Video: Does This $2,000 eMTB Conversion Kit Really Work?

Seth Alvo of Berm Peak Express tests out Bimotal, Inc 's Elevate motor that turns standard mountain bikes into eMTBs. In his latest video, he bolts the Elevate system to his enduro bike for some laps at his local mountain, Kanuga Bike Park in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

The Bimotal Elevate sells for $1,995, not pocket change but far less than most eMTBs. The concept is simple: The motor attaches via a quick release to an adapter on the bike's brake caliber. The brake rotor is replaced with a combination brake rotor/gear that meshes with the motor. The battery is stored on the bike's downtube, and a thumb throttle controls the motor. The motor weighs about 3.3 three pounds, the battery weighs 3.5 pounds and the rotor/gear weighs seven ounces for a total of just over seven pounds of weight added to the bike.

"The other day I did about five laps here at Kanuga," he says in the video. "That's 2,500 feet of elevation gain and I still have plenty of battery left."

Alvo says he installed the thumb throttle lever on his left bar so that it wouldn't interfere with his shifting. By feathering the throttle he can use the Elevate as a pedal assist, augmenting his pedaling and preserving battery life. Full tilt, though, and he rockets uphill with the Elevate. He notes that the Elevate's one-way bearing doesn't add any additional resistance when pedaling without using the motor. 

Alvo says he's concerned about the motor's weight on the downhill as the additional three pounds reduces the rear suspension.

"On jumps you might not notice this at all, but if you're on a descent going really fast through something chattery, especially if you're the kind of person that's really in tune with how your suspension feels, you're definitely gonna notice it and you're going to want to take it off," he says "And the good this is you can."

Using the motor's two quick-release levers, Alvo quickly removes the motor and stows it in his pack for the downhill, effectively transitioning his bike back to an analog mountain bike and tearing downhill.

Alvo then answers the question as to if the motor can be placed on the front wheel. It can be.

"It adds a ton of weight to the front of the bike," he says, noting that the battery is now stored in a handlebar bag. His rear pedal drive is in play, too, essentially turning his bike into an all-wheel drive vehicle. "But it's actually pretty good in certain situations. For example, if you're in loose terrain where your front wheel can wash out you can hit the throttle and it'll pull it back straight and it'll actually upright you."

With the front configuration, he rides his enduro bike through 4-inches of snow and even up some snow-covered bike park features.

"Things that would've been very, very difficult for me to ride a normal mountain bike in I was just blasting through," he says about having the motor on the front. "It's not something I'd leave on the bike all the time, but it is super fun."

In his conclusion, Alvo say's he's definitely a fan of the Elevate.

"E-mountain biking, if you've ever tried it, is extremely fun," he says. "But you might note it's a completely different activity than analog mountain biking. And if you want to do both, you need to have two potentially expensive bikes and do maintenance on both of them. This lets you have your cake and eat it, too. And just like it can turn one bike into two bikes if you have limited funds, it's great for people with limited space."

Bimotal Inc. founder and CEO Toby Ricco was a Tesla engineer who loved mountain biking. After a skiing injury that made climbing painful and difficult, he put his engineering talent to work designing an electric-assist conversion system for his analog mountain bike rather than spending the money on a new eMTB. The project became a passion that turned into a business, and Ricco left Telsa and launched Bimotal Inc. in 2021.

"We see electric bikes as a sort of gateway to get exercising again," Ricco says. "It's not necessarily a crutch for people to be lazy, it's something that'll actually increase the general health of our population in addition to the air pollution benefits they give us."

The specs for the current version are impressive. The elevate turns analog bikes into Class 2 ebikes at 750 Watts with a top speed of 20 m.p.h. It advertises a 10 to 15-mile flat range, or 1,600 to 3,500 feet of climbing on a charge. One battery lasts an average of 1.5 hours of continuous trail riding. Because the Elevate isn't connected to the drive chain the bike functions as normal when pedaling. If the battery dies while riding, the bike functions as normal with only an additional 7.5 pounds of weight.

Ricco is working on another version that will incorporate true pedal assist for a Class 1 designation and a faster version for Class 3. Bimotal Inc. also offers a version for search and rescue wheeled litters and is developing a motor for wheelchair conversion.