Ride1Up REVV1 FS review: How I hit 37 mph on an e-bike built like a motorbike
The Ride1Up REVV1 FS is a rare breed of e-bike. It’s not that the design is that unique. In fact, it’s obviously another SUPER73 imitation. But what makes it so unique is that it’s a really good SUPER73 imitation. And by that I mean it’s built more like a moped or motorcycle than like an electric bicycle, which translates into an amazingly good ride.
Now don’t get me wrong here: This is not an electric motorcycle.
The purists out there will try to claim that it is. And I understand their argument. But it’s based on the misinformed premise that anyone can take this 20 mph electric bicycle out of the box and turn it into a crazy powerful speed machine. And while that’s true with many other e-bikes, it’s not true for the Ride1Up REVV1. To actually unlock it outside of Class 2 (20 mph) mode into Off-Road mode, you’ve got to contact the company to request the unlocking procedure that includes multiple passwords used at several steps.
It’s not something that a kid is going to figure out, and it allows Ride1Up to control who gets Off-Road mode while giving them one more chance to remind you that it’s for use outside of public streets.
Even when left in 20 mph Class 2 mode, the REVV1 is an awesome electric bicycle that offers an incredible ride. But when you unleash the beast, it gets so much better. I tested out both types of riding, which you can see in my video review below. Keep on reading after the video to see the rest of my written review.
Ride1Up REVV1 FS video review
Ride1Up REVV1 FS tech specs
- Motor: Bafang 750W continuous hub motor
- Top speed: 20 mph (32 km/h) stock, but I hit 37 mph (59.5 km/h) in off-road mode
- Range: 30-60 miles (48-96 km)
- Battery: 52V 20Ah (1,040 Wh)
- Weight: 93 lb. (42 kg)
- Tires: CST Scout eMoped All-surface Tires, 20″x4.0″
- Brakes: 4-piston hydraulic disc brakes
- Front suspension: Dual-crown 120mm air fork, preload and rebound adjust with lockout
- Rear suspension: DNM AOY-38RC, rebound, air pressure adjust and lockout
- Extras: Long bench seat, included fenders, large LED headlight with hi/lo beams and tail/brake light, turn signals, horn, LCD display, kickstand
Out-of-the-box riding
Just from looking at it, the Ride1Up REVV1 is obviously a beast. But many e-bikes talk tough. The REVV1 walks the walk, too.
The bike’s CST Scout moped tires combined with that front and rear suspension let riders carve hard into curves and hit larger obstacles than you’d expect to be comfortable.
The long bench seat actually feels really nice under you and is thicker than it looked when I first covered the bike’s unveiling. It’s also made from nicer material than I had imagined, giving it a real fabric upholstery that feels good under you. There’s no cheap imitation leather or plastic-feeling vinyl here. This feels like a motorcycle saddle.
Regarding suspension, I will note that the rear suspension felt a bit stiff for me, but I’m a light rider at 150 lb. (68 kg). I kept it on the lowest setting and that felt better for me, but heavier riders can crank up the suspension to fit their weight and ride style, which is a big improvement over non-adjustable suspension on other e-bikes.
The components used on the bike also inspire confidence, from the high-power four-piston hydraulic disc brakes and the quality-feeling brake levers.
The whole bike just has a solid and planted feeling to it. Many cheaper moped-style e-bikes feel more like a moped-shaped electric bicycle, in that they feel like a collection of weaker bolted-together parts. But the Ride1Up REVV1 FS feels like a purpose-built, solid, refined design that gives me motorcycle-quality vibes. It feels planted underneath me. There’s no rattling. There’s no flex (other than a nice give of suspension and a soft seat). There’s just a solid feel to it. I don’t know how else to describe the feel without telling you to just sit on it. But trust me, you can simply tell the difference between a cheap e-bike and a solid one within a few revolutions of the tires. And the difference here is astounding. As someone who rides high-power electric motorcycles, this e-bike gives me that feeling.
But what about pedaling?
Ha! Forget about it!
Okay, it’s not that bad. You can pedal the bike. But it’s not comfortable. Your knees travel up quite high. The cadence-based pedal assist sensor doesn’t do you any favors either with its laggy response. As much as I love this bike for its throttle riding, I can say it’s not a pleasure on pedal assist. It works as a pedal bike, but it’s far from ideal.
If you ran out of battery and needed to pedal home, you could do it. It’s possible. It won’t be fun. But you can physically make it happen.
For the 99.9% of time that you’ve got charge though, you’ll probably just be throttling around. That’s the most fun way to ride a bike like this.
