Evelo Aurora Hub-Drive is a 1 kW Cadillac of fat-tire road ebikes

The Evelo Aurora Hub-Drive really surprised me with its usability. I’m a little spoiled because I own a “bike shop ebike” that I ride to work daily. Because of that, I’m often disappointed in the quality of $2,000 and under ebikes. Components, weight, and workmanship are often sacrificed to get to those low prices. But that’s not the case here…

So right off the bat, the Aurora isn’t light. One look at this thing and you know it’s built as strong as one of those bike-share bikes that are meant to get thrashed. However, unlike those bikes, the Evelo isn’t insanely heavy and rickety. Even more impressive, it has a step-thru frame. That’s thanks to its 6061 High-Strength Aluminum Alloy frame. So the bike you see before you weighs in at  a still hefty 60 pounds before you put on its 7-pound battery. That frame lets larger riders up to and beyond 350 pounds use this bike.

Solid luxury ride

In practice, the ride is solid and the rider sits upright. Handlebars are swept back and raised for a higher upright ride height. Not good for wind resistance, but nice on the back.

So, yes, it is way sturdier than you’ll probably ever need it to be.

That sturdiness is accented by big 3-inch-wide by 26-inch Innova Kevlar Belt tires. On the front you have a solid Suntour XCM32 Boost Technology 15mm Thru Axle fork.

With that sturdiness comes about the biggest motor legal on most US streets — a Bafang 750W continuous/1kW nominal rear hub motor. That gets the Aurora up to 20 mph surprisingly quickly, either with five levels of pedal assist or by left hand-placed throttle. You can get to 25 mph assisted in “off-road” mode or just set the wheel size to something smaller in the settings like I did. The left-handed throttle did take some getting used to.

As far as the pedal assist, five different modes allowed it to go from zero assist to all 1000 w pretty fluidly. I will say as a cadence sensor setup, there is the typical small lag between stopping/starting pedaling and the motor kicking in/releasing. But it is minimal and very easy to get used to.

The Cadillac ride

So you are sitting upright with those bent handlebars like a meat sail in the wind. You’ve got a ton of power at your fingertips or at the push of a pedal. On flat ground you’ll quickly get you right up to 20 mph. Hills? LOL, no problem. Most won’t even require pedalling. At 20 mph you’ll likely stay without assistance since your wind resistance is huge and this bike is not light.

The ride itself is buttery smooth. Those 3-inch wide kevlar wheels are going to absorb much of the road damage and add a Suntour front fork, and even the bumpiest trails are manageable. The seat is a basic Velo Breeze with Memory Foam, 28 mm wide VL-6106. I might upgrade this to something a little softer if this was my scene.

Components are rounded out with:

• Shimano Revo Shifter, 7 Speed sprockets
• Tektro MD-M300 Disc Brakes with 160 mm rotor and cutoff switch
• Wellgo LU-C33 pedals
• Multi-Color 3.2-inch IPS Display with USB Charger (DPC-18) Spedometer
• Spanninga Linio Front, Spanninga Kendo Rear lights

Downsides

The battery range is quoted at up to 45 miles pedal assist or 25 miles on throttle alone, but I I found that to be a little… optimistic. I’d return from my mountainous 10-mile ride going full bore on the throttle/pedal assist with 25%-35% of range left. That in itself isn’t horrible, but I also found that at the end of the ride, where I’m going up the last hill to my home, I wasn’t able to squeeze out the peak 1kW of power, getting a more realistic 500-750W. That’s still a lot more than my lighter daily driver, but I think this thing is drinking power.

Math bares this out:

48V x 11.6Ah = 556Wh battery. 20 mph for half an hour = 10 miles (my commute) and 1kW motor running for half an hour = 500Wh means the battery is almost dead.  All that power moving this heavy bike on huge tires very fast kills the battery. Shocking, I know.

I’d probably also choose a softer seat/seat pole suspension (Evelo will let you choose another up to $40 seat) as well as fenders/mud guards for rain as well as a Class 3 top speed cutoff.

Evelo Aurora Hub Verdict

I really like this bike. It rides like a dream, is way stronger than it needs to be, with a rack that can probably hold half of your friends. The motor is as powerful as is legal and components are solid. The step-thru frame ride is smooth and luxurious, and it doesn’t break down.

But I’m not the target rider for this bike. I like to go full bore, crouched over and travel more than 20 miles at close to 30mph in an outing. For me, I’d like a longer range and a higher class 3 speed on a more efficient bike. I’m willing to sacrifice smoothness for less weight and efficiency. But I realize I’m in the minority. This is a great middle-of-the-road bike that will make upright riders very happy.

Add to that components like a super-strong body and rack, front and rear integrated lighting system, superwide tires and a fantastic four-year, 20,000 mile warranty and its $2,100 price seems like a bargain over other mid-tier bikes. Evelo also offers a 10-day home trial, $49 white glove assembly service (you won’t need it, it is super-easy, and comes 95% assembled), and a 0% financing option.

You made it this far, take $100 off the price of the Evelo Aurora Hub with this affiliate code: REF-RV0LL3D5KXYPQ2

Full specs below:

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