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Aventon Sinch Step-Through Review 2022

Aventon Sinch Step-Through E-Bike Review

The name of Aventon’s newest electric bike may ring a bell for those familiar with the brand, but though it’s positioned as a mere update to an existing model, the new Aventon Sinch Step-Through promises to be something very new and very different.

In this Aventon Sinch Step-Through Review, we take a look at this freshly redesigned affordable electric folding bike and put it through a series of real-world tests; tests designed to suss out how well it climbs, handles and even how far you can ride it on a single charge.

Still built around a simple folding mechanism designed to make transportation and storage easier, the Sinch Step-Through sports a lower frame, a new look and a number of componentry changes that very much differentiates it from its high-step sibling. It’s an e-bike that boasts great handling, good value and a 500W rear hub motor that’s surprisingly peppy on steep hills.

It’s an e-bike designed to serve those who are short on space but still want a ride that’s powerful, fun and can keep pace with larger and more powerful (at least on paper) e-bikes. But how’s it stack up in the real world? We put it to the test to find out.

E-bike News: Blix launches an e-fat bike, e-bike battery fire claims Florida bike shop, battery recycling programs and much more!

Is it just us, or does it seem like every electric bike brand got together this year and decided April was going to be when all the new and updated models would be released?

This week’s news brings word of two new e-bikes — an electric fat bike from Blix and a new electric superbike from Wilier (that boasts a new ultralight motor system). We’ve also got some details on an e-bike battery fire that claimed a south Florida bike shop this week, a lawsuit against Rad Power Bikes stemming from a loose stem and a new e-bike battery recycling program from Trek.

In this week’s e-bike news:

Blix introduces the new Ultra, an all-terrain electric fat bike
E-bike battery fire claims south Florida bike shop
Ride1UP’s Prodigy starts shipping
New Wilier Filante Hybrid claims its got the “lightest pedal assist system in the world”
Trek starts e-bike battery recycling program

80-Year-Old to Attempt Record-Breaking E-Bike Ride From Alaska to Panama

An 80-year-old Canadian adventure cyclist this June will attempt to set the world record for the longest electric bicycle ride, an approximately 13,500 km (8.388.5 mi) route stretching from Alaska to Panama.

The rider, Robert Fletcher, a retired educator and lifelong bicycle tourer, is attempting the feat to celebrate his 80th birthday. If he makes it, Fletcher would best the previous world record of 8.209.20 km (5,100.96 mi) by a significant margin.

The existing record is held by renowned long-distance e-biker and alternative transportation advocate Ravindra Kempaiah, who set the record in summer 2016 while riding a Stromer ST2-S across a portion of the U.S.

For his attempt this June, Fletcher will use an Evelo Atlas hybrid-style e-bike, which sports a Bafang mid-drive motor, a dual battery design and a MTB-style riding position.

Fletcher, as evidenced by this photo of him taking a swim in a Ugandan section of the Nile River, is an experienced adventurer.

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The Route

Fletcher is set to begin his ride this June from the city of North Pole, Alaska, an ostensibly Christmas-themed town just outside of Fairbanks.

From there, he expects it to take five months to pedal his e-bike through the interior of Alaska, across Canada’s British Columbia, down the western seaboard of the U.S., through the length of Mexico and across several Central American countries. His final destination is Panama City, Panama.

In total, the route will cross nine countries and cover approximately 13,500 km (8.388.5 mi), according to a post on Fletcher’s Facebook page.

This is far from Fletcher’s first foray into long-distance bicycle touring or ambitious adventuring. Fletcher’s list of accomplishments include a 2014 ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro (making him the second oldest to do so), a number of 1,000 km-plus bike tours and, most recently, a roughly 10,400 km epic from Anchorage to Mexico City that lasted four months.

Though this trip heads the same direction as his Anchorage to Mexico trip, Fletcher isn’t following the same route.

