An E-Enduro has the disadvantage of being heavier than normal bikes. And an E-Enduro has the advantage over normal bikes of being heavier. No, that's not a typo. That's physics. 20 years ago, DH pros were screwing lead-filled water bottles under their bottom brackets to make their bikes run more smoothly. The physical effect: the increased weight presses the bike more firmly onto the ground. The result: smoother running and better control in difficult terrain at speed.
Back then, the downhill knights had to use the water bottle and lead trick to counteract sloping geometries and bouncy suspension elements. You no longer have such problems today. The geometry is tried and tested, the suspension technology is sophisticated. Nevertheless, the lead-bottle effect is automatically built into e-enduro bikes, as the additional weight of the motor and battery acts like a tranquilliser. Thanks to the additional mass, even e-trail bikes with suspension travel of around 140 millimetres are as stable as small downhill bikes. Do we even need suspension travel of 160 millimetres and more? Do the enduro bikes tested even make sense for everyday use? And how hard do you have to push the suspension monsters to maximise their potential?
The manufacturers are unanimous: Enduro bikes should also represent the premier class of e-bikes and fulfil their role even better than enduro bikes without a motor ever could. Because in order to perform really well downhill, purely muscle-powered enduro bikes carry a lot of extra kilos around with them. This provides greater stability to withstand the hardest rides, jumps and drops. Enduro bikes are therefore only really fun downhill; uphill you are forced to struggle towards the summit. It is therefore almost logical that an enduro bike benefits more from the motor than any other mountain bike category.
You can download the complete comparison test of six E-Enduros from FREERIDE 1/2020 as a PDF below the article. The test costs 1.99 euros.
Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in FREERIDE. We don't pay for them, but the opposite is the case: we charge for them, namely tens of thousands of euros every year.
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