Aventon Ramblas Review: Final Takeaway
Overall Rating: 4.6 / 5.0
(Ratings are based on both performance and price)
Aventon has just added a new e-bike to their lineup. It’s called the Ramblas and it is an electric mountain bike. We’ve loved the off-road abilities of Aventon’s fat-tire e-bikes, like the Aventure 2, but the Ramblas marks a new chapter in Aventon’s growth as an e-bike brand. In our Aventon Ramblas review we will demonstrate just how capable this e-bike is.
Let’s begin with the basics. The Ramblas is a hard-tail eMTB built around a 6061 heat-treated aluminum frame and 130mm-travel RockShox 35 Silver suspension fork. It’s made in four sizes (S-XL). Providing the muscle for the Ramblas is a new motor from Aventon, the A100.
Not everything that gets called an eMTB really is, but Aventon has done an impressive job. The Ramblas features a 12-speed drivetrain, 4-piston hydraulic disc brakes and a dropper post. They also got the geometry right; the Ramblas handles like what I would expect an eMTB to perform.
Aventon Ramblas – What We Liked
- A100 mid-drive motor works well and offers terrific power
- The geometry is great; it handles well and comes in four sizes to fit most riders
- 12-speed drivetrain and 4-piston brakes reflect real off-road riding
- Dropper post for technical terrain
Aventon Ramblas Pro’s
- Great value, with initial MSRP at just $2,699
- 250W mid-drive motor produces a very powerful 100Nm of torque
- 12-speed SRAM drivetrain with 11-50t cassette to cover even the steepest hills
- 4-piston SRAM DB8 hydraulic disc brakes with 200/180mm rotors for excellent control
- Dropper post so that steep descents are fun, not scary
- 130mm-travel RockShox Silver 35 air-spring suspension fork is nicer than anything we’ve seen at this price
Aventon Ramblas Con’s
- We’d like to see the rims upgraded to ones that are tubeless compatible
- The large and XL sizes could benefit from slightly longer dropper posts (175mm rather than 150mm)
My Experience Riding The Aventon Ramblas E-Bike
Ride Quality Rating: 4.8
I’m going to be honest and say that when most direct-to-consumer e-bike makers claim to have made an eMTB, what they are selling falls short of what riders need for real off-road riding. They lack things that people riding mountain bikes and eMTBs all agree are necessities. To qualify as an eMTB, the suspension fork needs to be quality. The eMTB also needs at least an 11-speed drivetrain; that’s because eMTBs feature single chainring drivetrains (called 1x—say one-by); in order to offer a rider a broad enough range to get up hills and back down the other side, a cassette needs to give a rider an at least 400 percent gear range, and the 8- and 9-speed drivetrains don’t do that.
The Aventon Ramblas performed admirably. With such an affordable price, I expected it to have at least one or two significant shortcomings. The 66.5-degree head tube angle (and 44mm-rake suspension fork) really set this eMTB’s character. It handles like a proper eMTB on descents and in turns. If the head tube angle is too steep, the eMTB becomes harder to control on steep and/or fast terrain. And thanks to the dropper post, I didn’t have to ease my way down the steeps, worried that I’d go over the bar.
While running an e-bike with tubeless tires may seem like it’s mostly about reducing flats, there’s more to a good tubeless setup than that. Tubeless tires reduce rolling resistance, which means that it takes less energy to reach a given speed, and to stay there. Also, tubeless tires allow the rider to run less air pressure in the tires and that results in greater traction and comfort. Tubeless is the gift that keeps giving, and not having it on this eMTB is its only noticeable flaw, but as flaws go, it’s relatively minor.
Range
Range Rating: 4.9
Estimated Range (from Aventon): up to 80 mi.
Power (Motor & Battery)
Power Rating: 36V, 250W mid-drive motor with torque sensor, 100Nm of torque
EBR readers may recall that Aventon produces their own frames, but not their own motors. The A100 strikes out in a new direction for the company, as they collaborated with Gobao to manufacture their 250W mid-drive motor. That’s notably smaller than the 750W hub motor common to many of their models, but that doesn’t mean the Ramblas is under-powered.
