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.
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 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….
Together, we made a decision about the direction that my riding would realistically take. It didn’t seem appropriate for my skill level to go for an all-in enduro tire like the sticky yet resilient Tacky Chan, although there were points riding through the UK winter that I wished I had. Instead, we chose the faster rolling and much lighter weight Wicked Will Super Trail EVO for the rear with the matching Nobby Nic on the front. It’s nothing about the effects of tires, suspension, and steering geometry, but the stiff bars worked nicely in the context of this bike. The BEAST rims also felt incredibly stiff both vertically and laterally, but again complemented the dynamic handling characteristics of a big squishy bike quite well. They were very light and felt incredibly solid, sustaining zero permanent damage from being repeatedly smashed against rocks when the tires bottomed out.
I’m not sure how it’s possible to feel the stiffness of a set of handlebars with 160 mm of suspension travel and a big squishy Schwalbe Wicked Will up front, but somehow, it is. On most bikes, the sensation would be unpleasant, but with all that movement going on below, eating anything the trail has hyper bicycles to throw at you, the steel-beam-like stiffness feels quite confidence-inspiring and keeps the steering feeling agile and reactive. With sleek 23 liters capacity of each box, providing ample space for your essentials. Built for durability, its aerodynamic design enhances your bike’s aesthetics.
I would have prefered if the handlebars required Hex keys because you could use a multi-tool to quickly make adjustments while riding without needing any other items, but as it is now I always have to carry an adjustable wrench with me. The wrench built into my multi-tool is made for tires, so it is slightly too large to fit and adjust the handlebars because they used another type of bolt like screw for it. This is a minor problem because I just added a wrench to my backpack repair kit and moved along. The FREY EX Pro is a high-end electric mountain bike with crazy high power.
Through thousands of miles of riding, I’ve learned these e-bikes inside and out, top to bottom and front to back. That dedication to real-world e-bike testing has helped me find the best electric bicycles on the market for just about any budget. There were perhaps three weeks after I’d brought the bike home, it sitting in my living room, where I just looked at it a lot, half in disbelief that I owned a real mountain bike and half worrying about not riding it properly enough.
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, hyper bike 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.
After a few trips out to various trail-heavy bits of woods, I just started riding it as much as possible on anything to get a feel for it and the way it moves, and in a way, it became exciting for all the right reasons. On the SRD, I could pretty much ride anything that exists locally, which I hadn’t experienced before. A set of steps or a broken slipway, the bit of woods between one path and another or any section of landscaping in a public park. I’d expected to have to make huge efforts to get the best out of the SRD, but what surprised me in the long run the most was how useful the bike became.
If you like the idea of a low-cost US-based company like Lectric eBikes but want something with more power than their XP LITE, consider the $999 Lectric XP 3.0. The XP 3.0 is the newest version of America’s best-selling electric bike, and now it’s even better hyper mountain bike with hydraulic disc brakes! In my opinion, this is the current king of bang-for-your-buck electric bikes right now. The geometry was designed around being versatile and fun, with long travel but less ultra-long and ultra-stable than an enduro bike.