Cannondale Moterra SL 2 Electric Mountain Bike Review: Lightweight and Powerful

Cannondale had one extremity with the Moterra SL: To make the lightest, full-power electrical upland motorcycle ever made. The barriers are many, but there's 1 large one: A almighty centrifugal combined with a artillery that has extended scope tin adhd tremendous value and accent to an agile, lightweight frame.

To technologist astir that paradox, Cannondale needed to fortify the framework portion cutting weight. The institution turned to a solution they designed a agelong clip ago, which takes its cue from Formula One contention cars. The Moterra SL uses what the institution calls a FlexPivot, which it archetypal utilized successful its Scalpel XC contention bike. Instead of utilizing the bearings and hardware of a accepted Horst nexus suspension system, they substituted a thin, ultralight portion of c that tin flex successful the bike's chainstays—the tubes that clasp connected the bike's bottommost bracket. These flexors not lone look cleanable and destruct maintenance, but they besides let engineers to good tune-the suspension.

FlexPivot exertion tin lone spell truthful far, however, successful explaining however this 45-pound motorcycle provides superior powerfulness without feeling similar a Sherman tank. Cannondale took a heavy dive into kinematics, a physics word that translates to “the question of systems composed of joined parts.”

Three Times a Charm

There’s a lot of joined parts successful this bike. The Moterra SL comes successful 3 builds that scope from the top-end Lab71 to the low-end SL2 that I tested, which sells for fractional the price. All person c frames that officially autumn nether the all-mountain category, but their slack head-angles marque them consciousness astir similar an enduro bike.

All are mullets (29-inch instrumentality successful the front, 27.5-inch instrumentality successful the rear), with a FlipChip to person it to a afloat 29-inch bike. All are powered by a custom, high-energy-density 601-Wh interior artillery and a Cannondale-tuned Shimano EP801 centrifugal (with 85 newton-meters of torque) that offers 4 powerfulness modes—Eco, Trail 1, Trail 2, and Boost—and tin beryllium further fine-tuned successful the companion app.

One chill facet of the e-design is that, if the machine connected the handlebars feels excessively engaged and cumbersome, there’s an casual propulsion fastener connected the apical conduit that allows the rider to alteration powerfulness modes with ease. That lets you ditch the machine altogether and thrust with a cleanable cockpit.

The SL2 physique that I tried has a prime mashup of components: a Fox Performance 36 fork with 160 mm of travel; an Acros Adjustable Angle headset, which is bully for further fine-tuning the fit; a Fox Float X Performance Elite rear daze with 150 mm of travel; a Shimano XT derailleur (which is not circumstantial to electrical upland bikes; I’m going to travel backmost to this), and Shimano Deore for shifters, chain, rear cogs, brakes, and brake levers.