We Have Your Inside Look at the Haibike Xduro Superracer

Haibike has been in the bike business since 1996, entering the e-bike category in 2010. Haibike has dedicated their entire e-bike family to using Bosch mid-mount motors, and with 27 e-bikes in their catalog, Haibike expects to be a player when the words “battery” and “bicycle” conjoin. We take a look at Haibike’s Xduro Superrace, complete with the same 36-volt, 350-watt Bosch motor found on many other bikes; it’s just flipped upside down. Charging the motor is a 36-volt lithium-ion battery, and running the system is a Bosch Intuvia multifunctional display mounted on the handlebars.

THE SUPERRACE

Haibike actually makes two different versions of the Xduro Superrace—one with drop bars (Xduro Race) and one with a flat handlebar—and it is the latter option that will be landing in America in early spring. Haibike is renowned for being the first company to flip the Bosch motor, so that instead of it hanging down below the pedals, it is instead cradled inside the frame. It may just be an entirely subjective, visual detail, but the difference is striking—it’s like the difference of the national anthem being sung by Roseanne Barr or Taylor Swift. You be the judge.

Like the Specialized Turbo, the Superrace is based on a red aluminum frame and is built out with a lip-smacking list of high-end components. Where the Euro-spec Race model uses a Shimano 11-speed drivetrain to complement the drop bars, the Superrace runs with a 10-speed SRAM drivetrain with X0 trigger shifters pushing the chain over a single chainring up front and an 11-36 cog in back.

If you happen to be looking at the Superrace and still wondering why the retail price is so high, well, the wheels are one source of the cost. While cheap, open-mold carbon rims can now be off-loaded like any catch of tuna from a Boston-based trawler, these are not just any janky, no-name carbon wheels. Yes, Reynolds Attack wheels are Asian-made, but they are proven wheels of high pedigree, and they’re wrapped with equally proven Schwalbe tires.