2023 EBIKE LIGHT ROUNDUP

TESTING THE BEST SL EMTBS

Words by Drew Rohde  |  Photos by Dusten Ryen & Max Rhulen
Video by Brian Niles / Treeline Cinematic

Welcome to our first ever Lightweight, SL, eBike Light Group Review. Pardon the long title but we don’t exactly know if the mountain bike world has adopted an official name for this category of eBike. We’re trying to get eBike Light to stick, but ‘SL’ seems to be rising to prominence. No matter what you call it, there is no denying the category is booming. It seems new models are dropping almost every other month as brands seek to offer lightweight, mid-power eMTBs for riders seeking a different experience compared to the full power, full weight eMTBs that have risen dramatically in popularity.

Each year we conduct a massive and thorough full-power eMTB Shootout, and the last two have seen an increase in comments and questions from viewers asking how this bike or that bike would compete.  Most often it’s a lighter, mid-power bike. We don’t really believe comparing full power eMTBs to eBike Lights is apples to apples, as they really are different beasts. For that reason, we set out to test and review eight of the best lightweight eMTBs we could get our hands on.

We pride ourselves on being as open-minded and honest in our test process as we can, and even the few riders who came into the test saying they were full-power converts and wouldn’t buy an SL came around to admit that the capabilities of these mid-power bikes have improved in the same way their full-power siblings have. Battery ranges have increased in many bikes and drive unit power has also improved compared to the early lightweight eMTBs, boosting their performance drastically in the process.

Before we get too far into this review, we’d like to acknowledge and thank some partners who believe in our process. Their support helped us to afford the days out of the office to travel and ride so many bikes and create so many videos, in an effort to have a thorough and helpful review series for those in the market, and we really appreciate them helping to make it possible.

LOCATION
We traveled back down to Klamath Falls, Oregon a spot we recently visited for the first time in our eMTB Destination Tour a few months ago. We fell in love with the trail offerings and the Running Y Resort’s amenities. Thanks to the Running Y and Discover Klamath we had a great time staying in a beautiful spot with epic views and just a short drive away from two very fun trailheads.

In this Group Review we had a wide spread of drive units, power ratings and battery sizes as well. We had bikes with 50Nm, 60Nm and the Giant with its whopping 85Nm SyncDrive Pro drive unit. Similarly battery sizes ranged from 320Wh to 540Wh internally, with optional range extenders being found on several models of bikes. Range Extenders are something we believe is essential for eBike Light riders, to give the option to cover big miles or ride in faster, higher power modes.

TRENDS AND TROUBLES

Out of the eight bikes we had, four of the bikes shared drive units, with two sporting the TQ HPR50 and two built around the Fazua Ride 60 unit, which was high on our list thanks to the power, speed, silence and battery size. It will be interesting to see as more brands begin to release mid-power eMTBs, like the newly released Santa Cruz Heckler SL (First Ride Review here) also coming with a Fazua drive unit, if a certain brand will dominate the field, or if newer offerings like Bosch’s SX will make in-roads.

One of our least favorite trends showing up more and more frequently is the proliferation of one-piece bar/stem combos. For the life of us we can’t understand any reason, beyond cost savings that is, for a bike brand to remove adjustability and reduce the ease of customization or fitment on their bikes. Maybe it’s just us, but we’d love to hear your feedback in the comments down below.

Another common issue we’ve been having lately is broken chains. We’re not sure if there were some bad batches of chains produced during the COVID era but the number of chains breaking in weird ways we’ve never seen before has us scratching our heads and leads us to this public service announcement. Always be prepared to repair your bike. Carry at least one spare link but we’d suggest two and know how to fix a chain. We’d also suggest lubing and inspecting your chain regularly as we’ve discovered several with cracked links. Trust us when we say that snapping a chain is no fun, and in some circumstances can be quite dangerous.

GENRES AND TRAITS ON THE TRAIL

In this group review we have a solid middle-ground of bikes in the 140-160mm travel range with a couple outliers at 130mm for XC shredders and 170mm bruiser for enduro or big hit shredders. We’re not sure where the SL category will land, or if there will be an increased spread of the offerings, but we feel like the 140-160mm range is likely going to be the bread and butter as smaller batteries likely won’t be ideal for self-shuttling 170mm bikes up the steepest trails for run after run. We also don’t really see the XC eMTB market being huge, as our experience has shown that most performance XC riders tend to prefer lighter, self-propelled rides than electrically assisted bikes. That said, perhaps riders in flatter, more neutral regions like Bentonville, the Midwest and casual trail riders will blow this category up. Either way, it will be fun to watch and see how things evolve.

THE CONTENDERS

We’ve created detailed write ups and video reviews of each bike you see here, so feel free to click a link to see more and compare them to each other.