Again, the purists may rip their hair out over this. An e-bike that can’t be pedaled comfortably?! But then again, the purists probably stopped reading this review a while ago. If you’re still here, it’s likely because you appreciate that this is an e-bike for having fun. Other e-bikes are great for exercise. There are other models for taking kids to daycare. And other models exist for cargo duty. The REVV1 isn’t for any of that. This is for getting around fast and having fun.
Speaking of both, let’s talk about Off-Road mode.
What happens when you unlock the REVV1 FS?
This is where things get really interesting.
Unlike many e-bikes that come with higher power and higher speed modes that simply require playing around in the settings menu for a few minutes to unlock, you’re not going to figure out how to unlock the REVV1 on its own. It comes as a 20 mph (32 km/h) e-bike out of the box and that’s all you get.
That’s also likely enough to fulfill stricter e-bike laws that would disqualify 20 mph e-bikes from Class 2 status if they can be easily unlocked by the rider to achieve higher performance.
In this case, Ride1Up holds the keys to the power and speed that wouldn’t be legal on public roads in many states. So you have to ask them really nice for permission (and instructions) to get to the good stuff. Theoretically once enough people are granted the instructions, the secret unlocking procedure could get out there into the public domain. But I think the goal is to make the process complicated enough that the average person (and especially the average kid) can’t figure it out on their own.
Once you’re welcomed into the walled garden though, you’re in. And you’ll love it.
The 28A controller is unlocked, giving you access to nearly 1,500W of power.
I took the bike to a non-public road so I could test the speed on a long stretch of tarmac.
As you already know from the title of this review, the highest number I saw on the speedometer was 37 mph (59.5 km/h). And in fact that was the same figure I saw on a GPS speedometer I also used, just to make sure I was keeping Ride1UP honest. For the record, I was also wearing my full moto gear, including my motorcycle helmet, armored jacket, leather gloves, and boots. Sure, I put myself on the line for you guys to test this stuff. But my wife still wants me to come home at the end of the day.
In fact, the top speed might even be a bit higher than what I saw. I didn’t do a full tuck and I was even at around 75% battery charge. A 100% charge will give the highest speed, but I burned off part of the charge just riding to the test location. I tried to save as much as I could, but I just couldn’t resist going fast on the way there. I tried to stay at 20 mph, but I kept looking down and realizing I had gotten to 30+ mph without realizing it.
And that’s a testament to just how well the bike rides. That rubber feels good on the asphalt, the suspension takes up any road vibration, and the entire bike is nicely balanced. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to shake itself to bits, which I’ve experience on other e-bikes at high speeds. And so you can be cruising along at over 30 mph while still thinking you’re at a leisurely 20 mph.
Basically, this is an e-bike that can easily handle going twice as fast as its out-of-the-box programmed speed, meaning it’s overbuilt. And for a lot of people, overbuilt is exactly how a vehicle should be built.
The e-bike/e-moto gray area
I’ve talked before about how electric bikes can be a nice gateway drug into the world of electric motorcycles, especially when the power and quality walks up the ladder like in the Ride1Up REVV1 FS.
There are light electric motorcycle models like the SONDORS Metacycle that fall somewhere in the gray area, though the Metacycle is more on the motorcycle end of the spectrum. The REVV1 FS feels like another gap filler, though this time more on the electric bicycle end of the spectrum. It’s an e-bike, but it simply feels closer to the experience of riding an electric motorcycle. And that’s a rarity in this industry.
When you add in the turn signals, the motorcycle-style saddle, the quality rubber to keep your wheels down when you’re riding hard, and of course that adjustable suspension, you end up with a bike that offers motorcycle-style riding at a price point closer to e-bikes. $2,395 is a fair price for such a capable machine.
If I could make one change, I’d have asked for mirrors. When I’m riding fast, I want to be able to look over my shoulder without doing a full head turn. And so a nice set of mirrors would have been some great gear to include.
But as it stands, it’s hard for me to complain too hard. Sure, the bike sucks at pedaling. But it was never really meant for that. As a fun urban bike for zipping around like a motorcycle that doesn’t have to pay for registration, parking, insurance, or licensing, the Ride1Up REVV1 is a solid entry.
Of all the SUPER73 imitations out there, this is the one to get if you can’t afford a real full-suspension SUPER73. It’s not quite at S73 level, and I’ve pushed those bikes hard, but it’s pretty darn close for a lot less cash.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
There you are, motoring along in your Volvo XC90 PHEV with the Pilot Assist engaged alongside a big 18-wheeler at a comfortable 70 mph cruise when the interstate starts to slowly sweep left. From the drivers’ seat, that semi on your right looks awfully close. As the steering wheel turns itself in your hand, you start to wonder if that truck’s a bit too close. The car isn’t doing anything wrong, but it’s too close for your comfort and you give the wheel a little nudge to hug the inside of the lane just a bit more.
