Aventon Aventure M Review

Aventon has really been impressing us with their new models, and the Aventure M is no exception. Using the 100Nm Aventon A100 mid-drive motor fitted to the Aventure chassis, this bike pushes the fat bike to new bounds. Rolling on 4" fat tires with a suspension fork and seatpost, every surface starts to look rideable. As with other new Aventon bikes, the ACU brings its full suite of 4G/GPS tech to enhance the experience and heighten security.

We've loved the past Aventure bikes as they brought capability and comfort to a segment of bikes that hasn't always been fun to ride or practical. By ditching the hub motor, the Aventure M centers its mass and loses a few pounds. Packing a 733Wh battery and all of the features we've come to expect in Aventon's adventure-ready bikes, the Aventure M is a more distinguished, better riding machine.

Ride Quality

The Aventure M has monster truck energy, but doesn't feel difficult to handle. An 80mm Zoom built, lockable suspension fork with a thru-axle and Innova 26 x 4.0" tires insulates you from the terrain while providing enough traction to ride sand and snow. While not a full-suspension bike, the tunable suspension seatpost provides further isolation from bumps, allowing you to ride with a carefree demeanor and not worry about bumps in the road.

The bike is available in two sizes, but only one frame style is offered. Aventon chose the step-over frame to house its mid-drive, and while we typically prefer step-through bikes for their ease of use, the Aventure M has significantly more torsional rigidity than we experienced on the Aventure.2 or Aventure.3. Torsional rigidity refers to the flex you feel between the front and rear end of the bike and is likely due in part to the gravity cast front end. This can sometimes be elusive on a bike with 4" tires, but riding the bikes back to back, you notice how well the Aventure M tracks and handles.

Everyone who helped test this bike said something similar about its ride. “It's awesome”, "This thing is crazy cool", “Amazing!”, and “I'm ready for anything” were a few of the initial reports. When you climb aboard the fat tire bike, the massive tires dominate your initial impression. Fat tire bikes can feel cumbersome, lethargic, and hard to manage, but this bike doesn't take on those characteristics. The responsiveness of the bike's motor makes it feel like you're riding a normal commuter bike; there is no sluggishness or vague feeling to it. We start to blur the lines of what a mountain bike is; I've been clear in other reviews of electric fat bikes that they are not mountain bikes, but the Aventure M is more like a mountain bike than any of the others. Can we remove the rack and fenders and ride it as an electric snow bike? You bet we will.

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The motor features four distinct ride modes (Eco, Sport, Auto, and Turbo) that determine the level of assistance it provides. In the Eco setting, the motor's power is subtle and gentle, yet powerful enough to prevent struggling to accelerate or ride up a shallow incline. You can feel the assistance, but it largely just masks the bike's mass. Sport mode tends to elicit giggles, with the question, “Is this for real?” as the bike multiplies your input and its capabilities start to shine. The tires, suspension, and brakes come together to give it a confident, capable feel. In Auto mode, the bike automatically adjusts its assistance based on your input and the terrain. It feels intuitive, and you're never left needing to fumble for the controller. In Turbo mode, you get the full scope of the motor's power, allowing you to climb and accelerate on just about any grade or terrain at a rapid clip.

Capable of 28mph assisted speeds (in Class 3 mode), the bike feels stable at higher speeds and steep inclines. The weight of the wheels and tires provides a slight gyroscopic effect, requiring more energy to initiate a turn. There is no mistaking the bike's size, but its neutral geometry and shorter wheelbase keep the handling in check. What this means is that if the Aventure M is your first fat-tired bike, or even your first electric bike, you're unlikely to have a steep learning curve. The bike maintains the relative maneuverability and agility of some of their smaller and lighter bikes.

The bike has a 400 lb rider weight limit and includes a rear rack with low mounts for panniers, allowing you to keep the weight low and utilize the top of the rack while using panniers. Aventon recommends the Regular size (tested) for riders between 5'3" and 5'10", while the Large size is recommended for riders between 5'10" and 6'4". If you're between sizes, consider how you'll use the bike to determine which size to choose. Those with off-road ambitions would be wise to choose the smaller size.

