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E-bike News: Ride1up Go Moped Style, Step-thru E-MTBs and Much More!

This week’s news has a very cosmopolitan flavour; whilst the fat-tired, keenly-priced new offerings from Ride1Up and Aventon are pretty much meat and drink for this website, we only occasionally cover e-bikes not available in the US or UK. So this issue feels like a mini-departure with news of what might be the start of trend originating in Germany in the shape of a wave of step-thru, (relatively) light, fully equipped e-mtbs and also an insight into how Japan’s Honda are taking aim at China’s unique domestic e-bike market. Finally, if you you want to know what the Dutch have been up to recently in their quest to provide the country’s bike riders with incredible infrastructure, check out the latest ‘invisible’ bike parking right in front of the country’s main train station.

In this week’s e-bike news:

Ride1Up launch moped-style REVV1
Aventon Aventure 2 – one of the best e-fat bikes out there gets torque sensing
Will full-sus, fully equipped, step-thru e-mtbs catch on? The Germans think so…
Honda target China with historically named e-bikes
280 mile Bonneville Shoreline Trail takes a legal step forward
Subaquatic bike parking in the middle of Amsterdam

Pedego Avenue E-Bike Review – 2024

Pedego Avenue Review 2024 - step thru and high step bike frames

Amidst the boom in e-bike sales, riders are increasingly seeking a lightweight commuter bike that handles like a regular commuter bike, and gives them at least 30 miles of power assist. Responding to their demands, U.S. e-bike giant Pedego sent us the new Pedego Avenue to review. With its lightweight frame, sleek design, and proven power train, this commuter bike wowed us in how it delivers power and range for urban and suburban commuters to relish.

The Avenue is a medium/large commuter bike that does a great job disguising the fact that it’s an e-bike. Featuring a 17” aluminum frame, with 28” wheels,and two frame sizes: the Step-thru (good for riders 5’1 – 5’8”), and a 19” Classic frame (good for riders 5’4” to 6’1”). Weighing in at a little over 52 lbs. (including motor and battery), the Avenue is lighter than most e-bikes when it comes to loading it onto your bike rack, or wheeling it up the stairs to your apartment. It features a 500-watt gear driven motor, a 10.4-amp hour battery (a 14-amp hour battery is available for an additional $250), 28” (700 cm) wheels, rigid suspension, and mechanical disc brakes.

Coming in at right around $2000, this bike costs a little more than competitive brands, but you’re also getting a solid 5-year warranty and support from over 200 dealerships nationwide – something most other e-bike manufacturers don’t offer. Additionally, they offer fairly quick turnaround times on service, and their mechanics are trained specifically to fix Pedego bikes.

The company recently sent us their high-step and step-through Avenue models to test and evaluate. As we have found in testing hundreds of other e-bikes over the years, no e-bike can do it all, but Pedego’s Avenue has a lot going for it.

The following is our Pedego Avenue review, based on the independent tests and analysis we conducted on the e-bike’s motor performance, hill-climbing abilities, distance range, braking capabilities, safety, its handling and ride comfort, and a final summary that can help you decide if this is the commuter bike for you.

E-bike News: SRAM look to enter e-bike market, Lectric E-trike and Much More !

EBR usually concentrates on e-bike launches and products that are already out there or at least very likely to be launched and in production over the next few months. You may not see a SRAM branded e-bike drive system any time soon but the seeming likelihood of them entering the market is this week’s lead story purely on the basis that if SRAM do ever launch their own system – as seems probable with their purchase of Amprio – it should have a huge impact on the e-bikes on offer out there purely because of their massive industry reach.

In this week’s e-bike news:

SRAM poised to enter the e-bike drive market
Lectric tease folding e-trike
Detroit e-bike with US-made steel frame
Sweden’s Cake to launch 20mph ‘workhorse’ mode
Enviolo’s new more affordable hub
CNBC e-bike safety video – is it anti-e-bike?
Denver relaunches e-bike subsidies

Xnito Helmet Review 2024

In our Xnito helmet review, we will look at what makes this helmet different from helmets that typically meet American CPSC requirements.

