One of the most important things as a tester is to have a healthy distrust of hype. So to keep the doubters happy in a landscape that seems to be becoming ever more dominated by electric evangelists, let’s start out on the bad foot of the lightweight e–MTB discussion.
First, cost. Comparing a conventional bike like the Specialized Stumpjumper Evo Carbon to it’s Specialized Levo SLII carbon electric e-MTB equivalent, you’re looking at an RRP of £4,650 versus £7,000. However, like a lot of purely meat moved MTBs these days, Specialized are selling off surplus Stumpys for under 4k. Meanwhile, the post-Covid Levo SL is still in demand so doesn’t need reducing in price. Cynics might suggest this is why the bike industry is desperate to push the latest genre agenda, because lightweight e-MTBs are about the only bikes they’re not needing to yard sale right now. But more on that later.
