Category Archives: Reviews

Wisper Wayfarer Mid Drive

This is a new range from Wisper and distributed in New Zealand by the good folks who bring us Smartmotion – this means an experienced team who provide good support. They will complement the Smartmotion range and add some additional choice to their retailers and customers. There are mid-drive and hub-drive options, but I expect that the mid-drive will be

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Trek Rail 9 (2021)

Trek’s Rail was introduced for the 2020 season along with the Bosch Performance CX Gen 4 motor. This enabled a more aggressive and modern geometry (compared to Powerfly LT) and got rid of that annoying tiny front chainring that messed with full suspension. The motor is lighter and more responsive and — to my ear at least — quieter. The

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Gepida Berig

The demand in the market is for an ebike that can be used for a spot of commuting and heading down to the cafe for a coffee and a croissant, and can also do a light bit of trail riding. Oh, and can you make it step through because I don’t like swing my leg over. Easy right? No so

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Magnum Voyager (and Navigator)

Possibly the most comfortable urban ebike I’ve ridden, this is a reboot of the popular Metro Plus. It has a companion step through companion named Navigator, which is identical apart from the frame design. I predict that both will be hugely popular. I’d probably buy the Navigator because I don’t always feel like swinging my leg over and it’ll likely

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Specialized Creo SL Expert EVO

Bam! and they’ve done it again. Specialized has created a genre-busting ebike and done it incredibly well. They have engineered their own motor and battery system (Creo in Latin means ‘create’). It is stealthily integrated and also nicely compatible with their Mission Control app, allowing infinite tune options. The clevers in Switzerland have added only 3.7kg including battery, allowing the

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KTM Macina Kapoho 2973

You may recognise KTM as an Austrian boutique motorcycle manufacturer, the sort that teenage boys of my generation had posters of in their bedrooms. The bike manufacturer shares these roots, but today is a separate business, still manufactured in Austria. The Kapoho is a burly eMTB featuring 160mm of fore and aft suspension, and in intentions is definitely not a

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Zurk Model X

I try to review bikes that are a bit different to provide some interest for you the reader (and for me the rider), so when Nelson from Zurk Bikes asked me to review one of his I thought “Heck, why not?” It sure looks different and I had been wondering what’s it all for. I was hoping for the Peter

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Electric Trikes

I was quite excited about doing a review on an e-trike, having seen a good few in Hawkes Bay and the fact that they seemed to be a good option for mobility impaired riders. The trike in question looked nice in red (reminded me of the trike that I had as a child and my kids did too) and was

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Specialized Turbo Como

The Como is Specialized’s ‘cruiser’ ebike, built on the same electric platform as the Vado and Levo, with frame geometry from the Roll. It is simple to use, friendly to ride and more versatile than you might think. There is no front suspension to worry about or maintain; instead the long curvy forks and balloon tyres soak up the chatter.

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Wisper Wildcat Carbon

High end bikes are almost all made from carbon fibre – not just for light weight – but because it gives the designers more flexibility to get exactly the ride characteristics they want. There is no reason why this shouldn’t apply to high-end ebikes too. In this case, it does lend lightness – it was noticeably lighter than the Levo

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Bottecchia Newton

When the Italians do the handling and the Germans do the electronics, you have it the right way around. Add in cycling brand history dating back to 1924 — including the fact that Greg Lemond won the 1989 Tour de France on a Bottecchia — mix in the model name Newton from the guy who invented gravity(*), and you’ve got

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ProUser Diamant eBike Rack

The ProUser Diamant is a high quality European rack that can handle ebikes (or any bikes for that matter). What separates high quality from the rest is its compactness, ease of mounting to the vehicle tow ball, built in lights and number plate holder, and all-round quality of the materials used. It can handle 60kg all-up. Two 25kg ebikes are

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Magnum Metro+ 48V 700c – The Budget Hill-Climbing Champion

This is the best value ebike in New Zealand right now. At $2799 for a bike that can climb like a champ and cruise at 40km/h with a good parts selection, it carries a strong “buy” recommendation. There are two models in the new sixth-generation Magnum “Metro” range. This is the ‘plus’ with a traditional diamond frame and 700c (road

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Scott e-Silence SE

There are not many Euro-spec 45km/h bikes available, but NZ importers are slowly waking up to the fact that commuters want speed, and that 25km/h is just too slow. This is evidenced by the number of dongled bikes being sold (a dongle tricks the bike into thinking it is going slower than it is, typically limiting speed at twice the

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Moustache Lundi Urban Explorer

This is a guest post by ElectricMeg. The Moustache Lundi (Monday) is intended to be a city bike; well engineered and more versatile than it looks, handling roads, paths and gravel with ease. From initial looks I thought that this would be a quirky bike that compromises for form over function, and dismissed it as a serious modern bike because

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Smartmotion Pacer GT Preview

I was lucky to be able to preview the new Pacer GT – an update to the Pacer with a mid drive motor, belt drive and Nuvinci continuously variable gearbox. The bike I rode is a prototype so details may change when it goes to production. The first batch are rolling out more-or-less as tested. Smartmotion explained they are looking

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What’s New in NZ ebikes

It looks to be interesting times in the ebike world with most manufacturers launching new models. I attended EV World recently where a few wholesalers were showing their wares, and a Specialized product launch. I’ll be covering these in some more detail with actual reviews including my now famous hill climbing mega test! Here are some impressions. Smartmotion – the

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Specialized Turbo Vado 3.0 – The tech-savvy younger sister

The 3.0 version of the new Vado is the ‘City-tune’ version in the Vado range. That means it is optimised for range, assistance up hills and everything you need up to 32kph (20mph). It has been a while in gestation – around 2 years in development and 9 months since announcing to the world that Specialized’s European team were having a new baby, we now have one we can buy and ride.

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Reid Urban+: A great bike nobbled by its speed limit

The Reid Urban+ is a nicely put together ‘street’ bike featuring the Shimano STEPS drive system. It’s a quality-built bike with smooth welds on the main parts of the frame, a svelte grey colour scheme with subtle highlights and a nice parts selection. The geometry is ‘racy street’ bike (think NY City messenger) with rigid forks and fairly narrow handlebars – good

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Smartmotion Pacer – the local hero

It’s great to see that we have some genuine local ebike businesses in lil’ol’ NZ, and I don’t mean importers, but actual innovators and designers. It’s a hard road in such a small market and with limited access to capital, not to mention being able to flick off a quick mil’ or so in pre-orders on Kickstarter based on some

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Specialized Turbo

This is my bike. I love my bike. I bought it because it’s faster than everything else and because it doesn’t look like an ebike. Cyclists are weird like that. [Edit: this model is no longer made – you might still find one in a dealer or second hand. ] The first thing anyone who rides this bike feels is

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BH e-motion Evo 27.5

I rode this bike in Hamilton where ElectricMeg and I were working at the Mercury try an ebike days. Bikes International distribute a range of BH bikes mostly through the Bike Barn chain and Waikato/Online retailer Evolution Cycles. They are all geared rear hub designs and mostly with a battery integrated into the down tube. Painted in yellow for Mercury

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