...with Cannondale's Habit Neo 2
Cannondale have taken their most playful trail bike – the Habit – and fitted a powerful Bosch motor and battery to it, making the ups as fun as the downs without taking away from the descents.
We're incredibly impressed with how Cannondale's range of mountain bikes have come on over the past few years, becoming slacker, lower and more capable than ever. So much so that both Barry and Josh have both opted for the Habit as their go to trail shredders! Albeit the non-electric versions the story of the Habit transfers over to the Habit Neo. And with the Habit Neo 2 being equipped with Bosch's 625Wh battery and Performance Line CX motor that offers upto 67 miles of assistance, the reading on the fun-ometer are only going to be higher!
The Habit Neo 2 comes with serious features that makes it a responsive, heavy hitting trail e-bike that will take on pretty much anything you chuck at it. The bigger 29 inch wheels are fast becoming the new standard in mountain biking and the Habit is one that has adopted the trend. Offering far less rolling resistance and a smoother ride, 29ers are way faster in straight line speed but often deemed cumbersome when trails get twisty. The Habit does a good job of knocking this theory by managing to keep the bike incredibly agile and nimble. Rolling on reliable Maxxis rubber the bike offers excellent grip across a variety of terrain.
Another choice of kit that we really like on the bike is the burly Magura MT 4-Pot Trail Sport brakes with 220mm rotor on the front and 203 on the rear. The 4 cylinder callipers link up with these huge rotors offers some serious anchorage to reign in the inevitable addition in weight.
To help save on weight the Habit Neo 2 is armed with a full carbon front triangle in order to help compensate battery and motor weight, while being linked up to an alloy rear triangle. A feature that really sets Cannondale's mountain bikes out from the rest however is something they have implemented called Proportional Response. This adjusts the suspension layout for each size of bike to ensure that riders have optimum suspension performance regardless of their height. We're really impressed by this and demonstrates how Cannondale are committed to nailing geometry.
