#269 - Specialized’s eMTB Product Team on Motor Development, Future Models, & Battery Regulations

Last year we visited Specialized’s eMTB facility in Cham, Switzerland to ride some bikes and poke around their ebike innovation centre. We sat down with Jan Talavasek, Marco Sonderegger, and Joe Buckley, three of the key people behind eMTB development at Specialized, to talk about past, present, and future. We also got a special appearance from the venerable Marketing Todd, who swears Specialized is done making new bikes and that we should stop asking sneaky questions about future models.
They had a lot to say, and we got a few tidbits out of them, so the pod runs a bit long. Alternatively, you can read the article + photos here (pinkbike.com/news/interview-specializeds-emtb-…). This was recorded before we'd figured out how to press the big red button to do video podcasts, but we'll be back soon with our regularly scheduled podcast.
03:07 The Evolution of E-Bikes & the Development of the Turbo Levo
14:58 The Shift in Perception of eMTBs
30:52 Brand Equity & the Levo's Original Name
33:51 The Swiss Office
44:02 Future Developments in eMTBs
50:20 Understanding E-Bike Performance Metrics
56:51 The Impact of Market Timing
01:00:00 Engineering for Performance, Legislation, & Consumer Safety
01:12:04 Charging Technology and Battery Longevity
01:15:59 Data-Driven Design and Testing
01:24:02 Field Testing and Component Tracking