Electric Bikes

What sort of electric bike are you going to buy?

You’ll find yourself in one of these 3 buckets:

Bucket 1: A hybrid.

Think cross-between road and mountain. These little machines can do almost everything.

The Warburton trail, suburbia, commutes into work, general fitness, leaving your friends eating your bike dust…

Now, hybrid electric bikes come with OR without front suspension.

It just depends on what terrain you wanna ride AND (more importantly) how you wanna be positioned.

If you want comfort then you’ll probably want an electric hybrid WITH suspension.

Why for?

The suspension raises the front end up (a lot). Hence more relaxed posture. Hence, less strain on upper back/neck/shoulders. Hence, you ride longer with less fatigue.

Plus, it’ll smooth out any dirt or gravel paths.

But:

If you don’t mind being in a sporty riding position AND only 10-20% of your paths are going to be unsealed, without suspension will be totally fine.

Now, the motor drive type.

Hybrids come EITHER as a mid-drive or hub-drive.

Most people love the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from having power. You’d be crazy not to, right?

Yeah, and that’s exactly why we sell mainly mid-drive electric hybrids more than hub-drives.

Mid-drives have more torque, so they can pull you and any luggage you carry (objects, dogs, humans…) up steep hills with ease.

It’s like reverse ageing 15 years. It’s awesome.

Remember those warm and fuzzies? They kick in about now too.

Mid-drives also the heaviest weight in the centre of the frame AND at the lowest part of the frame.

This means much more natural handling.

So…um, who’s crazy enough to buy hub drives then?

Hub-drives are purchased/used in 4 areas:

• You don’t need a huge amount of assistance.
• Folding bikes or bikes with smaller wheels.
• You have a strict budget.
• You have a considerable budget.

Yeah, we know points 3 and 4 are kinda opposing. Here’s the explainer:

Hub-drives either come on e-bikes built to a price OR come on premium e-bikes such as Spanish brand Orbea’s Vibe and Gain models (they’re legit good).

Generally, it’s cheaper to make a hub-motor than a mid-drive motor.

Premium hub-drive e-bikes get a lot of research and development fed into them.

Lighter materials, more advanced batteries, better handling and custom firmware to deliver power naturally are just some of the areas these bikes benefit from.

Bucket 2: EMTB (electric mountain bike)

E-MTBs are almost exclusively mid-drive. And have much more torque, larger batteries and higher peak power.

There’s 2 types EMTBs:

• Hardtail (front suspension only)
• Dual-suspension

You should consider buying a hardtail EMTB if:

• You're riding lots of dirt or gravel paths, fire roads and some pavement; so the extra grip and comfort from wider tyres is a must.
• You may not be spending time on mountain bike trails, but you still prefer an electric bike that has more torque to get you up steeper gradients.
• You want to start riding or have the flexibility to ride easy mountain bike trails.

You should consider a dual-suspension EMTB if:

• You are going to be spending a lot of time on raw, technical and challenging off-road trails such as Lysterfield Park, Red Hill, Silvan, Plenty Gorge or the You Yangs.

Also note that dual-suspension EMTBs fall into 3 categories:

• Lightweight
• Trail
• Enduro

For more information, visit our EMTB page.