Electric Overlanding: Can We Still Adventure?

James Moore · 2026-06-10

The biggest shifts rarely come from new technology. They come from new ways of seeing the world. What happens when we stop focusing on bikes, and instead think about the possibilities they create? Seven days in California. Two E-Mountainbike readers. A new Specialized bike that challenges the way we think about innovation. And one question for you: Are you coming next Tuesday? We're standing naked on a beach with two of our readers, and Ben from Specialized. Man, it's cold. Grinning like idiots, we hop across the sand as the first rays of morning light hit the coastline. A waterfall crashes straight into the Pacific. Kike throws his arms into the air. Nobody says much. They don't have to. The look in everyone's eyes says it all: We're exactly where we're supposed to be. ### A Once-in-a-Lifetime Invitation The idea started a year earlier. Specialized had invited me to California to experience a prototype of a new bike concept. Sleeping bags, campfires, Birkenstocks, the Sierra Nevada. Somewhere between dusty trails, wrong turns and stories about bears around the fire, a thought started taking shape. Back in Germany, I called Ben - Brand Voice Leader at Specialized: "You don't know it yet," I told him, "but you're going to launch this bike together with E-MOUNTAINBIKE. And we're going to do it in a way that neither Specialized nor any other bike brand has ever done before." Instead of a traditional press launch, we wanted to bring real people. Not journalists. Not influencers. Not pro athletes. Readers. So together, we created an invitation: "Specialized is at the beginning of a new chapter. One that expands our understanding of what's possible on a performance eMTB, and challenges the way we think about innovation itself. And you can be part of it - long before the rest of the world even knows it exists." What happened next surprised even us. Thousands of readers started the application process, and many never finished it. Of course, we could have made it easier, but that wasn't the point. We weren't looking for as many applications as possible. We were looking for the right people. In the end, more than 300 readers invested over an hour into their application. Two made it through: Jonathan from Idaho, USA, and Sasha from Ecuador. Together, we'd explore San Francisco and California on two wheels, ride where mountain biking was born, camp in the wilderness, go behind the scenes at Specialized, spend a night at founder Mike Sinyard's house, and keep returning to the same question: What does innovation really mean? ### How Big Is Your World These Days? The smell of freshly fried dumplings drifts through the air. Chopsticks circle around the last dumpling balanced on the rack. For hours we've been wandering through San Francisco. Chinatown. North Beach. One side street then another. No destination, no schedule - just following whatever catches our attention. At some point, we realize how unusual that feels. And how good it feels. We live in a world with more options than ever before, yet somehow our worlds keep getting smaller. Komoot plans our routes. Social media tells us what adventures are worth having. Our dreams arrive neatly packaged and ready for checkout. We know which bike to buy, which trail to ride, and which photo we're supposed to post afterwards. But do we still know how to explore? Jonathan puts it perfectly a few days later: > "Mountain biking has shrunk from its roots." Mountain biking used to be about discovering something new. Today, many of us ride the same trails, visit the same trail centers, and return to the same bike parks over and over again. That's not to say they're bad. It's because they're familiar. Because they're safe. Because we already know what's waiting for us. ### The Real Meaning of Innovation This trip wasn't about the bike. It was about what the bike made possible. The Specialized Levo X isn't just another eMTB. It's a tool for redefining adventure. With its extended range and capable motor, you can cover 50 miles in a day, climb 5,000 feet of elevation, and still have battery left for the ride back to camp. But the real innovation? It's the permission to get lost. To take the wrong turn. To follow a trail you've never seen on a map. To wake up in the middle of nowhere and decide where the day takes you. ### What We Learned on the Road - Adventure isn't about the destination. It's about the detours. - Real connections happen when you ditch the schedule. - The best stories come from wrong turns and unexpected encounters. - Innovation is about opening doors, not closing them. - Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is nothing at all. ### Are You Coming Next Tuesday? That question - "Are you coming next Tuesday?" - isn't about a specific date. It's about an attitude. It's about saying yes to the unknown. It's about trading certainty for possibility. We're not promising you a free trip to California. We're not promising you a new bike. But we are promising you this: If you show up with an open mind and a willingness to explore, you might just find exactly where you're supposed to be. The world's gotten smaller. It's time to make it big again.