2015 Easy Motion Evo Street Review

The Evo Street is part of Easy Motion’s “Urban” lineup offering dynamo powered lights, full length fenders and a rear rack with built in bungee cords. It’s a great platform for commuting and priced at ~$3k you really get a lot of bang for your buck. I see it as an upgrade for the Evo Eco Lite which foregoes suspension, has fewer gears and uses a 30% smaller battery pack for ~$600 less. Both of these electric bikes are perfect for petite riders because they offer low-step frames with smaller 26″ wheels vs. 700c (28″) on the Evo City and City Wave. Smaller wheels keep the frame lower to the ground, allow the seat tube to drop lower (and thus, the saddle) and tend to handle more nimbly. If you drop the seat down all the way you might also want to lower the handle bars and that’s no problem with the tool-free adjustable stem featured on the Evo Street. You can also tighten the brakes, adjust the fenders and remove the rear wheel all without using tools thanks to the upgraded component package and thoughtful design. All around, this is a beautiful and functional e-bike that blends in and offers a lot of value.

The motor driving the Evo Street is beautifully integrated and has been painted black to blend in with the cabling, spokes, wheelset and other surrounding components. It basically disappears behind the 160 mm disc brake rotor on the left and eight Speed Shimano Alivio cassette on the right. Offering 350 watts of power I’d call the motor “average” on paper but in practice it feels quite zippy. The manufacturer is Dapu and I’ve found that their geared hub motors feel a bit more powerful (this one peaks out around 550 watts for climbing and accelerating). The motor activates smoothly with a variable speed twist throttle on the right bar or you can activate it using one of four pedal assist modes. When using assist, the power feels instantaneous but does drag on a bit when you stop (I believe this was a design choice to eliminate surge). Thankfully, the brake levers feature an integrated cutoff switch so you can avoid losing control. As with most geared hub motors, this one operates with an electronic whir but isn’t especially noisy. It’s relatively light weight and freewheels while coasting so you don’t lose any momentum. The top speed of the Evo Street (and other Evo models) is officially 20 mph but I’ve seen them go slightly faster in the highest pedal assist level and that’s nice if you do a lot of distance riding. If you want even more speed, consider checking out the Easy Motion Nitro City or Nitro Cross. Back to the Evo Street… It basically replaces the Neo Street from 2013/2014 which also had a 350 watt Dapu hub motor but one important change has been made here, the power cable now extrudes on the left side of the hub instead of the right. This has two benefits: it reduces clutter on the drivetrain side of the bike where the cassette and derailleur are mounted and it also keeps the power cable out of harms way if the bike tips over. The rear derailleur on the Evo Street is a Shimano Alivio which is middle of the line and paired with the three chainrings at the bottom bracket you get 24 speeds total which is more than enough for urban riding in my opinion.

The battery pack on the Evo Street is quite impressive because it builds on the older Neo designs by adding capacity and making charging easier without changing the size, weight or price very much. I always really liked the integrated look of Easy Motion batteries but was annoyed that I had to take the pack off every single time I needed to charge it (daily) because this took time, effort and created more opportunities to accidentally drop and scratch the case. Now, that’s not an issue and you can basically “plug the bike in” directly. There’s a socket near the bottom bracket on the left side of the bike, just be careful to unplug before moving the pedals as the crank arms could collide with the plug. Also, built right into the underside of the battery is an LED panel that shows how full the pack is even when it’s not connected to the bike. This is handy when you store it separately because you can quickly determine whether the pack is full or empty. And on that note, to prolong the life of the battery you should store it in a cool dry location and keep it between 20% and 80% charged at all times. To summarize: the new battery pack is better in almost every way and even though it offers more power capacity it doesn’t weigh much more than the older versions due to advances in Lithium-ion design. These sells are made by Samsung and benefit from a two year warranty supported through Easy Motion.

Connecting the rider with the battery and motor is a beautiful, low profile backlit LCD display panel that I go over in detail with this video tutorial. It’s the same design they’ve been using on the Neo line since 2013 and it’s still intuitive, easy to reach and removable! To get things going, just charge the battery then hold the middle button for a few seconds. Once it’s on, you can press the up or down buttons to explore throttle mode or four levels of assist as mentioned earlier. It’s worth noting that the lowest level of assist is more gentle on the Evo series and this was another point of feedback that Easy Motion received from end users and dealers. It will let you go further and operate the bike more delicately in crowded environments. The one complaint I have about the control system here is that you can’t use the throttle to override pedal assist and this would be nice for adding power when riding in the lowest level to simply overcome a short hill climb or pass another rider. Maybe you’re riding in a crowd and have to stop but then cross the street quickly? Throttle override would be very useful at times like this. As it stands, you either have to arrow up to a higher assist level or arrow down to throttle mode briefly, twist the throttle, and then arrow back up. The LCD display panel lists your speed, battery capacity, time, max speed and distance traveled. Overall, the cockpit on the Evo Street is clean and I like the trigger shifters on the left and right bar vs. twist shifters or oversized buttons.

