Compared to normal bikes, an e-bike has the disadvantage of being significantly heavier. And an e-bike has the advantage over normal bikes of being significantly 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 therefore better control in difficult terrain at high speeds. Back then, daredevil downhill riders had to use the water bottle and lead trick to counteract sloping geometries and bouncy suspension elements. Today's bikers no longer have such problems. The long and flat geometries are tried and tested, and the suspension technology is sophisticated. Nevertheless, the lead-bottle effect is automatically built into e-bikes, as the additional weight of the motor and battery acts as a smooth ride booster. Thanks to the additional mass, e-trail bikes with suspension travel of around 140 millimetres are as smooth and stable as small downhill bikes. Do we even need suspension travel of 160 millimetres or more? So do the enduro bikes in this test even make sense for everyday use? And how extreme do you have to push these suspension monsters to maximise their potential?
The manufacturers are unanimous: enduro bikes should also represent the premier class of e-bikes and fulfil their purpose 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 weight around with them. More stable add-on parts, more massive suspension elements and more solid frames. All of this ensures greater stability to withstand the hardest rides, jumps and drops. Organic enduro bikes are therefore only fun to ride downhill, while uphill bikes are used to torture their way to the summit as best they can. So it's almost logical that an enduro bike benefits more from the motor than any other mountain bike category.
These seven E-Enduros were put to the test - the entire article with all the test results including technical data and grades is available as a PDF in the download area below:
- Cannondale Moterra 1
- Giant Reign E+ 0 Pro
- Merida eOne-Sixty 10K
- Mondraker Crafty RR
- Nox Hybrid Enduro 7.1 Pro
- Rotwild R-E750 Core
- YT Decoy CF Pro Race
