FULL MOTO

We’ve always said that e-bikes remind us of mid-nineties downhill rigs. It’s partly because the overall weight of the bikes are remarkably similar, but there are parallels that extend well beyond the scales. Disruptive e-bike designs and no established norms feel a lot like the early days when rapid, often experimental, development led to the modern downhill bike.

So if long travel e-bikes ride like the downhill bikes of yesteryear, albeit with their own shuttles built in, maybe they should borrow some DH technology that has stood the test of time. Two brands doing just that are Cannondale and Specialized – the Moterra Neo SE and Turbo Kenevo Expert both coming stocked with dual crown RockShox Boxxer forks.

With the 35mm upper tubes extending through the lower crown and then being clamped by a second crown, dual crown forks offer added stiffness and steering precision over their more common single-crown cousins. Why don’t all bikes come with dual crowns fitted as standard, just like motorcycles? Convention and a weight penalty.

Yes, dual crown forks like the RockShox Boxxer are heavier than an equivalent travel single crown, but not by as much as you might think. In fact the new Fox 38 is only 190g lighter than the Boxxer, which is nothing when the overall weight of the bikes in this test are both a hair under 25kg.

Because the loads are spread over two