08/30/2026
Today was my first ride with electric assist. I’ve resisted it, scorned it (for myself – you float your own boat), thought about it, wondered about everyone I see now scooting down the bike trail.
Sooner or later the curious mind needs to experience what the trendy bikers are raving about, eh?
The opportunity came my way on Friday. From Dave, I bought a beautiful ICE Adventure trike. This was Rosalee’s trike, she never has been able to ride it much, sadly. And it’s time for them to pass it along. The trike itself is almost brand new, very pristine. I think the odometer on it shows all of 400 miles total since it’s purchase in 2017. Dave and Rosalee at the time equipped this trike with a hub motor assist – in fashion still in 2017 was the Bionx kit. This trike has a hub motor on the rear wheel, a rack style battery, and of course a controller up front.
Easy enough to size the boom out for me, switch to my preferred pedals (I Am a Bebop addict), strap on my ride bag, and take it out for a 30 mile ride today.
Let’s see how the other half lives.
Now, I am aware that Bionx is no longer around. But this kit was very popular in it’s day – I think Bionx died of corporate ineptitude, not from a bad product. This assist motor does not have a torque sensor (unless it’s buried somehow in that hub motor), it doesn’t have brake cut off switches. And I’ve no idea what power rating this motor has, nor the battery capacity. The Bionx controller has four assist levels. It also has a mini-throttle – called (according to Dave) a ‘Turbo button.’ That, a light switch for the tail light, and a couple of display modes that would require an absent manual, and there you go. This kit is not old, however, although it was installed in 2017. It’s very low mileage, as noted above.
Off I go. At level 1, level 2, this assist is actually pretty smooth. Bionx did a good job of integrating their assist power with my leg power. The effect is a good tailwind at level 1, a ‘great’ tailwind assist at level 2. Sweet. For me this breeds a little confusion. First time out – do I leave it in a somewhat normal gear for this terrain (the route is one I do almost every day)? Or do I go with the apparent available power – legs plus assist – and step up a gear for the kind of speed my assisted self can manage with the active motor? This takes some getting used to for the novice assisted rider.
I play with it a while. Level 1 is slightly underpowered for a noticeable effect. Level 2 on the assist is more present, more obvious a speed kick. I think I like level 2 as a ‘normal’ for me on this trike. I try level 3 – I am definitely getting a lot of motor help here, and level 4 seems like driving a scooter.
I can’t press for too much power on this trike. The set up for Rosalee was a fairly normal 9 speed cassette – 11-32 at a guess (I have not counted it yet). But the crankset is definitely mountain bike limited. 44 tooth large ring, then 32/22 for the middle and granny gears. Rosalee was not going racing at any time, I think. So, even with the level 2 assist, on fairly even ground I am riding at the top of the cassette and in the large ring – 16 MPH is about it before spinning out.
I feel an uncanny torque sensitivity in this Bionx motor. It feels like, on start up from a stop, and in accelerating, or in switching up a gear, that the motor knows when I have a demand for a little extra torque from the motor, then the feeling fades as we reach the new cruising speed. How could that be? No torque sensor here that I can see.
And the other sexy feature on this kit – my work, the ‘Turbo’ button is great fun. You don’t really have to accelerate – just thumb the red button for a couple of seconds and then pedal with your ‘new’ speed. I found myself using it at almost every stop, every crossroad. Pause for traffic, then pop the Turbo to speed across the intersection real quick – let it go and resume pedaling with assist. Dave says the ‘Turbo’ button really sucks down the battery, and I believe it, it’s a very strong boost, and while it is somewhat modulated in how hard to mash the red button, it’s really just push and GO – not a real throttle.
I turned off the assist periodically – just to see what the trike is like unpowered. It’s about what I’d expect, pushing three 1 ¾” Marathons at 70 psi on a fine trike. From level 2 assist about a 20% loss of speed over level ground. 😊 You find yourself feeling like a starving ju**ie when you turn off the assist. “OMG, turn it back ON, for the love of ……” You really miss if pedaling acoustic all of a sudden.
From which feeling I confirm a personal prejudice – I’ve always thought that riding with E-assist was an addictive process. Once you truly start riding with E-assist, you quickly get addicted. Regular riding just isn’t as much fun, as much a joy. Your mileage may vary, of course. More than one bike I know has let me know that they go back and forth all the time, no problem at all. I bow to your sense of control and discipline. Daily I combat the urge towards laziness.
Overall, I find that the 30 mile ride with E-assist confirms what many assisted riders tell me. You do get a good and reasonable workout with a ride using E-assist. With the assist working, I still rather by habit seek out the gearing that, even with the assist working, matches my personal effort habits. I switch typically to the gear where I feel, my legs feel my best effort and cadence can be found. It doesn’t matter if the assist is working – my automatic pilot finds the right gear and the right effort level for me. So the work out is the same, just a few assisted mph faster. Hills are optional, of course. I did ‘turbo’ up the steep little rise out of ‘Train Gulch’ below Cedarburg, for example – just to see if the kit would handle it, of course. It handled it just fine, without any help from me.
So I credit e-riders who claim they get a good workout. It’s really easy to see who’s riding and who is scootering on the bike trails. Riders are moving the pedals, often with reasonable and visible effort. Scooters have footrests with variable positions. But that’s just an observation, everybody deserves the ride they want.
I know, when regular riding grows too hard as I age, that I will return to an e-assisted bike. I’ll need it when I need it. I’ve learned today that going to electric assist doesn’t mean I forego the joys of riding my bike. I am glad I took this novice ride today, I learned a lot. Both about my needs, and about my fellow riders using these assist kits. But I will surely put it away for now and stay on my pedal bikes. Already, tomorrow, I feel my daily ride will be a process of weaning myself from possible addiction. And the ICE with the Bionx kit will enter the showroom without ANY more test rides here.
