The best electric road bikes are tailored to riding fast and covering plenty of ground while being tuned for fast descending, while still getting a helping hand from the motor on the uphills.
It wasn't so long ago that the world of electric bikes was dominated by electric hybrids and electric mountain bike models. Alongside electric gravel bikes, electric road bikes are increasingly popular and, in some cases, look very similar to non-motorised machines.
Some road ebikes will have carbon-fibre frames and lightweight wheelsets, bringing their weight down to under 12kg – not a lot more than some unpowered bikes.
As with any electric bike motor, an e-road bike’s electric assistance will be limited to speeds below 15mph/25kph as per electric bike laws in the UK, EU and Australia. The limit is 20mph in the US. That’s more than enough for climbing – you’ll be able to climb much quicker than on a regular road bike – but could limit an e-road bike’s appeal on flat roads if riding in a fast group, for example.
For more advice on what to look for in an electric road bike, our full buyer’s guide is at the bottom of this article.
The Orbea Gain takes design cues from the Orca road bike. - Russell Burton / Our Media
The Orbea Gain M10i is arguably one of the best e-road bikes to date.
Its s ride feel outclasses many other bikes due to how Orbea has tuned the Mahle X20 hub motor. The motor mirrors your input, never feeling like it's shoving you along.
The battery also provides an impressive range, racking up 62.25 miles (100.18km) with 3,795.8ft (1,157m) of ascent on our tester's first ride, with 45 per cent of the battery charge left.
Orbea has based the Gain's geometry on its Orca OMR road bike frames, tweaking it slightly for an endurance focus, and creating a balanced feel with quick handling in the process.
The superbike build and price – thanks in part to the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset – might be overkill for some, but there's no denying the Gain M10i sets a high bar.
The Scott Addict eRide Premium offers the sleek looks of a regular road bike and a ride to match. - Russell Burton / Immediate Media
Scott’s Addict eRide borrows heavily from the Addict RC aero lightweight bike, with similar geometry and Scott’s top-spec HMX carbon.
It’s powered by the Mahle ebikemotion rear-hub motor, with its fully enclosed battery in the down tube, for a really clean look.
Power assistance is smooth, both in delivery and when it cuts out, so that you’re supported as you ride, rather than the motor taking over.
The eRide is available in a range of builds. The top-level Premium spec has a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, a fully-integrated Syncros Creston SL bar/stem and Syncros Capital carbon wheelset, for a sub-11kg weight – about as light as electric bikes come.
The handling is superbly balanced and it rides impressively well. - Russell Burton / Our Media
Our tester judged the BMC Roadmachine AMP One "simply one of the best e-road bikes available".
Its geometry and silhouette closely match those of its non-assisted sibling.
However, it packs in a Mahle X20 motor and a 350Wh battery for an impressively lengthy range aided by clever assistance management.
The handling is well balanced and The SRAM Force AXS groupset shifts with precision. Braking is excellent too.
The Vittoria Rubino tyres gripped and rolled well on dry roads, but wouldn't be the best choice for more hostile winter conditions.
The Bianchi Aria e-Road rides like a racy aero bike. - Robert Smith
The motor-equipped Bianchi Aria E-Road aero bike is blessed with the same great handling offered by its unassisted sister bike, the Bianchi Aria.
The Aria E-Road also uses an ebikemotion motor unit at its rear hub, while the 250W/h battery that powers it is concealed within the frame’s down tube. This makes for a road bike that appears unassisted, at least to the untrained eye.
Despite its appetite for speed, the Aria isn’t a bone shaker on rougher surfaces, thanks to its 28mm tyres.
The best compliment we can pay the Aria is it would work well as a non-assisted bike – it just happens to have a 250-watt boost on tap.
The Bianchi Impulso E-Road doesn't cut quite as sleek a silhouette as some electric road bikes. - Robert Smith
Unlike the racier Bianchi Aria E-Road, the Impulso electric road bike isn’t as much of a looker, but we were still very impressed with the ride.
