HOUSE OF LITHIUM

Owing to its girth and fat tires, the Halfbreed isn’t the easiest e-bike to pedal without power, but that’s where the throttle comes in handy. Because it’s throttle only, the power-assist setting doesn’t change the top speed. Cruise control is a nice feature, especially when riding with friends. You can all pick a speed and not need to keep modulating the throttle to carry on a conversation. Bunny-hopping the bike requires about the same effort as doing so on a full-suspension mountain bike, but you can use the suspension to your advantage by preloading it and springing up. Thanks to the knobby tires, the bike lets you just point it anywhere—paved or just dirt/rocks—and head off in that direction. Between the plush suspension and high-volume tires, it’s like riding on a cloud. You don’t feel bad pavement or rutty, rocky trails; the bike just glides over almost anything. What surprised us most was the range. Our first 13 miles on the bike, using the, throttle almost exclusively, used less than 25 percent of the battery. That maybe partly because of the regenerative braking, but it was still impressive. We didn’t expect that much range, but being able to get 50 real-world miles out of a throttle-driven bike means there’s little range anxiety. As such, we’re happy to report Yamee’s I-PAS system actually works, and works well. This technology is quite remarkable, and we’d love to see it make its way to other parts of the industry. Most electric bicycles don’t have enough mass to regenerate significant power. We’ve seen motorcycles do it on long descents, putting 1—3 percent back into the battery.