639 mm

Light and natural – the EonDrive motor

Not only have the people at Forestal created a frame from scratch, but also developed their very own drive system. According to Forestal, the EonDrive, which was developed in collaboration with Bafang, weighs just 1.95 kg and churns out 60 Nm of torque. This is possible thanks to a magnesium housing and the many titanium components. For comparison’s sake: The Specialized Turbo SL 1.1 motor weighs 1.9 kg and has a torque of 35 Nm. The EonDrive has a Q factor of 170 mm. The motor has three standard support modes: Eco, Sport and Race and an additional mode called Nitro, which is even more powerful. This last one can be activated with an extra button. Beyond the 25 km/h threshold, you should be able to pedal without any internal resistance and in complete silence. So far, there’s still no info regarding the noise level of the motor under load, nor about the motor software and riding behaviour.

The Aurora battery – firmly integrated but expandable with an extra 350 Wh

The EonDrive motor draws its power from the Aurora battery, which is firmly integrated into the frame and has a capacity of 350 Wh. According to Forestal, the battery weighs just 1.8 kg and can be charged from flat to 80% in just under 1.5 hours. For comparison’s sake: Specialized’s 320 Wh SL system takes around the same time. If you need more capacity, you should be able to double the battery capacity to a whopping 700 Wh with an optional 350 Wh range extender. According to the manufacturers, this will sit in the bottle holder. Currently, however, that’s all we know and we don’t really have any more details. We’re looking forward to seeing how the extender will be implemented in the overall concept. The range extender of Specialized’s SL system, which provides the motor with an additional 160 Wh, has compact dimension only weighs around 1 kg weight, which allows for easy and safe storage in the bottle holder. Forestal has yet to prove whether this will work with a battery that’s probably twice as big and heavy.

The full monty – own display, remote and app

As if developing your own motor with software and battery wasn’t good enough, Forestal take it one step further: not only does the 3.2″ touch display integrated in the top tube show all common riding data such as battery capacity and support level, but also works as a navigation device. On top of that, the display relies on all common interfaces, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ANT +, GPS and 4G, to communicate with external devices. An integrated acceleration and position sensor records and evaluates exciting riding data such as G-forces in berms and airtime on jumps.

Forestal’s Smart Trigger Remote allows riders to focus on the trail. The compact remote lets you switch between support modes and informs you about the battery status via an LED system. Like all electronic components, this draws its electricity from the integrated main battery.

Just to make sure that the fun doesn’t end when the ride is over, there’s a dedicated app that allows you to evaluate all data and upload them to third party portals. In addition, the app can be used to install software updates and perform routine bike checks.

Forestal Siryon Edition One – Polar Lights – A special pre-order model

“Inspired by the beauty of the polar lights” Forestal have released a special limited edition of the Siryon in Lizzar Green with only 999 available units. The bike is designed to strike a perfect balance between top downhill fun and low overall system weight. The spec includes DVO-Coil suspension with 170 mm travel and powerful MAGURA MT7 brakes with small 180 mm rotors as well as an elegant Crank Brothers Synthesis carbon wheelset. A SRAM GX-Eagle groupset takes care of the shifting and a set of Panaracer tires should provide the necessary grip. The specified weight stands at an incredible 17.4 kg – which sounds almost too good considering the spec. After all, the Specialized Levo SL S-Works, which follows a similar concept but comes with less travel and significantly lighter parts, weighs only 400 g less.

The spec at a glance

Brave or reckless? Should you order your bike right now?

Forestal gives its customers two pre-order options: Either you pay € 2,000 for a reservation and transfer the remaining € 5,999 shortly before delivery, or you save € 500 by paying directly the whole amount of € 7,499. If you go for the second option, you can even choose your frame number. On top of that, if you pay the full amount in advance, you’ll get three free additional sets of tires. The bike will be delivered in October 2020.

We have to admit, just about every detail about the new Forestal Siryon sounds excellent – the weight, the spec, the frame details. And the price of € 7,499 is also “fair” considering the overall package. But would we order the bike based on today’s knowledge? Probably not.

Past experiences with other manufacturers have shown that the development of such complex bikes can lead to delays and problems. For example, Haibike experienced extreme delays with the delivery times of their Flyon model. With other manufacturers, the announced features only worked properly after years and many updated. And of course we’re not saying that this will be the case with Forestal (and most probably it won’t), but we really hope that the bike is able to keep all the promises the Andorran brand has made. As a potential customer, we would definitely wait for the bike to be tested before wiring over our money. So far we have not been able to test the bike – as soon as we have a test bike we will publish an exclusive test and update this article.

Our take on the new Forestal Siryon

On the paper (and pictures) The Forestal Siryon makes an incredibly exciting and thorough impression. The many details show just how much energy the team has put into this bike. If you’re looking for a lightweight eMTB bike with a focus on maximum downhill performance, you should definitely keep an eye on this bike. However, we can’t recommend it until we try one – we hope to get our hands on one soon. Currently, there are still too many promises which need to be proved true – and that explains why we won’t recommend preordering one just yet.

Head over to the Forestal website to find more info and to pre-order yours

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Words: Photos: Forestal