More relaxed geometry and a higher front end make it a good choice if you’re a rider who is less flexible, recovering from injury or looking to keep up with fitter riders.
The Polini bottom-bracket mounted motor system of the Impulso was another pleasant surprise, with plenty of power and an impressive real-world range.
Mounts for mudguards and racks mean this one will also make a great commuter bike.
Based on the non-assisted SuperSix Evo, the Neo 2 hasn't lost that bike's looks or ride. - Russell Burton / Immediate Media
Another ebike that uses the Mahle ebikemotion rear-hub motor, the Cannondale SuperSix Evo Neo is based on our 2020 (non-assisted) Bike of the Year, the SuperSix EVO.
It's inherited both that bike's looks and its race-bike ride quality and responsiveness. There's a long reach and low stack, as well as short chainstays for a performance ride feel.
Quality finishing kit includes Cannondale's aero bar and stem, a Prologo saddle on a carbon seatpost, and Cannondale RDe alloy wheels, for a bike weight of 12.1kg in size large.
We managed 122km with 1,124m of climbing elevation on a single charge, comfortably beating the 75km claimed range. Above all, we were impressed by how well the motor worked with us, rather than dominating the ride.
The beauty of Fazua’s motor system, used on the Focus Paralane², is its unobtrusive nature. - Robert Smith
The Focus Paralane² was born out of the prototype Project Y electric bike, and makes use of a removable Fazua motor. This minimal motor/battery system weighs only 3.5kg.
Remove the Fazua system and attach the included cover and the Paralane² effectively becomes a standard road bike, with minimal resistance from the gearbox buried in the bottom bracket. Without the motor, it weighs around 11kg.
The USP for the Paralane² is that the motor is designed to work in tandem with you. The result is unobtrusive power delivery with a feel that puts you in control rather than letting the bike take over.
We’d rather see tyres larger than the 28mm specced as standard, particularly seeing as this frame can accept 35mm tyres without issue, making it a great option for year-round riding or dabbling in light gravel.
The Specialized S-Works Turbo Creo SL is one of the most expensive e-road bikes on the market, but it's an impressive machine to ride. - Russell Burton / Immediate Media
You're paying a superbike price for the Specialized S-Works Turbo Creo SL, one of the most expensive electric bikes available. But the high-spec frame and top-drawer specification, including Roval CLX50 aero carbon wheels, Dura-Ace Di2 shifting and a built-in power meter, help justify the outlay.
Ride quality feels like the Roubaix endurance bike and the Turbo Creo SL even comes with the FutureShock 2.0 headset damper fitted to that bike. The motor weight sits low down to ensure stability and it's nimble despite its 13.7kg weight.
The claimed 130km range from the internal battery is increased to 195km with the included range extender, although we didn't quite match these figures.
This 3rd generation Domane is Trek's best e-road offering to date. - Russell Burton / Our Media
The Trek Domane SLR 6 is a comfortable and smooth ebike with great handling and a powerful but quiet TQ motor.
On the road, the bike rides very similarly to the non-assisted Domane with the IsoSpeed rear end soaking up bumps and the low-down weight of the motor helping with fast, twisting descents.
The battery consistently provided enough juice for distances around 100km. The charge time of the TQ system took only 2 hours and 10 minutes to fully charge.
There are control switches for the motor on the inside of the hoods, but unfortunately, these slipped in testing.
The Filante Hybrid SLR is a brilliant example of the next generation of e-road bikes. - Russell Burton / Our Media
Weighing 10.47kg in a size XL, the Wilier Filante SLR Hybrid is one of the lightest e-road bikes ever, making it feel more like a high-performance endurance road bike than an ebike.
It's easy to ride the bike with the Mahle X20 turned off, but turn it on and you'll speed up hills in a way that doesn't feel unlike a non-assisted bike.