“One of the first things I undertook for the planning was to select a route and layout a day-by-day itinerary to know where I would be each day and how long the journey would take. In 2015 I did a similar ride from Anchorage, Alaska, to Mexico City, 10,400 km, over four months with TDA Global Cycling,” Fletcher told Electric Bike Report. “For this trip, I wanted the route to cover new areas than the previous trip. That is why I am coming down the center of British Columbia and along the Pacific coast of the USA. The previous trip had us riding down the Baja so that the new route would take us along the eastern side of the Sea of Cortez. From Mazatlan to Nicaragua, I will follow the path used by TDA Global Cycling.”

Inspired by his Santa-themed start point and his expected arrival time close to Christmas, Fletcher will be toting $200 in gifts with him to Panama, where he says he plans on giving them out to local children. He’s also started writing a book on the effort, which he’s calling ‘Octogenarian Odyssey: Trading the Sofa for a Bicycle Seat.’

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Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2 Review 2022

Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2 E-Bike Review

It’s the second edition of the original jack-of-all-trades electric bike; the e-bike Electric Bike Report recommends for anyone who knows they want an e-bike, but don’t quite know what they’re going to do with it yet.

In this Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2 review, we spend some time on the newest iteration of Rad Power Bikes’ über popular electric utility bike to see how it stacks up in the real world.

Whether you’re here for its funky looks, its 330 different accessory combinations or because you like the fact that this relatively small bike can carry a lot of people and things, there’s usually something about the RadRunner that draws people in..

Compared to the original RadRunner, this second version sports some very small tweaks designed to improve comfort and handling. But for the die-hard fans of the original e-bike (trust us, there’s lots of them), fear not: Those small changes simply improve on the RadRunner’s already very good ride quality.

Our testing has shown the RadRunner 2 is just as good, just as fun and just as capable as its predecessor.

Right now Rad Power Bikes is offering $100 off all e-bikes (excluding the RadExpand 5) from 5/12 – 5/24/2022 when you use the promo code: OurBike. Click the button below to redeem the offer.

Blix Ultra Review 2022: First impressions of Blix’s first fat bike

Fat tire e-bikes have gained a lot of popularity in recent years. The landscape is full of contenders hoping to entice buyers with unique looks and features. On Tuesday another aspiring challenger to be king of the fat bike mountain just entered the fray; say hello to the all-new Blix Ultra fat tire electric bike.

Blix CEO Pontus Malmberg spoke about the utility of the company’s latest e-bike saying, “the Ultra concept was to design an all-terrain e-bike that is practical enough to fit into your day, furthering our mission to integrate health and activity into everyday life. This is the most capable and versatile e-bike we’ve built, and it will bring a lot of value and differentiation to the table.”

The Blix Ultra has an MSRP of $1,999 and has notable features we’ve appreciated on previous Blix e-bikes we’ve reviewed while keeping things fresh by debuting all-new features too. The Ultra comes in three colors (Slate Gray, Sage Green, and White), offers an upgraded dual battery option, and more accessory combinations than you can shake a stick at. The new additions found on Blix’s latest e-bike include a simple but sleek-looking display and the Bluetooth Blix Connect app that boasts over-the-air firmware updates and enhanced ride data.

Ebike News: Innovative E-bikes from OKAI and Mokumono and Much More!

E-bike designs tend to conform to certain conventions as certain firms like Bosch and Bafang have become highly skilled at what they do and produce excellent products that have become very widely used throughout the industry. Add to this the fact that most e-bike frames are built in Taiwan and you begin to see why the e-bike industry could be accused of not being daring enough in terms of new tech and new business models. After all, many of today’s e-bikes are superb products, and as the saying goes ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’

So it’s refreshing to see the likes of OKAI and Mokumono aiming to break the mould of what’s expected from an e-bike in the wider sense. OKAI are experts at producing very simple, rugged e-bikes for large micro-mobility clients but now have their own model. Details released so far suggest it will be as similarly rugged as its fleet e-bikes, if a little more elegant looking and will have a level of connectivity not found on may e-bikes at its $1599 price point. Even more radical is Dutch Mokumono, relying to a very large degree on domestic suppliers and offering unsurpassed back up over time in terms of spares availability – e-bikes have pretty good green credentials but Mokumono is clearly aiming for an impeccable reputation on sustainability.

