Earlier this year my husband and I made the decision to downsize to a one car family, sell out second car and buy a couple of eBikes. We did a fair amount of a research and a small amount of test rides before I settled on the Magnum Metro+ as my bike of choice.

This wasn’t the bike I originally thought I was going to end up with, I was pretty sure I was going to get a Surface 604 but after riding both the Magnum just felt better. The Surface had a few features that would have been great to have (rear and front lights powered by the bike battery, kickstand slightly further back and a chain guard). However it really comes down to the feel of the bike when choosing one.

Not to say that everything is perfect, there are a few things I would change on my bike if I could (and who knows maybe the things I don’t like as much are things that can be fixed? Sounds like a 2021 kind of thing to research).

Let’s start with the pros for the bike:
– As mentioned above, I like how it rides. It’s solid and steady and easy to pedal and change gears
– Has a throttle. Do I need a throttle? No. Is it super fun to use to power through intersections when I need that extra speed boost? Yes. Yes it is.
– Lots of room for storage. Comes with a rack on the back, I have installed a huge basket on the back for now. There’s room on the front to install another basket if needed.
– Came with a pretty comfortable seat which was nice – usually I upgrade my seat to a comfier one, no need to do that with this bike.
– Step through – can’t imagine going back to a non-step through bike honestly.
– Pretty easy to understand and use speed control and display showing speed and distance.

Things that I am not crazy about:
– it’s pretty heavy. At close to 60lbs it’s a challenge to lift on to the bike rack when needed and can be a challenge to move around when not operating it or when repositioning it (for example when I have to go up on the sidewalk to trigger the lights to change and then get back off the side walk, it’s not as simple as just lifting and changing the direction the bike is pointed)
– The back light is not connected to the battery (the front is). So you have to manually turn it on and off, and it’s not very bright.
– Turning the battery on and off is not easy – some times I have to press the battery once, sometimes three times. It’s pretty random.
– No good spot for a water bottle holder. Not enough space for one on the handle bars, adding it to the step through frame defeats the purpose of a step through.
– Location of the throttle. One more than one occasion when leaning over my handle bars I have it the throttle with my boob, making the bike jump forward when not expected.

Overall though I really like this bike. I’ve ridden more this past summer than any other year, have even ridden in November when the temperature was just above zero just because I wanted to get out and ride. I love knowing that the hill to get home isn’t an obstacle anymore – I can go anywhere for as long as I want and not always have the hill in the back of my mind.

Working from home means that I don’t have to commute to work anymore but if I did I feel confident that I would be able to ride this bike to and from work with little issues even when the roads get snowy in the winter (I’d get studded tires installed first though).

I would recommend this bike to an average rider both in skill and height and weight. I think a shorter, lighter rider would probably prefer a lighter bike than this one.

I’ll address the “riding a eBike is cheating” argument in another post (spoiler alert – it’s not).