Hi, i’m looking for a bit of advice on what options there are for 120mm travel e-bikes. Its for my pops who’s in his early 70’s. He’s used to riding a 120mm travel tallboy & when he had the S_Works levo (not the sl) he just found it ‘too much bike’. Never used all the juice nor the travel.
Something like the Levo SL with less travel would be the thing, but from what i see, most manufacturers are 150mm for their e-bikes.

Do you think it was the travel or the geometry that made it feel like “too much bike”? If the former he could run the suspension with loads of spacers so it ramps up too much to use the last quarter of the travel, if the former he could go down a size. Smaller lighter tyres will make it feel less big too.

All that weight in the frame adds a lot of stability and calms the handling, so vs an older Tallboy a Levo will feel almost like a DH bike!

I was having a read of this (rival publication shock) the other day and thought the Neuron would be fun for what I normally ride.

Best electric mountain bikes for 2020

My only FS is the non-e older version of the bike. Adding a motor would make it a bike I could ride the 20km to the decent trails on, enjoy some swoopy fun and ride back again…

You could also look at shortening the shock length/travel and fork on a Levo SL. It’s not a super low bike so there’s definitely leeway to lose some travel front and rear without smashing pedals on the ground all the time. The shorter travel Stumpjumper uses this method on the standard Stumpy frame.

Focus Thron2 looks to be 130mm (and available in some weirdo touring thing that only Germans could come up with);
https://www.focus-bikes.com/gb_en/bikes/e-mountainbike-full-suspension/thron2

Don’t know anything about it, but, if i recall correctly, Focus were the first brand going for the lighter e-bike thing before Spech brought in the SL.

Cube do their Stereo Hybrid in a 120 version, it’s a 29er and pretty average, i.e. heavy for an ebike, but it’s 120 and they’re a good price for what you get, plus they have the new bosch motor and 625wh batteries, so more than enough to get your dad up and around with

Does he still have the non E bike? If so you could fit a kit. Still liking my tongsheng kit here

He does actually. Tongsheng or a Bafang could be a worthy experiment.

I will eventually get an ebike, hopefully by the time I do, it’ll be 140mm, reasonable weight, capable of 50 miles with 5000′ of climbing, 650B and have a reliable motor.

I will eventually get an ebike, hopefully by the time I do, it’ll be 140mm, reasonable weight, capable of 50 miles with 5000′ of climbing, 650B and have a reliable motor.

this but 100-120mm travel for me.

more travel is pointless locally to me

Having ridden a few, an ebike with 150mm each end feels like a regular bike with 120-130mm travel. Think it’s down to the low centre of gravity and the extra weight.

2018MY Scott e spark? 120mm.
Presumably some clearance inventory kicking about.

“Having ridden a few, an ebike with 150mm each end feels like a regular bike with 120-130mm travel. Think it’s down to the low centre of gravity and the extra weight.”

Really? I’d have said the opposite downhill, all the extra frame weight makes the suspension work better and adds stability.

I maybe didn’t write it well, as I completely agree with you. What I meant is that you don’t really notice the extra travel on the ebike so might as well have it.