There’s really a lot to say about this electric bike and it has been a popular seller for 2015 based on what shops are telling me. Easy Motion has made choosing between their bikes a little simpler because they’re nearly all priced at $3k. If you’re definitely interested in the urban style and happen to be under 5’10” then the Street or Eco Light would be excellent choices. For me, the larger battery pack and suspension fork are worth a bit extra here and I also like the white color scheme. In the future, I think Easy Motion could improve this ebike by adding a spot to mount a water bottle cage but considering the inclusion of a very nice rear rack, you could always use a saddle bag like this. I actually purchased this bag for my Mom and found the bottle slot to be tight but it’s still better than nothing.

Pros:

• Dynamo powered lights will operate independently from the rest of the bike, this means if you run out of battery power and have to pedal manually you will still have safety
• The stem features an adjustable angle feature that doesn’t require tools and the fenders can also be adjusted tool-free which is handy if they get bumped and need to be straightened
• Great safety, utility and cleanliness thanks to the full length fenders with mud flaps, large plastic chain guard, rear carry rack with pannier blockers and extra reflectors and reflective sidewall stripes on the tires
• Comfortable to ride over bumpy terrain thanks to the oversized saddle, larger 1.75″ hybrid tires, adjustable suspension fork and rubber ergonomic grips
• The Evo Street uses 26″ wheels vs. 700c ~28″ tires on the Evo City and this puts the frame closer to the ground making it easier to mount
• The battery pack can be charged on or off the bike, is integrated into the downtube for a clean “stealthy” aesthetic and features a lock for security
• Offers both throttle mode and pedal assist with four levels to emphasize range or speed, zippy powerful feel from the efficient 350 watt geared motor (548 watt peak output)
• The LCD display is removable, easy to reach and activate from the left grip, backlit for use in low lighting conditions (just hold the down arrow for two seconds)
• Tektro Auriga E-Comp levers have motor cutoff switches built in and are easy to activate with just a finger or two, the large 180 mm front rotor and standard 160 mm rear rotor offer great stopping power for trail and mountain terrain
• New tool-free quick release system on the rear wheel makes changing flats and doing service much easier, the motor power cable also has a quick disconnect built in
• The motor power cable location has been updated, now entering the hub on the left side of the bike vs. the right side where the derailleur and cassette are, this helps to reduce complexity, clutter and damage if the bike tips
• TMM4 torque sensor activates the motor smoothly and the control system reduces surge when pedaling but the motor does run a bit longer when you stop pedaling
• When using Eco mode (the lowest level of pedal assist) power is now gentler and smoother which provides better range, this was a request from many customers of the older Easy Motion Neo electric bikes
• The battery uses high end 18650 Lithium Manganese cells from Samsung that are light weight and long lasting, excellent energy density here (lower weight, more power)
• Comes with one of the best warranties in the electric bike industry from a major company that I know of right now, two years comprehensive

Cons:

• The headlight is mounted to the lower portion of the suspension fork which increases unsprung weight and may cause the light beam to bounce around more than if it were mounted to the head tube or handle bars
• No bottle cage mounting points on the downtube or seat tube which means you’ll need to add one to the seat post or saddle rails, wear a CamelBak or add a bag to the rear rack
• The charging port for the battery is positioned near the left crank arm and you can break it if you forget to unplug before wheeling the bike around
• Throttle cannot be used at all when riding in pedal assist mode, you have to arrow down to “No Assist” and then activate using the half grip twist
• Tektro hydraulic disc brakes provide decent stopping power but aren’t as smooth as Avid and may rattle or squeak with use
• The rear wheel offers a unique quick release lever system but the front does not, this is odd to me because usually the front wheel offers it and is much easier to take off during transport, this may have been excluded due to the dynamo hub with wire for the lights
• The controller on this bike lets the motor run a second or two long after you’ve stopped pedaling, this reduces “surge” (the jerky feeling of power going up and down with each pedal stroke) but makes the bike feel unresponsive at times, thankfully the motor inhibitors in the brake levers are instant
• Just one frame size, style and color to choose from here (medium 17, step-thru, white) which works alright given the adjustable seat post and stem angle, consider the Evo City if you’re taller