Our Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide covers everything from dedicated XC race bikes to full-on Enduro sleds, with a huge swath of options in between, and now we’ve got eMTBs in the mix, too.
We’ve organized the eMTB sections a bit differently from the ones for their non-motorized counterparts, though. Our guide sections on XC / Trail, All-Mountain, and Enduro bikes are broken out by intended use and the types of riding that each bike is best suited for, but the eMTB landscape is different in some important ways.
Different eMTBs excel at different types of riding and in differing terrain, to be sure, but the bigger categorical divide exists between Light-Assist and Full Power drive systems, leading to significantly different ride experiences on the trail.
This divide arguably influences on-trail performance even more than figures like suspension travel and geometry figures. So, we’ve separated our eMTB Buyer’s Guide into two sections, one for Light-Assist bikes with lighter, lower-output drive systems that are meant to produce more natural, MTB-like handling, and one for Full-Power bikes with heavier, more powerful motors and (generally) bigger, higher-capacity batteries.
Both categories contain options from mid-travel Trail bikes to full-on Enduro bruisers, though shorter-travel, more nimble options are more plentiful in the Light-Assist category. When shopping for an eMTB, it’s important to think about not only what sort of terrain you want to ride it in, and what kind of ride characteristics you’re after, but what sorts of bikes your riding partners will be on, and how compatible the drive systems and battery capacities will be.
That’s a lot to consider, and is exactly why we made this guide: to help organize the available options in an easily digestible format, and provide clear, concise, accurate information on how the myriad options out there compare to each other. And, as always, BLISTER+ Members can send us an email to get personalized recommendations and feedback on which bike (or parts upgrade, or setup tweak, or whatever else) will be the best fit for you.
Click Each Section Below to Read About All the Bikes:
