Ok, here we go, fictional future “what if” the ultimate Enduro bike existed……..what would it look like? And what characteristics would it have? Will it make hard enduro….easy enduro?!

What we know right now, engines are slowly moving to electric, put the pitch forks down guys and read on with an open mind. We are currently as of writing experiencing the inception of electric dirt bikes, some made with enduro in mind, hello Stark Varg, hello Primo flux performance, oh and hello Arctic Leopard. The truth is, is that these machines currently could never replace our 2T’s or 4T’s that we love so much…but why? Well, you need a clutch and anyone saying otherwise has never spooled up their fly wheel and dropped their clutch to get an instant boost of obstacle conquering power, creating and mitigating power with your left index finger is more precise than your right wrist. And yes some of these new electric machines have “clutches”, but not really, except for the E-Motions, which are under powered trials bikes. What would a clutch look like on an 80 horse power beast with as much torque as a muscle car? And then there’s the audible note of the engine which lets us know just what kind of a boost we’re about to release when we dump that clutch…
Lets not forget though that when the combustion engine was a couple of years into it’s development, it was crap, you needed a ridiculous amount of capacity to produce little power, and it’s power to weight ratio was out of whack. The next question we need to ask is, is there any room for more development of the 300cc enduro motors found in our beloved KTM’s/Sherco’s/Huski? or whatever your flavor of enduro weapon? The answer is no, but the answer is also it doesn’t need to be more advanced….or so you think. Now enter the ultimate Hard Enduro bike that does not exist yet!!!
Yes It’s electric people….sorry to say, and here’s why. We are getting 80 horses power from a drive train comparable to today’s combustion engines on our small enduro bikes. Hold on a moment though…batteries are part of the equation, and they are heavy…energy watt hours per kilogram are not comparable to my 9 litre fuel tank, charge times are too high. Yes, that’s why we looking to what the next few years ahead of us will hold.
Now lets look to the future we know is imminent, battery tech is advancing rapidly, semi-solid and solid state batteries are going into production by end 2024/beginning of 2025, current batteries that offer 220 watt/hours per kilogram will be usurped by battery tech that offers double those numbers…and no, not in 10 years time….more like three or four years time. So the current 7KW battery found in the Stark Varg will be replaced by 14KW…but you would never need 14KW, so lets bring this down to 10 or even 12KW, because now we have a bike that’s lighter than any of the competitors, and goes further than a 9 litre tank of gas, charges in a quarter of the time of the current battery tech, and that’s just the battery tech advancements to look forward to, there’s the motor too that’s benefitting from rapid development.
Current electric motors in all the electric bikes we listed are radial flux, on the horizon and already being used on certain vehicles are the axial flux and raxial flux, lighter and more powerful than current radial motors, so now we have the opportunity to save space in the engine bay, lower the battery for better handling, get even more power out of the unit(if you can even handle more power), but that’s my point, the current radial motor in the Varg creates 9HP per kilogram, you can double or even triple that with the predictions of where the axial/raxial outputs are going, read here if you want. So you’ll be shedding weight off the motor, the motor will consume less battery energy as it’s more efficient, so go on then, lets put that weight back into the battery for extra energy…or lets just have a full sized enduro bike that weighs under 90kgs has 80hp and goes further than it’s gas bike cousins.
Lets now add the characteristics to make this bike the ultimate enduro weapon. the primo flux performance has a digital clutch, the EM has a diaphragm clutch, our ultimate enduro machine could be coupled with either, and to know how much power we are feeding into the machine with the clutch engaged, we’ll have a small progressive dash light that ascends indicating the power level with the clutch engaged, can also be made to be audible, that at least solves the issue of knowing just how much pop you’re about to release…instrumental to hard enduro blips and static zaps!
Lastly, what may or may not be held with high regard in the sport….front wheel axial hub motors, the smallest form factor possible, I’m talking about in the hub, not visible, weighs very little but can produce at least a couple of horse power for a short period of time, think about every time you’re trying to get unstuck and your mate has to roll your front wheel by hand to help you get up or through that tricky section, hard enduro just became easy, a press of a button and your front wheel turns ever so slowly for a few seconds to give you that little advantage to overcoming that muddy hill you just can’t crest. I’m not a fan of this in particular as it starts removing the reason it’s “hard” enduro, it’s removing the skill set required to conquer that obstacle, and the reason we ride is so that we can measure ourselves against our peers, but the truth is that once one of the big manufacturers add this option to the bike line-up, all others must follow suit.
So there you have it, this will be the future, and if you don’t believe it right now, that’s fine too. I love my 2 smoker, but I also would love a lighter bike, with more power, that goes further and needs much less maintenance. What would you add to the list to make it even better? Leave a comment below.