Fat tire full-suspension carbon fiber e-bike!

One of the nice things about the state of the e-bike industry which is currently the equivalent of the 1920s car market is that you have about a hundred different e-bike companies all of which they try new and crazy things with sometimes very divergent design concepts. Recently announced Hey bike HERO it’s the purest embodiment of that idea, showing what happens when a company says “Let’s build a super-lightweight carbon fiber frame, but also stuff it full of heavy, high-powered suspension and components.”

Want to see this thicc boy in action? The bike, I mean. So check out my riding and testing video below. So read on for my full thoughts on the Heybike HERO!

Heybike HERO video review

Heybike HERO technical specifications

• Engine: State-of-the-art 1,000 W rear hub motor (mid-drive version also available)
• Maximum speed: 31 mph (50 km/h)
• Order: Claimed up to 60 miles (up to 100 km)
• Battery: 48V 18Ah (864 Wh)
• Weight: 75 lbs (34 kg)
• Load capacity: Claimed 400 lb (181 kg)
• frame: Carbon fiber full suspension frame
• Tires: 26×4″ fat tires
• Brakes: Dual piston hydraulic disc brakes
• Extras: Color screen, front LED light, front and rear suspension, kickstand, cables routed inside, removable battery

So much to take in

There’s a lot to take in when you first lay eyes on the Heybike HERO.

At first glance, it looks like many of the fat tire adventure electric e-bikes we’ve seen. But a closer look reveals hidden rear suspension in the form of Horst link suspension. You almost didn’t notice it before because the shock is well designed to be inserted into the frame behind the seat tube.

Then, of course, there is the fact that the frame has a number of strange angles, throwing off the visuals. These are made possible by the carbon fiber construction. Good luck trying to get a funky frame like this with just hydroformed aluminum.

There’s a slightly out-of-place motorcycle-style headlight up front, mounted in the same place on the fork where a front fender is conspicuously absent. There is also no rear fender, although this is quite common with full-suspension e-bikes.

It may seem like there is a half-unit engine, but it is only a layer. The Heybike HERO actually comes in a 750W mid-drive variant, but we’re testing the 1,000W hub driver version. This means that the box mid-drive-lookin’ down by the pedals is just an empty cavity, or it can hold the controller and the rat’s nest of wires, at most.

A surprisingly tall 9-speed drivetrain in the form of a Shimano Altus derailleur sits next to one side of that big rear hub motor, and a 180mm disc rotor sits on the other side of the motor. A pair of twin-piston hydraulic calipers provide the stopping power.

Ok, but how do you ride?

So there are the specs and the load, but how to jump and twist the throttle?

In a word, pepper! That hub motor puts out 100Nm of torque, which is more than almost any hub motor e-bike we’ve tested. When you get to 65 or 70 Nm, you’re in pretty powerful territory. 100 Nm is more than anyone is really asking for, but Heybike has no qualms about giving it to us!

Not only does the bike reach an impressive (and questionably legal) 50-ish km/h, or about 31 mph, but it does so only with the accelerator. You can of course throw out your own pedal effort to take advantage of the pedal assist, but unlike most e-bikes that cut the throttle above 20 mph, the Heybike HERO lets you keep on roaring at maximum speed with your feet firmly planted in the stop. position

Handling is also better than you’d expect, at least for a 75lb tire electric bike. The suspension feels pretty good, though again, I’m going into this with the mindset of a 75lb fat tire electric bike, most of which handle like a truck.

That four-bar suspension in the rear works pretty well, and certainly better than I anticipated. It will not give high-end e-bikes a run for its money, but it’s a lot better than the cheap stuff or the hardtails, that’s for sure.

That said, the bike is still a beast. It’s lighter than it should be (the last full-suspension fat tire e-bike I tested weighed almost 100lb), but it’s not a featherweight. I wouldn’t even call it agile. You also need to plan your turns in advance when you’re on twisty terrain, and say the bike is best kept on more relaxed trails that don’t have a lot of tight hairpins meant to be taken at speed. . This is not a downhill mountain bike, but a fun adventure bike.

The 9-speeds are nice to have, although few people are likely to run all the way through them, especially with unlimited throttle on tap. There is a torque sensor built into the bike, so if you can resist the urge to throttle most of the time, you’ll love having the wider range of gears and the added torque sensor for Natural feel of pedal assisting performance. But that full-speed throttle sure is nice, especially on a bike with the power and suspension to feel like a light road bike or a bike similar to the Sur Ron class rides.

All in all, I’d say the Heybike HERO is a lot of fun. I had a blast riding this thing, although I’m not sure if the added cost of the carbon fiber frame warrants the added price, at a whopping US$2,399. The bike is also on Indiegogo now where it is taking pre-orders. While I usually give a sound warning about crowdfunding campaigns, in this case, at least we know that Heybike is a tried and true company that has been around for years and has provided tens of thousands of e-bikes to customers. This is not an overnight startup.

So the Heybike HERO was definitely a fun, powerful and responsive electric bike that I enjoyed playing on the trails as well as going on the road. But you have to be real into that carbon fiber frame and the fun orange visuals on this funky frame to want to put the money down for it.