Once I noticed the worth tag for the Ramblas, Aventon’s first electrical mountain bike, I scratched my head and puzzled, “How did they do this?” OK, so $2,699 isn’t precisely low cost. However most top-of-the-line, full-suspension e-MTBs are pushing $15,000. That’s a distinction of greater than $12,000, which might’t be defined away by the dearth of a rear shock.
The corporate has been round since 2013, the yr it began manufacturing fixies in Lengthy Seaside, California. In 2015 Aventon’s girls’s Manufacturing facility Group gained the Purple Hook Crit in Barcelona, a 20-lap race round a 1.2-kilometer course at speeds upwards of 35 km an hour. Regardless of a loyal fixie following, Aventon pivoted into the commuter ebike space in 2017. Seven years later, the e-MTB Ramblas was born.
Now based mostly in Ontario, California, the corporate does nearly the whole lot in-house, from engineering and improvement to assembling small components and manufacturing its personal frames. On the Ramblas, Aventon even designed its personal mid-drive motor. In consequence, the maker can take out the intermediary and do larger quantity than opponents, which implies decrease costs to the patron.
Make or Break It
Aventon works with greater than 1,500 bike retailers nationwide but in addition sells direct to customers, so I had the corporate ship a demo Ramblas on to me. My companion constructed the bike in below an hour, due to his mechanic expertise and the easy-to-follow directions accessed by the QR code on the field.
At first look, I used to be impressed with the bike’s properly specced elements, which embody a Rockshox 35 suspension fork with 130 mm of journey, a Sram NX 12-speed drivetrain, and Sram DB-8 mineral four-piston hydraulic disc brakes. In much less technical jargon, which means extra brake fluid is distributed throughout a bigger floor space, making it simpler to cease. Plus, the Ramblas comes with a dropper seat publish and built-in entrance and back lights.
As for e-components, the Ramblas makes use of an Aventon 708-watt-hour, rechargeable lithium-ion battery and the brand-new Aventon-designed A100 mid-drive 36-volt motor with 250 watts of sustained energy and 750 watts of peak energy that’s customizable through the companion app. I had by no means ridden an e-MTB that wasn’t powered by Brose, Bosch, or Specialised, so I used to be curious to see how the A100 would evaluate.
{Photograph}: Stephanie Pearson
My first trip in early Might was a 25-mile loop of dust and paved roads interspersed with chunks of singletrack dry sufficient to trip. My first journey on a brand new ebike all the time triggers battery anxiousness, so I stayed nearly completely in Eco mode, the bottom of the Ramblas’ three energy modes, which is normal on most e-MTBs.
Even in Eco mode, I used to be impressed with the sleek, constant energy all through every pedal stroke. If I stored up my cadence and accomplished every stroke, Eco mode supplied sufficient regular energy to drive up steep, lengthy grades with out having to toggle as much as Path or Turbo mode. The tiger within the A100’s tank is probably going as a consequence of its 100 newton meters (NM) of torque (the upper the torque, the better the motor’s energy and responsiveness), about 20 NM greater than most different e-MTB motors.
Heavyweight
At 52 kilos with the medium body, the Ramblas shouldn’t be gentle. At one level on a steep, paved uphill, I turned the bike off to see how properly it pedaled below my very own energy. That didn’t go properly, and I needed to flip the bike again on lengthy earlier than I crested the hill, shortly realizing that it might be a really large bummer if the bike ran out of battery throughout a protracted trip. The optimistic, nevertheless, is that after 25 miles, I nonetheless had 70 p.c of the cost remaining, which signifies that Aventon’s promise of an 80-mile vary is correct.
{Photograph}: Stephanie Pearson
