Honda’s RN0 eMTB pairs a carbon frame built with Rotwild and a new 100 Nm Shimano motor, and it won’t be sold in North America.
The Honda RN0 is the carmaker’s return to mountain biking: a full-suspension electric bike with a carbon frame, a brand-new Shimano motor, and a price of roughly €10,000. It will not be sold in North America.
Honda’s comeback, built with Rotwild
Honda’s previous mountain bike effort, around the turn of the millennium, centered on the RN01 downhill bike and the G-Cross race team. This time the company teamed up with Rotwild Bikes on the frame, and the motor is not a Honda at all: it comes from Shimano.
Frame, suspension and geometry
The carbon frame has a distinctive shape and uses mixed wheel sizes: 29 inches up front and 27.5 inches at the rear. A linkage-driven single-pivot layout delivers 145 mm of rear travel, backed by a 160 mm fork, and the head angle is 65 degrees. It comes in small, medium and large. The large has a 480 mm reach, every size shares a 442 mm chainstay, and the oversized head tube lets riders shift the head angle by up to 0.6 degrees and the reach by up to 5 mm in either direction.
Honda says the motorcycle-inspired structure gives the frame extra give from side to side while keeping it stiffer vertically, which it claims helps cornering, braking and strength. Those are the manufacturer’s own claims. One practical quirk: the water bottle mounts on top of the top tube, which raises standover height.
A new Shimano motor and battery
The headline is the motor, whose full name has not been announced and is listed as EP8**. It produces 100 Nm, an increase of 15 Nm over the last generation, though still short of Bosch’s CX at 120 Nm and the Avinox at 150 Nm. Peak power is up to 750 W from 500 W, assistance now extends to 160 rpm instead of 120, and the unit weighs 2.3 kg, roughly 300 g lighter than today’s EP8.
The 720 Wh, 43.2-volt battery slides out from underneath the downtube. Shimano also supplies the Deore XT Di2 12-speed shifting with Auto Assist and Auto Shift, a color display measuring 2.2 inches with USB-C charging and Bluetooth pairing to the Shimano Connect app, and a wireless handlebar remote.
Honda RN0 spec highlights
- Weight, per Honda: 23.5 kg (about 51.8 pounds)
- Suspension: Fox 36 Float Factory fork and Fox Float X Factory shock
- Brakes: Shimano Deore XT with 203 mm rotors
- Wheels and tires: DT Swiss H1900 wheels with 2.5-inch Schwalbe Albert tires
- Dropper and saddle: Crankbrothers Highline 3 and Ergon SM10
Honda has not confirmed an exact price beyond the roughly €10,000 figure, and distribution details are still open. For more eMTB coverage on All The Stoke, see Rocky Mountain’s new eMTBs and Chris Akrigg riding impossible climbs on his eMTB.
For riders outside North America, the Honda RN0 is now one more eMTB to consider.
Source: Honda
