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Specialized is trying to make the electric mountain bike skeptics into converts.

On Thursday the California-based company released the slimmed-down Turbo Kenevo SL, an all-new eMTB that shaves 12lbs off the full-power Kenevo and packs a much gentler pedal-assisted punch. But aside from the name, the parallels between the two bikes stop there. In fact, the collective mountain bike clan may recognize the new Turbo Kenevo SL as a close sibling of one of Specialized’s most sought-after trail-slaying machines — the Enduro.

The Enduro, one of Specialized’s most shred-worthy mountain bikes just got the Super Light treatment, making big mountains, big hits and big days all the more accessible while still carefully preserving the “MTB” in eMTB.

The Turbo Kenevo SL has been built for the modern trend of aggressive trail and enduro riding; for the mountain biker who might be e-bike curious, but who’s unwilling to compromise performance for a heavy motor and battery.

“We’re targeting kind of the core acoustic trail riders who maybe are kind of interested in e-bikes but are not wanting to sacrifice the handling, because of the weight of a full-power e-bike,” Joe Buckley, product manager for full suspension mountain bikes at Specialized, said on a media call announcing the new bike

[Read more…] about Specialized launches all-new Turbo Kenevo SL

Would you consider renting rather than buying an e-bike? Would you consider ordering an e-bike in advance that hasn’t been produced, but promises as yet unproven, though exciting technology?

This week’s news covers both scenarios, in the first case it’s rental company Zoomo’s plans for major expansion and in the second relatively unknown company Forestal have released news of an exciting new range of lightweight carbon e-bikes with a new lightweight mid-drive. And would an e-bike company’s ability to recycle old e-bike batteries influence your decision to purchase one of their bikes in the first place? Specialized are certainly hoping so…

In this week’s news:

• Belgium’s Cowboy Release Details of Latest generation City E-bike with Higher Torque Motor
• Three New Models from Forestal with New EonDrive Mid-drive
• Shimano’s New Linkglide Technology for Stronger Drivetrains
• Bikeflights’ Boxing & Delivery Service Has Strong Pandemic Record
• Specialized Expands Battery Recycling Plans
• Zoomo E-bike Hire Raises Capital for Expansion
• Lime Calls on Its Workers to Help Lobby For More Bike Lanes
• All the Latest Business E-bike News

Are you ready to go on an ‘Aventure?’ Today the Californian e-bike company Aventon announced its newest addition to its lineup with the Aventure. This fat tire-styled electric bike comes equipped with massive 4” Kenda Krusade tires which are propelled by the bike’s 750W hub motor capable of a whopping 1130W peak. This combination has a lot of promise for those looking to head off-road on occasion.

On top of the new bike itself, Aventon is debuting what they call an industry first color display screen that integrates with an all new app. The app powers the bike and its integrated lights on and off, while also tracking your mileage and trips, and provides a community feature to meet up with other Aventon riders. The app even displays how many trees you’ve saved riding on your bike instead of a car.

Aventon sees the bike and app as a collective step forward for e-bike communities.

[Read more…] about The Aventon Aventure: The Next Great Fat Tire E-Bike?

Whilst Shimano have often gone toe to toe with Bosch mid-drives in the city, trekking and e-mtb areas they have not been forthcoming in other areas where they might have wanted to match Bosch’s increasingly extensive offering of mid drives, such as cargo bike specific systems….until now!

There’s also some intriguing new tech this week in the form of carbon composite, injection moulded e-bike frames on the immediate horizon (2022) and further experiments with e-bikes and hydrogen. Which technologies will become mass adopted, which will remain specialist applications and which will disappear is as hard to tell as ever…

In this week’s news:

• New Firmware from Shimano Makes EP8 and E6100 Mid-drives Cargo Compatible
• Ribble Introduce Two New Superlight E-bikes
• Brompton Electric Apple App Now Available
• Carbon Composite Injection-Moulded Frames for 2022
• Olympia’s New 900Wh Model
• Italy’s Military Police E-bike
• E-tech Developments with Hydrogen Hybrid and UK’s New ‘Self Driving’ Laws
• Bike Share Companies Going Public and More E-bike Biz

[Read more…] about E-bike News: Shimano E-cargo Mid-drives, Ribble Lightweights, Olympia 900Wh Model, Hydrogen Cargo Hybrid and Much More!

The lightest electric road bike just got lighter.

British manufacturer Ribble on Wednesday launched two new featherweight electric road bikes — the Endurance SL e Hero edition and the aluminum-framed Endurance AL e — with each claiming to be the lightest in their respective categories.

Ribble’s Endurance SL e model already held the title for lightest electric road bike, which weighed in at a claimed 25.3lb (11.5kg). But the new Hero edition of the bike, which comes spec’d with Shimano Di2 and new superlight carbon wheels, is slimmed down to 23.08lb (10.49kg). That’s a new high-water mark (or, rather, a low-water mark) for superlight electric road bikes. Both weights are based on a medium frame, according to Ribble.

One thing that it’s taken e-bike manufacturers a while to figure out is how to best integrate a battery into the bike frame. On early e-bikes batteries appeared as afterthoughts, usually either integrated into the pannier rack (bad for balance and handling) or, literally, bolted onto the frame, which may have been better for balance but didn’t do a lot for the looks of the bike, especially if a large capacity battery was used. Current designs look a lot slicker, usually integrated into the frame in varying degrees, and they also afford the battery better protection and give the bike better handling. To show how far the concept has come Van moof released their latest take on battery design with their completely frame-integrated main battery now supplemented by an optional range extender. With several electric assist systems offering range extender options this could be an idea taken up by more manufacturers in future.

In this week’s news:

• Van Moof Launch Range Extender
• Ein and 1Drive Powered Bike Trailers
• Solar Powered SunRider eCargo Trike Announced
• Revonte’s Innovative Mid-drive Explained
• Domino’s Trial E-powered Bots
• New E-bike Hire Scheme for NYC
• E-bike Subsidies Analysed

[Read more…] about E-bike News: Range Extenders, Powered Bike Trailers, Solar Power, E-bike Subsidies and more!

This week there really is a flavour of the sheer variety that e-bikes encompass, from the moped styling of Juiced’s latest Scorpion X to the ultra-lightweight titanium version of Vello’s latest electric folder, not to mention an extremely capable-looking load hauler from Carqon.

If you want e-bike ideas for getting out on your e-bike, read about trail plans for California’s Lake Tahoe or the emtb World Series of races in some of Europe’s most glamorous locations and the chance to ride one of the courses at Sea Otter Europe.

• Moped Style eBikes from Juiced and Bixtrix
• VELLO+, the 28.4lb e-bike
• eCargobikes – High Quality Carqon Flatbed and Theft of Fiil Prototype
• Further eBike Access for Lake Tahoe?
• French Government Progresses ‘eBikes for Old Cars’ Law
• Massless Batteries on the Horizon?
• Minneapolis eBike Share Ramps Up
• No, London’s Cycle Superhighways Do Not Cause Traffic Jams
• All the Latest eBike Biz

[Read more…] about E-bike News: Moped Style Bikes from Juiced and Bixtrix, New VELLO+ E-Bike, New eCargobikes, and more!