I tried the Avinox, and now I understand why the industry seems to be in panic mode.
That motor is incredibly powerful in Turbo, honestly, more than I would ever need yet it remains very controllable. While I don’t require that much power, it’s reassuring to know it’s there when you want it. The adjustability is excellent as well. What really stands out is that even with an 800Wh battery, the bike still feels light. It makes me question the point of lower-powered options with smaller batteries when something like this exists.
I might wait a bit longer to see the new Avinox system appear on bikes from other brands.
It also looks like
Specialized has just released an update to bring their power output to Avinox levels. Apparently, you can run their bikes with only a small range extender, which should significantly reduce the overall weight. It’s just unfortunate that their pricing starts quite high.
I'm curious, which bike did you try that had the Avinox? What was the weight?
The point of lower-powered options with smaller batteries is that some of us still want a good workout, but also want to travel at Class III speeds when riding around town or elsewhere.
Most of my week day rides are short springs, a little over four miles. Going from 40nm /47 pounds to 60nm /36 pounds is great for a lot of reasons; I do have to pick my bike up and portage it over some obstacles, and put it in the hatchback of my old sports car.
But 60nm of torque is almost too much for my local terrain (and I'm almost 70 years old and recovering from cardiac arrest, though I'm putting out more power now than I was before then). There are only two hills where I need turbo, and only for very brief segments that I don't ride regularly. In these hills, 28 MPH (my highest speed) is really, really fast whether you are riding or driving-- safer when riding than driving because you can stop faster for dogs or pedestrians.
100nm would either be not enough of a workout, or too harrowing when I'm sharing the road with pedestrians, animals, etc. I don't need a bigger battery, either-- I'm not going to ride more than 40 miles in a day, at least anytime soon-- so why lug it around?
There may come a day when I need that much power for climbing, but hopefully not soon. What is cool about a light gravel bike is that for some errands, like going to my barber, I'm hardly using any assist at all, the motor is off most of the time-- and yet, it's much more stable than my old acoustic road bike, which I keep in New York. Riding the old Raleigh with those thin tires-- man, you gotta be so careful on pavement!
If there were an affordable 100nm option that was under 40 pounds, and somehow had thicker tires and more cush in the suspension, yeah, that might be interesting. That's why I'm asking about the overall weight, which I know is often a hard number to find without picking up a bike and standing on a bathroom scale.
