A year later, Scott is back with another stealthy TQ-powered lightweight eMTB, this time the 155mm travel Scott Voltage eRide from just 17.9kg. Pair 155mm of rear wheel travel to 160mm up front with enduro-inspired geometry. Then, power it with a light, smooth & customizable 50Nm TQ HPR50 motor with a 360Wh battery inside and an optional 60Wh range extender. What you get is an incredibly lightweight eMTB that you can ride like a regular bike, but can boost up the climbs to crank out lap-after-lap on your favorite technical trails…
2024 Scott Voltage eRide lightweight TQ-powered eMTB
The new Scott Voltage eRide is the answer to anyone who looked at the incredibly light Lumen, wondering if Scott could take it up just a notch. I was one of those people – thinking that the excellent natural ride feel of the 130mm ebike would be awesome with a bit more travel and geometry geared towards shredding downhills too. So that kinda transformed a Genius ST into an ebike.
Scott explains it saying, “Lightweight is in our DNA”. So there was never any question that they would adapt the success of their light trail eMTB to a more capable light all-mountain eMTB too. BTW, Scott is still on board with full-power, long-range, bigger battery eMTBs, and has more of those in the development pipeline. But lightweight ebike fans have been begging for a more capable light eMTB.
What’s new?
What you get is an ebike that looks almost exactly like the latest Scott MTBs, with big downtubes, and oversized seat tube-to-bottom bracket junctions to fit the hidden Bold-style rear shock inside. Here that means a TQ HPR50 motor, a 360Wh battery inside the downtube, and a Fox Float X Nude shock with a piggy-back chamber. All nestled snugly inside.
Plus, you still get room for 2 water bottles outside. Or 1 bottle and a TQ Range Extender bottle battery pack get pedal-assist support for longer.
Tech inside
Scott calls the e-all-mountain Voltage eRIDE a “category killer, one versatile ebike that can ride anything”, inspired by the similar “any trail” capability of the Genius Super Trail. In fact, the geometry is almost a direct copy from the Genius ST with just an 8mm higher bottom bracket to reduce pedal strikes, and a 15mm longer wheelbase for extra stability & grip when you and the motor are putting the power down together.
Inside, a new shock extender design increases smoothness by adding a bearing between the shock and the short frame link. It also delivers the double benefit of lowering the shock for better accessibility without impacting optimized suspension kinematics. It even allows more room for a range extender external battery. Win, win, win.
First Rides
Beyond the core tech inside that is essentially shared between the Lumen eRIDE & Genius ST, the new Voltage eRIDE is simply a blast to ride. It’s way more capable thanks to the 64° headtube and the steep 77° seat tube to give you a good perch for spinning back to the top of the hill.
Over a few days this winter in Spain, I rode plenty of trails that leaned from the Super Trail designation of this ebike’s bike inspiration, to enduro or even freeride trails. And while the 155/160mm travel was pushed to its limits at the steeper end of the spectrum, the lightweight Voltage was nimble enough to take the steepest bit carefully in stride.
How light is it?
My size large test bike weighed 19.65kg with clipless gravity pedals on it.
Or 1.13kg more with the range extender attached. That’s just over 3kg heavier than the crazy expensive Lumen eRide that I tested back in 2022. But this bike has a much more reasonable build spec – one built to handle more rough-and-tumble abuse.
Parting thoughts on the Scott Voltage eRide
I liked the light ride of the Lumen, especially the ability to tune the TQ motor with a smoother transition onto and off pedal-assist support. But it wasn’t nearly burly enough for the kind of riding I would want to do with an eMTB. On the other hand, heavyweight eMTBs kinda bug me, since I would want one more for shorter rides when you are trying to squeeze in some quick trail laps. And I just don’t appreciate having to manhandle all the extra weight.
What I did on the new Voltage… was simply squeeze in more rides. When I only had a half hour more free time to ride, I could smash it up a fireroad climb and get one more run in before I had to stop. With the range extender, it was easy to decide to head out for another lap, even when I wasn’t sure if I had quite enough juice remaining.
