Cannondale had one purpose with the Moterra SL: To create the lightest, full-power electrical mountain bike ever made. The limitations are many, however there’s one massive one: A strong motor mixed with a battery that has intensive vary can add monumental weight and stress to an agile, light-weight body.
To engineer round that paradox, Cannondale wanted to strengthen the body whereas reducing weight. The corporate turned to an answer they designed a very long time in the past, which takes its cue from System One race automobiles. The Moterra SL makes use of what the corporate calls a FlexPivot, which it first utilized in its Scalpel XC race bike. As an alternative of utilizing the bearings and {hardware} of a standard Horst hyperlink suspension system, they substituted a skinny, ultralight piece of carbon that may flex within the bike’s chainstays—the tubes that maintain on the bike’s backside bracket. These flexors not solely look clear and get rid of upkeep, however additionally they permit engineers to tremendous tune-the suspension.
FlexPivot know-how can solely go thus far, nevertheless, in explaining how this 45-pound bike offers severe energy with out feeling like a Sherman tank. Cannondale took a deep dive into kinematics, a physics time period that interprets to “the movement of techniques composed of joined elements.”
{Photograph}: Stephanie Pearson
Three Occasions a Allure
There’s a lot of joined elements on this bike. The Moterra SL is available in three builds that vary from the top-end Lab71 to the low-end SL2 that I examined, which sells for half the value. All have carbon frames that formally fall underneath the all-mountain class, however their slack head-angles make them really feel virtually like an enduro bike.
All are mullets (29-inch wheel within the entrance, 27.5-inch wheel within the rear), with a FlipChip to transform it to a full 29-inch bike. All are powered by a customized, high-energy-density 601-Wh inside battery and a Cannondale-tuned Shimano EP801 motor (with 85 newton-meters of torque) that gives 4 energy modes—Eco, Path 1, Path 2, and Enhance—and might be additional fine-tuned within the companion app.
One cool facet of the e-design is that, if the pc on the handlebars feels too busy and cumbersome, there’s a simple push button on the highest tube that permits the rider to alter energy modes with ease. That allows you to ditch the pc altogether and trip with a clear cockpit.
The SL2 construct that I attempted has a top quality mashup of parts: a Fox Efficiency 36 fork with 160 mm of journey; an Acros Adjustable Angle headset, which is sweet for additional fine-tuning the match; a Fox Float X Efficiency Elite rear shock with 150 mm of journey; a Shimano XT derailleur (which isn’t particular to electrical mountain bikes; I’m going to come back again to this), and Shimano Deore for shifters, chain, rear cogs, brakes, and brake levers.