Mid-drive motors have an advantage over hub motors in that they are able to use the e-bike’s drivetrain to multiply its effort. Just as the gears allow a human being to both climb hills and go fast while keeping our legs turning between 50 and 100 rpm, the drivetrain takes the motor’s wattage and adds it to the rider’s effort in the most seamless experience found in e-bikes, thanks in part to the torque sensor that updates the controller thousands of times each second. When the rider pedals harder (or softer) the torque sensor adjusts the motor’s output in direct proportion to the rider’s effort.
The A100 produces 100Nm of torque, which is higher than what we typically see with mid-drive motors. Our coworkers at Electric Bike Report have begun testing the Aventon Ramblas and they report that on their hill test, it outperformed e-bikes with Bosch’s PowerLine CX motor as well as Specialized e-bikes with their Brose-made 2.2 motor.
The Aventon A100 motor is impressive, but it gives up some of the finesse and refinement we find in the Specialized 2.2 motor or the Bosch Performance Line CX motors. There seems to be a bit of drag in the motor when pedaling with the motor off. At least it doesn’t over-run in operation after the rider stops pedaling.
While we haven’t had the opportunity to compare them side-by-side, our sense is that the A100 motor is louder than the Bosch Performance Line CX, Shimano EP8 or Specialized 2.2 motors. Louder, but not rock band loud.
Aventon equipped the Ramblas with a 708Wh battery using LG cells. Considering the 250W rating of the motor, riders will be able to ride for hours on a single charge. Aventon estimates that riders can expect to get as much as 80 mi. on a single charge.
With no throttle and a maximum assist speed of 20 mph (and no ability to unlock the motor for Class 3 speeds), people may consider the Aventon Ramblas underpowered, but there’s a reason for these limitations. There are many trail systems around the U.S. that don’t permit e-bikes at all. However, when they do, they only permit e-bikes rated as Class 1 performers with a 20 mph max-assist speed and no throttle.
Buyers can ride the Aventon Ramblas anywhere that e-bikes are legal.
Components
It’s one thing to produce a quality e-bike that can serve the masses capably. It’s quite another to produce a proper eMTB that will allow a reasonably athletic person to ride into technical terrain and perform well enough that an experienced rider wouldn’t think the eMTB was holding them back. The opportunities to make mistakes in design are numerous.
One of the most frequent mistakes we see companies make is by going with a drivetrain that isn’t up to the task. The Aventon Ramblas includes a SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain; this is a 12-speed drivetrain that includes an 11-50t cassette—that’s a nearly 500 percent gear range. While this is a more budget-oriented version of SRAM’s upper-end drivetrains, the NX Eagle drivetrain is one of the best values in mountain bike drivetrains.
Aventon included its powerful 4-piston DB8 hydraulic disc brakes on the Ramblas. They selected a 200mm rotor for the front wheel and a 180mm rotor for the rear wheel, which makes for a very powerful braking system.
Another sign that Aventon did its homework with the Ramblas is that they spec’d a dropper post. A dozen years ago, dropper posts were still a little bit novel. That’s no longer the case. It’s hard to claim that an eMTB is really an eMTB if the rider can’t drop the seat for a technical descent. Aventon included a 120mm-travel KS dropper for the small frame size and 150mm-travel droppers on the medium, large and XL frames. If we were to get super-ultra-picky, we would complain that they went with 150mm-travel droppers on the large and XL rather than going with 175mm-travel posts. These potatoes are very small.
Aventon spec’d Maxxis Recon tires on the Ramblas, which is a terrific move. Maxxis is one of the most popular tire makers for mountain bikes and eMTBs. However, they selected a rim that isn’t rated for tubeless setup. When we consider what we believe are standards for eMTBs, well, tubeless tires are right up there with 12-speed drivetrains and dropper posts. Tubeless tires result in fewer flats, better traction and superior rolling resistance, plus riders can run less pressure in the tires which offers the impressive triple whammy of better comfort, better traction and reduced opportunities for flats.