The range of the motor system is decent, too, with our tester racking up 113.4 miles/182.5km with 5,085ft/1,550m in one ride.
While the Filante Hybrid SLR is a brilliant example of the next generation of electric road bikes, the price is exceptionally high, putting it out of sight of most riders.
E-road bikes share much in common with their non-assisted counterparts, but there are subtle differences, beyond the addition of a motor
You’ll get the gear range to ride faster and to tackle hills, plus narrower road bike tyres for more rapid progress on the road.
As with any road bike, reducing weight is important, although not usually at the expense of battery capacity and range. Electric road bikes will always be heavier than their conventional counterparts.
A road ebike will have drop handlebars and a more sporty riding position than a hybrid – just like a conventional, non-assisted road or gravel bike.
Electric road bike drivetrains are sleeker and more covert than ever, with low-profile batteries often fully enclosed in the bike’s down tube or disguised as a water bottle.
Electric road bike motors tend to be compact and hidden away in the bottom bracket shell or the rear hub – a far cry from the bulky units of old – while controllers are often small, with a tiny button in the front of the top tube being an increasingly popular placement, although you’ll also find bar-mounted controls. That can lead to a bike that at first glance is hard to distinguish from a conventional road bike.
Fazua and ebikemotion motors are a popular choice seen on many e-road bikes thanks to the progressive power delivery well-suited to road riding, although Bosch units and own-brand motors from the likes of Specialized can also cut a minimalist silhouette.
Most electric road bikes have a battery enclosed in the bike’s down tube. Again, that leads to an unobtrusive look. In the case of Fazua, you can drop the battery pack out of the down tube for recharging, or remove it to take it indoors closer to an electric plug. You can even remove it completely and ride the electric bike like a non-assisted road bike.
Other batteries such as ebikemotion’s are more firmly lodged in place, though, so you need to be able to get the bike to a socket to add some juice.
Typical battery capacities are around 250W/h – usually enough for 60km or so of range, although you should be able to get more than that on flatter ground with judicious use.
The lightest electric road bikes tip the scales at 12kg or less, which isn’t a lot more than some unpowered bikes. That’s achieved by having a frame and fork made of carbon fibre, often accompanied by carbon-rimmed wheels. That tends to be a pricey menu.
Weight is important, though. On the flat, many road riders will be managing over the 15mph/25kph legal limit (or 20mph in the US) at which the motor cuts out, making the motor and battery a dead weight above those speeds. Keeping the bike’s weight low will make riding without assistance easier, adding to performance and enjoyment.
On the other hand, a more robust, heavier build could be an advantage if you’re aiming to mix in gravel riding. Weight is also less of an issue if you plan to predominantly ride within the legal limit for motor assistance.
With more power delivered to the road and a heavier bike weight, electric road bikes tend to have wider tyres than standard road bikes. Many pair that with beefed-up wheels with alloy rims, although higher-spec models may come with aero carbon hoops.
Tyre width on electric road bikes tends to start at 28mm. That’s not unusual on a pedal-powered road bike now though, and provides a more comfortable ride, with additional versatility for rough roads or dabbling on light off-road trails.
While less common than, say, an electric hybrid conversion, it is perfectly possible to convert your road bike to an ebike.
Check out our in-depth guide on how to convert a bike to electric power for more info.
A few months ago, Graham Hill (the founder of the site you're reading this on) asked me for some help in choosing an electric bike. I wanted to help, but I knew that my knowledge of electric bikes was limited - there are so many models, with progress being made all the time in battery tech and power electronics - so I pointed him to someone who I knew was a real expert: Court Rye, the e-bike demigod behind ElectricBikeReview.com. But Graham's question also made me realize that he certainly wasn't the only one trying to figure out if an electric bicycle was right for him, what were the pros and cons, and if it did make sense, where to begin and which models to have a look at first.
