Heybike Ranger S Review: A Killer City Cruiser With One Unfortunate Quirk

Within the wide-ranging world of e-bikes, portability has a number of definitions. Your e-bike can both be gentle sufficient to simply stand up a flight of stairs and be mounted to most bike racks, or it could possibly fold sufficient to tuck right into a closet and match at the back of a automotive. The oldsters at Heybike go for the latter with most of their bikes, and — if it is not clear from the fats tires and ample body — you will not be fortunately pushing the 72-pound Ranger S up stairs anytime quickly. However after 250 miles of driving, I can promise you weight is not one thing you are possible to consider usually with this cruiser-style pleasure machine. 

Using any bike in most cities is equal elements handy and harmful. For many riders, equipping a motorbike for a commute to work or for groceries is an train in tilting that steadiness in your favor. From entrance and rear GoPro rigs and each type of flashing brilliant gentle to closely reflective clothes, making your self seen is an enormous a part of metropolis biking. Heybike has a ton of expertise in constructing for metropolis life, and it exhibits with the Ranger S. 

Fats tires with splash guards come normal and guarantee you’ll be able to journey with confidence even within the rain. As a substitute of straightforward headlights with small purple flashers on the again, as seen on most e-bikes, you may discover giant brilliant lights in entrance and rear with built-in brilliant flip alerts to let everybody round you already know what to anticipate. The cruiser-style driving place is aided with an prolonged handlebar stem, making it in order that even if you’ve adopted a extra aggressive driving stance, you are still taking on much more vertical room in most sight strains.

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Like most folding bikes, there is a hinge within the center you’ll be able to entry by pulling a considerable plastic latch open, and in seconds the 2 tires are touching. Along with this, the included pedals fold right down to make it simpler to tuck the entire thing away, and the handlebar tube folds on the base because the body is busy holding an enormous battery. Regardless of its weight, the Ranger S is surprisingly straightforward to toss into the again of a automotive or disguise away in a closet when not in use. 

Heybike Ranger S: Buttons and chargers and icons

There are such a lot of issues occurring on the handlebars of this bike, and most of them are nice. From the left, you may have a devoted headlight swap, flip alerts and a horn, all simply accessible along with your thumb. The horn is pitched low, which you do not usually discover on e-bikes, and which implies you are quite a bit much less more likely to startle somebody for those who’re driving previous, however it’s nonetheless loud sufficient to be heard from inside a automotive. When you shift your grip barely, it is easy to entry energy output ranges and the backlight on your speedometer. 

The proper aspect is a good bit extra handbook, providing you with a easy thumb swap up and down for shifting the seven-speed Shimano cassette and a throttle button to interact the motor with out pedaling. The 2 hydraulic brakes sit precisely the place you’d count on, with the all-important show within the center. 

As with most bike computer systems, you get an honest glanceable show for present velocity and distance traveled, alongside which energy stage out of 5 you are at present set to and the battery stage. Each one of these work precisely such as you’d count on, after which there’s the battery readout. As a substitute of providing you with an easy-to-digest bit of data like estimated miles remaining or a proportion of the battery remaining, the readout on the Ranger S relies on voltage output. In case your remaining battery is excessive, you may see output numbers above 48v and know that if you want that energy to climb a hill or one thing, you may have it. 

Even the segmented battery icon on the show would not actually inform me how a lot battery I’ve left, and I do know this as a result of on a number of events, I have been 15-20 miles right into a journey, and after I’ve stopped, the battery meter has really elevated. Heybike estimates the Ranger S has a 55-mile vary on a single cost, and I can affirm it had that for me, however I am unable to let you know how a lot battery I had left after I reached that milestone. And if you are going to be driving to and from work on an e-bike, understanding how a lot juice you may have left within the battery is a fairly essential element, which needs to be a lot simpler to know. There may be the choice to make use of the Heybike cell app, which gives a proportion and a ton of different issues. However as you’ll be able to see within the above picture, these handlebars are already fairly full, and a second giant show should not be obligatory.

The excellent news is that charging a Heybike battery is each straightforward and safe. The battery compartment is accessible solely by key, however the charging port on the battery is accessible when docked within the body, so you’ll be able to both cost the battery whereas it is docked or carry the battery with you and cost it at your desk. The battery additionally has a bodily on-off swap, so for those who aren’t going to be utilizing the bike for a couple of days, you’ll be able to hit that button as a substitute of leaving it on the charger and probably lowering its general life. Very like the remainder of the bike, the design is considerate and multipurpose. 

Heybike Ranger S: 250 miles of trails later

Ordinarily, the cruiser-style driving place is not my favourite. It is an ideal possibility for a very large quantity of individuals, however I are inclined to want the extra aggressive driving positions discovered on the typical highway or gravel bike. It seems the Ranger S is the exception to this rule, as I am genuinely excited to journey it at each alternative. I went out of my manner to make use of the rear rack to carry a cooler to do grocery runs, and it rapidly grew to become my go-to for morning rides round city. Between the comfy seat, the shocks absorbing most highway bumps, and the security options, I could not wait to journey it to new locations. 

With its 750-watt hub motor and loads of energy from the battery, the Ranger S is completely able to going uncomfortably quick. Set the ability help stage to 5, mash your thumb down on the throttle, and it will simply hit the max 28 mph with no push on the pedals. However the place it actually shines is the pedal help. The place most e-bikes are inclined to jerk you ahead a bit, even on a low help setting, this method is extra gradual and supportive. There is a roughly three-second buildup to the velocity related to the ability stage you’ve got chosen, which general makes for a extra comfy journey. And since it is a hub motor, you lose solely about 30% of your max energy when going up hills. 

The response from drivers round me to the horn and switch alerts on this bike is genuinely shocking. Although hand gestures have been part of bike driving eternally, treasured few drivers encounter them of their day-to-day lives, in order that they’re simply forgotten. Precise flip alerts are unambiguous. My one tiny criticism — and it actually says extra about me than the bike — is that on multiple event, I forgot to show them off after use. There wasn’t any indicator on the bike pc to let me realize it was nonetheless on, and I could not see the lights from my seated place, so often I left myself embarrassed on arriving at a vacation spot.

My testing of this bike was cut up pretty evenly between roads and trails, which included a mixture of rain and dust and at the very least one sandy seashore. The Ranger S handles each atmosphere with ease, leaving me eager to journey additional each time. However as I sit right here penning this assessment, I am unable to assist however discover some indicators of wear and tear which might be showing just a little sooner than they need to. The nostril of the seat has clear rubbing marks from on a regular basis I spent in a extra aggressive driving place, and whereas it was by no means an precise situation, I discovered the locking mechanism for the battery would often catch and require one other rotation to really launch the battery. Neither of those is a big purple flag, however collectively in such a brief time period, they go away me questioning what upkeep wants this bike can have after the following 250 miles. 

Heybike Ranger S: Totally Loaded and Prepared for Using

Exterior of a performance-based highway biking atmosphere, it is troublesome to think about a state of affairs for which I would not advocate the Heybike Ranger S to somebody as a doable possibility. As an e-bike, it checks most bins with ease. The powered help performs splendidly, the security options needs to be normal on far more e-bikes, and the general really feel of the bike is simply plain enjoyable. 

If I lived in a barely extra metropolitan space, it would not be troublesome to justify unfolding this bike over grabbing my automotive keys for a lot of the issues I go away my home for. And may the parents at Heybike take a severe take a look at updating the interface on the bike pc over the usage of its app, the Ranger S would instantly be within the operating for among the finest e-bikes I’ve used.