The all-new Specialized Turbo Porto is a shape-shifting e-cargo bike

The Turbo Porto is Specialized’s latest e-bike and features what it calls a ‘long tail’ design with load-carrying capacity courtesy of a large loading area behind the rider.

Designed to be versatile and meet the changing demands of a utility bike, Specialized has made the rear loading area easily configurable with the option to purchase a range of accessories to tailor the bike to specific tasks.

The bike is powered by a 90Nm motor that is paired with a 710Wh battery for a claimed ride time of around five hours from a single charge. When it comes to charging the bike, the battery is removable, making it easy to charge inside a house or office.

• Read more: Charging your electric bike: Everything you need to know about e-bike batteries

Specialized has used a highly adjustable frame design that allows riders from 155-195cm to all fit on one size bike, making it easy for multiple riders to find the right position for them. The geometry of the bike has been tested and refined to work with both a fully laden and empty loading area.

© Specialized

The Turbo Porto is available in one frame size that fits riders between 155cm-195cm with easily adjustable saddle and bar height

With the use of both the rear ‘long tail’ loading area and the front-mounted rack the Turbo Porto has a maximum carrying capacity of 200kg including the rider.

With simplicity and ease of use in mind the Turbo Porto uses a belt drive system with an internally geared hub. This removes the need for drivetrain maintenance and increases the service intervals of the bike.

Vincent Poupon, Specialized Porto Product Manager said, “For the Porto, the R&D team took the same approach we do for winning mountain bike world championships. We assembled two mules with different wheel sizes and adjustable geometry. We not only asked our best riders to test them, we also involved moms, dads, kids, our smallest and our tallest colleagues to ride the bike in different configurations before we locked the most optimized geometry.”

• Read more: How to replace your car with an e-bike

At the rear of the Turbo Porto is an integrated rear light and Garmin Vario radar alert system that can notify the rider when another vehicle is approaching from behind. Turbo Porto also features an integrated lock at the front wheel, accepting optional ABUS chains or cables. Further, you can use “System Lock” in the Specialized App, which deactivates motor support, prevents others from connecting with the app an triggers an optional alarm when the bike is moved.

Accessories and pricing

As standard the Turbo Porto comes with a front and rear rack with the brand offering a full range of additional accessories to tailor the bike to the consumer’s needs. These include:

• Passenger seat
• Safety rails
• Foot platforms
• Foot pegs
• Coolcave rigid open pannier
• Soft side bag
• Rigid cargo base

© Specialized

A full range of accessories allows the Turbo Porto to match needs of the rider

The bike is available now from your nearest Specialized dealership with a retail price of £5,500 with the accessories also available through a retailer or directly from Specialized.

To keep up to date with all the newest cycling products make sure to check out the tech news section of the GCN website.

Specialized

Specialized is a bike manufacturer based in California, USA. The company produces bicycles and components for a wide variety of cycling disciplines. Specialized also sells a range of premium products under its S-works brand.