Electric bikes are so fun to ride. If you haven’t tried one yet, this is definitely the summer to take up ebiking. I’ve owned an ebike for a few years, but my own ebike doesn’t have a throttle like the SWFT Edge electric city bike. I had a blast riding the SWFT Edge. It’s a powerful ebike with 5 levels of pedal assist and a throttle you can pull to cruise without pedalling at all. This bike has a front shock too, and I think that gives it an edge over other city bikes because it absorbs bumps in the pavement or trail. Here’s a look at the SWFT Edge electric city bike, how it rides, and what you can expect when you take it for a spin.
Features on the SWFT Edge electric city bike
The SWFT Edge is a city-trail bike hybrid. It’s a great choice if you’d like to use an ebike for commuting or you’d like an easy to ride bike to take for a spin on weekends, but it also has a unique frame and suspension on the front to absorb bumps and give you clearance for rocks or logs. It weighs 24kg (52.91 lb) so it’s very sturdy, and it has an aluminum alloy frame. The SWFT Edge requires a bit of assembly before you can ride it, but don’t worry. It’s a fairly simple build.
- Premium high-tread all-terrain tires let you cruise paved roads or hit an off-road trail
- Built-in hub motor lets you hit enjoy speeds up to 32km/h
- Lithium-ion polymer battery gives you up to 49.8km (31 miles) per charge
- Quick charge time of 4 1/2 hours
- Disc brakes and 7-speed Shimano drivetrain
- Ride with pedal assist or use the throttle
- LCD on handlebars shows your speed, duration, and kms logged
- Built-in light, fenders, and rear rack you can add to carry items on your bike
Riding the SWFT Edge electric bike
We took the SWFT Edge electric city bike on all different types of terrain. We have a few trails not far from our house so we cruised paved roads to get to them, then took the bike off road on different gravel trails. I started my first ride with a fully charged battery so I could monitor how fast it would drain while pedalling or while using the throttle.
Body design of the SWFT Edge electric city bike
The SWFT Edge has a nice, sleek style. I like black bikes, and I always seem to choose them over any other colour. The frame itself is aluminum alloy and the battery is attached to the down tube. The downtube has a wide arc, and that’s to give you clearance if you need to cruise over a log or rock. I didn’t ride near any logs or rocks but the design made it a lot easier to lift the bike over trail gates.
7-speed Shimano drivetrain and 5 assist levels
The SWFT Edge has a 7 speed Shimano drivetrain and 5 different pedal assist levels. You can get a good workout riding this bike if you set it to pedal assist level one or two. The first two levels give you just enough of a boost to pick up your speed but not enough of a boost to make it easy to pedal up a hill. With levels three to five you can get more assist while pedalling. Level five feels a lot like a motor bike taking off, but you can still pedal as much as you’d like while hitting 32 km/hr.
Whether you use pedal assist or not, you can switch between the 7 gears on the Shimano drivetrain. I would use pedal assist level one or two and just use the gears to make riding uphill or on bumpy terrain a bit easier. The gears were easy to shift and they were quite smooth too. It’s nice that the bike has them as they make riding it easier if you run through your battery too quickly and you’re suddenly motorless.
What I love about this bike is that you can choose pedal assist or throttle, and throttle is so fun. It’s located on the handlebars and you can just turn it like you would turn the throttle on a motorbike. Once you’ve engaged the throttle you just need to pedal two or three times and the bike takes off. If you have the throttle fully engaged you will quickly hit max speed of 32 km/hr. You don’t need to pedal anymore after that. You can just keep the throttle on and the bike will maintain your speed.
The throttle works so well, especially when cruising up hills. I had it fully engaged the entire time we were riding up and down a hilly trail and it maintained speed very well, only dropping to 28 km/hr when the hill become a bit steeper. As for battery, I rode several kilometres with the throttle on and I did lose a bar of battery, but I still had a lot of power to get me back home before I had to recharge.
Disc brake and front suspension
If you’ve ever taken your bike over a bumpy, paved road, you know how it can vibrate through the handlebars all the way up to your arms. The material the frame is made of will enhance or decrease the bike’s ability to absorb the terrain and how smooth your ride is, but having front suspension helps even more so it’s great that the SWFT Edge has a front fork to lessen the impact of bumpy roads. The fork is quite stiff and there isn’t a lot of flex, so it’s not quite the same as a fork you’d see on a off road mountain bike. That being said, I felt like it does help lessen the impact on the bumps on paved roads and dirt trails.
When you’re speeding down the road you want to know your bike has good brakes to help you stop. The SWFT Edge has disc brakes, and they were quick to grab when I needed to stop. I thought they were pretty smooth, and they weren’t so grippy that I would jerk to a stop.
Battery life on the SWFT Edge
I thought the stated battery life and ride duration of the SWFT Edge was pretty accurate. I managed to log over 40 km in over a few days and I still had two bars left on my battery. The LCD will keep track of your battery life for you, and it will also track your speed as you ride and your overall distance and time on the bike. I loved the LCD on the SWFT Edge. My own mountain bike has the pedal levels by the brakes and it’s only a set of buttons. It’s much better to see your speed and battery life on a screen while riding. My only concern was that the screen is a bit big so if you ever crash the bike you may knock the screen, but they did mount it on a bracket that would protect it if you ever fall.
Should you choose the SWFT Edge electric city bike?
I really liked riding the SWFT Edge. It can rev up to max speed quickly, and the throttle makes it really fun to ride. You can just pull it and cruise down the road, but you can also switch it if you want a bit of exercise by using the different gears and pedal assist levels. The gears shift smoothly, the brakes let you stop quickly, and the suspension makes for a much smoother ride. It’s not the type of suspension you would take on dirt jumps at your bike park, but it’s very effective for every day riding.
Overall, I would definitely recommend the SWFT Edge for paved roads, dirt trails, and everything in between. It’s a great choice if you cover different types of terrain when you ride, and the battery will keep you riding for a few hours before you need to charge again.
You can find the SWFT Edge city ebike at Best Buy right now.