These deeply personal preferences are tough to quantify, and highlight a simple fact about Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) that the industry at-large hasn’t yet to come to terms with: when it comes to self-driving cars, one size does not fit all.
The Volvo experience I outlined above was very real, happening just as the wife and I were arguing about the relative merits of our very different choice in running shoes. She prefers the supportive, cushion-y ride of the HOKA Clifton 9s, which I’ve become convinced are The Devil™, preferring instead the zero-lift, no-cushion feel of my Xero Prio runners. The intervention with the Volvo interrupted that particular argument and started another. Namely, the one about why I had chosen that moment to “interfere” with the Pilot Assist.
“It was too close to that truck,” I explained. “Freaked me out.”
“That’s how I feel in the Honda,” she said. “I’m always afraid that it’s going to try and put me into oncoming traffic.”
That’s when the idea for this post came to me. Because, as a car brand, it’s really not possible to just say that your car has ADAS or doesn’t have ADAS in a binary sense. That’s because these systems are not just proprietary to a given brand, they can vary from vehicle-to-vehicle within that brand, and each one can have distinct lane centering behavior, steering feel, lane change aggressiveness, braking distances, timing for its hand-off warnings, and probably a bunch of other stuff that I haven’t even thought of depending on what kind of cameras, sensors, and software the specific vehicle you are in is equipped with.
It’s a bit of a mess, in other words.
Opinion: Honda Sensing gets it right
I first experienced Honda’s ADAS in 2014, driving a then-new CR-V between Chicago and Bay Harbor, Michigan for an Acura press drive. Even in its early generations, I was impressed with the way it handled stop-and-go traffic, the way it guided you through turns, but didn’t do the turning for you, and the speed and intensity it used in braking very much mirrored my own.
Last month, I had a chance to test out the 2025 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid for a week on Cape Cod. I picked the car up at PreFlight Parking outside Boston Logan, jammed it with luggage, and immediately hit heavy traffic, where the Honda Sensing Low-Speed Follow function took me right back to 2014, ratatouille-style, when my experience in that car had led me to believe that self-driving cars were right around the corner.
In the decade-plus since experiencing that first autonomous Acura, I’ve had the chance to experience Ford BlueCruise, Tesla Autopilot and FSD, and Mercedes-Benz DRIVE PILOT. And all, interestingly enough, in and around the Circuit of the Americas in Austin at one time or another over my three years of hosting Electrify Expo events there.
Each different OEMs’ system had its strengths and quirks. I remember Mercedes DRIVE PILOT as impressively precise, even clinical. The Ford system faded into memory. I couldn’t tell you anything about it, which is probably high praise. The Tesla systems, though, stood out — but for all the wrong reasons. Lane changes came too quickly, it accelerated too late, and too aggressively, and I often found myself bracing for collisions that (in fairness) never came.
More than once in those years I’ve wondered if maybe I’d just got it wrong back in 2014. That the tech was so new, and I had been so wow’ed by it initially, that I had got swept up in the hype of self-driving cars … but that drive in my wife’s XC90, back-to-back as it was with the Civic Hybrid, showed me that wasn’t it. Instead, I just didn’t like the way those other cars drove. Just like I don’t like the way HOKAs feel. And, just like my wife isn’t wrong for liking her gross marshmallow shoes (probably), I’m not wrong for preferring a more restrained digital co-pilot.
It’s a matter of fit, not fact — and that’s going to be a tough sell.
Everyone but me is wrong
As the great George Carlin once asked, “Have you ever noticed that anyone who is driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac?”
ADAS systems live squarely in that same subjective space occupied by other drivers. If the bots brake too hard, steer too sharply, or get too close to the car head before changing lanes, they might not be technically doing anything wrong, but they’re maniacs – and right now, there’s no real way to know how one car’s ADAS is going to behave until you’ve spent some significant time behind the wheel. Like, “Uh-oh. I bought a thing and I hate it,” amounts of time.
That’s a problem for both buyers and sellers (to say nothing of manufacturers and software developers), because why would you risk demonstrating a system that might scare someone? How do you sell “confidence” and “convenience” when what feels confident and convenient to one driver feels reckless to another, and milquetoast to a third?
Lucky for you guys, I have a solution.
