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Commencal adds Power to the Meta, for their complete look at e-MTBs

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For almost twenty years Commencal has been building mountain bikes and always looking to try to boil down the basic nature of what makes a bike a joy to ride on trails. So as e-bikes started to pop up on & off road they were curious but cautious as to whether if was something they thought could add to the experience of mountain biking. It looks like they have been sold on the concept (so cue the reasoned discussion & debate below) and have introduced the new Power line that takes their 27.5+ hardtail & full suspension Metas and tucks in Shimano’s quiet but powerful E8000 drive motor and battery to extend your range of heading out into the woods…

Commencal emphasizes that these aren’t some lesser mountain bikes cobbled together around a motor and targeted at beginners, and are obviously targeted at the kind of terrain & trails open to e-bike access. Instead, the Meta Power & Meta HT Power are both proper performance trail bikes that have been reshaped & reworked to neatly integrate the powerful 250W E8000 system to make it easier to get farther (and higher) away from the trail head. They build on the contemporary long & slack trail geometry trend to make for bikes that beg to be thrashed down the mountain, just as they are happy to offer some assistance to get back to the top to do it all again.

They went with the Shimano system as it really delivers one of the best power outputs, but also claims the best range of the major e-bike setups. That puts it at up to 100km/62mi on a single charge in Eco mode with 800m/2600′ of climbing. That means all day trail riding, and in many cases the ability to tack on extra climbs & descents to almost every ride within your same precious window of available time to ride. A big side benefit is also its compact design which goes a long way to keeping chainstays short-ish for a normal feeling ride.

Another important reason to go with Shimano was the fact that Commencal sell direct to consumers. Since Shimano already has such an extensive after-sales service presence around the world, Commencal was much more confident that buyers would be able to receive any and all support they might need to keep their eMTBs running for years to come.

Both Meta Powers get spec’d with eMTB specific components like chainrings and drivetrains designed to excel under the high torque loads, as well as fat plus-sized tires both to help deliver that power to the ground without a loss of grip and to let you run low tire pressures for comfort even with the added weight of the motor+battery system.

Meta HT Power Essential
Meta HT Power Race

We only have detail on the hardtail for now, which will be available in two builds. A Meta HT Power Essential will start at 3500€ with a Deore 1×10 setup, while a Meta HT Power Race will bump up to 4000€ with a XT 1×11 group.

Details are still scant on the full-suspension Meta Power, but expect it to float around 150mm of all-mountain travel at both ends, and be available in several spec levels as well.

Commencal.com

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paquo
paquo
6 years ago

if i’m a manufacturer i am building a stealth e mtb . The shame of riding an e mtb is huge so something like the spec with a more flush/integrated looking battery pack you would think might have a better chance at selling, at least in the US.

Nick
Nick
6 years ago
Reply to  paquo

Might have a better chance at stealthily poaching non-motorized trails too. There is no shame in riding an e mtb on motorcycle trails and jeep roads. Just on non-motorized single track. Make these things easy to spot so we can protect our trail access.

Yus
Yus
6 years ago
Reply to  Nick

Do you have any evidence whatsoever that points towards e-bikes being a known issue? And I’m not talking about the bike community.. you can look on any of these MTB/Cycling websites for all of 3 minutes and find the hate. And please, post your sources.

– Someone that doesn’t own an E-Bike but would rather not spew all over someone else’s fun because of unbacked notions.

hankystar
hankystar
6 years ago
Reply to  Yus

Yus, in Central Oregon they are not legal on most all of our trails. It’s a US Forest Service rule, and the more e-bikes that start breaking these rules the more worried we get about losing trail access for everybody…

https://pinemountainsports.com/e-bike-trails/

Yus
Yus
6 years ago
Reply to  hankystar

You’re referencing a specific trail system. Educating riders (as mentioned in your link) is all that needs to happen. It’s no worse than the idiots that ride the wrong way on one-way trails. People will always choose to break the rules, but there’s no reason to throw a blanket of hate over the entire community that chooses to ride an e-bike. There are still tons of trails where they are allowed, and have minimal impact on the trail. No worse than all of the roost and skidding you see in 95% of MTB edits out there.

Shun someone for breaking the rules, not for the bike they choose to ride.

