Greg's Weekly eMTB Briefing - 13 April 2026If you've somehow managed to go a full seven days without hearing the word "Avinox," congratulations — you've either been on a remote trail with no signal, or you've achieved a level of digital enlightenment the rest of us can only dream about. This week, DJI's motor division has essentially colonised the eMTB industry, Mondraker has joined the revolution, and somewhere on the forum, a man created an Avinox thread to complain about Avinox threads. It's been a week.
The Avinox Takeover Is Now Basically Complete — Here's What M2 and M2S Actually MeanRight then. DJI's Avinox division has officially launched two new motors — the M2 and the considerably more alarming M2S — and at this point the question isn't whether Avinox will appear on a bike you're interested in, it's whether any bike you're interested in won't have one. The M2S, for those keeping score at home, produces a genuinely eyebrow-raising 1,500W peak power and 150Nm of torque, which is the sort of figure that makes a Bosch CX feel like a politely encouraged suggestion rather than a drive system. The standard M2 sits below it, presumably for buyers who feel 1,500W is "a bit much," which is a sentence I never expected to type.
What's actually significant here isn't just the raw numbers — it's the breadth of the OEM rollout. We're now looking at eight bikes confirmed with M2S or M2 motors, and that list includes names ranging from the expected (Amflow, which is basically DJI's own brand wearing a cycling jersey) to the genuinely surprising. Mondraker, ROTWILD, and others have thrown their lot in, which means Avinox has achieved in roughly eighteen months what most companies spend a decade attempting: legitimate, widespread industry adoption. Bosch and Shimano have had comfortable duopolies for so long that they'd presumably forgotten what competitive pressure felt like. They're remembering now.
The M2S in particular deserves a moment of genuine awe before we return to being world-weary about it all. 150Nm of torque. That's more than several small cars. Whether you actually need 150Nm on a mountain bike trail is a philosophical question for another day — the point is that the performance ceiling has been raised so dramatically that everyone else now looks like they're operating under a different set of physics. Bosch's Smart System, Shimano's EP801, and Brose's offerings are all fine, capable systems. They are also now, collectively, playing catch-up for the first time in years.
For buyers, this is straightforwardly excellent news. Competition breeds better products, better pricing, and — eventually — better software. The "why it matters" here is simple: Avinox's scale means Bosch and Shimano can no longer assume loyalty. They have to earn it. Which is, frankly, how markets are supposed to work, even if it's taken a suspiciously long time for that memo to arrive.
Full story on New Atlas
Eight Bikes, One Motor — Your Avinox M2S Buyer's Guide Arrives Whether You're Ready Or NotE-Mountainbike Magazine has done the sensible thing and rounded up all eight current Avinox M2S bikes in one place, presumably because typing "Avinox" eight separate times in eight separate articles was becoming inefficient. The comparison piece is genuinely useful if you're currently staring at your savings with intent and wondering which particular flavour of 1,500W you'd like to throw yourself down a mountain on. The range spans enough geometry variations and price points to be interesting, though "interesting price points" in this segment remains code for "one for the lottery winners and dentists."
Full story on E-Mountainbike
Mondraker Zendit: Spain's Finest Goes Full AvinoxMondraker — a brand not previously known for quietly following trends — has launched the Zendit, their first eMTB with an Avinox motor, which tells you everything you need to know about where the industry's gravitational centre currently sits. E-Mountainbike has both the announcement and a full test of the Zendit RR S, and the early verdict appears to be that Mondraker's geometry expertise and Avinox's motor combine in a way that is, and I'm paraphrasing only slightly, "extremely fast and slightly unhinged." Classic Mondraker, then, just with considerably more watts.
Full story on E-Mountainbike Full test on E-Mountainbike
ROTWILD R.EXC: Germans Discover That "All About Race" Means AvinoxROTWILD, whose bikes have always occupied that particular corner of the market where engineering seriousness meets aggressive pricing, have unveiled the R.EXC — taglined "All About Race" and powered by, you'll be utterly astonished to learn, Avinox. The notable detail here is the "endless geometry tuning" claim, which either means genuinely impressive adjustability or that ROTWILD's configurator is about to become a thing people spend entire lunch breaks lost inside. Probably both.
Full story on E-Mountainbike
FOX 38 Factory GRIP X2 (2027): Because Your Fork Deserved an Upgrade TooAmidst the motor hysteria, FOX has quietly put the 2027 38 Factory with GRIP X2 damper through E-Mountainbike's test programme, and the results suggest it's rather good — which will surprise precisely nobody, given that FOX have been doing this long enough to get it right. Nothing says "we weren't going to let Avinox have all the headlines" like dropping a premium fork review into the weekly news cycle. GRIP X2 has been well-regarded on the 36 and 40; on the 38 it appears to be equally at home, though you'll want to check your wallet's structural integrity before proceeding.
Full test on E-Mountainbike
Enduro-MTB Launches... A Mirror? No, Really. A Mirror.In what is either a masterclass in lateral thinking or evidence that the cycling media has reached peak product saturation and has nowhere left to go, Enduro-MTB has launched something called The MIRROR. The accompanying philosophical essay — titled "Movement vs. Direction" — is the sort of thing that sounds profound at 11pm after a long ride but may require a second reading in daylight. What it actually is] is somewhat elliptically explained, which is either clever brand-building or corporate speak for "we'll tell you later." I'll report back when I've worked it out.