In this week’s e-bike news:

OKAI Stride – a 28mph connected e-bike for $1599
Decathlon launches keenly-priced e-cargo longtail
Mokumono Polder – a totally different approach to manufacture and aftercare
Lightweight e-bikes come to the fore
Fiido X recall
UK court prosecutes seller of 70mph capable e-bikes
Bosch’s first update for its Smart system
Rad Power Bikes looking to shift from mobile service to bricks and mortar

Surface604 Shred Review – 2022

Electric mountain bikes are not known for being inexpensive, and there’s a lot of reason for this: Building an eMTB that isn’t just fun on trail, but is durable enough to withstand the repeated impact and rigor off-road riding entails is difficult. It requires lots of engineering and careful parts choices; which requires a lot of investment from the brand; which, in turn, means consumers should expect a larger price tag for a capable eMTB.

But as technology and eMTBs have aged and advanced, the price tag for quality appears to be slowly inching down. Brands have become more innovative and cost effective in how they design eMTBs, which is good for those of us who don’t want to shell out $4,000 or more just to get on a trail.

In this Surface604 Shred review, we take a deep dive into one such eMTB that’s pushing the envelope of low cost and off-road performance.

With a MSRP starting several hundred less than $3,000, the Shred is a (compared to mainstream eMTBs) very affordable option that takes the frugal rider’s approach to a trail-capable eMTB. In this review, we dive into the bike’s spec sheet and parse out how Surface604 made some careful component selections and utilized a torque-activated hub motor to keep costs down while still keeping an eye on performance.

Lectric XP Lite Review 2022: First impressions of Lectric’s ultra-affordable 46 lb folder

Affordable electric bike brand Lectric launched a new bike on Tuesday that’s physically lighter, lighter on cost and a little lighter on features than any other bike they’ve ever made.

The 46 lb Lectric XP Lite, according to the company, promises to be the “most accessible model to date” from the Phoenix-based brand. At a starting MSRP of $899.00 (currently discounted to $799.00), the Lite is the second e-bike in Lectric’s lineup behind the XP 2.0.

There are several differences between the two models, including price, motor size and several key component choices that help limit the Lite’s weight and cost to the end-consumer. We don’t currently have the new Lectric XP Lite for a full review, but by looks alone, it appears Lectric has retained much of the original XP’s shape in the new Lite.

With the new bike came new colors, including this nice khaki look.

Spoke Safety: a Technology That Will Make Streets Safer—for Everyone

The Sea Otter Classic is the largest cycling event in the world and aside from all the athletes who hope to stand on the podium, or just to finish, roughly 350 bike companies from around the world display their products in the expo area for riders to check out. Everyone present wants to convince attendees that their product will change the rider’s life for the better. Very few products can live up to such a claim, but this past weekend Electric Bike Report saw something that exceeds its hype.

Bosch releases first Smart System update, debuts new SmartphoneGrip

Last August Bosch launched the Smart System, a family of electric bike drive components and a new app poised to be the German motor maker’s launchpad towards a more connected e-bike future.

Aside from some new hardware (namely a larger battery), the most notable “smart” feature launched with the new Smart System was its ability to do over-the-air updates, allowing riders to update their bike’s software through the freshly released Bosch eBike Flow app.

Bosch today pushed the first update out to its ridership, marking the first time Bosch users will be able to utilize one of the most touted features of the new system.

The new smartphone grip mounts in place of the Kiox display.

Alongside the update, Bosch released the new SmartphoneGrip that, with some new additions to the eBike Flow app, turn your smartphone into a handlebar-mounted heads-up display that tracks your metrics and can help navigate.

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