Best eMTBs of 2025 - Grand Finale From our eMTB Shootout

Have yall seen the new Bonnels? If they where legal i would trade my Transition in without question for one lol. I

Awesome chat on most of the Systems and Bikes available... I've been fascinated with Battery Range and Weight on my Bikes over the years... Coming from a XC Emtb Racing in NZ. Battery Management has become paramount with being a 90kg Rider doing 25 to 50km Races... Now, our group enjoys Fun Rides. Range dictates the length of our rides, generally 40 to 45km in Rotovegas (1500m Vert).. I'm on the 2025 Orbea Wild with the New 21700 cell 600wh Battery (40km), on the 17500 cell 750wh Battery (45km) however bike is 1.5kg lighter. I believe around the 21kg is great balance between Agility & Stability. Robert, if your coming back to Rotovegas NZ, I'll organize a Emtb Ride for you guys...🙃🙂

180mm Epinion 👌

Solid state batteries, come on, let's get it done.

I’m surprised you didn’t say how controllable the power is on the new Specialized S WORKS motor is compared to the new Bosch / DJI ?

LONG COMMERCIALS!

Guys, dont you think the ability to plug in upto 4x 300Wh batteries is best way to go?
Thats 300-600-900-1200Wh Choice!
Everyone is happy this way, and of course Side battery door is the way to go. You can add batteries later , keeping initial purchase price down.

I prefer bigger range. Powers nice but mostly pedal singletrack and find over 60nm to be too much at times. Id buy an sl if it had a 800wh battery. Best of both worlds

Great discussion! As an Aussie who flies to Tasmania or home to NZ at least once a year, a removable battery is essential. I find the limited options of SL bikes with removable batteries frustrating. Do you think there will be a power or motor update to Bosch SX soon, given the recent CX update?

I demoed the new levo at kanuga and got 28 miles and 6200 ft of climbing. I'm 140 lb and started the day in eco to Trail and used turbo some mostly at the end of the day. I really didn't care much for the auto mode. If I had to leave I would definitely buy a second battery because that one wasn't enough. If I bought that bike I wouldn't be buying it to ride in eco. My everyday bike is a Stumpjumper Evo pro 160/170 The Levo was really good and I'm sure it could be better but I still prefer the Evo by a longshots. Still not completely sold on buying an ebike yet. If you could ride them everywhere of course. The only thing leaning me towards the Levo is the quick change battery, definitely not the look of it.

For someone in the market this has been the most helpful video of your shootout series. Thank you. Looking forward to the finale.

for a 10K+ bike...i want all the power that's there....let me choose to tune it and how to control it. like he said, i'd rather have the power there than not.

I think you guys hit the nail on the head when it comes to price. I don't think the majority of people are buying top spec, so it's a shame you're spending all this time comparing unattainable bikes. Seeing how the $7k versions of these bikes would be much more relevant to most of us. Just because a $12k bike is amazing, doesn't mean its stripped down $7k redheaded step child rides similarly and is equally good.

The biggest takeaway here in regards to these new gen e-MTBs is that these are opening a new world of technical climbing possibilities. This simply wasn't on my radar before but makes me look at my local trails differently now. I think i can "climb" previously unclimbable or rather trails i wouldn't have climbed before

Leonard’s keeping it real and dropping wisdom. Make him a permanent member of the team!

I don't think people 2ant removable batteries in order to increase range. Yes, there could be some rare occasions where that could come in handy, but the main benefits of removable batteries are being able to bring the battery inside to charge and store if you don't have room to store a bike inside, and being able to fly with your bike. If I were looking at two bikes and only one of them had a removable battery, that's definitely the one I'd gravitate towards.

Power meter pedals are a must for the battery killer series

In the battery killer series, please tune the motors to similar output. Something I've seen in the past is comparing Bosch's turbo to DJI's turbo. Obviously DJI will get less range because it's gives you so much more power. But if we're talking efficiency, you have to be comparing apples to apples.

The Levo fellt as a trail bike to me, could not charge it with the same comfort as the Orbea Wild. Motor was great on both!

To Drew and Crew, it was so nice to have Leonard on there speaking for "us", though as a normal consumer I do value the opposite of what he likes for example i love seeing all the data on my rides via the screen for example and I'd rather buy a well tuned single adjustment fork instead of spending extra on Kashima. Having him there was super cool. Perhaps you should give out a survey to all your member guests so you can bring in two people with varying viewpoints

Non removable batteries are not an issue - till you have to fly somewhere to ride. Ugh. First world problems.

Talking about the removable batteries, I have a Shimano system where the battery can be replaced in 10 seconds. I prefer that cause in winter I can charge the battery in my house and not have the whole dirty/wet bike in taking up space. (I have an unheated garage).
I have also been camping where there is no electricity to charge, I have an extra battery to use in those instances when I can not charge. My wife has a range extender for her bike that does a similar job on her bike which does not have a removable battery.

0 chance on getting the bosch plug correctly, own 2 different bosch bikes, + the range extender = so many combos.

range difference, GF is 68kg and fit, I'm 104KG, not that fit, she on a mondraker with gen4 bosch, me on gen5 bosch 800 +250 range extender, range ends up about ish the same

This was awesome!! Thanks Loam Wolf team👍

Any chance of reviewing the Deviate "Kurgan" which is about to be released.

