Yeti's New E-bike And The Great Divide in E-MTBs

Tuesday this week, the embargo lifted on Yeti's new e-mtb. This new bike, the MTe, is a lightweight, sub-40 lb e-bike. This pairs with Yeti’s existing e-mtb, which is a heavier and more powerful machine. Yeti’s e-bike offerings are emblematic of a larger trend that we see from lots of brands. Most e-mtbs that we see released are at either extreme of the weight/power/range spectrum and are either optimized to be lightweight or to have lots of power. This got me reflecting on how bikes are sold and why the two extremes are popular. Would a more central option be a better choice for most riders? And what does the future of e-mtbs look like? Will we continue to see bikes optimizing for one of these factors or the other, or will we see more bikes in the middle of the spectrum?

It is not surprising that brands are coming out with bikes at one extreme or the other. One of the biggest reasons why this is, is that bikes are easier to sell when they have some cutting-edge number that they can lean behind. It's easier for marketers to shape a narrative around a groundbreaking number like weight or power. After all, it's no secret that cyclists love numbers; bikes have been defined by their characteristics quantified in numbers since the beginning of time.

It's easy as a consumer to get caught up in shopping the numbers and either buying a bike at one end or the other of the spectrum. However, wouldn't most riders be happier with something in the middle of the spectrum of bikes? I would guess that most people would want a little extra power and find the range limiting on the lightweight bikes, and just don’t need all the extra weight that comes along with a heavy n’ powerful model. After all, a Swiss Army knife is never the best tool for the job, but its versatility is the reason why so many people carry them around every day.

I am curious to see how e-mtbs are going to evolve in the next few product cycles. Will we see more bikes serving the middle of the spectrum? In short, I'm not so sure. I am convinced that we will continue to see bikes being made on the lighter-weight side of the spectrum. I think there's a segment of the market that wants an e-bike that looks and rides like a normal mtb but just has a little boost to ride a little further and faster.

The other side of e-mtbs’ future is less clear to me. Logically, if I were to forecast the future of the powerful and heavy side of the e-mtb spectrum, it seems like the likely end product would be an e-dirtbike. These bikes are already on the market, but they fall into the dirt bike segment rather than an e-mtb. Furthermore, traditional bike brands don't serve them. With that being said, I’m confident that consumers will always be open to the idea of having more and more power. So, maybe there is a future for a product that takes some design cues from traditional mtbs, and some cues from dirt bikes, making some type of hybrid solution that's in between what we see in the heavyweight e-bikes and the electric dirt bikes.

Through writing this piece, I was reflecting on what type of e-mtb I would put resources into developing if I was running a legacy traditional mtb brand like Yeti. With some thought, I came to the conclusion that a lightweight e-bike would likely allow a company like Yeti to leverage their existing strengths in the best way. A lighter-weight e-bike’s frame design is typically closer to a traditional mtb, so there may be some carryover tech within the frame design. Yet, the more important asset to think about is the brand's existing customers. My hypothesis is that existing cyclists would be more likely to be shopping for lighter-weight e-bikes because they want a bike that handles closer to their normal bike. So I think that it would make sense for companies to use lightweight e-mtbs to cater to their existing customers who already know and love the brand, rather than finding new customers. In summary, I suspect that the lightweight e-mtb category will continue to be popular, the heavyweight e-mtbs to take some more design cues from mtbs, and maybe a few bikes in the middle catered to people who want a bike in between what's good for lots of things—even if the former does not sell as well.