Best Electric Mountain Bikes (2026): Special, Cannondale, Salsa

Electric mountain bikes both a godsend and a curse if you like riding on trails. There’s an old saying that you have to “earn your chance”—that dopamine-boosting derailment and skipping the pump track doesn’t feel right when you don’t have moving legs and sweat from hitting the top. That’s a lie. It sounds great either way. (Just follow the rapid descent of “whoo-hoo!” downhill.)

Riding on e-MTBs keeps many people from the sport out of the best physical shape, including ex-MTBers who may be old or injured. Gatekeeping has never been a good look. You have the rest hand, being hit by a ton of e-mopeds in shape of bikes on a backwoods trail is enough to make anyone slay.

Testing electric mountain bikes is one of my favorite things to do. That’s why I’ve rounded up our favorite rides to help you get out and about. Every electric mountain bike here has been personally tested on over 50 miles of trails. Don’t see anything you like? Check out WIRED’s outdoor guides, which include guides to the Best Electric Bikes, Best Merino Wool Clothing, and Best Gravel Shoes.

Very Good Overall

Reviewer Stephanie Pearson said it would take more names than there are War and Peace (587,287) to explain how each part of Specialized’s S Works Turbo Levo 4 comes together for silky, perfect performance. You can customize your ride on the fully adjustable carbon-fiber frame by changing the angle of the headphones, so you can sit or lean forward as you choose. The mullet, has a larger 29-inch front wheel that lets you ride wildly downhill. The engine features Specialized’s proprietary app so you can fine-tune the settings of the 720-watt motor to make the ride feel powerful and precise.

Everything about this bike makes you feel like you’re 24 and you don’t say “oof” every time you stand up. Pearson tested it on more than 50 miles of single track, pump track, and boulder bridges around his home in Duluth, Minnesota, using the powerful engine to sneak up behind other MTBers on trails like The Puker to squeeze in even bigger flows. On one ride, he managed to climb 3,451 feet over 22 miles in about 2 hours without his legs collapsing. It can also switch between a Class I and a Class III electric bike, which begs the question: If you can switch to the highest possible assist, why go down?

Runner up

Photo: Stephanie Pearson

Specialized has its own motor system, but Trek uses one of the new up and coming lightweight motors, the TQ HPR50, with its Slash+ e-MTB. It uses a pin-ring drive transmission. In most ebikes, the electric motor turns at a faster speed than the pedal, and the motor compensates for this difference with cogs and belts. A pin-ring drive replaces these cogs and belts with a single inner ring of pins, which rotate at different speeds within an outer ring of slightly different sized pins.