I really enjoy this format guys. I'm currently on a gen 3 levo and have had several different e-bikes going back to the first YT Decoy. My biggest issue with e-bikes in general is drivetrain durability. Im running 10 speed Shimano linkgkide now on my levo and that's all I'll run. Cheap and durable. All of these high end bikes coming with high end transmission is a disservice to customers IMHO. Yes it looks and works good initially but as soon as you have to start replacing $600 cassettes it gets old fast. Furthermore, motor replacement and serviceability is a huge issue for me and one of the main reasons I wouldn't get a DJI bike at least right now. For me, I'm still pretty happy on my levo and see no major need to get a new bike at the moment. That said I'm a 170 lb rider so it has plenty of power and range for me.

Bring on the new and improved. I will buy the old and on sale. 😂

Nice discussion, guys! Such format of vides is popular and interesting. Saw on the net a new M40 emtb motor from Mahle. Could you please give is more info about it? Thanks!

Be nice if you had a guest tester who is older, began mountain biking BEFORE mountain bikes were even being made (we built our own first bikes out of 26" wheel Schwinn cantilever frames), who's been riding for over 40 years, raced on fully rigid bikes (NORBA era), Who isn't a hanky head (X-skate boarder) who's been there for the entire mountain bike evolution, who has had several different branded ebikes and who will never go back to a Analog/acoustic/Amish bike

here's a novel concept regarding power, battery capacity and climbing issues. if you ride with friends, and they are in fact, friends, and not competitors in a race, everyone should be able to match climbing and not leave anyone else in the dust by simply paying some attention to the group. if you want to be in your own bubble and ride like a solo rider, then go do that.

Awesome to see some heavier rider input. As a 215lbs rider it’s appreciated, seems more often than not, channels don’t have a good range of rider weights. Great work guys 👊🏼

Number 1 wish for my next emtb is a motor with internal gears. No more derailleur hanging down.

Rocky Mountain's Dyname PP system is still top shelf in controllable power(108Nm), no learning curve necessary.

would be nice if integrations work with ALL the components on the bike! Kind of like how ebike systems work with ANT+, but that would require all brands to use a standard communication protocol like canbus, or it's wireless counterpart.

I'm 6'-5" and 300lbs... Much too heavy, but I'm wondering if poor Leonard was at an absolute disadvantage riding too small of bikes... When i ride bikes that feel small too me, I loose most confidence... Also, I'd be interested in knowing which bikes workded best rear suspension for heavy boys... I have a Gen 4 Levo stuffed with genie bands and its working way better than my Gen 3 levo did on its aor shock... My Gen 3 currently has a custom coil amd Cascade long shock link... It works, but its a plow... Soaks it up.... Gen 4 is decent... But am looking forward to a cascade link with a better leverage ratio for my weight.

As to the battery extender on my gen 4, it integrates beautifully, and I'm doing 50 mile rides with my 135lb marathon xc partner when shes training... I could never do that on my gen 3 or my Ep801 pivot LT due to my weight... I know myself and Leonard are at the absolute extreme and likely I'm violating frame weight limits, but as a big boy, I'm liking the removable battery and extender... I also like the idea of charging the battery off bike... Although, I have not confirmed the charger plugs directly into the battery... But if it does, it will be useful for charging when driving, camping, or at air BNB without proper garage access

First off awesome reviews and info! Can always count on the TLW crew for great insight and info.

I know this is sort of off topic, but how does the Schwalbe Radial MM/Albert combo stack up against Maxxis and Conti?

Norco Sight was there but no review? Brake mount issue they didn’t want you to review?

The expert model (levo) and ones like it are the best value. Great segment and you
Mentioned it in a different video. Do we need kashima?

Absolutely wait for the next thing if its a Dji powered 180mm travel alu frame for less than dentist money :D

Is coil dead?

What happened to the Norco Sight VLT CX?

Dji leader in ebike tec.

I think Crestline nailed the battery system. I love the “easier” removable battery but fastened firmly in the bike with the aluminum brackets. I also like the ability to run the 400, 600 or 800 battery with just different brackets.

This conversation is just good stuff, watched the whole thing prior to sitting down for the main event: 2025 EMTB Shootout. 👍

Agree with the 800Wh theme and with the dash on the charge port (Pinion does that with the Fit charger). I always use a white marker on all the bikes I test to avoid fiddling with the plug. Do you know that in Italy we have the brand Thok Bikes that has the TP4 with 3 different battery specs? 800, 600, 400 wh and you can also use it with just the 250 wh Powermore (with 80% of the max power for maybe bike park days)?

Battery killer series 👌👌👌👌👌👌

800 battery for day rides, 600 for post work local rips. Not a fan of range extender as go to for bigger rides unless big adventure and plan to take a pack as having to replace bottle cage every time sounds annyoying to me and usually prefer a bottle of water with me instead sans fanny or pack.

Concern about side loader as well with upcoming Levo4 frameset build (shop just got the frame in for me yesterday after 8 week wait), especially since lots of power cut outs with former Rail due to poor battery tolerance and connectors getting reamed by heavy use of bike. So, for me, fixed 800 with bike built around battery optional range extender for longer adventures as 600 not enough for my usual outings on days off or +2hr blasters in trail/turbo at +200 lbs bw

Th more power a bike has, the more you need to lower your seat and stick the tip of that saddle right in your external Sphincter 🤣 it’s true!

My Trek EXe, although heavily modified, is sitting at 40.5 pounds. And it has all the power I need.