Where e-bikes are concerned, Europe has led the way in a great many regards. Europe is also leading the way where safety is concerned with the NTA8776 helmet standard. The Xnito helmet is a helmet that meets this standard, created for riders powering along on Class 3 e-bikes, which have a maximum speed of 28 mph.

Xnito is offering EBR readers 10% off their purchase when you use the code: ELECTRICBIKEREPORT

The Xnito helmet foregoes any needlessly fancy technologies that can drive up the price of a helmet in favor of in-molded EPS (Expanded polystyrene, the foam inside the helmet) with a greater thickness seen in most helmets. And unlike some in-moded helmets, the plastic outer shell into which the EPS is molded wraps around the bottom of the helmet to help protect from dings. It’s built to be safe for crashes, but also withstand the bumps that come from natural use as well.

Denago City Model 1 Electric Bike Review 2024

Every now and then we run across an e-bike that surprises us. The surprise can take many forms. Some e-bikes are an exceptional value. Some have a motor that could power a rider up Mt. Kilimanjaro, or a battery that would last all the way across Texas. Sometimes the surprises—plural—make a bike seem almost too good to be true. Such is the case with the Denago City Model 1 we reviewed: a newer e-bike company that delivered in multiple areas better than we expected.

The Denago City Model 1, the company’s first e-bike, does so much right that we were reluctant to criticize it much at all. Below $2000, we would be pleased to see a bike offered in three different sizes, or sporting hydraulic disc brakes, or equipped with a motor that would laugh at hills, provided it could laugh. The Denago City Model 1 distinguishes itself by giving riders all three of those features—a killer motor, hydraulic discs and multiple sizes.

The obvious question is how Denago managed to create a bike that does so much while competing in the ever-competitive sub $2000 pricepoint. This isn’t sleight of hand. The company made some strategic choices in order to create a bike that is as unique as a fingerprint.

In our review of the Denago City Model 1 we will examine the choices they made and ultimately the trades that were necessary to give the strengths it enjoys.

FLX Babymaker 2 E-Bike Review 2024

Fixies—single-speed road bikes—have been quite the rage for some years now. The FLX Babymaker 2 takes the flat-bar road bike and gives it the e-bike upgrade. Put another way, it takes a good time and makes it better. We will look at the how and why in our FLX Babymaker 2 review.

The FLX Babymaker 2 uses an Aikema brushless, geared hub motor rated at 350W and paired with a 360Wh Samsung battery. And yes, that’s a relatively small motor and battery in absolute numbers, but. The but is that while the power of a motor is absolute, the amount of work it can do is relative to how much mass it is moving. Cut an e-bike’s weight in half—say 35 lbs. instead of 70 lbs.—and suddenly a 350W motor can offer terrific acceleration and sustained speed – which we’re happy to report the Babymaker 2 has in spades.

The attraction with the FLX Babymaker 2 is its ride experience. This fixie-styled e-bike trades on sporty handling, a stealthy appearance that serves to keep the bike light and spirited acceleration.

But how does all of this add up for the cyclist on the roads? Dive into the meat of our FLX Babymaker 2 review down below to find out.

Eunorau Defender S Electric Bike Review, 2024

The emergence of direct-to-consumer e-bike companies has shaken up just what an e-bike can or should be. When we look at the legacy bicycle companies we see a lot of very traditional thinking in traditional models like commuters, cruisers, road bikes and mountain bikes. The D2C companies have often taken that thinking and tossed it out the nearest high window. Thank heaven. That’s 100% the case with the Eunorau Defender S we reviewed – it’s an e-bike that is anything but traditional or found in a common mold.

The Eunorau Defender S is a bike that a company like Giant or Cannondale would never have made. That’s not to say it’s not a worthwhile e-bike; but it required someone thinking about what an e-bike can be in a fresh way in order to see this rig to market. In our review of the Eunorau Defender S we will look at what makes this e-bike so different from most of the bikes we see with big, knobby tires.

The first, most obvious difference between the Defender S and other e-bikes is that this uses two-wheel drive. Yes, you read that correctly. Both the front and rear wheels drive this bike. We will get into just how this works later in our review.

At root, though, this is an all-terrain e-bike with full suspension to smooth out rough roads and rocky ground. It is equipped with hydraulic disc brakes and a 9-speed Shimano Alivio drivetrain, which gives it an increased ability to take in big hills. It also comes in two sizes in order to better fit buyers.

E-bike News: Heybike Magnesium, SWFT BMX, Desikino and Much More!

Exactly what does innovation mean when it comes to ebikes? That’s a question this week’s news seems to be asking. We start by looking at the touted advantages of magnesium frames and move onto a really powerful looking yet lightweight retrofit kit before a final look at a new lightweight hub motor. So, whilst none of this is truly innovative in the sense of reinventing the wheel, it really tells the tale that much progress is refinement of existing technology.

In this week’s e-bike news:

Heybike goes magnesium
SWFT BMX – yes it’s an e-BMX (kind of)
Spain’s Deskinio premieres lightweight innovative urban and gravel models
Will CYC’s new retrofit mid-drive make a powerful impact?
Other news on the Bay Bridge bike path, Yadea in the US and more

iGo Core-Edge Electric Bike Review – 2024

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say there are hundreds of makes, models and styles of affordable e-bikes to choose from on the market today. But for all those types of e-bikes, very few among them are built with off-road use in mind.

And when I say “off-road use,” I mean real off-road use. There’s generally good reason for this void in the affordable e-bike market — the parts, engineering and bicycle know-how it requires to build a bike durable and capable enough to regularly tackle anything more than a dirt shoulder aren’t cheap.

But nonetheless, some companies are figuring out how to make it work without busting the piggy bank.

This iGO Core-Edge review takes a look at one such e-bike that’s struck a balance between affordable cost and off-road capability.

With an MSRP nestled nicely under $2,400 and component choices that better fit the bill for off-road use, the iGO Core-Edge is designed to be a durable choice for fire road and dirt trail riding, but stops short of the definition of a full-blown eMTB.

*iGO has shared an exclusive discount code with the Electric Bike Report audience. Use code: GOELECTRIC100 at checkout for $100 off your e-bike purchase.

Hub Motor Brands: The Complete Guide

Hub Motor Types, Brands, and the E-Bikes That Use Them

All consumer-ready e-bikes provide assistance to their riders through either a mid-drive motor or a hub motor. While mid-drive motors are placed centrally at the bottom bracket and tie into their e-bike’s cranks, hub motors – as their name suggests – are mounted at the center of either the front or rear wheel. We’ll focus on the latter type in this complete guide to e-bike hub motors; read on to learn the differences between types of motors, and keep scrolling to examine some of the best hub motors on the market!

At the present time, electric hub motors are much more affordable than mid-drives, and are subsequently much more prevalent. Additionally, hub motors are often much lighter than their cousins, and make practical additions to urban e-bikes or folding frames that need to be carried often. They also function well in conjunction with belt drives and internal gear systems that are nearly maintenance-free. In fact, you’ll find hub motors on some of our favorite electric bikes we have had the pleasure of reviewing.

Mid-drive motors, on the other hand, have a reputation for being more efficient and responsive than hub motors – though hub motor technology is improving constantly and coming ever closer to bridging the gap. Mid-drives are also known for their ability to replicate or approach the feel of non-electric bikes. They are, however, much more expensive, and as such are most commonly found on higher-end models.

The topic of e-bike motors is complex enough that we have a separate guide to mid-drive motors. In this article, focused exclusively on e-bike hub motors, we will dive into the most common manufacturers, discuss some of the best e-bike brands who use their products, and also cover some unique one-offs.

Rev your engines and get ready to read!

E-bike News: Ride1up Go Moped Style, Step-thru E-MTBs and Much More!

Pedego Avenue E-Bike Review – 2024

E-bike News: SRAM look to enter e-bike market, Lectric E-trike and Much More !

Xnito Helmet Review 2024

Denago City Model 1 Electric Bike Review 2024

FLX Babymaker 2 E-Bike Review 2024

Eunorau Defender S Electric Bike Review, 2024

E-bike News: Heybike Magnesium, SWFT BMX, Desikino and Much More!

iGo Core-Edge Electric Bike Review – 2024

Hub Motor Brands: The Complete Guide

Hub Motor Types, Brands, and the E-Bikes That Use Them

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