2021 seems to have been the year that established lines form well-known makes were upgraded and relaunched with an eye on ever higher performance but there have been some striking launches of brand new e-bike models in this sector too.
Perhaps most notable was an e-bike that wanted to be all things to all riders, Specialized’s brand new Turbo Tero. It was proclaimed as ‘an electric mountain bike equipped for everyday rides; a mountain bike that you can commute on; a commuter you can take touring; a touring bike that you can haul freight with.’
Like Specialized’s other 2022 ‘full power’ e-bikes featuring Brose based mid-drives, the Tero has an all new MasterMind handlebar display with new ‘smart’ features so that some models are equipped with Garmin radar units that will give a ‘visual, audible and haptic alert of approaching vehicles with relative distance and rate of speed’ – to give just one example of the Mastermind’s capabilities. It also comes ready to fit a rear rack and fenders to.
The new Turbo Tero represents a lowering of the entry price into the Specialized lineup of eMTBs. Starting at $3,250, the Turbo Tero 3.0 costs more than $2,000 less than the previous cheapest Specialized eMTB, the base model Turbo Levo.
Italian firm Bianchi formally released their full lineup of e-bikes to the U.S. market, a lineup centered around the e-Omnia triad of e-bikes that includes a touring model, city model and full-suspension eMTB – but to continue with the crossover theme, they all share similar styling and in some cases exactly the same frame features, most notably the stylishly integrated front headlight.
There’s a top end Bosch drive system and powerful and practical looking lighting. Bianchi stress the integrated rack on urban and tourer models that is child seat compatible so the e-Omnia can be ‘a touring bike, a commuting tool or the school bus – or all three at the same time.’
Looking to appeal to the sub $2000 sweet spot, Schwinn came up with three new models of e-bike, the Marshall, the Coston CE and the Coston DX. All three appear to be class 2 e-bikes (ie throttle and pedal electric activation with a 20mph assist limit).
All feature smallish sized batteries and are mid-priced machines at $1499.99, $1699.99 and $1999.99. All have neat LED lighting along the side of the battery and a seat that hinges open to reveal a storage compartment.
Moving on to the radical makeovers, Rad Power’s Rad City 5 Plus got a very long list of new features all summarised here:
Juiced were also clearly going through a similar process with the ‘upgrade’ of their Cross Current X Step Thru model.
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