New Zealand’s Velduro bikes are disrupting the e-bike market in a very simple way: by offering frame-only options for their eMTB and e-gravel bikes. The Kiwi brand only offers two models, the Rogue and, for drop bars, the Phantom. But each has plenty of room to adapt the platform to your specific needs. Both rely on the wildly powerful DJI Avinox motor system (the Phantom being currently the only gravel bike to do so) putting this small brand on the forefront of eMTB tech.

We had a chance to spend a very wet afternoon on a Rogue on Vancouver Island. Here’s a few thought on this interesting mid-pivot eMTB.

The gold and black colour scheme Velduro’s chosen for the Rogue always looks good
Velduro Rogue: frame only, built the way you want to ride it

Just a handful of brands, if that, offer a frame-only option for eMTBs, for a few reasons. Design is always changing and, with eMTB offering higher levels of integration, product managers at brands still want quite a bit of control over how bikes are built up, at least as they roll out of the factory.

Velduro is willing to trust riders to know their needs best. While the New Zealand brand does offer two complete Rogue builds, it also sells it as a frame-only. That lets riders build the bike up the way they want, without having to try get rid of parts after customising a stock build.

Flip chips, at the linkage and at the shock mount, add versatility to the Rogue. The mid-pivot idler helps separate chain movement from the suspension movement, an important job on any eMTB

The Rogue also offers several different travel options, from 160mm to 172mm out back and from 160mm to 180mm forks. There’s also the choice of 27.5″ or 29″ rear wheels via a pair of flip chips, making this carbon fibre frame suit a range of riding styles. All of that is controlled by an “I-trac” mid-pivot suspension design, helping the Rogue stay smooth over the chunky, shefly terrain.

DJI Avinox remains the talk of the eMTB world, delivering staggering power in a relatively compact package. With 105Nm torque and a time-limited burst of power in excess of 1,000 watts, it’s left competitors chasing its stats. It’s more than muscle, though, as I found out.

It was a wet, wet December day.
A wet afternoon riding the Rogue

I picked up a Rogue specced out in a burly build from NRG. While there’s a range of ways to set up and build out the Rogue, this was definitely on the more agressive end. A Fox 38 up front and DHX with Helix coil spring out back handled suspension. Hefty Hope wheels laced to Hope Pro 5 hubs were finished with full Cush Core inserts and meaty Maxxis tires suited to the end-of-season wet weather. Add in a 240mm One-Up dropper post, Chromag bars and stems, Hope eMTB cranks and Hope’s latest, greatest, most powerful EVO GR4 brakes and this was a 55-56lbs eMTB built to thrive on the toughest trails around.

The Rogue was quite at home when things got steep

The Rogue wears that weight well, though. There were times when it felt like it was just floating along, skipping across chunder and hunting for traction. MX builds are, for eMTBs, almost always the best option in my opinion. The mid-pivot and that weight add traction, while the smaller wheel keeps this beast cornering nimbly enough to be fun on flowier sections, not just in the gnar. You could build this bike up quite a bit lighter to suit the shorter travel settings and it’d be more spry. In this burly build, it handled some awkwad landings and poor line choices with grace and stability.

DJI’s Avinox system is surprisingly compact for its power
Avinox advantage

Avinox was surprising, not just for the power. There was an unexpected amount of finesse to the miniature monster hiding in Velduro’s downtube. That made it very quick to adapt to the system’s added power, on greasy, wet trails as well as on access roads or doubletrack. Kind of like that scene in Beauty and the Beast where Beast learns to use cutlery and drink from a tea cup with his pinky up.

Combined with added traction from the Rogue’s square-edge-eating mid-pivot design, this 1-2 punch of finesse and power had me guiding the Velduro up sketchy sections of wet rock in the worst weather I’ve ridden in yet this year, near effortlessly. Sections that often force me off my bike were behind me almost before I realized it, which is good as pushing this beast of a bike is less fun. I’ve had the chance to ride a ton of different eMTB motor systems and the Avinox, true to hype, feels different.

Having just a short window with the Rogue, I spent most of the time with the Avinox in full beast-mode. It absolutely eats up elevation, barely slowing down for even the steepest grades. That also requires a ton of power, of course, and Velduro’s choice to spec an 800Wh battery makes a lot of sense. You could greatly extend the range of the Rogue by using the more reasonable power settings, but I was still surprised how quickly the max, and extra boost modes ate through the battery.

Hope GR4 4-piston calipers helped along by massive Galfer Shark rotors
Sidenote: A new Hope

With the Velduro being brought into Canada by NRG, this test bike was outfitted with a full suite of parts from the Nelson, B.C. distributor’s best brands. That included the brand-new, high-power EVO GR4 brakes from U.K. brand Hope. With these just being released, the Velduro ride was our first chance to try out Hope’s latest and greatest.

Hope GB4 give full power, full quality alternative to Mavens. SRAM’s roll-out of the super-powerful Maven brakes may have caught the industry off-guard. But, while the Mavens were the first, they’re no longer the best of the high-power brakes out there. Hope is one of a few smaller brands to release a direct competitor to the Maven line and the EVO GR4 is impressive.

Hope has a lighter lever feel than SRAM’s big stoppers. This let me descend long, rowdy trails with noticably less arm and hand fatigue. The EVO GR4 are still wildly powerful, of course. It made reigning in the 56lbs Velduro easy, like I was trying to slow down a trail bike, not a hefty eMTB. A lighter lever and more modulation made making my way down rain-soaked rocks less sketchy than it could have been (though not not sketchy…). Mavens are good. Hope’s latest stoppers are easily better.

Velduro in Canada

Velduro does offer the Rogue (and Phantom) in Canada. The small N.Z. brand is preparing for its next batch of bikes to arrive in early 2026. Frames are $7,200 without a frame or, with a custom tuned Fox Float X2 Factory, $7,900. Complete builds run from $11,000 to $14,300.