Greg's Weekly eMTB Briefing - 27 February 2026Another week, another motor producing enough torque to embarrass a small tractor. Avinox's M2S continues its world domination tour — this time crashing Sea Otter with 185Nm of argument-starting energy — while the forum has been wrestling with the eternal question of whether the base M2 motor actually exists or is merely a collective hallucination. Meanwhile, the Levo SL faithful are shopping for replacements like recently divorced people browsing dating apps: hopeful, slightly confused, and absolutely convinced their requirements are entirely reasonable.
185Nm at Sea Otter: Avinox M2S Brings a Knife to a Bicycle FightSea Otter is traditionally the sort of event where brands unveil slightly revised tyre compounds and call it a revolution. Not this year. Avinox apparently looked at the schedule, decided subtlety was overrated, and rolled in with the M2S motor system — the one producing 185Nm of torque — which is, to put it gently, not very bicycle-like. For context, a Kawasaki KX450 motocross bike produces around 180-190Nm. One could argue Avinox have built an electric motocross bike with excellent geometry tuning options and a very tasteful paint job.
The M2S's presence at Sea Otter has, predictably, intensified the already rather heated debate about where the eMTB/e-moto boundary actually lies. This is the kind of philosophical question that sounds academic until a 185Nm machine shows up on your local trail and politely informs you that your natural riding skills are largely optional now. Regulatory bodies across various markets will presumably be reading the Sea Otter roundups with the same expression one adopts when discovering the neighbours have installed a hot tub that technically complies with local planning regulations.
What makes this particularly interesting is the timing. The eMTB industry has spent years carefully negotiating trail access, pointing at watt-hours and motor limits and saying "look, we're basically just assisted cycling." Avinox, bless them, appear to have grown somewhat impatient with that conversation. Whether this is visionary boundary-pushing or a very effective way to get eMTBs banned from natural surface trails in seventeen European countries simultaneously remains, for the moment, an open question. The community discussion, at least, is anything but quiet.
Full story on Bikerumor
Rotwild R.EXC: When "Endless Geometry Tuning" Is the Headline, You Know It's GermanRotwild have launched the R.EXC, built around the Avinox platform because apparently if you're going to embrace controversy, you may as well go the whole distance. The "endless geometry tuning" headline is either genuinely impressive engineering or the product description equivalent of a very long options list on a German car — possibly both. One for the lottery winners and precision-engineering enthusiasts who consider a flip chip inadequate and want something more akin to a suspension setup spreadsheet.
Full story on E-Mountainbike
Eight Avinox Bikes Compared: Which Overachieving Rocket Is Right for You?E-Mountainbike have done the lord's work and assembled a comparison of eight bikes running the Avinox M2S system, which is a bit like comparing eight different ways to exceed the speed limit. The fact that there are already eight options in this segment tells you everything about the motor's immediate industry impact. Whether your preference runs towards geometry-obsessed German precision, Scandinavian minimalism, or simply "the one my local dealer has in stock," apparently there is now an Avinox for you. The M2 vs M2S question — which the forum has been wrestling with separately — adds a further layer of complexity that this piece only partially resolves.
Full story on E-Mountainbike
Specialized Turbo Levo 4 EVO: More Travel, Same Existential QuestionsThe Levo 4 EVO has received its first ride review, and the headline — "More Travel, Still the Same Levo?" — is either reassuring or damning depending entirely on your relationship with the previous model. Specialized continue their commitment to the view that the Levo formula doesn't need dramatic reinvention, merely incremental refinement. The increased travel will please those who felt the standard Levo was about as aggressive as a strongly-worded letter from a cycling club's committee.
Full story on E-Mountainbike
Garmin Posts Record Revenue Because Apparently Everyone Needs More DataGarmin has posted record revenue for 2025 with 17% growth in Q4, which is corporate speak for "people are buying an absolutely extraordinary number of devices that tell them information they could partially have guessed." The cycling and outdoor division continues to be a significant contributor, which will surprise nobody who has visited a trail car park recently and watched riders spend longer configuring their head units than actually riding. Good for Garmin; slightly concerning as a societal observation.
Full story on Bicycle Retailer
Mondraker Zendit RR S: Need for Speed, ApparentlyE-Mountainbike have put the Mondraker Zendit RR S through its paces, and the "Need for Speed" headline suggests it passed. Mondraker's geometry philosophy — which has historically involved numbers that make conservative engineers nervous — combined with a performance-oriented motor package makes for a machine that presumably has opinions about how quickly you should be descending. Test results are, by all accounts, rather enthusiastic.
Full story on E-Mountainbike
QBP Reshuffling Distribution: The Industry's Logistical Mood MusicQBP are planning changes to distribution across their four facilities, which is either routine operational optimisation or the kind of quiet restructuring that dealers notice six months later when lead times change unexpectedly. For the independent bike trade, QBP's internal geography is rarely thrilling news until it suddenly, very much, is. Worth keeping an eye on.
Full story on Bicycle Retailer
Maxxis MaxxTerra: New Rubber, Ancient Question of Whether Tyres Actually MatterMaxxis have introduced a new MaxxTerra rubber compound and E-Mountainbike have reviewed it with the sort of rigour that tyre compounds probably deserve but rarely receive. The results, presumably, involve the words "predictable," "confidence-inspiring," and at least one sentence about the transition between grip and slip. Tyres remain the single best-value upgrade on any mountain bike, a fact the industry has been successfully getting people to rediscover approximately once every two years.