This led to the interview below, where Court generously shares the e-bike wisdom that comes from having reviewed 300+ models since he started covering the space in 2012 (prolific guy!).
Why Buy an Electric Bike?
Well, electric bicycles offer the same great benefits as traditional bicycles including cost savings (no licensing or insurance required), improved well-being, and connection with community.
The real advantage to ebikes in my view is efficiency in climbing hills or fighting the wind combined with better range. If you experience knee pain or exercise-induced asthma, for example, electric bikes can breath new life into the sport of cycling. They might convince your friend or significant other to join you on the trails more often or they might enable you to commute to work in extreme heat without perspiring so much. I've owned cars and mopeds before and neither felt as safe or refreshing as cycling along community paths, away from traffic.
Electric bikes remove many of the roadblocks and challenges that people face with traditional pedal-powered cycles but they aren't perfect. They can be expensive, complex, and heavy which is a real pain if the battery runs out halfway.
Which E-Bike Conversion Kits Are Best?
Since the early days of electric bikes in the United States (starting in 1999 with the EV Global Motors Ebike from Lee Iacocca) frame styles and drive characteristics have really proliferated.
Niedring/Drentwett / Getty Images
In addition to simple DIY kits there are also systems like the Ridekick Power Trailer now which add ebike performance in addition to storage utility! This system in particular is even easier than installing a kit and can be easily shared between family members and friends using regular bikes or recumbents as a platform.
© Court Rye
What E-Bikes Are Good for New Riders?
Today it is possible to dive head first into electric bikes or dip your toe in for a little taste. In some towns you can even rent electric bike to get a better feel for them... Rocket Electrics in Austin Texas for example, offers foodie tours and also has a multi-day SXSW and F1 race week package for people who want to dodge traffic and get an up close view of the city. For the purest experience, purpose built ebikes are the way to go (bikes that were designed and sold as being electric, not converted later). They are lighter, tougher and more capable than ever. Whether you need a folding bike to stow in your loft or take on a plane, a tandem to rent and ride with your friend on vacation or a downhill bomber for free riding on mountain trails (no need for a chairlift!) there is definitely an ebike out there that's fully capable.
Westend61 / Getty Images
Do E-Bikes Have Drawbacks?
Obviously, I'm a huge fan of the technology and it's true that the breadth of products has grown thanks in large part to widespread acceptance in Asia and Europe but there are some things ebikes still struggle with.
If you're a purist mountain biker who is barely accepted on hiking paths to begin with, ebikes may seem like a threat. In much the same way that snowboards used to be outlawed at ski resorts like Vail Colorado in the 80's ebikes are still in their early days. Eventually snowboarding became mainstream and Burton helped to gain mass acceptance by launching a viral initiative challenging holdout resorts. These days, Deer Valley Utah remains a "ski-only" resort but you can snowboard pretty much everywhere else and I feel like that will become the case with ebikes as well. Once the technology becomes better understood and appreciated it won't feel so threatening to some. I think traditional bikes are awesome frankly and I still own one for silent, light weight cruising.
To be honest, I mostly use it on wet and snowy days or when parking overnight in high-crime areas where theft or vandalism could be a risk. That said, I recently picked up bicycle insurance and am feeling a lot more comfortable from a theft and liability standpoint. To sum up the cons of electric bikes: they tend to be heavier, louder and almost always more expensive than traditional bicycles.
Kathryn Donohew Photography / Getty Images
What Are the Types of Electric Bikes?
Having reviewed over 300 electric bikes to date, taking photos and shooting video for each and posting back at my site ElectricBikeReview.com these are the primary "use cases" I've identified to help people navigate the space: Cargo Hauling, Relaxed Cruising, Trail Riding, Mountain Biking, Downhill, Neighborhood Use, Kid Hauling and Grocery Getting, Road Bike, Sand and Snow (Fat Tire), Tandem, Touring or Trekking, Traveling (Folding) and Urban Commuting.
