We’ve already seen the new proper mountain bikes that German bike maker Radon had prepped for riders in 2017. From the super light carbon Jealous XC hardtail that we spotted back racing at Worlds, to the new Slide+ & Skeen which are both ready to get loose for some good trail riding, they’ve got mountain bikers covered. But there is no doubt that eMTB is expanding a lot in Europe and Radon has something for that type of rider too. The new plus-size Slide Hybrid 140 brings together the value and performance they honed on their hardtail e-bike, but stepped it up a notch for some real all-mountain trail riding capability…
The new eMTB takes the recent shift to the fat, plus-sized tires of the Slide+ and sticks a motor on it. The e-bike version stays remarkably similar to its regular pedal-only sibling, with the same tube shaping and overall 4-bar suspension design. Of course the bottom half of the bike gets pretty crowded-in with a Bosch motor and a massively shaped downtube that seems to be trying to hide or distract for the hunking battery. But even suspension travel stays close at 140mm (the same as one of the other Slides, but 10mm less than the new Slide+), albeit with some longer chainstays.
Curiously the Slide Hybrid 140 is the first Radon to get the new trunnion mount shocks, which partly seems to have been because of limited space in the main triangle with the big motor in place of a bottom bracket. But it does seem that Radon sees the benefits of the new metric shocks and has development pointed in that direction. The 27.5+ Slide Hybrid gets slightly more progressive suspension to handle the eMTB’s extra weight, and slightly shorter toptube/cockpit combo paired with a 66.2° head angle for improved descending and comfort for a wider range of riders.
With Boost spacing, dropper routing, the Bosch CX drive motor and spec options from Shimano and SRAM, the Slide Hybrid will be ready to hit the non-lift-served trails this spring. It will be available from May 2017 direct from Radon starting at 3000€, with a couple of other models up to 3800€.
