Pretty safe to say most of us will be happy to see 2020 in the rearview soon. It was a year of mixed fortunes for ebike makers. The pandemic gave rise to unprecedented demand for bicycles of all kinds as consumers pursued outdoor activity, clearing out stock everywhere from big-box toy departments to high-end specialty sport and ebike dealers. That demand also put great pressure on supply chains serving the bike manufacturers, with many models delayed half a year or more. Some of those bikes are now due to land in early 2021, and we’re excited at Cycle Volta to start what we think will be a very busy year for ebike testing.
First, these are the ebikes that made the strongest impressions on our testers during 2020.
The Ultimate T10+ from Gazelle ticked every box about what we want from a commuter ebike: quick acceleration and high top assist speed (Bosch’s Performance Line Speed mid-drive dishing out Class 3 support up to 28 mph); upright riding position with an easy-to-read handlebar-mounted display; comfortable, ergonomic touch points; a terrific bump-smoothing suspension fork (Suntour’s 100-mil-travel Mobie 45-AIR); terrific range (1,000Wh of battery life when adding a second battery for a $999 upgrade)—all in one gorgeous ebike you’ll look forward to riding every damn day. As intended.
The Levo SL Expert Carbon wasn’t the first lightweight pedal-assist mountain bike we ever rode (we’ll quantify that at around the 40-pound mark), but this release from the Big Red S marked the moment where the eMTB market became bifurcated between lower-torque but lighter trail ebikes that handle much like their analog forebears, and models that have embraced stronger assist and larger-capacity batteries without much regard for total bike weight—although those drive systems and batteries are also shedding pounds compared with earlier iterations. While the latest Bosch and Shimano Class 1 drives each deliver 85Nm of peak torque, the 240W Specialized SL 1.1 mid-drive tops out at 35Nm. But that feathery 4.3-pound drive paired with a lightweight 320Wh battery (add the bottle-cage-mounted 160Wh Range Extender battery if desired) brings the 29-inch-wheeled, 150-millimeter-travel (front and rear) Levo SL Expert Carbon under the 40-pound threshold. So when the trail heads downhill or gets a bit rowdy, the light and nimble handling means you’ll be challenged to detect you’re even riding an ebike.
The Dyodo Gravel from Pinarello deftly straddles the line between e-assisted road and gravel rig. We’re talking aggressive road geometry and aero touches complemented by fast-rolling but very grippy 35-millimeter-wide Vittoria tires and a nicely compliant carbon frameset. We’re partial to mid-drive motors here at Cycle Volta, but the lightweight Ebikemotion hub motor (the reason the Dyodo Gravel weighed only 27 pounds for our 59-centimeter XL test sample) had us reconsidering the calculus around the optimum drive system. You’ll pay the premium price expected for this ebike from the Italian master crafter (MSRP: $7,000: tack on an additional $700 for the optional external battery), but you’ll get a fun and nimble Class 1 drop-bar bike that “carves hairpins in the dirt like a Ginsu knife.”
OK, you can hang a crap-ton of bags and other storage accessories on a full-size cargo ebike like the Rad Power Bikes RadRunner, Pedego Stretch, or Yuba Electric Supermarche. But a bike with such a gigantic wheelbase presents a storage challenge—if not an impossibility—in dense urban settings where commuter and cargo ebikes make the most sense. Tern’s HSD 8Si is “mini but mighty,” as Cycle Volta contributor Val Vanderpool put it in her review, a powerful cargo hauler that stores in compact dimensions of 64 x 15.9 x 34 inches and can be stood vertically on its rear rack. For the $3,799 price tag, you’ll also get a Bosch Active Plus mid-drive motor with 400Wh battery, custom Suntour suspension fork, a Shimano Nexus 8 internal-gear hub, Gates Carbon Drive CDX belt drive, Magura MT4 hydraulic disc brakes, Schwalbe Big Ben puncture-protected tires, and an Abus keyed-alike frame lock. And Tern offers model-specific racks, bags, and other accessories to carry all your stuff or even a passenger.