Every now and then a bike comes along for testing that makes us seriously re-evaluate things. The Aventon Ramblas is one of those bikes. In the year 2024, it feels like your dollar isn’t going very far, and in the bike industry most would argue prices have gotten a bit out of control. Push Industries actually just released a fork for $2600. For $99 dollars more you can get the Aventon Ramblas, a complete electric mountain bike. Now do you need the Aventon Ramblas? Maybe, or maybe not, but just wanted to start this review out with some perspective on price.
Now what is the Aventon Ramblas? The Ramblas is a $2699 electric mountain bike offering from Aventon, a brand known primarily for their city commuter e-bikes. The Ramblas is their first dedicated mountain bike in their lineup that can also be used for commuting. You might be asking yourself, how can it be used for both? Well for one, the motor which they have created themselves, is fully customizable and you can control power output in each setting. This allows you to fine tune the ride based on what you will be using the bike for.
Let's talk about mountain bikes though. The Ramblas comes in 1 build. Similar to the expression “you can have any color you want as long as its black”, with the Ramblas you can have any build you want as long as it's a 1x12 SRAM NX drivetrain, Rockshox 130mm fork with 35mm stanchions, a dropper post, SRAM DB8 4 piston brakes, and a burly set of wheels with Maxxis Rekon tires. As mentioned, the bike itself features their own motor which puts out a max 750 watts of power and can be adjusted settings wise via an app on your phone. Once again, you get all of this for the prices of $2699 or a push industries fork and $99 dollars.
So how does the Aventon Ramblas ride? We were lucky enough to be invited to Aventon to pick up the bikes for testing. Their HQ is in Brea, California which makes picking up any bikes or warranty support easy if you live in Southern California. After loading the bikes up, we headed to San Clemente singletrack to put the bikes through the paces. This would be both of our first time trying out an electric mtb hardtail, so we were very curious how they would ride.
Immediately the first thing you notice with the Ramblas is a little bit of extra pep in the step with it being a hardtail and not a full suspension. The bike accelerates very well, and even with it being heavier than non e-mtb hardtails, the basics of hardtails feeling more efficient than full suspension bikes still applies here. The motor itself also felt very powerful in each setting. We tried to put the Ramblas to the test climbing wise almost immediately, finding whatever steep, rutted single tracks we could on our way to the first downhill. It did take a little bit of time to readjust, as all of our ebike testing has been on full suspension bikes, however the Ramblas was very easy to figure out how it wanted to be climbed.
The first downhill came up and we started ripping through some ocean view singletrack. One thing that is apparent is the slightly longer chainstay, which is very nice given the e-bikes weight. It's clear that Aventon spent some time refining the geo and not just taking a normal hardtail non-emtb geo design and slapping a motor on it. The bike feels very composed at speeds and the Rockshox 130mm fork is both stiff as well as plush even given the fact that it is a little more on the basic side in comparison to some of the other higher end offerings in the RockShox lineup. But once again, $2699 for the entire bike, that is insane.
We really tried to put this bike in a wide variety of situations on the downhill, not really holding back in our line choice. The Ramblas rode with a degree of confidence we weren't expecting from a hardtail. Some of this is due to the bikes weight, which the slightly longer chainstay does compliment. Where the bike felt a bit out of place was actually tire choice wise. The bike is very capable descending but I did notice a few times where the stock Rekons had a bit less traction than I felt comfortable with on steeper, dry sections. If this was a more long style review, I would probably swap these out for some Maxxis Minions, as the bike really does have a degree of downhill prowess to it that makes it seem like the stock tires are holding it back. The Ramblas is upgradeable as well, as you can see from one of the employees at Aventons personal Ramblas, which really has us thinking about the bikes potential.
After a few more ups and downs trying to figure out what the Ramblas was made for, we decided to take the journey to the beach to check the surf. This was a paved road ride to link the trails to the ocean, and that is when it occurred to me why this bike is so awesome. For $2699 you get a capable mountain bike that shreds, but also a bike that you can easily take on long commutes or cruising around town. The hardtail nature of the bike doesn't make it feel overbearing on the road for longer commutes, but the build itself still is able to tackle challenging downhills with ease. And I know I keep stressing this bit but $2699 is the price point of this complete e-mtb!
What do we wish the Ramblas had? Like I said, some meatier tires would be nice but not everyone prefers steep terrain. The brakes were awesome so nothing to change there but maybe a more comfortable saddle and possibly tubeless wheel set up would be a nice thing to see in a future build model. Also there is a lot of frame space, a second water bottle cage mount would be nice to see in the front triangle as well.
So yeah the Aventon Ramblas is an awesome bike for those looking to get their foot in the doors of the e-mtb world. It shreds down, rips up, and is capable of taking you to the beach or to the trails all in one day. And once again, all for the cost of a Push Industries fork and $99. What a time to be a mountain biker!
Check out the Aventon Ramblas here:
-Mo Awesome
