Eurobike is a huge show, and there are vast halls full of e-bikes. It can get a bit overwhelming at times, but we’ve been walking the halls to find some of the most interesting bikes. We’re starting our series of round-ups in the city: here are six of the best city e-bikes that we’ve seen.
Klever B Comfort
Klever Mobility are a German manufacturer and they make a range of very interesting city bikes. The €3,299 B Comfort is a new bike in the range, with a low step frame and Klever’s second-generation 43Nm BIACTRON rear hub motor. The battery sits low in the middle of the frame and it’s easy to pull out for recharging indoors; the bike is specced with a 360Wh batttery but from 2018 Klever will be offering an 850Wh battery as an upgrade to all models. That should give some serious range. Klever can also supply a pannier, made by Ortlieb, designed to store a second battery. Swapping batteries takes about 20 seconds.
The B Comfort is a full-suspension bike, with a telescopic suspension fork and a rear shock tucked away just behind where the battery sits. There’s 70mm of suspension at the front and 65mm at the rear, which should be plenty to take the sting out of even the worst urban surfaces. The bike is also running on big-chamber Schwalbe Big Apple 2” tyres. It has a 10-speed Shimano derailleur transmission and Tektro Gemini hydraulic disc brakes.
Pure Cycles Volta
Pure cycles started out as Pure Fix, making fixed gear bikes in the US, but in six years it’s widened its remit and now offers a very broad range, from kids’ balance bikes to road bikes. The Volta is their first e-bike, and it’s a striking bike that you wouldn’t pin as an e-bike at first glance. The rear hub motor is compact and the battery is hidden inside the frame’s top tube. With a battery capacity of 210Wh it’s a bike designed for short city hops rather than longer commutes; Pure claim a maximum range of around 65km and for bigger riders or hillier terrain it’d be a lot less. The Volta has regenerative braking, to put some charge back into the battery when you’re coasting downhill.
Pure Cycles has added a GPS chipset to the Volta and will offer security tracking and activity logging as part of the package; at the moment the app is only available on iOs devices. The bike is light, with a claimed weight of 15.8kg, and will be available in two builds which will both retail for €1,999 in the EU. We’re not sure of UK pricing at the moment, but with the Pound and the Euro approaching parity right now we’d expect it to be around the £2k mark. The Volta singlespeed (pictured) uses a Gates CDX carbon belt drive, and the 8-speed bike has a SRAM X4 derailleur transmission. Both are currently on pre-order in the US, and the bikes will be available in Europe soon.
Kalkhoff Berleen Advance G10
Kalkhoff has been in the e-bike game for almost as long as anyone, and has its own well-regarded mid motor, the Impulse. For 2018 they’re expanding their range and the new urban bikes are designed to be sleek and stylish. The Berleen is available in two builds; the Berleen Pure Advance G10 is a stripped-down build while the more UK-weather-friendly Berleen Advance G10 gets mudguards and an integrated rear rack for all-conditions riding.
The bike uses Kalkhoff’s Groove Go system, which comprises a Bafang 250W rear hub motor and a 252Wh battery that’s integrated into the down tube. Kalkhoff give the bike an estimated range of 60km, so it’s not a long-distance e-bike but it should have plenty of range for city riding. Lighting is integrated into the bike, with the rear light built into the Selle Royal saddle. For your €2,699 (€2,499 for the Pure Advance version) you get a 10-speed Shimano Tiagra groupset, Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and Continental Contact Speed tyres: 35mm tyres on the Advance to fit under the mudguards, and wider 42mm tyres on the Pure Advance.
Riese & Müller Roadster
The Roadster city bike has featured in previous Riese & Müller ranges but the bike has been fully revised for 2018. Available in white or electric green with colour-coded mudguards, the Roadster is one of the first Riese & Müller bikes to use the new Bosch Active Line Plus motor, which swaps the small geared drive ring with a direct drive chainring.
The bike is a classy and uncomplicated city bike. It’s not trying to do anything clever in terms of the design but Riese & Müller has really got the basics right here, and in the flesh it’s a real looker. The Roadster is offered with optional rack at the rear, which uses the Racktime Snapit standard to allow baskets, bags and child seats to be attached easily; there’s also a neat little wood-platform porteur rack available for the front of the bike. Hub-gear and derailleur versions of the bike are available, and there are four builds in total which range from £2,609 with a Bosch Active cruise motor and 400Wh battery, to £3,329 for a Bosch Active Plus motor, 11-speed Shimano Alfine hub gear and 500Wh battery. All of the builds are available as diamond or low-stepover mixte frames.
Moustache Friday 27 Limited
Moustache has long been making some of the best-looking city e-bikes and it is continuing that run into its seventh year. The Friday has been in the range for some time and last year’s Friday 27 Limited had a similar build to this new bike, but there have been some significant developments from one season to the next.
Last year’s Moustache bikes debuted the company’s Hidden Power design on its mountain bikes, which tucked away a standard Bosch Powerpack battery under a removable cover. The battery was semi-integrated into the down tube and the system is very neat. Bosch have now introduced a fully integrated battery in the PowerTube, but Moustache have stuck with their solution for this year and moved it over to the urban bikes, which last year had standard down-tube-mounted batteries. As a result the new Friday 27 Limited looks a lot sleeker. It has a full-length chainguard for this year and keeps the Brooks saddle, though not the matching grips. Big Schwalbe Super Moto X tyres should handle all sorts of road conditions, and there’s a front suspension fork too.
The Friday 27 Limited gets Bosch’s top-spec Performance Line CX motor and a 500Wh PowerPack. Continuing the high end build are Shimano’s 11-speed XT derailleur transmission, integrated Supernova lighting, tubular aluminium mudguards and a rear rack with integrated support for Ortlieb’s QL3 mounting system.
Corratec Life S
Okay, so the lady in the fishnet tights and and punk haircut riding the Life S round the show is a bit unnecessary, and the product video is full of naked people for some reason, but the Life S actually looks like a lot of fun. It’s a cruiser-style city e-bike with 20” wheels and huge three-inch balloon tyres, that’s available in ten different colour combinations, with black or white frames and mudguards in bold accompanying colours.
The bike is a one-size-fits-all design: the very laid-back seat tube means the reach to the bars increases significantly as you raise the saddle so most people should be able to make it fit. The bars themselves are huge bullhorns, and Corratec have used a quill stem so there’s plenty of height adjustment available.
Corratec have specced Bosch’s new Active Line Plus motor for the Life S, and a large-capacity 500Wh battery. The bike uses a Shimano Nexus 8-speed hub gear, and is fully kitted out with mudguards, rack, kickstand and lighting, so it’s a proper city bike even if the look (and the marketing) are a bit kooky.
