Light eMTB vs full-power eMTB? A weekend at MegaVolt

As the world of electric mountain bikes grows and diversifies, it is splintering into different niches. Not just the usual mountain bike divisions, between cross country, trail and whatever “enduro” is. Also between different levels of motor power. That forces riders to figure out what kind of bike they want. Do you want a lot of power, weight be damned? Or do you want less power and a lighter bike that feels more like, well, a bike?

We hit up the growing eMTB festival, MegaVolt (put on by the fine humans at BC Bike Race) and borrowed a couple eMTB’s from Trek to sort out what the advantages of light- vs full-power eMTB’s are, and what the downsides are, too.

Two days, two Treks

MegaVolt delivers two days packed full of riding, with multiple rides each day. That made it an ideal setting to compare the two differently-powered Trek’s back to back. Same sweet Okanagan trails, same conditions, even the same ride buddies.

The bikes? In the lightweight corner: Trek’s Fuel EXe (which is now called Fuel+), the first to use TQ’s diminutive HPR50 system and a bike that helped define the light-eMTB as a category.

For the heavyweight, sorry, full-powered category: Trek’s Rail (Gen 3) with the Performance Line CX system. With similar travel (140mm rear, 150mm front for the EXe, 150mm rear, 160mm front for the Rail), they occupy a similar purpose on trail, but with very different motor systems.

The numbers? The TQ gives Trek’s EXe 50Nm of torque, 360Wh battery, 300W peak power. The Rail nearly doubles all of those numbers, with Bosch adding 85Nm torque, a 625Wh battery and 600W peak power via a Bosch

The lightweight: mini motor versus MegaVolt

I started the MegaVolt weekend off on the Fuel EXe. That ended up being a good call as, even with the assist, keeping up with the mega-powered crowd at MegaVolt required some effort. Well, depending who I wanted to ride with. MegaVolt is part race, part group ride (and 100 per cent party), so there are people going at all different paces.

I started out trying to keep up with the front group, or the back end of the front group. Rallying up climbs in a big group of eMTBers is, if you haven’t tried it, quite the experience. Everyone’s flowing, having fun, talking and still working pretty hard but mostly able to talk. It’s a great…