1ST IMPRESSION
seems to be a different charging port design, even when the same charger is used. Cannondale has a little trap door with a foam seal on the inside to keep water out, which is simple and does work. However, removing the battery from the frame for charging is somewhat long-winded because you have to loosen a latch on the plastic cover underneath the down tube then unlock the battery with a key before releasing another latch to finally free the battery from the frame.
And there are a couple of other odd choices – it uses an old spoke-mounted magnet for the speed sensor and it has a six-bolt front hub but a Centerlock rear. Now, I appreciate that the front hub is from Formula rather than Shimano, but I can’t imagine fitting a matching Shimano front hub would break the bank, especially on a bike that was initially £7K. Not that I’ve got anything good to say about the Shimano MT410 rear hub. After only two months of riding, the sealed cartridge bearing on the non-drive side seized solid. Replacement bearings are only £4.99, but this shouldn’t happen with such low mileage.
And my rant isn’t over. There’s a current trend in the bike industry to route all cables internally and it does look sleek, but Cannondale’s stem face-plate routing system is fiddly at best if you want to put the stem down. The oval headset spacers split, so you can unclip them from the fork steerer, but you can’t actually put these spacers on top of the stem to pre-load the headset. It’s crazy, as it makes it really difficult to experiment with a lower stem position when setting the bike up.
Thankfully, the rest of the components are sorted. I like the Fabric Funguy grips with their mushroom pattern (get it?) and Cannondale specs different-length droppers depending on the frame size – 125mm on the size Small, 150mm on the Medium and 170mm on Large and
XL. And despite the tight cable routing, the Downlow dropper has a light lever action and snappy return speed, even if there is quite a bit of rotational play out of the box.
HOW IT RIDES
On my first outing, the Moterra felt agile and manoeuvrable but also a bit wild. This was mostly due to the Maxxis Rekon rear tyre, which is fast-rolling but the shallow knobs offer limited braking traction and grip. To tame the ride, I swapped it to a Maxxis High Roller II and I recommend you do the same.
Once I’d changed the rear tyre,
I set about experimenting with the handlebar height to push a bit more weight over the front, but there’s no way to get the bars down unless you cut the steerer and after that, there’s no way back, so it could prove to be a very costly experiment.
Like the Moterra LT, the Bosch motor is clocked slightly to help position the battery lower in the frame, in theory to improve handling. However, with its 350mm bottom bracket height, the Moterra Neo Carbon 2 is just as high off the ground as the
LT, and that makes more of a difference here because this bike has less travel. In fact, I’d argue that it’s way more important to position the 80kg rider lower in the frame than to worry about the 4.47kg battery placement.
Even with the high BB, on flatter trails and rolling singletrack, the Moterra has good pace and feels incredibly poised. The damping in the Rockshox Lyrik Select fork is less sophisticated than Rockshox’s high-end units, and spikes with more regularity on really rough chop but shouldn’t hold you back.
And while I can’t speak for the other frame sizes, to say how much the Proportional Response Tune plays a part, the rear suspension on the medium felt totally dialled.
So the Moterra Neo Carbon 2 is not quite the jack of all trades that Cannondale claims. It does have a pretty decent skillset, though, and like the Moterra LT, it’s also currently discounted, so you’re getting a sleek carbon frameset with a Bosch motor and big battery for quite a bit less than full retail. Which is the polite way of saying that this goes a long way to help overlook the stubborn stem and elevated ride height. You’ll also have money left over to invest in a grippier rear tyre and better wheels, maybe even a 27.5in rear wheel to lower the BB height and slacken the angles a touch. All of which seems like a lot of hassle, especially given that there are plenty of sorted e-bikes to choose from.
HIGHS
Good value for money at the discounted price. Suspension is custom tuned across the four frame sizes. Agile and lively ride quality.
LOWS
Seatstays feature ugly kickstand and mudguard mounts. You need a key to unlock the battery. Maxxis Rekon rear tyre lacks bite and braking traction, wheels use cheap unreliable hubs. It’s heavy and the BB is high.