Household Name Raleigh Bikes Still Going Strong, Drops e-MTB for Under $2K

What the cover photo shows is an e-bike, no doubt about that, but what kind of e-bike? Well, that’s a whole different story. That quirky creature you see is a Raleigh bike. Yes, the same Raleigh that most of you and your parents enjoyed, some as their first bike. So I was surprised to see that this legendary name is still alive. More so, these folks are still doing what they do best, offering affordable bikes to the common folk.

The particular specimen you see here is the Talus iE. It’s considered a hardtail trail bike by its creators, so let’s have a closer look to find out if the $1,700 price tag is enough to get this bike onto your birthday wish list.

The main noticeable feature you should take into account is the frame construction and a bit about the geometry. Raleigh chose to put together an aluminum alloy frame that looks normal at first glance, but once you have a closer look at that down tube, you easily begin to understand that a ride on a proverbial mountain might leave you walking back.

If you didn’t quite catch what I'm referring to, look closely at the section of the down tube with the battery on it. You see how it’s been thinned out to encompass the battery pack? Yeah, I'm not so sure that’s the best design to put into a so-called MTB. Then again, if you read the not-so-fine print Raleigh mentions on its site, it makes it clear it’s a bike meant for roads and gravel paths. So no jumps or drops with this one.

Since I mentioned the battery earlier, the Talus iE has an SR Suntour Li-ion pack with 410Wh of juice to feed that motor on the rear hub. That's another reason why this bike probably shouldn’t be taken up or down mountainsides. That’s not to say it’s not perfect for the roads Raleigh mentions. The motor is an SR Suntour E25 Performance rear hub brushless unit rated for 250W and pushing out a decent 60 Nm (44 lb-ft) of torque. It may not sound like much, but when you consider that bigger e-MTB motors only come in with an extra 15-30 Nm (11-22 ft-lb) of torque, you’ll understand that this is enough on flats.

The rest of the drivetrain is covered mostly by Shimano with a 9-speed setup controlled by an Altus RD rear derailleur and Altus Rapid Fire shifter. For brakes, Tektro chips in with a hydraulic disc and 180-mm (7.08 in) rotors. Since no rear suspension is available, some vibrations are taken care of by another SR Suntour component, an XCM-DS fork with 80 mm (3.15 in) of travel. Not much, but enough to take care of smaller bumps and vibrations.

All in all, with everything up and running properly, you’re looking at a range between 15 miles (24 km) to 62 miles (100 km), which is pretty darn decent considering it’s a flat runner for under $2K. If it’s anything like the older Raleigh bikes you may be accustomed to, then you’re going to be riding it for some time.