Suspension school · Tuning by Riding Style

XC and Light eMTBs (SL Bikes)

Rise, Levo SL and friends sit closer to an unpowered setup than a full-power one

Lightweight eMTBs, the Orbea Rise, the Levo SL and the growing crop of sub-20kg bikes with smaller motors, occupy a middle ground the setup charts ignore. At 16 to 19kg they carry perhaps 4 to 7kg more than the unpowered equivalent, not the 10kg and upward of a full-power bike. Set one up like a full-fat eMTB and it feels wooden. Set it up straight off the unpowered chart and it wallows.

Split the Difference on Pressure

The full-power corrections, the roughly 9psi Fox adds on an E-Bike+ chart for a 38 or RockShox's add-10psi rule, are too much here. Add about half, so 4 to 5psi over the standard chart, then let sag arbitrate. The sag targets themselves do not change: 15 to 20% at the fork, 25 to 30% at the shock.

Run It Fast and Firm

• Sag: the firm end of the windows, 15 to 17% fork and 25 to 27% shock, these bikes reward an efficient platform
• Rebound: one to two clicks faster than a full-power bike, there is less mass to control and the wheels need to recover quickly at XC speeds
• Low-speed compression: a click or two firmer for out-of-the-saddle efforts, the smaller motor means you still do real work
• Climb switch: genuinely useful here, unlike on a full-power bike where the motor makes it nearly redundant, flick it for fire road and tarmac links

The rebound point deserves emphasis because it runs against eMTB habit. A lighter bike running lower spring pressures stores less energy, so it needs less rebound damping to stay controlled. If you have come off a full-power bike, your instinct will be a setting that leaves an SL bike feeling dead and packed up through repeated hits.

Casings Can Come Down a Step

With 5kg less bike, casing demands drop. Maxxis EXO is workable front and rear for lighter riders on smoother trails, with EXO+ on the rear as the sensible default. Schwalbe Super Trail, Specialized GRID Trail and Continental's Trail casing all suit these bikes. What still does not work is a true XC race casing: this is a 17kg bike ridden on trail terrain, and paper-thin sidewalls will remind you of that.

• Front: 20 to 22psi for a 75kg rider
• Rear: 23 to 25psi
• Racing or riding rocks: add 1 to 2psi at the rear, or step the rear casing up before adding more air

The Honest Bit

No setting makes a 17kg SL bike descend like a 24kg enduro eMTB. It will always be the livelier, less planted machine, and the fast way to ride one is with finesse: pumping, picking lines, letting it move underneath you. A firm, efficient, quick-rebounding setup plays to that character. Chasing full-power plushness with deep sag and slow rebound just produces a bad copy of a heavier bike.

For XC race duty, apply the classic race bias: sag at the very firm end, one volume spacer for sprints and drops, more compression support, and honest use of the lockout on the smooth halves of the course. A race tune and a Sunday tune are three minutes apart with a shock pump. Keep both written down.