I like a lot of what Aventon has to offer, but their mid-drive Ramblas is eMTB perfection! But before I go on, feast your eyes on this:
Normally, I like to find little imperfections in an ebike build that I can complain about, and usually say that “a bike has good bones, but I would change this and that.” Not so with the Ramblas. Build quality is AMAZING! Components are great. And its design rivals that of much more expensive hard-tail electric mountain bikes. And then there’s the price. $2899 (for all 4 sizes S, M, L, and XL) sounds like a lot (at least it does to me), but considering what you get for the money the Ramblas is a really good value. And here’s what you get (hold on to your bike helmet, there’s a lot!):
Technical Overview
“Ramblas comes out of the box as a Class I ebike, with pedal assist and a top speed of 20 MPH. Aventon’s Ramblas is built to the IP67-rated standard. IP67 rating means it’s protected against the effects of immersion in water to a depth between 15 cm and 1 meter. IP67-rated products are referred to as waterproof vs only water-resistant, so you can cross creeks, and ride in rain and mud without worry.“
I told you it would be a lot! I especially like that they’re using LG 2170 cells in the battery, that the motor is IP67 rated, that it has 4-piston hydraulic brake calipers with properly size discs (180mm front, 200mm rear), and they’re using a 12-speed cassette (11-50 tooth) sprocket with single click shifter and 34 tooth narrow-wide front chain ring.
Since I’m 6’2″, I think I would stick with the XL frame, and if handlebar position isn’t quite right, an adjustable handlebar stem might be required. Other than that, I think Aventon has got this Class 1 eMTB completely dialed in. Oh, and of course there’s the mandatory mirror and bell needing to be added.
Here are some pictures I took of a Ramblas I assembled this morning at Max’s Electric Bikes in Doylestown, PA. What a bike!
And after all the great things I said about the Ramblas, I do have a complaint, which is with the marketing department, not the bike – so here goes:
In the ‘General Info’ section, you’ll see ‘Range: Up to 80 Miles‘ – what? Let’s do some quick math (which you can find in one of my recent e-bike presentations here) – example:
For the Ramblas we have a 708Wh 36v battery. 708Wh/36v gives us a 19.67 (round to 20) Ah battery – not bad. But throwing that back into the equation 708Wh/20Wh per mile = 35.4 miles. So that’s what you can expect from your battery power-wise. Now factor in the lack of a throttle, which means you’re always pedaling when the bike is moving forward. So perhaps they’re factoring in an equal amount of rider energy for each watt-hour of battery energy used. That makes some sense, but I still think the 80-mile number is kind of misleading.
On the other hand, Electric Bike Report did conduct an extensive range test and here are their results:
In conclusion, they wrote, “
“In short, the Aventon Ramblas delivered an impressive performance. Set to Sport, its max PAS setting, we rode an incredible 47.5 mi. at an average speed of 17.5 mph, with roughly 1150 ft. of elevation change.
Set to Eco, its minimum PAS setting, the Ramblas was even more impressive. It rolled along at an average speed of 13 mph for 8:12, for a total mileage of 107.4, with 2224 ft. of climbing.
To put this in perspective, consider this: The Aventon Ramblas is one of only five e-bikes that we’ve tested that gave more than 100 mi. of range. It’s max power test was the fourth longest we’ve ever tested too. Given those results, 80 miles on a single charge of trail riding sounds realistic, and it makes it one of the more impressive eMTBs in terms of range.”
All I can say is “WOW”! So if you’re seriously considering the Ramblas, I encourage you to start here: https://electricbikereport.com/aventon-ramblas-review/… then visit Max’s Electric Bikes to buy yours!