It feels like there's a bike out there for any occasion, some have very small wheels and are designed to be easy to pick up and carry onto trains and busses (or even airplanes if the battery is under 300 watt hours) while other models are almost like mopeds or motorcycles with 100+ mile range capability and regenerative braking.
© Court Rye
There are so many types of light electric vehicles now that I actually started a second website called ElectricRideReview.com to cover electric motorcycles, skateboards and kick scooters.
What Are the Price Ranges?
As far as traditional ebikes, prices really vary and can be shocking at first... so brace for impact! The low end starts around $1,000 but a recent crowd funding campaign generated a lot of attention by offering a bare bones $700 model (it was sold as $500 + ~$200 shipping).
My feeling is that $1,500 is the lowest level worth exploring right now. I've seen too many unhappy customers who purchased online and are now struggling to fix a throttle mechanism or find a replacement battery pack because the cells they got were of very low quality. There have even been some fires when cheap batteries were damaged and didn't have an electronic management system in place to prevent overload. At the upper echelons of the ebike world there are products selling for $50k+ but those are almost like art.
For ~$4,000 you can get a high quality, Euro-proven, German engineered product with two years of comprehensive warranty support. Bikes like this offer intuitive controls, integrated dynamo lights, fenders and racks and an overall beautiful aesthetic.
© Court Rye
Bikes in this premium class range up to $7,000 for pro-level components and while that may shock some people, it's actually not far off from pro-level pedal-powered bicycles.
© Court Rye
Now let's go back to the middle-range and dig a bit deeper into costs. The first electric bike I purchased was $2,500 and it saved me $2,000 in parking alone over the first year (I was working downtown Austin, TX where parking is very expensive).
In YouTube comments I regularly see people upset by the perceived high price of electric bikes, claiming that a used car would be cheaper... I think they often fail to recognize the high price of car repairs, preventative maintenance like oil changes, insurance, licensing and parking. Cars and ebikes are not investments, they are tools or toys that depreciate with use, their true value is highly dependent on the environment and task at hand or entertainment preferences of the owner.
So for example, if you live on a highway and commute 20 miles to work each day an ebike might not be a great tool. To that I say, consider renting an apartment near your job and buying an ebike!
Life changes aside, let's do a quick hypothetical costing example, if you took all of the car maintenance stuff away for a moment and just looked at a $3k brand new car vs. a $3k brand new ebike and left gas at $2 per gallon... an average electric bike gets ~20 miles per charge and cost less than $0.15 to fill (even using Hawaii's scale-tipping $0.37 per kilowatt-hour rates). So let's say that your car gets 30 miles per gallon and a gallon is $2 and your bike gets 20 miles per charge and a charge is $0.15, the bike is way cheaper right? But that's not the whole story. A premium electric bike battery costs anywhere from $500 to $800 to replace and lasts 1,000+ charges so let's treat this like a fuel cost and divide $500/1,000 charges... we get $0.50. So we add the $0.15 charge cost to the $0.50 battery use cost and get $0.65.
Basically, electric bikes are about three times less expensive to operate than cars from a current fuel cost perspective. Beyond user operating expense they also cost less in terms of negative externalities because they don't create localized pollution. Ebikes are awesome but so are cars and even when self-driving electric cars replace the costs of ownership and reduce pollution, there will still be enormous value in cycling... and why not have an assisted cycle?
It's like comparing a mechanical typewriter where you forcefully push the keys down to modern laptop that can be operated much easier, faster, in more environments and it will save your work digitally! Maybe some people would claim that the sheer muscular joy of old fashioned typewriting and the ever-present danger of a misspelling will always hold a place in their hearts... and good for them, it's not really an issue and with ebikes or traditional bikes, we can still ride together and have fun!
How Far Can You Go on a Charge?