Mike D
Mike D
6 years ago
Reply to  Yus

You’re going to reference ‘mountain bike edits’ as the majority of riders though? Kind of an out of touch argument..

It’s not the burden of the established user to prove that the newcomer will do damage. It is the burden of the newcomer to prove that they will have no additional adverse impact, and therefore deserve to be included. Instead, we get a lot of entitled attitudes and lazy arguments that these motorized bikes are somehow no different–but they obviously are.

e-IMBA. Start it up. Fight for access to trails. Do the decades of legwork it has taken to get to where we are now. Show me multiple, independent studies that compare trail impacts. Show me that the motors cannot be hacked. Make the case that the motorized bike deserves to share non-motorized trail. The argument for inclusion rests on the shoulders of e-bike users, not the other way around.

It has taken yeeears of meetings, planning, impact assessments, and building of relationships to get to where we are now with trail access for mountain bikes. But I should have all my hard work jeopardized because a new user group is too lazy to do their own due diligence? That’s a hard no. Feel free to pull your own weight e-bikers, and stop trying to ride the coattails of those who came before you at the risk of ruining access for all of us.

GarytheSnail
GarytheSnail
4 years ago
Reply to  Mike D

Are fat guys who weigh 250+ lbs on a 32 lbs mtb bike doing more damage than me and at 175 lbs on a 48 lbs e mtb? Are you restricting them from access to the trail? Or will it take yeeears to figure out trail impact can also be due to frequency of riders on the trail, erosion from weather, population incline/decline, economic activity….And yes we could be seeing another recession very soon. That will mean more unemployment, less vacations and more people hitting your local parks/trials for free activities.

I am not going any faster down hill than the rest of the guys here on the trail. If guys are hacking and doing dumb things, give them a ticket for speeding and reckless endangerment. Not every rider is reckless, some of us have jobs to go to and families to take care of and cannot afford to get injured. You cannot punish all of us mtb/e mtb for the abuse of a few. And yes, even regular mtb riders can break the rules and not have any common sense!

If we all ran our conclusions based on isolated facts, we would have to ban all guns, fast cars, airplanes, mumble rap because it is too dangerous, polluting, loud and irritating. I hate mumble rap so I had to throw that in there.

I love e mtb because I’ve had three knee surgeries and it allows me to enjoy the trail like I did when I was younger. Still have my Cannondale Caffeine SS. I think if we all use common sense we can play together peacefully. I do not see anything wrong with e mtb.

People hate an e mtb until they have ridden one!

Nick
Nick
6 years ago
Reply to  Yus

I have personally seen e-bikes on BLM non-motorized trails in the north Fruita desert. Think the BLM is gonna let that slide? The trails managed as motorized access are two miles west. Go use those. Why try to ruin it for everyone?

Marin
Marin
6 years ago
Reply to  Nick

I don’t understand USA and trail access debate. Why can’t you ride emtb anywhere? It’s nowhere close to a motorbike (noise, pollution, power). In Europe it’s a non issue and there are far more emtbs here.

Stupid people on regular bikes do far more damage than any ebike.

Craig
Craig
6 years ago
Reply to  Marin

100% agree with you there

46541156
46541156
6 years ago
Reply to  Marin

We have some pretty powerful groups that already do not like bicycles on trails and would like to restrict access. The addition of ebikes into the mix gives them extra firepower in their arguments because they can reference bikes with motors as motorized traffic, which is something they are obviously vehemently opposed to. They don’t care about any of the technical aspects, if it has a motor that helps propel it, it is motorized.

Travis
Travis
6 years ago

these arent bicycles

Jim
Jim
6 years ago

Can’t see what the issue with those is all they do is provide a bit of assistance and strong/young fit person on a normal bike would probably be faster and do more damage than dad on an ebike trying to keep up with the kids.

on the other hand there’s these;
http://www.stealthelectricbikes.com/stealth-b-52-bomber/ (although they do look like fun)

Why anyone would group them together is beyond me ?

rgeniec
rgeniec
6 years ago

As California goes, so goes the nation….They are designating everything out here wilderness and locking things down. Nothing mechanized allowed…strollers, bikes, etc…Trust me when I say these things are trail closers. It has already happened with moto out here. Next is MTB if we don’t wise up and shut down any E bikes on busy trails.

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