Full story on Enduro-MTB
Garmin Counts Its Money, Finds Considerable Amounts Of ItGarmin has posted record revenue for 2025 with 17% growth in Q4, which is the sort of financial news that gets filed under "unsurprising given how many of you have Edge units bolted to your stems." The cycling segment continues to perform well. At this rate, Garmin will simply purchase the concept of navigation and charge a monthly subscription for knowing where you are.
Full story on Bicycle Retailer
Nukeproof Finds Its Way Back Into American Shops Via ZeitbikeZeitbike has stepped in to distribute Nukeproof to US dealers, which is good news for American riders who've been eyeing Nukeproof's catalogue from across the Atlantic with increasing impatience. Distribution deals are rarely the most thrilling news in cycling, but "people can actually buy the bikes" is, in practical terms, rather more useful than most press releases I encounter.
Full story on Bicycle Retailer
ASS Savers Win Wing MTB: The Mudguard Review You Didn't Know You NeededEnduro-MTB has reviewed the ASS Savers Win Wing MTB, which is minimalistic, light, and apparently effective — three adjectives that sum up the entire minimalist mudguard philosophy in one neat sentence. Nothing says "I have made peace with being wet from the waist down" like a mudguard you can post in a standard envelope. That said, if it works, it works, and sometimes the right tool is the smallest one.
Full story on Enduro-MTB
FROM YOUR FORUM THIS WEEK
The Most Self-Aware Thread Of The YearThis week's award for Unintentional Comedy goes to @jackamo, who opened a thread titled simply "AVINOX
" to declare that he is, in fact, deeply bored of everything Avinox and would prefer a gearbox and belt drive, thank you very much. A noble position. Except, as @Astro66 pointed out with the timing of a man who has been waiting his entire life for this moment, the thread complaining about Avinox is itself called "Avinox". The forum reacted accordingly. @slickrock cheerfully noted that when Avinox inevitably releases a gearbox belt drive, it'll probably appear on an Amflow first, which is both a prediction and a threat depending on your perspective. Six replies. Peak forum.
Join the philosophical debate FOMO, Thy Name Is FirmwareThe "So frustrated that I didn't wait for the PX" thread is doing exactly what it says on the tin — a collection of riders discovering, as riders always do, that they bought their bike approximately three weeks before something better was announced. @CabbageBoy offered the kind of cold clarity you don't want to hear when you're already upset, observing that manufacturers have you precisely where they want you, in the grip of severe FOMO. @Giox brought a dose of perspective by noting he's still perfectly happy on Bosch Gen4 and genuinely questioning whether anyone can actually manage 1,300–1,500W, which is the sort of reasonable question the internet tends to ignore. Meanwhile, @David1960 delivered what might be the most wholesome post of the week, reporting that four of them are riding Avinox bikes, they love them, they have zero regrets, and they couldn't be happier. There's a lesson in there somewhere about enjoying what you have. The forum will almost certainly ignore it.
Join the support group Avinox Launch Thread: Still Going, SomehowThe "Avinox launch 1500w M2S motor and cheaper M2 motor" thread has reached 278 replies, which at this point makes it less a discussion and more a living document of collective processing. The forum is working through it. Give it time.
The megathread E-Bike Charging On Holiday: An Unexpectedly Tense Social ExperimentThe "E-bike charging while travelling: ever been refused or asked to pay?" thread has accumulated 28 replies and appears to be a genuine repository of useful anecdotes, diplomatic near-misses, and the sort of awkward hotel conversations that nobody plans for when booking a cycling holiday. The range anxiety is one thing; the social anxiety of asking a campsite owner to plug in 700Wh of lithium is apparently another matter entirely.
Share your charging horror stories The Whyte Karve Evo ArrivesFifty-eight replies in on the Whyte Karve Evo thread, which suggests the forum has considerable feelings about Whyte's latest. Whyte remain a brand that inspires genuine loyalty among their riders, and the Karve Evo is generating the kind of engaged, knowledgeable discussion that makes this corner of the internet occasionally worth visiting.
Join the Whyte faithful
BIG THREAD UPDATESThe SZZS CEF50 Megathread remains one of the great monuments to human persistence — 5,040 posts worth of collective intelligence on a budget Chinese eMTB frame that has somehow spawned a community of genuine expertise. If you're building one, troubleshooting one, or simply curious how deep the rabbit hole goes, this is it.
The megathreadThe Trek Fuel EXe Megathread continues to accumulate replies at the rate of a thread that knows it's important and has decided to act accordingly. 4,263 posts of EXe ownership, opinions, firmware complaints, and occasional celebration — the full human experience, Trek-flavoured.
The megathreadThe Official BLEvo Thread continues its role as the authoritative source for tuning-adjacent discussion that this briefing will neither encourage nor elaborate upon. You know where to find it.
The megathreadThe Levo Gen 4 Rumours thread is still seeing active debate with over 1,000 community facts accumulated — which is Specialized-owner dedication in its purest form.
The megathreadStay muddy,
Greg
Got news I missed or spotted something good on the forum? Tag me @Greg Watts or drop it in my forum.
