There’s a new e-bike in town. It defines a whole new category, boasts a benchmark super low weight, and is designed to tempt e-bike naysayers with the promise of extra power and a ‘natural’ ride feel. I’m talking about the Scott Lumen, a bike that’s all this and more – and aiming to be the best electric mountain bike out there for sure.

But I could just as easily be reading my old review of the Specialized Turbo Levo SL, launched in 2020 with the exact same fanfare.

Need to know:

• New ultra-lightweight XC e-bike from Scott, just 15.6kg in size small
• Lumen is based on the Spark XC race bike, with the same suspension design
• Powered by the TQ motor, with 50Nm torque and whisper-quiet ride
• Four carbon-fibre models in the range, including a Contessa 900 for ‘just’ £6,499
• Travel bumped up to 130mm from the 120mm Spark, and a 130mm fork

I was there, man. I saw it all, rode the SL at the launch down in South Africa and came away buzzing with the dream of using a motor that would power you up the climbs and get out of the way for the descents.

Three years later, I’m back again for the next epoch, this time in Tuscany (sucks to be me) aboard an even lighter but more powerful e-bike that really (really!) could be The One this time around.

And while it’s certainly true that Specialized did define a new market with the SL, just as Scott probably will with the Lumen, it’s equally true that both brands made some mistakes at launch.

Lumen’s time to shine

The Lumen is Scott’s e-bike version of a Spark, which as we know is a thoroughbred XC race bike with downcountry ideas.

The Lumen is already pretty much in a class of its own then, no other brands except BMC have attempted to make a no-compromises XC e-bike with the new TQ motor inside. And I do mean no compromises: the Lumen uses the same flex stay suspension design as the Spark, linkage, one-piece bar and stem, internal cable routing, and head angle adjustment.

Put the Spark and the Lumen side by side and you’ve got double vision, just like the Trek Fuel EXe mirrors the new EX.

It’s the internal shock from the Spark that is the rabbit in the hat here, letting the bikes appear so visually similar. Scott has eeked out the travel by another 10mm by moving the shock higher in the frame to make room for a motor, and that takes rear travel to 130mm, which is matched by the fork.

There are four models in the range, including an entry level women’s Contessa for £6,499

You won’t be surprised to hear the wheel size remains 29in only, and the bike is only available as a full carbon frame, with four options to choose from. The top of the range 900 SL here costs £14,699, the 900 is £9,299 and 910 will set you back £6,499. There’s also a women’s Contessa 900 for the same entry-level price.

Powering all of the bikes is the latest TQ-HPR50 motor you probably all heard about on the Trek Fuel EXe; it produces 50Nm of torque, 300W of peak power, at a weight of just 1,850g.

That balance of low weight and relatively high power is as yet unbeatable in the low-weight motor hierarchy and that helps contribute to a headline figure on the size small in top spec of 15.6kg (the XL I rode was a heftier 16.3kg). That would be pretty decent for a trail bike without a motor, let alone an e-bike with a 360Wh battery.

The small battery means Scott can get away with an equally diminutive downtube, and in fact the Lumen uses just 17% more frame volume than the Spark.

Remove the cover at the end of the downtube to gain access to the internal shock – Scott has designed its own silver-coloured end cap to make it easier

Hidden shock

Putting the shock inside the frame has a number of advantages to leaving it outside in the breeze, most obviously that it won’t get wet, muddy or scratched up in a crash. Scott also says it helps make the frame stiffer because there’s more supporting frame material around the mounting points and BB area, and the force transfer from the shock goes directly to that reinforced section.

The centre of gravity is lower too, although how much effect moving a few hundred grams is debatable, and the sturdy bottom section of the frame means the top can be engineered to be lighter for better weight balance.

If it’s hard for mud to get to the shock, it’s just as hard for you too. The air can is accessible via a little hatch, and is buried even deeper into the frame than on the Spark. Scott has fabricated a supersized valve cap to make things easier, and there’s a shock valve extender so you can actually get your shock pump threaded on.

Checking your sag is set right isn’t as easy as just ogling an o-ring, instead there’s a sticker on the seat tube with percentage increments, and a line on the rocker link pivot. To see how much travel you’ve used there’s a cut out on the non-driveside of the seat tube that gives you access to the body end of the shock hardware, and doubles as a window to view the o-ring.

It would be great if SRAM added ShockWiz on a future build to make this easier though. After all, when you’re spending nearly £15,000 on a bike, what’s £300 more?

160Wh range extender slots onto the water bottle mounts, but there’s still space for your water on the seat tube

Bringing the shock inside the downtube also makes space for two water bottles, which is great news because TQ has also developed a 160Wh range extender to prolong your riding time.

How much of course depends on the mode you put the bike in, your input, the terrain you’re riding as well as a bunch of other factors that are too numerous to go into here. But what we do know is it weighs 1,070g on our scales, and you can charge it at the same time as you do the main internal battery without a splitter cable, something you can’t on any other range extender we’ve tried.

Inside are high power cells rather than the high capacity cells inside the down tube, and that means you can access the last 10% of power there without it going into limp mode.

The Lumen climbs brilliantly thanks to the extra 50Nm of torque and its lightweight build

How it rides

The TQ motor is hard to see, nestled low and inconspicuously behind the cranks. It’s usually impossible to hear too, unless you’re really cranking it hard. Finally, it’s also almost imperceptible to feel either.

Honestly, it’s like it isn’t really there. I don’t mean that as negative criticism, riding the Lumen feels more akin to being aboard a good trail bike, so sophisticated is the extra assistance, the low weight of the bike and the drag-free motor when north of 25kph.

I switched off the motor for a couple of long descents and didn’t miss it, the 15kg weight of the bike lending it great stability without tipping it into sluggishness. It’s quick to accelerate and the frame feels more solid and robust than you could ever get from an XC bike like the Spark.

The suspension hasn’t changed that much from the Spark, Scott has added a little more progression to account for the extra weight, but the Lumen’s kinematics remain pretty linear, letting you tap into all of the 130mm travel available.

Descending on the Lumen is a joy, it’s like a well heeled trail bike, top 25kph and the input from the motor disappears imperceptibly

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows from the Lumen. The thinnest casing Super Race (formerly LiteSkin) Schwalbe Wicked Will tyres do not belong on an e-bike, despite Scott’s insistence that XC bikes need fast rolling tyres.

With air in they lack both bite and support, and tend to roll over in the corners unless pumped to silly psi levels. I had two flats in quick succession on my first ride out, and by the end of the day the parts bin at the launch in Massa Marittima, Tuscany, looked like a butcher’s bin overflowing with tyre carcasses dripping in sealant.

Tyres are not the only sacrifice Scott has made to chase the lowest weight possible. The Fox 34 up front is a good fork, but it belongs on an XC bike, not the hard charging trail bike the Lumen has become. Together with the tyres it’s just not solid enough and gives a disjointed approach to the front of the bike.

Fun, fast and way more capable than an XC bike – Scott needs to let the components catch up

And then there’s TwinLoc. Having the ability to lock out both your fork and shock when you’re racing XC is undeniably useful, just ask Nino Schurter. But on an e-bike I’m really not interested, the motor helps me when I’m climbing, and I actually found it easier to get up the technical climbs with TwinLoc in open mode.

If Scott had made the Lumen’s suspension much more active and plusher then I could see the point, you could use it to stiffen up the bike and take some of the load off the motor on climbs, or even firm up the suspension for trail centre descents. But the Lumen isn’t the plushest bike in the world, and it doesn’t bob too much when you’re pedalling it anyway.

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• How many of these epic UK descents have you ticked off?