Full story on E-Mountainbike
Enduro-MTB Launches "The MIRROR": A Publication Launches a PublicationEnduro-MTB have announced the launch of something called The MIRROR, framed around "Movement vs. Direction" in a piece that reads like a brand manifesto had a philosophical crisis. The details suggest an editorial product of some kind, though the announcement leans heavily on concept over specifics — which is either a deliberately sophisticated launch strategy or someone was allowed to write the press release unsupervised. We shall watch with interest, if mild bemusement.
Full story on Enduro-MTB
FROM YOUR FORUM THIS WEEK
The "Poor Man's CEF69" That Is Considerably Less Poor Than Advertised@borysgo2 dropped into the forum this week with what they're calling a budget-adjacent CEF69 build featuring a RS ZEB BASE fork, DT Swiss rims, Sapim spokes, and a 1kWh battery — a specification list that suggests "poor man's" is doing rather a lot of heavy lifting in that thread title. To their credit, @borysgo2 also noted that from around 15% battery remaining, power drops to approximately 350W, which is useful real-world information that manufacturers rarely volunteer. @kaaskopf chipped in with the reasonable advice that the M510 earns its keep over the M820 precisely because of BESST tunability, and that a BESST tool is essentially mandatory kit. A solid build thread with actual useful detail — rare and precious.
Join the discussion The M2 Motor: Ghost or Genuine Option?@slickrock opened what turned out to be a rather pointed thread this week, observing that for all the breathless M2S coverage, the base M2 motor has received approximately zero meaningful review attention, with most brands seemingly not bothering to send M2-equipped bikes to anyone with an audience. @Roughshod confirmed the frustration, noting the lack of proper coverage is genuinely annoying for anyone trying to make an informed purchase decision. Meanwhile, @xtraman122 is still torn between the Pivot PX and Flux — wanting the Flux's travel but suspecting the lighter PX is probably all he actually needs, which is the internal monologue of roughly 60% of the forum's membership at any given time. The broader point — that the industry's review ecosystem has essentially ignored an entire product tier — is a legitimate criticism dressed up as a forum thread.
Join the discussion The SL Trail Bike Shopping List That Started a Very Helpful Argument@zirkel arrived with a refreshingly self-aware brief: 40 years of MTB experience, not aggressive, no shuttle aspirations, just long backcountry rides and genuinely good descending on the way back down — and asked who makes that bike. The forum, to its credit, actually helped. @drive2race4fun shared a similar journey through Trek EX+ and various dead ends before landing on the Amflow PX Pro, noting the TQ motor enabled technical climbs previously out of reach. @JP-NZ weighed in with the Trek Fuel+ MX as an option and a useful point that the Bosch SX in the Pivot SL AM punches well above its modest-sounding spec. A genuinely useful thread — bookmark this one if you're in the SL market.
Join the discussion Why Shouldn't I Buy a Teewing Flux? (49 Replies, Still No Consensus)The thread that proves "talk me out of it" is the forum's most reliable conversation starter. Forty-nine replies suggests the community found this a sufficiently complex question to require considerable group deliberation.
Join the discussion Avinox Connectivity Diagrams: @Zimmerframe Does the Lord's Work Again@Zimmerframe produced what is essentially a public service — a proper connectivity diagram for the Avinox system, including the detail that the FP700 battery uses ten Ampace 50480 cells rather than the more conventional 21700 format, which is exactly the sort of cell-level information that distinguishes this forum from everywhere else on the internet. @Fangs2k immediately asked about the RS600 range extender, describing it with a level of affection I shan't repeat in a family briefing, to which @Zimmerframe patiently explained that yes, it's there in the compatibility section, and yes, for big-mileage riders it's a legitimate rather than merely aesthetic option. Reference-quality thread.
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Giant Trace E: The Spanner That Appeared After Opening an App (Suspicious Timing, No?)An older thread that's been getting some activity this week. @donaldthomps reported the now-classic eMTB experience of a spanner icon appearing, the motor throwing an error, and the bike politely declining to perform above a leisurely pace — on an out-of-warranty 2022 bike that had otherwise been entirely civilised for 1,800 miles. More usefully, @donaldthomps noted the error appeared suspiciously soon after opening the Giant app, and has reasonably concluded that the local shop being "vague" is not an acceptable resolution. @DaveMatthews offered the diplomatically phrased suggestion that a better-motivated shop might exist nearby, which is the politest possible way of saying what everyone was thinking.
Join the discussion Avinox M2S Launch Thread: 370 Replies and Nowhere Near DoneThe main Avinox M2S launch thread continues to accumulate replies at a rate that suggests the community has found its defining debate of 2026. The Sea Otter appearance will have added fresh fuel. If you have an opinion about 185Nm on a bicycle — and statistically speaking, you do — this is where you put it.
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Big Thread PulseThe "Have Avinox given us a good thing (or not)?" thread at 214 replies is the philosophical companion piece to the launch thread — less about specs, more about whether this is all going somewhere good for the sport. Recommended reading alongside a hot drink and a dose of patience.
The CEF50 main thread continues to be the most encyclopedic document on Chinese-frame builds the internet has produced. If it's happening to your CEF50, someone in there has already fixed it, argued about it, and written three paragraphs of follow-up.
The BLEvo thread remains the spiritual home of Levo tuning, running quietly in the background like an extremely knowledgeable friend who never sleeps.
The Trek Fuel EXe Megathread soldiers on — TQ HPR60 interest has clearly been refreshed by the SL trail bike shopping discussion elsewhere on the forum.
The Levo Gen 4 Rumours thread has presumably been reading the Levo 4 EVO first ride with great interest and updating its priors accordingly. Over 3,500 posts of collective anticipation does something to a community's relationship with a product.
Stay muddy,
Greg
Got news I missed or spotted something good on the forum? Tag me @Greg Watts or drop it in my forum.