A good rule of thumb here is to divide watt hours by 20. So electric bike batteries have voltage and amp hours and a typical pack right now in the US is 36 volts of power with 10 amp hours of capacity for 360 watt hours total. If we divide 360 by 20 we get 18 miles. Given variation between throttle only electric bikes and pedal assist that 18 is really a floor that can go up as riders contribute pedal-power to the system or different drive systems are leveraged.
For example, mid-drive electric bikes can benefit from driving the rear cassette and gears to empower the motor for improved efficiency. In the same way that you would want to shift down when climbing (instead of standing up and working extra hard), so too does the motor and these mid-drive systems offer that flexibility because they pull the bicycle chain along with you. I've seen some electric bikes with that same "360 watt hour" battery capacity reach 50+ miles per charge on a low level of assistance (equivalent to half of the rider's pedal power output). That's pretty amazing to me.
Solskin / Getty Images
Are E-Bikes Faster Than Regular Bikes?
Not really, most low-speed electric bikes won't go over 20 miles per hour under motor power alone. You can always pedal faster than that or drop a steep hill but federal regulation limits this top speed in exchange for classification as a "bicycle". Some recent compromises have been made whereby pedal-assist electric bikes may reach ~28 miles per hour assisted but only if the rider is pedaling rigorously. A similar class of electric bikes called "speed pedelecs" exists in Europe and have become popular for commuters.
Take note however that efficiency drops off significantly as riders gain speed as a result of drag. That is "forces acting opposite to the relative motion of any object moving with respect to a surrounding fluid" or in this case air. The power needed to push an object through a fluid increases as the cube of its velocity while "air drag" is approximately proportional to the square of velocity.
In short, as you go beyond 15 mph on an ebike, drag really starts to cut into the range you can achieve so speed comes at a high price!
Can I Do DIY Maintenance on My Electric Bike?
This is a great question! When it comes to electric bikes I usually recommend that people buy locally if possible. This is because the bike will be assembled properly, following specific torque ratings on screws and such, and will be fit to the rider for improved comfort.
In the bike industry, many shops that sell both traditional and electric will tell me that ebikes see 10 times the use. This is based on customer feedback and tuneups that they provide. People just ride electric bicycles more, and further, and faster! Some of that wear can be serviced by the end user but when it comes to throttles, batteries and computer systems things can get tricky.
Electric bikes marry mechanical systems with software and electrical complexities. There is a reason that Apple calls their tech support "Geniuses", right? Advanced knowledge and a specific toolset are required to truly maintain electric bikes as well, in my opinion. The most basic bikes that do not offer torque sensing pedal assist, LCD display readouts or frame-routed cables may be self-serviceable or simply disposable given their lower price point but the more purpose-built offerings really benefit from that professional touch and often times have locked computers with special diagnostic tools much like automobiles.
What Bikes Do You Recommend for E-Bike Newbies?
I spend a lot of time answering one-off questions back in the Electric Bike Review Community Forums where people share their budget, height, weight, intended use and style preference. Feel free to jump on over and ask for yourself! Alternatively, I've put together a "Top 10" list with recommendations for value and performance models ranging from Cruisers to Kits. Bikes that I've actually purchased for myself over the years include the Pedego City Commuter, Easy Motion Neo Jumper (now replaced by the Evo Jumper) and the Haibike XDURO FS RX 27.5 but I've been eyeing the new Specialized Turbo X and Felt Outfitter which are remarkable because both companies are long standing purists that focus on performance and racing specs. Seeing them put out electric bikes is a real vote of confidence for the space.
© Court Rye
Any Closing Thoughts?
I think electric bikes are remarkable because they compliment the human body and mind while connecting us with others.
If you'd like to learn more on the topic feel free to download my ebook called "A Practical Guide to Electric Bikes" on Amazon Kindle. The book includes photos, videos and a deeper look into topics like motor design so you can better understand the trade offs between hub motors like I had on my Pedego or mid drives like I had on my Haibike. Feel free to drop me a line anytime and ride safe out there!