New Specialized Turbo Tero 3.0 e-Bikes Are Ready for Mountain and Tarmac Domination

One team at the front of this trend is Specialized. This crew has been around since 1974, time in which they’ve engineered and manufactured nearly every kind of component you can find on a bike. Once they rose to ride alongside manufacturers like Trek, Giant, and Bianchi, their ability to produce podium-winning vehicles will never be erased from history.

Even more, this team has begun leaving their mark on history in the making with their newest e-bike family, the Tero. You’ve already met the Tero 5.0, earlier this week, but now, you’ll be getting to know the Tero 3.0 and its Step-Through counterpart.

All the bikes in the Tero lineup include an aluminum frame with a signature tube construction that’s sure to tell you “That’s a Tero” no matter when and where you see it. A large downtube that also houses the mid-mounted motor and battery pack offers the bike not only a solid look but one that’s sure to keep your center of gravity low to the ground and easily controlled.

Another stand-apart feature is that seat stay offset you see on the rear triangle. This feature is carried out through all Tero models but looks weirdest on the Step-Through. Luckily there’s a seat tube to hold the Step-Through’s tubing together.

Worth noting about these two bikes is that they’re both priced at $3,250 (€2,800 at current exchange rates). Pretty dang good considering the MTB-framed 3.0 looks like it could handle some one-tracks with absolutely no issues. I’m just not sure how big of a drop, if any, should be attempted. Sure, both the bikes will handle curbs with no problems, especially since the Step-Through is meant for urban jungles, but you should still ask Specialized exactly how much punishment the MTB-framer will take.

Now for the good stuff, motor and battery. Since both bikes are priced the same, logic will tell us that they’re both equipped with the same components. That’s true for the 3.0 family as the only difference seems to be the frame styling.

For the Tero 3.0 class, Specialized is bringing their 2.0E mid-mounted motor with a 250-watt nominal rating and 50 Nm (37.9 lb-ft) of torque. Sure, it may not be the biggest motor around but Specialized does have a history of working with Brose, another solid e-bike component manufacturer on the market. Whether this is a Brose-engineered motor is unspecified on the manufacturer’s website.

Powering this motor is another Specialized branded component, a U2-530 battery with 530 watts of juice. How far that’ll take you is difficult to gauge as ride conditions vary from one adventure to the next, but depending on what ride modes you select, you should be able to play around with that aspect. One neat feature is that the battery is removable, so if you’ve got another lying around in your backpack, just swap it out and keep going. Drivetrains are offered by a Shimano with Alivio 9-speed shifter and derailleur but a CS-HG400 cassette with 11-36 T.

Specialized also mentions that their new bikes are good for just about everything, including cargo carrying. This couldn’t be more obvious in the Step-Through option as it’s framing style could be considered similar to another urban rider from this manufacturer, the Como and Como SL.

At the rate manufacturers are putting e-bikes together, there may just be another model that comes out in the next six months. Until then, you can take the Tero as Specialized’s answer to a currently booming industry.