FORESTAL SIRYON

Build: Diode
Travel: 170 / 170mm
Motor: EonDrive by Bafang | 60NM
Battery: Forestal Aurora Performance | 350wh
Price: $10,750
Weight: 42.8 lbs/ 19.4 kg

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW

GIANT TRANCE X ADVANCED E+ ELITE

Build: E+ Elite 0
Travel: 140 / 150mm
Motor: SyncDrive Pro Powered by Yamaha | 85NM
Battery: EnergyPak Smart 400 | 400wh
Price: $14,000
Weight: 44.5 lbs / 20.2 kg

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW

ORBEA RISE

Build: M-Team
Travel: 140 / 150mm
Motor: Shimano EP801 RS | 60NM
Battery: Orbea Internal | 540wh (Optional Upgrade)
Price: $9,433 as built
Weight: 43.3 lbs / 19.6 kg

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW

PIVOT SHUTTLE SL

Build: Team XTR
Travel: 132 / 150mm
Motor: Fazua Ride60 | 60NM
Battery: Fazua Integrated | 430wh
Price: $12,999
Weight: 39.6 lbs / 18 kg

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW

SCOTT LUMEN eRIDE

Build: 900 SL
Travel: 130 / 140mm
Motor: TQ HPR50 | 50NM
Battery: TQ Integrated | 360wh
Price: $15,999
Weight: 34.7 lbs / 15.7 kg

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW

SPECIALIZED TURBO LEVO SL

Build: S-Works
Travel: 150/160mm
Motor: Specialized 1.2 SL | 50NM
Battery: Specialized SL1-320 | 320Wh
Price: $14,000
Weight: 39.2 lbs / 17.8 kg

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW

TRANSITION RELAY

Build: XX AXS
Travel: 160/160mm
Motor: Fazua Ride60 | 60nm
Battery: Fazua Removeable | 430wh
Price: $12,499
Weight: 43 lbs / 19.5 kg

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW

TREK FUEL EXe

Build: 9.9 XX1
Travel: 140/150mm
Motor: TQ HPR50 | 50NM
Battery: TQ Internal | 360Wh
Price: $13,999
Weight: 43.7 lbs / 19.8 kg

CHECK OUT THE REVIEW

THE RESULTS

After testing some bikes for months and others for just a couple of weeks before heading to Klamath Falls for our final filming and testing week, our crew set out with the intentions of delivering our readers and viewers insight they could trust and find relatable if the time to pull the trigger on a new eMTB is on the horizon.

As with all our group reviews, we do our best to share our personal preferences on what characteristics we like about bikes, the types of trails and terrain we seek out and also offer opinions on who we envision certain bikes could be best for. We fully realize that our style, terrain and desires can be very different from yours and we hope to address that when making our suggestions for bikes that may not be the best for us but could be the best option for you.

So, without further delay, here are our favorite lightweight eMTBs.

2023 EBIKE LIGHT OF THE YEAR

TRANSITION RELAY

This bike was unanimously chosen by our staff as the bike that was the most fun, capable and fit our riding style best. There is no denying that Fazua has suffered some very real problems and any message board or comment section will show that. However, even with the risk of something going wrong, this bike is just so dang fun to ride on the trails we like to ride that it is our number 1 pick. If you want to go big, charge hard and go fast, the Transition Relay could be for you.

BEST ALL-AROUND LIGHTWEIGHT TRAIL EMTB

PIVOT SHUTTLE SL & TREK FUEL EXE

This category was a tough one to choose because both the Trek and Pivot are incredibly fun and worthwhile machines. Ultimately what it came down to was the intended use and travel of the two bikes that caused the split. We’re certain that if the Pivot Shuttle SL had 140 or 150mm of rear wheel travel it would have been the winner but both Drew and Chris preferred the longer travel of the Trek, especially with a 160mm fork. Nic and Sean both loved the light, playful and fast feel of the Pivot Shuttle SL and how effortless it is to ride and ride fast. All four of the voting test riders agreed they’d be more than happy riding either of the bikes, it just came down to who likes to hit rougher, gnarlier terrain and big jumps, or who wants a livelier and spritelier trail bike. We’d suggest buyers evaluate your local terrain and type of riding and pick either of these two based on that feedback.

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS | GENRE BLENDER

GIANT TRANCE X ADVANCED ELITE

Our whole crew absolutely loved the Giant Trance X Advanced. While we’d personally buy a lower-spec model to save money, we had almost zero complaints when it came to reviewing this bike. It’s very close to the top of our list as well and we think riders who want speed, power and assist of a full-power eMTB with a bit less weight will absolutely love this bike. We all agree that we’d love to see a Reign version of this bike, and if they had one, it would likely be the king of the show. Of course, a 160mm fork and range extender on this bike wouldn’t be a bad way to go either!

Thank you very much for following along, we hope you enjoyed the series and reviews of these fun electric mountain bikes. Please leave any comments or questions down below and we’d love to hear your thoughts. And we’d be even more thankful if you let our sponsors know how much you appreciate them supporting our projects so we can keep making more fun stuff happen.

If you’d like to support us directly, we have a bunch of Loam Wolf merch, Made in USA jerseys, hand guards seen in the tests above and frame protector kits available in our webstore.

Catch you on the trails!
Drew and The Loam Wolf Crew