Here is the list of best electric mountain bike under 2000 dollars, best electric trail bikes under 2000. Also find best electric bike under 2000 pounds 2020.
These four power-assisted beasts are all quality machines, but which is the best package for live grand or less?
Electric mountain bikes have charged (sorry!) onto the scene in recent years. Motors, battery tech and integration are all progressing fast, so e-bikes are rapidly getting better.
Acceptance from other riders is improving too, with initial grumblings and comments like “you’re cheating, mate!” diminishing, for one simple reason – as more people have a go, they find out how much fun they are.
Just ask anyone who’s recently ridden a full-sus e-MTB and watch their eyes light up as they babble on about how much of a blast it is.
The best thing about e-bikes is the way they make a mockery of long, boring uphill slogs, allowing you to fit more descents into each ride and cover more miles.
Pedalling assistance brings another dimension to technical ascents too. In fact, climbing with extra power can be an art form in itself.
Solving the puzzle of balance, timing and traction up the steepest hills is an addictive pastime, while having a power boosting motor opens up severe terrain to more riders, especially when almost anyone can climb further on an e-bike than the fittest riders can on ‘analogue’ bikes.
E-MTBs also tend to have amazing grip, stability and tracking when pointed back downhill, largely due to the light weight of the wheels relative to the heft of the engine packing chassis.
Plus, if time’s tight and you’ve only got a couple of free hours, you can pack much more into a ride than on a ‘normal’ bike. Like them or not, e-bikes are here to stay.
So if you’re interested in buying one, which should you get? The four tested here represent the latest-generation designs, in terms of geometry and motor/battery tech.
At 4,000 to £5,000, they’re actually pretty good value, once you add the cost of the electronics to the price of an equivalent trail bike.
Best Electric Mountain Bike Under 2000
Canyon’s Spectral: On 8.0
German brand Canyon’s Spectral: On has a 29in front wheel and 650b rear (with a wider back tyre). It was one of the first of a new breed of ‘mullet’ e-bikes, but plenty of other brands have followed suit.
In fact, three out of the four bikes here use this configuration. Canyon’s 6061 aluminium rig is powered by Shimano’s proven STEPS E8000 motor with a 504Wh battery and has a trail-focused 150mm of front and rear travel.
Best Electric Bike Under 2000
Specialized Turbo LEVO
This is the cheapest Turbo Levo. As with all Spesh e-bikes, it’s powered by an own-brand motor, built by Brose. The alloy frame keeps the price down, but is the same shape as the flagship carbon S-Works model, which also has 29 in wheels at both ends.
Further savings come from speccing a smaller-capacity battery (500Wh, vs 700Wh on the S-Works) and some cheaper parts. It’s the only machine here that you can try out yourself in a bike shop, though.
YT Decoy CF Pro
YT offer three enduro ready Decoy e-bikes, with the CF Pro being the middle-priced option. You still get a stunning, super-stiff, full-carbon chassis with integrated battery, and Fox suspension at both ends (from the brand’s Performance range).
Fourpot SRAM Code brakes and 165mm of rear travel ensure the YT is ready for anything, and the addition of slacked out geometry and sticky tyres makes for the most aggressive set-up on test.
Best Electric Hard tail Bike Under 2000
Vitus E-ESCARPE VRX
The E-Escarpe is Vitus’s latest full-sus e-MTB, with a trail-friendly 140mm of front and rear travel, and a sensational kit list for the cash. One of the three ‘mullet’ machines on test.
The Irish designed bike packs top-end Factory-level Fox suspension and the same Shimano
E8000 motor and 504Wh battery as the other internet only machines here.
We were keen to find out which rules the roost, when an engine is shared between brands.
Specialized Turbo Levo
The cheapest entry fee into Specialized’s e-bike range. Specialized overhauled their e-MTBs last year, so the chassis and motor here are bang up to date.
They’ve also tweaked some component choices to improve the ride, so this base model (which didn’t even have a dropper last year) now sports a 150mm TranzX post and some better kit for 2020.
The frame
Lengthened, slackened and with serious weight lost, the latest Levo represents a big engineering leap. One of the most advanced e-bike chassis on the market, the alloy frame used here is lighter than the old S-Works carbon model.
Made from Spesh’s M5 tubing, it follows the same lines as its pricier composite siblings, with a four-bar Horst link suspension design that delivers 150mm of rear wheel travel.
The Levo uses the all-new 2.1 motor – a quiet, belt-driven unit, housed in a lightweight magnesium casing. This is paired with a slickly-integrated (and removable) 500Wh battery, with equivalent power to others on test.
There’s a neat power and mode display on the top tube. A wavy rubber protector on the drive side chainstay works with the internal cabling to ensure a clatter-free ride.
The kit
As the cheapest bike here by over £600, there are inevitably some spec compromises on the Levo.
RockShox’s Deluxe air shock suits the bike fine and is supportive and fluid over repeated bumps, but the brand’s new 35 fork uses an old-style Motion Control damper and its function is a bit basic.
SRAM’s Level XC/trail brakes can’t really hack it on a heavy e-bike and, weirdly, are set up with a four-pot calliper up front but only two pistons out back, where we wanted more power on descents.
Spesh have been saving the pennies with the slow-shifting 1×11 drive train too, with its basic Praxis cranks and heavy SRAM NX cassette. The extra e-bike weight emphasises the tendency of the Butcher GRID front tyre to roll and flex.
This isn’t helped by the Roval wheelset, which has an ambitiously low spoke count (28), given how e-bikes encourage you to smash through stuff. At least the shift to 29in wheels (from 650b+) makes the bike feel sharper.
The 150mm post and sorted cockpit are good too, and we like details like the bottle cage with SWAT multi-tool, which can be used to remove the battery.
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