Velduro Rogue Review – The Unicorn eMTB I Didn’t Expect

When the Velduro Rogue first arrived at CB Cycles, I genuinely didn't know what to expect.

Velduro is a new Australian bike brand, and the Rogue was its first eMTB. On paper, the ingredients looked right. Aggressive geometry, plenty of travel, a full-power drive system and a frame designed for proper mountain biking.

But a spec sheet can't tell you how a bike actually feels on the trail.

And the Rogue surprised me almost immediately.

Plush, planted and somehow still incredibly playful

Normally there is a compromise.

A long-travel eMTB that feels incredibly planted through rough terrain can also feel heavy and reluctant when you want to move it around. Make a bike lively and playful, and you can sacrifice some of that planted confidence when things get fast and rough.

The Rogue somehow manages to do both.

It is ridiculously plush and composed when you point it through rough terrain. You can let the bike run, and the rear suspension just seems to keep finding grip and absorbing hits.

But pull up on the bars, load the bike into a lip or change direction quickly and it suddenly feels incredibly lively.

Plush. Planted. Poppy. Playful.

It sounds contradictory, but that's probably the best way I can describe the Rogue.

It's a bit of a unicorn.

The rear suspension is exceptional

The standout feature for me is the rear end.

I've ridden a lot of mountain bikes and eMTBs, and the Rogue has one of the best-performing rear suspension platforms I've ridden.

There is a huge amount of usable traction, particularly when the terrain gets rough, but it doesn't achieve that by simply feeling soft or dead.

Push into the bike and it gives something back.

That makes it possible to plough through a rough section when you want to, then immediately start playing with the trail again.

For a company's first bike, the suspension performance is frankly mental.

I was accidentally overshooting jumps

One of the strangest things when I first started riding the Rogue was what happened on trails I already knew well.

I was overshooting jumps.

Not by a few centimetres either. On familiar features I was unintentionally landing one to two bike lengths further down the trail than I normally would.

I wasn't consciously trying to jump further.

The bike was simply generating more speed and more pop than I was expecting.

Once I recalibrated to it, that characteristic became one of my favourite things about the Rogue. Load it into a transition and there is a surprising amount of energy waiting to come back.

That's particularly impressive for a full-power eMTB.

24.8 kg ready to ride

My Rogue build came in at approximately 24.8 kg including Burgtec B-Rage pedals.

My build evolved while I owned it, including moving from a RockShox ZEB Ultimate to a Fox Podium fork.

The complete setup included:

• Fork: RockShox ZEB Ultimate, later Fox Podium
• Rear shock: Fox Float X2
• Wheels: Wingman carbon wheels with Sidekick Pro hub
• Tyres: Schwalbe Magic Mary Radial / Albert Radial
• Drivetrain: SRAM X0 Eagle Transmission
• Brakes: SRAM Maven Silver
• Dropper: RockShox Reverb AXS
• Handlebar: OneUp Carbon, 50 mm rise
• Stem: Deity Copperhead, 35 mm
• Saddle: Ergon Pro
• Pedals: Burgtec B-Rage

It wasn't built to chase a number on the scales. It was built as a proper aggressive trail/enduro eMTB that I could ride hard.

At 24.8 kg, the result felt remarkably manageable for what the bike was capable of.

What surprised me most: there was basically no adjustment period

Normally when I change bikes, there is an adjustment period.

You spend the first few rides working out where the weight sits, how hard you can push the front, when the rear is going to break traction, how the bike responds to a jump and how much input it needs to change direction.

I didn't really experience that with the Rogue.

It felt comfortable almost immediately.

I could get on it and ride it the way I naturally wanted to ride without consciously adapting my riding style around the bike.

That matters more to me than almost anything on a geometry chart.

It can plough without feeling like a plough bike

This is probably where the Rogue impressed me most.

There are bikes that are brilliant when you point them downhill and let them eat through everything in front of them. But sometimes that capability comes at the expense of everything else.

The Rogue can absolutely plough.

Let the suspension work and it is incredibly composed through rough terrain.

But it doesn't constantly want to plough.

You can pick it up, change lines, pop over something, play with little trail features and move the bike around underneath you.

That combination is difficult to get right, particularly on an eMTB carrying the additional mass of a motor and battery.

Velduro somehow pulled it off.

Who is the Rogue for?

I think the Rogue makes the most sense for someone who wants a serious eMTB but doesn't want their bike to feel like a motorbike with pedals.

If your idea of mountain biking involves finding side hits, jumping things that don't necessarily need to be jumped and moving around the trail rather than simply following the fastest line down it, there is a lot to like here.

At the same time, it has enough suspension performance and composure that you aren't giving up capability when the terrain becomes genuinely rough.

That's the combination that made the bike stand out to me.

An incredible first bike from Velduro

The thing I keep coming back to is that this is Velduro's first bike.

Bike companies normally spend generations refining suspension platforms and geometry to develop a bike with a distinctive ride characteristic.

Velduro came out of the gate with something that already feels remarkably complete.

The Rogue isn't good for a first attempt.

It's just a bloody good mountain bike.

After spending substantial time riding one myself, the rear suspension remains one of the things I remember most. Plush and planted when I needed it, but lively enough that I was accidentally sending familiar jumps significantly further than expected.

That's a strange combination.

And it's why I keep describing the Velduro Rogue as a bit of a unicorn.

Want to ride one?

Explore the Velduro Rogue range at CB Cycles, including complete bikes, framesets and demo options. We can also help with suspension setup, component selection and custom builds based on first-hand experience with the platform.

Or book a ride on our Velduro Rogue demo bike and experience it for yourself.  Velduro Rogue Demo Bike.