Aventon Ramblas Electric Mountain Bike – CleanTechnica Tested

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The brand new Aventon Ramblas eMTB, with its highly effective mid-drive motor paired with a torque sensor, ticks all the suitable bins. The Ramblas is jam-packed with options that make it a enjoyable, quick, and highly effective bike that feels as rugged as it’s snug. Aventon despatched me a Ramblas to evaluate, and I’ve been placing it via its paces on each the path and the pavement so I can carry you a hands-on analysis of (spoiler alert) what simply is perhaps my new favourite e-bike.

We’ve ridden and reviewed a number of Aventon models on CleanTechnica in recent times, with just about each single mannequin proving to be well-designed and well-built, and the Ramblas is not any exception. Actually, in my view, that is by far the most effective bike within the firm’s lineup to this point, though I’ll admit that I normally desire mountain bikes and off-road e-bikes over cruiser and commuter bikes, so your mileage could fluctuate.

Though the Ramblas is Aventon’s first electrical mountain bike, it definitely doesn’t come off as something lower than a top quality construct, so it’s clear that the corporate put some severe thought into it and introduced its A-game to the desk when designing it. The A-100 mid-drive motor, which can also be a brand new product that was designed by Aventon, which isn’t one thing you see fairly often from bike firms, as there are already a bunch of stable mid-drive motors available on the market that different e-bike firms use of their fashions. This mannequin is Aventon’s first mid-drive bike, and the Ramblas is available in at a fantastic value when in comparison with most of the different mid-drive eMTBs which might be accessible proper now.

Aventon Ramblas, photo by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica
Aventon’s A100 mid-drive motor, photograph by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica

Unboxing the Ramblas

Proper out of the field, it’s evident that the Ramblas is a top quality construct, and like most fashionable e-bikes is fast and simple to assemble (truly to only end the meeting, because it’s a quite easy matter to put in the handlebars, the entrance wheel, and the pedals). I received’t actually go into the unboxing right here aside from to level out that just about all the packaging for the Ramblas is absolutely recyclable, which is a far cry from the early days of e-bikes that had been usually shipped with a ton of plastic and foam, which frequently weren’t simply recyclable. I’ll say that after placing collectively a lot of completely different e-bikes through the years, I’d encourage any new e-bike purchaser to go forward and assemble it your self, until you’re an entire klutz who’s all thumbs, wherein case, I do advocate having your native bike store (or a good friend who’s useful) do it for you only for personal security’s sake.

Driving the Ramblas

My preliminary impression of the Ramblas whereas on its first fast shakedown cruise after meeting was that driving this e-bike feels very natural — much like pedaling a non-electric bike — and that the highly effective mid-drive motor (able to producing 100Nm of drive) paired with a torque sensor made the bike’s drivetrain very conscious of the rider. As a substitute of the punchy on/off feeling that many e-bikes with hub motors and cadence sensors can have, the Ramblas simply felt pure to experience, and when switching from pedaling it mushy and simple to essentially mashing down on the pedals, it delivered a response akin to what I’d anticipate from my ‘acoustic’ MTB (apart from all that further energy, after all).

Aventon Ramblas, photo by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica
Aventon Ramblas, photograph by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica

On later rides, I used to be capable of get a extremely good really feel for the Ramblas and begin driving it a bit extra aggressively, totally on a singletrack with a bunch of ups and downs and bumps and turns to it, but additionally on pavement. On a path with some technical or difficult sections, there’s a little little bit of a studying curve to it, as choosing the right pedal help degree was key to staying upright, in addition to determining simply how a lot drive to pedal with relying on the help degree and which gear you’re in (see under about tuning the motor to fit your wants). It’s not tough, it simply takes some recalibrating in your mind, as an e-bike isn’t fairly as forgiving as a non-electric bike when driving at pace or via difficult sections (don’t ask me how I do know that).

