Any recommendations?
I don’t really need full sus but neither do I want a hybrid/gravel bike

So a proper MTB just with a motor please

Depends what you’re after, not really that many on the market, Trek do a good range, and Mondraker have just released a range (prime) with the upgraded bosch system including bigger battery.

It all comes down to what you want though, how much travel, how good the kit is and the geometry, there’s a weird mix though with the hardtails, lots look like they’re really just commute bikes made to look like mountain bikes, but with weird kit and geometry.

Orbea Wild Ht

I’ve got the full suss version. Mint.

Somebody who knows way more than me about bike design suggested they are a terrible thing off road due to the weight and lack of rear suspension. Probably why there’s not many about.

Orbea Wild Ht

Yeah I liked that one too. Better fork than the majority unless you’ve a pretty penny to spend.

Fantic do an electric Fatbike with GX Eagle and a suss fork…

Kinesis Rise got a decent STW review, might be worth checking out.

I’ve done around 1000 miles now on my Cube Reaction Performance Hybrid hardtail and it’s brilliant for cross country exploring and can easily handle some pretty rough terrain. OK, you wouldn’t want to hammer down the reds at BPW but that’s not what it’s for (I have a full suss analogue bike for that, and a carbon XC bike for hike a bike days out). Mine is the 625 Wh with the 3rd Gen Bosch Performance line moto. Not as much power as the 4th Gen CX moto (65 Nm vs 85 Nm) but much quieter and better range. Taking it easy on gravel/grass trails I can easily get near to 100km over maybe 1000m climbing. Of course, if you Turbo it everywhere and hammer the climbs this will drop loads but typically 60km on rough terrain and around 1500m or so of climbing is easily in range. I updated the rubbish Suntour XCM forks it came with to Rockshox Judy golds (because they were fairly cheap) and run the tyres tubeless. It can take 2.6″ tyres so soaks up quite a lot of the hits at the back end. Don’t let anyone tell you that HT ebikes are no good, they’ve either never ridden one off road or are trying to justify to themselves why they needed to spend £5k+ on a bike. Horses for courses, and a £2k Cube HT ebike makes a fantastic cross country explorer.

A friend who had had an electric fat bike recommended against an e-hardtail unless it’s just for gentle terrain.

With the extra weight you lose the ‘skippability’ of a hard and the ride can be quite brutal over rough stuff as a result.

Certainly when I’ve ridden an e-enduro bike it’s much more of a machine to plough through stuff than my similar travel full Sus, so I can see his point.

I’ve got an ebike for commuting and the weight is very noticeable down curbs etc…

So a proper MTB just with a motor please

Specialized does a Turbo Levo hardtail, which – although I’ve never ridden one – almost certainly does stuff in a predictable, competent, Specialized sort of way. The app control over power levels etc works well and they have a good reputation for warranty service, which you want on an ebike because the motor and battery are both expensive to replace.

If it’s anything like the full sus Turbo Levo, it’ll also ride in a recognisably mountain bike way, plus the extra weight.

I tried a hard tail ebike for a day and to be fair I didn’t notice any loss of manouverabilty or skippyness, and I’m a bit of an ebike detractor.
The days ride was in the Dark Peak doing The Beast, Potato Alley, Hagg Farm etc.
People who say you need a full suss ebike are talking rubbish.

I have had a Vitus eSentier for about three years which I bought mainly because it was on special and I couldn’t afford an FS ebike.
I have had no regrets. It came with decent kit and works really well on all the rides I used to do on my old FS, perhaps slower but gets up and down everything I did before.
Unfortunately punters don’t seem to agree as Vitus seem to have dropped the model. There are plenty of tame HT ebikes but not so many that seem equipped for more serious off-road. If you can find one ,I would recommend trying it out I think you will be surprised.

I took out a Lapierre Overvolt today, on hire. It was the first time I’d ridden an HT eMTB.

It was OK. A bit heavy and the fork was poor (a Suntour number), but overall was quite impressed. I wouldn’t not buy one if the price was right.

I don’t normally ride eMTBs, so don’t have much experience of them, but it wasn’t loads worse than a poorly specced Trek Rail I rented at Dalby. That said, I also don’t know the price differential if buying new.

Up hill, the Lappy was very good indeed and made short work of Lonesome Pine at Kielder.

I’ve got a whyte FS ebike but have just bought a specialized turbo Levo HT for the commute. The forks are garbage so have been swapped for some 130mm rockshox. With that done it’s a good bike. Problem is on rougher terrain an ebike rides heavier than a normal bike so it’s a hard ride, they’re also going faster in a lot of places so FS is nicer, On the plus side it is lighter and on more normal terrain is faster than the FS whyte. It has a much smaller battery and less power than the bosch in the whyte but range is the same and without the suspension and fatter tyres sapping power it’s a similar speed.
If terrain isn’t too technical I’d say get a HT but if it isn’t FS is better with the extra weight and speed in places an ebike gives

Emtb HTs can be great. But I think the change from full sus to hardtail is a big shock for anyone not used to it. That’s potentially a bigger change than e or non-e in my experience of it and some people have done this full sus to HT change to save money, resulting in at least some of the negative comments.

If you like hardtails, you’ll like a good e-hardtail. It’s not like most hardcore hardtails are light anyway. I do think that if you are a very light rider, there is a weight at which it’s hard to ride a heavy e-hardtail properly, as they are still hardtails and need a lot of body english.

My Kinesis Rise is good fun and is still running just fine, no motor blowups. I like the Orbea too.