September is a time for trade shows in the bike industry, and in the past few weeks we’ve been to the Eurobike show in Germany and the Cycle Show at the NEC. And there was plenty of new stuff to see! The world of e-bikes is a fast-evolving one, and it seems that every time you visit a show there’s at least a handful of new motor systems on display. Here’s our pick of the new stuff we’ve seen over the last month...

Wisper

UK brand Wisper have a new range of bikes using a brand new mid motor that they’ve designed themselves. This is the Wayfarer step-through model, with front and rear racks and 9-speed Shimano Alivio transmission. The Wayfarer is available in either hub motor or mid drive, with a step-through or standard diamond frame, and with clearance for 2.35” tyres it can be specced as a city bike, and adventure bike or even a mountain bike.

The motor itself is an EU-legal 250W unit but it has masses of torque, according to Wisper. In this bike the motor is tuned to a maximum of 100Nm, but it’s capable of 125Nm. To put that into perspective, the Bosch Performance Line CX motor is rated at 75Nm.

Wisper offers the Wayfarer with a number of different battery options depending on how much range you need. The smallest battery is pretty big at 450Wh, with a 575Wh and an enormous 700Wh battery also available. That should see you through a fair bit of commuting.

Bianchi

Bianchi has produced bikes with Shimano, Fazua, ebikemotion and Polini motors. Now it has its own motor system too. This bike is the new T-Tronik Sport in a city build, and it uses the new Bianchi Central Motor Unit.

The motor is Italian built, and offers up to 400% assistance with a maximum torque of 85Nm. There are 418Wh and 504Wh batteries available.

Sachs

We first saw the new Sachs RS motor back in 2018 but now it’s close to production. The RS motor is available different configurations with up to 420% assistance at the pedals, and it spits out a claimed 112Nm of torque with a peak power of 700W.

There’s also a GT motor which is designed for city use; the RS motor is aimed at e-MTBs and speed pedelecs. The GT motor offers 55Nm of toruqe, so it’s on a par with Shimano and Bosch city units in that regard. 

Like Bosch, Sachs will be offering a cargo-specific motor too, the CT, which looks to be based on the RS motors; it has the same torque and peak power.

Kervelo

This one looks pretty interesting. Kervelo is a French company and their Quartz drive system is designed as a lightweight, fully-integrated solution. 

The Quartz system uses Kervelo’s Kernel planetary gearbox, which sits where the bottom bracket would be. There are 4-, 6- and 12-speed options with gear ranges of 200%, 323% and 525% respectively. The motor sits in the down tube of the bike: it’s an EU-compliant 250W system with a stated torque of 70Nm and a 330Wh battery.

It’s light, too. The 4-speed version weighs just 3.6kg, and even the 12-speed transmission is only 4kg. Because everything is internal and sealed the gearbox has a long service interval too, only needing a service every 10,000km with standard gearbox oil.

The Quartz system is at working prototype stage at the moment, we’re looking forward to seeing it move towards production. It looks like it would be an excellent choice for a low-maintenance, clean-looking city bike.

Polini

Polini’s E-P3 motor is excellent – we tested it aboard Bianchi’s Impulso e-road bike (https://ebiketips.road.cc/content/reviews/electric-road-bikes/bianchi-impulso-e-road-1665) – but it doesn’t seem to have gained much traction in the market, at least in the UK. Not to rest on its laurels the company has launched a new version of the motor, the E-P3 MX, which is designed to appeal to e-MTB manufacturers. It’s basically an uprated version: Maximum torque goes up to 90Nm, and peak power output to 600W. It’s still reasonably light for such a powerful motor, at a whisker under 3kg.

Amprio

We don’t know too much about this motor system from German manufacturer Amprio as yet, they were a bit cagey about the specs and likely release date.

It looks like quite a compact unit though, and Amprio is clearly working on smartphone integration as a part of the system from launch, rather than just a bolt on. We’ll let you know when we have more information.