The decision to go with rims that aren’t tubeless compatible is a definite miss, but considering this e-bike’s primary customer base is most likely not someone shopping for an eMTB from Specialized or Trek, many buyers may not miss tubeless tires. Again, this isn’t a fatal flaw, but it’s the one thing that really needs to be changed on this otherwise fantastic e-bike.
Screen / User Interface / App
The Display that comes with the Aventon Ramblas isn’t as big as the ones we see on other Aventon e-bikes, but that’s okay as this is an eMTB and riders may dump the bike from time to time, so we appreciate their decision to go with a smaller screen (still full-color LCD) that is tucked just behind the handlebar where it won’t easily hit or be hit by anything.
Riders can choose from three different PAS levels: Eco, Trail and Turbo.
Aventon produces one of our favorite smartphone apps. In it, riders can adjust the assistance level in each PAS level, dial the maximum torque level for each PAS level and then alter just how the Ramblas accelerates, giving them an unusual degree of control over their e-bike’s performance.
Is The Aventon Ramblas Worth It?
Oh lordy, yes. To use a technical term, this eMTB is awesome. Every time one of the direct-to-consumer e-bike makers announces they are introducing an eMTB, we hold our breath and then hope they get it right … and then let out a big exhale of disappointment. That was not the case with the Aventon Ramblas.
We suspect that the early-adopters for the Aventon Ramblas are likely to be riders who have been exploring dirt roads and trails on all-terrain e-bikes with fat tires. Much as we love all-terrain e-bikes, compared to the Aventon Ramblas, they suffer some obvious setbacks.
The fat tires reduce the e-bike’s maneuverability, making them resistant to hard turns. They don’t have enough gears for steep trails and don’t feature geometry suited to no-brakes descents; at speed, these e-bikes can begin to feel a little unstable. Also, no one wants to stop to lower the seat for a steep descent.
That Aventon chose to offer the Ramblas in four distinctly different sizes shows just how seriously they take the Ramblas. One of our concerns when we first heard about the new model was that it would come in one, maybe two different sizes. That can work acceptably for an e-bike aimed at the masses, but in the dynamic setting of a technical trail, it’s important to have a ride that fits.
Aventon even went as far as to build the small size with 27.5-in. wheels, while the medium, large and XL are all built with 29-in. wheels. That choice will make this eMTB easier to handle in technical terrain. Another detail that will help riders: The Ramblas weighs only 56 lbs.
Our guess is that the big legacy manufacturers such as Specialized and Trek—companies that have done much to bring performance-oriented eMTBs to an affordable price range—haven’t concerned themselves with the D2C e-bike makers. It’s as if they have been selling e-bikes to two entirely different consumer groups, and that may be largely true. A company like Specialized hasn’t had to worry about companies like Aventon stealing market share. As high as Aventon’s value proposition has been (among the highest in the D2C space), they haven’t been making e-bikes that compete with anything that Specialized makes. Well, they weren’t making e-bikes that competed. Now they do.
The Aventon Ramblas is a shot across the bow of every company that has tried to introduce an eMTB into the sub-$4000 price range. We couldn’t be more impressed by the Aventon Ramblas. Will someone buy this e-bike instead of a $10k Specialized Tubro Levo? No. The Ramblas won’t compete with the high-end of the market, but what it will do is open up riding increasingly technical terrain for riders who may not have seen themselves as Weekend Warrior Athletes.
If two weeks ago you’d asked me if you could produce a capable eMTB for less than $3000 and do it without losing money, I’d have told you, flat-out, no. I didn’t think it was possible to produce an eMTB in four sizes, with a quality suspension fork, mid-drive motor, dropper post and 12-speed drivetrain, oh, and 4-piston hydraulic brakes, for less than $3500. What Aventon has done with the Ramblas is a shock. It may only be February, but this could turn out to be the e-bike of the year.
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