Unbiased, In-Depth Analysis of the Best Electric Bikes
Electric bikes or ebikes combine human power from pedaling with electronic power from a hub motor, mid drive, or friction drive powered by a battery pack. They come in all shapes and sizes, including trikes, tandems, folding, cargo, and more. A traditional analog bicycle can usually be converted to electric through the use of kits. Ebikes fall into three classes including Class 1 pedal assist only up to a set speed (usually 25kmh or 32kmh), Class 2 throttle only or throttle with pedal assist up to a set speed (usually 25kmh or 32kmh), and high speed Class 3 up to a set level (usually 45kmh 28mph).
Update! The Faraday Porteur and Cortland moved from $3,799 to $3,499 in 2017 and the review listing price here has been updated to reflect that. Faraday produces some of my favorite electric bikes because they’re well balanced, light weight and self-contained. The battery stays in the downtube and hardly changes the look or ride quality […]
The Box Bike Collective is a community minded LLC based in Santa Cruz California designing electric cargo bikes. Their Standard Box Bike is the first model to be sold with free pickup or delivery in the Bay Area and so far the company has sold a hand full of these models and has launched a […]
The Tyro electric bike is a base level offering from Snelheid Cycles, a one-person operation in Chicago Illinois USA. I met the founder, Tony, in 2015 and got to test his first prototype which was faster and more powerful than most of the purpose-built stuff I see at independent electric bike shops. Tony designed the […]
The Leider is one of the fastest accelerating, most powerful electric bikes I’ve ever tested. It’s a race car… and you feel the road much as you would with performance vehicles because there’s no suspension and very little in the way of creature comforts. Snelheid means speed in Dutch and the founder, Tony, was born […]
The Pedego Latch is a sturdy, surprisingly powerful folding electric bike that shares a lot of the same design features with the full sized beach cruisers that Pedego is known for. It also shares the same battery pack design, making it cross compatible with other 36 volt models. This consistency in design and parts… quality […]
The Wild Goose is Daymak’s fat electric bike offering and much like its other classic ebikes this thing is designed to be affordable but still powerful and fun. You get four color choices including bright orange or red and standard black or white but only one frame size in medium 19″. There are many ways […]
The VR-01 is the first electric bike introduced to the US from Freway, a Chinese company that’s part of the SCUD Group. They are based in Shenzhen China, a province that is famous for being home to other producers of high precision, low cost electronics being produced at incredible speed for customers like Hewlett Packard, […]
The Daymak Paris 24V (and Vermont 24V) are the two most affordable products in Daymak’s electric bicycle lineup. Each model is about one thousand dollars and you get quite a few extras for this price… though many of the components are base level. Indeed, this is a cheaply made ebike but in my experience it […]
BESV is part of the Darfon Innovation Corp. which, at the time of this review, was the world leader in producing integrated laptop keyboards. They also make power supplies, human interface devices and other electronics and have over 20k employees worldwide… that’s a solid foundation to build electric bikes from and some of their earliest […]
In 2016 Pedego launched a fourth generation build of the Trail Tracker electric bike! It resembles the new Ridge Rider e-mountain bike in that the battery is designed to fit into the downtube vs. a rear rack, dramatically improving weight distribution and stability. This is a fat-tire style electric bike which works well on pavement, […]
