The quest to find the best eMTB on the market is never ending and we love the opportunity to put our annual eMTB Shootout together. This shootout lets us bring eBikes and testers with different styles and backgrounds together for the chance to have some fun and rate as many eMTBs as we can. Unfortunately due to some COVID-19 delivery and availability issues, this year’s test fleet was reduced as brands simply didn’t have the bikes available to send down to St. George, Utah with us. Nevertheless, we proceeded with 12 bikes and are beyond grateful for all the brands involved in helping us make our third annual eMTB Shootout happen.
Each year is a learning process and for 2021 we decided to keep our Trail (150mm rear travel or less) and Enduro (155mm + rear travel) categories alive, while also creating more detailed reviews of each bike before our grand finale and round table video. The goal is to give consumers a better insight into each bike as they may be specifically interested in one model rather than every bike we tested. Plus, it keeps us from making a 60 minute long eMTB Shootout round table video, which nobody wants! Especially our video editor.
Our crew gathered in beautiful St. George, Utah and with help from the Greater Zion Tourism Office, we were lucky enough to stay in a spacious and centrally located house that had us just minutes away from three completely different and equally fun trail networks that are all eMTB friendly. Most of our days were spent riding rocky, technical terrain with plenty of elevation and scenery that only Southern Utah can provide. A couple of field trip days to nearby Zion put us on legendary trails and let us push the limits of our nerves and what we’ve ever done eBikes. It was an absolute blast and the fact we were able to put so many of these eMTBs into these situations with only a couple of issues is a testament to how fast this segment is improving.
Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the The Loam Wolf’s 2021 eMTB Shootout.
THE AWARDS
The Best in Class winner is the bike that has the absolute best performance up and down the trail, that our riders want to keep for themselves.
The Absolute Shredder award is given to the bikes that place aggressive riding and downhill performance above all else.
The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing award is given to the most unassuming bikes or the ones that surprise our testers the most.
OUR WINNERS
WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
TRAIL CATEGORY
FEZZARI WIRE PEAK PRO
After a mediocre showing in its 27.5” version at last years eMTB Shootout, we didn’t expect the revised 29er version of the Fezzari Wire Peak to really be that different. We were very wrong! It was apparent right from the get go that the small revisions to the rear end suspension had paid dividends. Fezzari has struck a great balance of value, snappy handling, versatility and great suspension. The geometry is definitely on the conservative (short) side, but we’re not always looking for the longest, slackest bike available, and riders who love navigating technical, tight terrain will agree. This bike is a solid performer all-around and one we certainly recommend.
ENDURO CATEGORY
HARO SHIFT PLUS I/O9
Where do we start with this one? Wow! The Haro Shift eMTB absolutely blew all of our testers away and was certainly not something we were expecting. The unassuming Haro eBike blended a snappy and playful feel, composed big hit capabilities and is an all-around standout eMTB. We don’t love all the spec selections on this bike, but would gladly take the extra money saved and make this bike our own.
OUR WINNERS
ABSOLUTE SHREDDER AWARD
TRAIL CATEGORY
Commencal Meta Power TR & Marin Alpine Trail E2
When it comes to picking our Absolute Shredder award winner, we focus purely on downhill performance, aggressive riders and those who want to ride as gnarly as possible. It was a very tight race this year with many bikes offering truly capable performance, but two stood above the rest. These two Trail category bikes were able to be pushed just a little bit harder, and while that meant they weren’t the liveliest and snappiest in terrain where the Fezzari excelled, it meant that they could definitely hang when we wanted to stay off the brakes, hit big jumps and let our love for gnarly downhill trails take over. The Commencal Meta Power TR and Marin Alpine Trail E2 are both neck and neck when it comes to being pushed hard, each excelled very slightly in certain types of terrain over the other, causing our riders to agree on a stalemate between the two. If you want an eMTB that can be punished, ridden hard and sent big without tons of rear wheel travel, check these two machines out!
ENDURO CATEGORY
Canyon Torque:On
Once again, when it comes to picking the Absolute Shredder, we place utmost focus on how the bike does in a “shredder’s” dream terrain. If you ride newer school trails, bike parks, love hitting big jumps, drops and other more groomed terrain, the Canyon Torque:ON is a beast. The downsides include a very low BB and 504Wh battery, and hinder it’s backcountry, big mountain capabilities. If that’s not on the menu for you and you want the eMTB that gives you confidence like a traditional mountain bike and reacts to small rider input and plays with the best of them, the Canyon Torque is definitely worth a look. Our testers regularly picked this bike up when it came time to hit the jump trails and wanted to guinea pig drops.
OUR WINNERS
BEST IN CLASS
TRAIL CATEGORY
TREK RAIL 9.9
Back to back champ, the Trek Rail defends its throne with some slight improvements in spec that only add to the bike’s all-around prowess. When it came to pick the bike our riders wanted to take home the most, it kept coming back to the Trek Rail 9.9. This eMTB does everything well without many chinks in the armor. Check out the video to see just why we love this bike so much.
ENDURO CATEGORY
SANTA CRUZ BULLIT CC XO1 COIL
Boasting some incredible performance characteristics on the widest range of trails, the Santa Cruz Bullit is the bike to get for those who love pushing hard, have rough terrain and are willing to pay for it. All our testers agreed, when we hopped on the Bullit eMTB, that feeling of “I would hit this if I wasn’t on an eBike,” was gone. It instills confidence, absolutely rips on the trail and is an incredible all-around Enduro eMTB.
A HUGE THANK YOU TO THIS YEAR’S SPONSORS
