Mid-drive electric bikes aren’t cheap, but the price is definitely a fair one for this e-bike. Becuase it doesn’t have a throttle, you’ll need to enjoy pedaling in order to enjoy this e-bike. But it makes it so much fun to pedal thanks to a torque sensor-based pedal assist that provides natural feeling assistance up to a fast 28 mph top speed.
After a few trips out to various trail-heavy bits of woods, I just started riding it as much as possible on anything to get a feel for it and the way it moves, and in a way, it became exciting for all the right reasons. On the SRD, I could pretty much ride anything that exists locally, which I hadn’t experienced hyper bicycles before. A set of steps or a broken slipway, the bit of woods between one path and another or any section of landscaping in a public park. I’d expected to have to make huge efforts to get the best out of the SRD, but what surprised me in the long run the most was how useful the bike became.
I’m not sure how it’s possible to feel the stiffness of a set of handlebars with 160 mm of suspension travel and a big squishy Schwalbe Wicked Will up front, but somehow, it is. On most bikes, the sensation would be unpleasant, but with all that movement going on below, eating anything the trail has to throw at you, the steel-beam-like stiffness feels quite confidence-inspiring and keeps the steering feeling agile and reactive. With sleek 23 liters capacity of each box, providing ample space for your essentials. Built for durability, its aerodynamic design enhances your bike’s aesthetics.
CSC Ebikes was born out of CSC Motorcycles, a company with several decades of two-wheeler experience. It handles well, it’s got great rubber between you and the road, the suspension gives a comfortable ride, and it’s got plenty of extra power. The $2,295 Ride1Up Prodigy V2 has brought new meaning to the phrase “low-cost mid-drive electric bike”, updating an already impressive e-bike with a new next-gen setup.
It’s a bold move to build a deliciously dynamic and forgivingly flexy steel trail bike in Germany, the heartland of stiffness being touted as the grail of bicycle manufacture in cycling media. I find intact collarbones to be both beneficial and desirable in my line of work and as a self-employed person, so I was overly cautious to start with, riding an alien-feeling bike on things that I can’t ride. It’s a good-looking bike with a concise and consistent design language used throughout the frame, with all the castings for the pivot points matching the dropouts and gusset shapes.
The real stars of the show were the grips, which were super comfortable, amazingly durable, had integrated bar ends, and were designed to be rotated with wear, which is unusual for lock-on grips. As for the dropper, I fiddled with it a few times at the start but otherwise just got it out of the way so I could ride. The dropper is designed for super quick and easy bleeding, which refreshingly takes significantly less time to do in reality than it takes to watch the 18-second video on their website about it. I’ve always been a fan of Dresden-based Acto5 and their absurd CNC-machined frames.
Together, we made a decision about the direction that my riding would realistically take. It didn’t seem appropriate for my skill level to go for an all-in enduro tire like the sticky yet resilient Tacky Chan, although there were points riding through the UK winter that I wished I had. Instead, we chose the faster rolling and much lighter weight Wicked Will Super Trail EVO for the rear with the matching Nobby Nic on the front. It’s nothing about hyper bicycles the effects of tires, suspension, and steering geometry, but the stiff bars worked nicely in the context of this bike. The BEAST rims also felt incredibly stiff both vertically and laterally, but again complemented the dynamic handling characteristics of a big squishy bike quite well. They were very light and felt incredibly solid, sustaining zero permanent damage from being repeatedly smashed against rocks when the tires bottomed out.