That stated, although the Rambas weighs in at about 54 kilos (which is appreciable when in comparison with a non-electric MTB), it positive doesn’t really feel prefer it. It rides like a motorbike half its weight, and between the Rockshox fork and 29-er fats tires, is fairly snug to experience and handles rather well even when tackling actually bumpy and rocky terrain. The dropper publish is a pleasant contact, as having the ability to decrease the saddle on the fly for extra room within the cockpit when descending is a good function that many/most fats tire off-road e-bikes don’t have. The Sram NX Eagle 12-speed drivetrain, with only a single chainring up entrance, is snappy and exact, and the Sram 4-piston hydraulic disc brakes present loads of stopping energy whereas additionally permitting for loads of ‘nuance’ when feathering the brakes.

Aventon Ramblas, photo by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica
Aventon Ramblas, photograph by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica

Aventon places the estimated vary per cost of the Ramblas with its 708 Wh battery at “as much as 80 miles,” which after all depends upon the place and the way it’s ridden — on a flat grade on the Eco degree of pedal help versus on uphill rides utilizing the Turbo degree — and though I haven’t but run the battery utterly flat to check out the vary, the estimated ranges appear moderately correct to me to this point. Within the guide it states a spread of as much as 120 miles for the max (Eco degree), and 45 miles when driving in hilly terrain utilizing the Turbo degree.



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The Ramblas Is Tunable

One different function that basically stood out to me was the tunable nature of the motor via the Aventon app, which lets you personalize how every pedal help degree performs. There are three pedal help ranges — Eco, Path, and Turbo — and inside the settings, you possibly can dial within the parameters of every one to greatest fit your driving fashion and/or terrain, which I’ve simply began digging in to and messing about with.

I’ll let Aventon clarify briefly what settings may be adjusted through the Experience Tune function within the app:

  • Help: Help is the motor’s energy contribution to the rider’s effort. As an example, at 50% it provides 30 watts to your 60 watt output, whereas 100% provides 60 watts.
  • Max Torque: Max Torque may be adjusted to alter the texture of the way you experience. Lowering the max torque supplies a extra pure experience really feel and will increase battery vary.
  • Acceleration: Acceleration determines the bike’s preliminary energy from a cease. Increased settings imply faster response, whereas decrease settings supply a extra pure really feel.

So for instance, for those who discover that the Path pedal help degree accelerates too shortly on your style (or the circumstances), you possibly can cut back the acceleration share, or if it’s not highly effective sufficient on the uphills, you possibly can increase the quantity of torque. The default settings for the three pedal help ranges are good, don’t get me mistaken, however having the ability to tweak them to raised match the route you’re on or your personal private driving fashion is quite good contact.

Aventon Ramblas, photo by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica

Total

In my expertise, the Ramblas is a stable contender within the eMTB class, and delivers lots of worth for its value. And it’s not solely tremendous succesful and enjoyable to experience, it’s additionally visually interesting. Certain, it solely is available in one coloration in the mean time — Borealis — but it surely’s an attractive type of sparkly inexperienced/grey combo, which isn’t actually captured within the images. Plus, the Ramblas is a extremely clear construct, with all the cables however one (for the entrance brake) internally routed and never flopping round, so to talk, as they’re on some e-bikes.

Aventon Ramblas, photo by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica
Aventon Ramblas, photograph by Derek Markham / CleanTechnica

I used to be telling a good friend of mine who runs a neighborhood bike store that sells Aventon e-bikes about my impressions of this mannequin, and his reply was that they’d bought their first Ramblas to a buyer earlier than it was even assembled and out on the gross sales flooring, so I’m pretty sure that these bikes are going to be actually widespread — particularly for individuals who have thought-about shopping for an identical mid-drive e-bike from an enormous legacy model like Specialised or Trek however who perhaps couldn’t afford the worth. Now after all, severe cyclists may make the argument that there are important variations between the Ramblas and people from different manufacturers (in my view, largely using greater finish parts within the drivetrain, but additionally the cachet of the model), so it’s not a totally apples-to-apples comparability, however for the informal bicycle owner the bikes are shut sufficient — and adequate — for all the driving they’re prone to do.

The Ramblas is priced at $2699, which appears like a extremely nice value level for an electrical mountain bike to me, contemplating it has a torquey mid-drive motor and is constructed with high quality parts. It additionally comes with a 2-year guarantee, which (to me) speaks to how assured Aventon is about how the Ramblas will carry out and maintain as much as being ridden laborious (however not put away moist).


Disclosure: Aventon equipped a evaluate mannequin of the Ramblas to the writer.


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