The Aventure M features a 67-degree head tube angle; If that sounds like Greek to you, it means the steering is a bit slower than you'll find on most bikes, and this bodes well for its off-road handling. The seat tube measures 72 degrees, which puts you far enough back to use your hamstrings but not so far that you can't generate power. The bike boasts an impressive build spec for its price, which contributes to its excellent ride quality. A Shimano Cues drivetrain features an electronic shifter that enables easy push-button shifting, or you can let the bike's sensors do the work and make the shifting fully automatic. The brakes are SRAM's DB4, which use four pistons and offer a stronger feel with more modulation than the Tektro HD brakes that come standard on the Aventure.3. Our test bike arrived with a front brake that needed to be bled with mineral oil, but aside from that inconvenience, they performed flawlessly throughout testing. A 200mm front rotor gives the bike additional stopping power, while the rear uses a 180mm rotor. The suspension seatpost features 50mm of travel to smooth out bumps, while the suspension fork boasts 80mm of travel. 80mm isn't much, but the high-volume tires also play a part in reducing road feedback and enhancing traction.

We love that the bike comes with a rack and fenders, but we found the metal fenders to be loud when riding over gravel or debris that rattles around inside. The rack oddly connects to the fender for fore/aft stability. Should you choose to remove the fenders, it's unclear whether there's a workaround for using the rack without them, as there are no rack mounts on the seat stays.

Range

Since the Aventure M is compatible with a throttle, we used it to propel the bike throughout the range test. The throttle doesn't produce the same response as it does on hub-driven Aventure models; the mid-drive motor, for all its benefits, feels far less potent. The bike features a 733Wh battery located in its downtube, which powers the 36V system, including the lights, turn signals, and auto-shift system.

Once we got the M out on our range course, it was clear we'd be there for a while. From full charge to 0%, we rode 34.7 miles and climbed over 2300 feet without pedaling. Aventon doesn't make any claims about the range of this mid-drive monster bike. Adding a bit of your leg power would extend its range, but just how much depends on your level of effort. Once I had completely run out of battery, I still needed to return to the start of the course, and I can tell you that riding the bike without assistance is quite challenging. Notably, there was enough battery power left to keep the derailleur shifting and lights working once the throttle stopped responding.

The Aventure M isn't a lightweight or efficient bike by design. Compensating for this can only be achieved by reducing the motor's power output or increasing the battery capacity. High-volume, 4"wide tires have tremendous rolling resistance, so we didn't expect big range numbers from a bike like this. The motor's low power draw, however, provided us with some impressive distance. We used the bike's auto-shift feature while using the throttle, and it's an odd sensation to have the chainring turning and the bike shifting without your pedaling input, but it's effective. The power drops just before the bike shifts to protect the drivetrain, and for the most part, the result is clean, crisp shifting. When riding steep hills, however, the power drop results in a significant loss of momentum, leading to some very low-speed ascents (below 5 mph).

Power

One of the things that impressed us the most about the Ramblas is the A100 motor, so it's a delight to see Aventon using it on another bike. According to Aventon's specifications, the A100 is rated to produce 250 watts of nominal power and 100 Nm of torque. On the trail, the bike has a reasonable amount of power but less than you feel on the hub motor-driven Aventure.3. Unique to this bike is the ability to add a throttle; very few mid-drive bikes can accommodate a throttle and move on their own. A throttle is not included with the bike, but Aventon sells a simple, plug-and-play model for $11. Here you can see the throttle that we added for power and range testing.

While adding the throttle gives you on-demand acceleration, it feels different than using a throttle on a hub-powered bike. Under pedal assist, the amount of power feels very similar to that of the previous Aventur models, but the throttle produces much less power. Since the power on this bike comes through the mid-drive motor, it passes through the drivetrain before reaching the ground, and the gear you're in affects the feel of that power.

With the bike on the dyno, we were able to put numbers to the feeling of lackluster power. We tested the power and torque in different gears to determine the variation between them, and while there were some differences, they were relatively minor. As you can see in the graph below, the Aventure M produced a maximum of 550 watts of power and 21.7 Nm of torque. This is approximately half of what we found on the hub motor-powered Aventure.3.

Does it crush the hills? The answer, as you may guess from the above test results, depends on how you're powering the bike. If you're using pedal-assist, the A100 motor provides abundant power to propel you upward. If you're using the throttle, the power feels lackluster and invites you to start pedaling. Accelerating to 20 mph with the throttle took a lazy 16.1 seconds. On a steep incline, the bike reached 10.4 mph and then slowed to 9.0 mph at the steepest pitch (9% grade).

The Aventure M is sold as a Class 1/3 ebike, and adding the throttle makes it a Class 2 bike. You can switch between modes on the display or through the app. Each mode can be customized, giving you total control over the motor dynamics.

User Interface

Aventon not only added the full functionality of the A100 mid-drive motor but also the full suite of features that the ACU is capable of. The Aventure M can now receive over-the-air updates, be tracked or geo-fenced through the app, and be locked and unlocked with your phone. You can set the bike to automatically lock when powered off and even alert you when unusual activity is detected.

Like many of the newer Aventon bikes equipped with the ACU, the Aventure M features a BC280 digital display and a 5-button wired remote. The color display has excellent resolution and clearly shows more data than you probably need, such as the Amount of CO2 reduced during the lifetime of your bike. The screen displays your ride data, including your current speed in a prominent format, and your ride mode in a dedicated color. Controlling the bike through the 5-button remote is simple, but the buttons are fairly small, so if you have large thumbs or like to wear gloves, your accuracy may be impeded.

In many ways, the display mimics the look of a modern smartphone, and most of our testers found it to be intuitive immediately, although it is not touchscreen-enabled. If you like to ride with navigation or mount your phone to the handlebars, you'll appreciate the USB-A charging port at the bottom of the display. You can also use the USB port to run additional lighting, whether for additional visibility or brighter illumination for off-road riding.

As with most of the new Aventon bikes, working brake lights and turn signals are integrated into the seat stays. I find less need for these features on bikes like this and the Aventure, but there isn't much of a downside to them.

Aventon has eliminated the key that secures the battery to the bike, opting instead for an electronic locking design. Losing the key has not diminished security, as a code or app access is still necessary. To remove the battery from the bike, simply scroll through the menu and ask the bike to unlock the battery. It will then be ejected from the underside of the downtube. While putting the battery as low as possible gives the bike a lower center of gravity, it also results in a charging port that is difficult to access.

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Ease of Assembly

The Aventure arrives in a top-off style bike box that allows you to unclip the box and detach the upper portion. This leaves you with the bike in the lower half of the box, providing support while you assemble it. The assembly tasks were fairly basic, and we had our test bike ready to ride in under 30 minutes. The way the bike is packaged makes assembly relatively easy, and once you have installed the front wheel, you can use the kickstand to support the bike while adding the finishing touches.

An information card with a link to assembly instructions, a pedal wrench and a folding multi-tool are included with the bike. An assembly video on Aventon's site will walk you through the steps if you feel unsure about the process. Additionally, Aventon has partnered with over 1800 bike shops in the United States that can assemble the bike for you (for a fee) or, in some cases, provide a test ride and sell you a complete bicycle.

Should You Buy the Aventon Aventure M?

There's no doubt that these electric fat-tire bikes are fun to ride and wildly capable. With wide, knobby, high-volume tires, there are very few places a bike like this can't go, but the same is true for the Aventure.3. While I am a huge fan of the mid-drive motor and quality parts spec, I'm not convinced the $900 premium makes a better bike for the average rider. If you plan to use the throttle extensively, the less expensive bike gives a much more robust throttle response. While the Aventure M features a gravity cast front end on its frame, both bikes share similar capabilities and ride characteristics, and the premium features may be lost on some riders. We preferred the SRAM brakes and the Cues drivetrain with auto shift on this bike, and I think most people would appreciate those differences, but maybe not for the cost delta. If you want the premium parts or plan to strip the fenders and ride the bike in the snow, this is a clear choice. If you're just riding casually, save some cash and pick up the Aventure.3.

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