Jojo’s ADAS scorecard *
| System | Lane centering bias | Lane change distance (car lengths) | Follow distance (default) | Braking force (max Gs) | Hands-off time allowed | Overall “feel” |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford BlueCruise | Centered | ~3.5 | Moderate | 0.30 G | Medium | Stable |
| Honda Sensing | Slight left bias | ~2.5 | Safe | 0.35 G | Short | Balanced |
| Mercedes-Benz DRIVE PILOT |
Centered | ~3.5 | Moderate | 0.40 G | Long | Confident |
| Tesla Autopilot | Centered | ~1.5 | Close | 0.45 G | Long (varies) | Aggressive |
| Volvo Pilot Assist | Slight right bias | ~3.0 | Moderate | 0.30 G | Moderate | Cautious |
That asterisk (*) is there because these are completely made up, imaginary values. They’re simply there to illustrate one way for manufacturers and dealers to share objective, quantifiable information about how their different ADAS systems behave. If it’s done right, it might help a car shopper get a better feel for how their next car might drive, and prevent them from spending their hard-earned cash on a car that drives like an idiot. Or a maniac.
That’s my take, anyway – what’s yours? Head down to the comments and let us know what values you’d like to see represented on an ADAS scorecard, and how much you’d be willing to base your next car buying decision on how it drives.
As for me, my X handle might be VolvoJo, but if I’m shopping for a car that’s going to drive me instead of the other way around, I might have to see if “HondaJo” is available.
Original content from Electrek.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Elon wants the US military to start buying Tesla Cybertrucks – and now they are! The Air Force has ordered two Cybertruck testers for target practice to determine how easy they are to blow up, while Jo makes up a whole new conspiracy theory on today’s explosive episode of Quick Charge!
Today’s episode is brought to you by retrospec—makers of sleek, powerful e-bikes and outdoor gear built for everyday adventure. Electrek listeners can get 10% off their next ride until August 14 with the exclusive code ELECTREK10 only at retrospec.com.
An it doesn’t stop there. We’ve also got exciting new home battery backup and V2X options for Tesla owners, and one Texas EV driver that decided to conquer the Texas floodwaters by harnessing the awesome combined powers of electrons and stupidity (it’s pretty awesome).
Source Links
Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (most weeks, anyway). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.
Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer project is reportedly over. Bloomberg reports that CEO Elon Musk is killing the project after a mass exodus of talent from the Dojo team to a competing startup.
Dojo was the name of Tesla’s in-house AI chip development to create supercomputers to train its AI models for self-driving.
Tesla hired a bunch of top chip architects and tried to develop better AI accelerator chips to rely less on companies like NVIDIA, AMD, and others.
It has been running into delays for years.
We previously reported on significant setbacks. In 2018, Jim Keller, the famed chip architect who was first hired to lead Tesla’s chip-making effort, left the company.
Ganesh Venkataramanan succeeded him, but he left Tesla in 2023.
For the last few years, Peter Bannon, who worked with Keller for years, has been leading Tesla’s chip-making programs, but he is now reportedly also leaving the automaker.
Bloomberg reports that Musk has “ordered the effort to be shut down.”:
Peter Bannon, who was heading up Dojo, is leaving and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has ordered the effort to be shut down, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. The team has lost about 20 workers recently to newly formed DensityAI, and remaining Dojo workers are being reassigned to other data center and compute projects within Tesla, the people said.
DensityAI is a new startup currently in stealth mode, founded by several former Tesla employees, including Venkataramanan.
It reportedly plans to build chips for AI data centers and robots, much like the Dojo program.
The company recently hired 20 former Tesla employees who worked on Dojo.
While the program appeared to be lagging behind for years as Tesla increasingly bought more compute power from NVIDIA, Musk has been claiming progress.
The CEO said in June:
Tesla Dojo AI training computer making progress. We start bringing Dojo 2 online later this year. It takes three major iterations for a new technology to be great. Dojo 2 is good, but Dojo 3 will be great.
During Tesla’s quarterly conference call in late July, the CEO claimed that Dojo 2 will be “operating at scale sometime next year.”
Electrek’s Take
It’s unclear whether the report is accurate or if it’s an extrapolation from the talent exodus to Elon killing Dojo, or if Elon was lying just a few weeks ago.
Alternatively, this development may be so recent that Elon went from being confident in Dojo a few weeks ago to disbanding the team working on it now.
Either way, I think it’s clear that the project has been lagging, and Tesla has been extremely dependent on chip suppliers rather than making its own.
I think Dojo being likely dead is not a big loss for Tesla.
When it comes to chip making, developing its own inference compute for onboard “AI computers” was always the more important project.
TSMC is set to produce Tesla’s new AI5 chip, which is coming soon, and we have recently learned that Samsung will be manufacturing its AI6 chip.
I think the bigger concern from this report is that it’s the latest example of an ongoing exodus of talent at Tesla.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike