The first rider-owned company, SE Racing, becomes a major force in the BMX industry thanks to Scott Breithaupt. It weighs just 86 g and is tested to exceed standards for an enduro bike. The top cap, which integrates a bolt, looked great, weighed half nothing, and matched my Acto5 cranks well, although I’m afraid of aluminum bolts, even if it is just to preload the headset. Looking at a component in isolation, I really prefer the performance of SRAM electronic shifting, especially in wet, grimy conditions, but some people prefer mechanical shifting, and those people prefer Shimano.
It’s a bold move to build a deliciously dynamic and forgivingly flexy steel trail bike in Germany, the heartland of stiffness being touted as the grail of bicycle manufacture in cycling media. I find intact collarbones to be both beneficial and desirable in my line of work and as a self-employed person, so I was overly cautious to start with, riding an alien-feeling bike on things that I can’t ride. It’s a good-looking bike with a concise and consistent design language used throughout the frame, with all the castings for the pivot points matching the dropouts and gusset shapes.
It uses the same motor as the CSC FT1000MD we featured above (the Bafang M620 mid-drive), but cranks up the current to provide closer to 1,500W of power. When it comes to all-wheel-drive electric bikes, the $3,299 Ariel Rider Grizzly is one of my favorites. The Tern Quick Haul features a mid-drive Bosch motor, hydraulic disc brakes, Tern’s vertical parking rack, and a relatively lightweight but high utility design that is meant to carry just about anything in your life.
It’s something in the middle, for a kind of riding I’ve never really experienced, and which I need to make a six-hour round trip from my house in a car to attempt. In many ways, it’s the bike least meant for me, at least on paper, and I’m the rider least meant for hyper bicycles it. The Back tire isn’t fitted in place correctly and is slightly too high up on the rear tire axle shaft. It appears to be tightened in place and secure by the nut screw, but it creeps me out a bit that if the nut were to unscrew a bit the tire would fly out….
CSC Ebikes was born out of CSC Motorcycles, a company with several decades of two-wheeler experience. It handles well, it’s got great rubber between you and the road, the suspension gives a comfortable ride, and it’s got plenty of extra power. The $2,295 Ride1Up Prodigy V2 has brought new meaning to the phrase “low-cost mid-drive electric bike”, updating an already impressive e-bike with a new next-gen setup.
Plus there’s a choice between a nice 9-speed chain drive transmission or a fancier Gates Carbon Drive belt setup with an Enviolo continuously variable transmission. The Lectric One was unveiled as a lightweight commuter e-bike designed with an ultra high-end drivetrain based around the Pinion C1.6i auto-shifting gearbox. Paired with a Gates carbon belt drive and a true 750W-rated Stealth M24 motor (with 1,300 peak watts!), the Lectric ONE hits class 3 speeds in style with some extra premium components. The Fuell Flluid’s smooth mid-drive motor with built-in gearbox and Gates carbon belt drive setup combine to make an ultra-responsive and polished electric powertrain.
By the time you surpass the $2,000 dollar mark, you’re starting to get into serious e-bikes with serious performance or build quality. With fenders, built-in LED lights and cargo capabilities, the Ride1Up Rift would also make a surprisingly good commuter bike that will traverse pot holes and other rough street imperfections just hyper mountain bike as well as it handles off-road conditions. But with those 20-inch wheels and bicycle seat, the JackRabbit rides much more like a small folding e-bike than an e-scooter. But you should know going in that this is very much a pedal-oriented e-bike. There’s no throttle, and the motor is only moderately powerful, peaking at 500W.