How Fast do Electric Bikes Go?

How fast do electric bikes go? In large part, the answer is up to you. 

In general, we’d say Charge bikes have the potential to go fast enough to get you where you’re going at a decent clip, but not so fast that you’re going to be white-knuckling it, whizzing past everyone in your wake. 

Let’s talk specifics though. 

What’s Your Need for Speed? 

At Charge, our bikes are the fastest in their class on the market. How fast? You can go up to 20 mph with power assistance. If you’re so inclined, you can pedal harder to go a bit faster, but in general, you’re looking at reaching a top speed of about 20 mph.

That means you can cover a single mile in about 3 minutes. That's pretty speedy, and laws actually prohibit e-bikes in this class from going any faster. 

Sound a bit too speedy? You don’t have to go that fast. Our bikes are equipped with a variety of pedal-assist modes, so you can go as fast as you want when you want. 

The Comfort and City models each have five pedal-assist support modes (1-5, with 1 providing the least assistance and 5 providing the most), while the Charge XC has three (eco, trail and boost – plus walk-assist). The lower the mode, the less electric assistance you’ll get, and the higher the mode, the more assistance you’ll get, and the faster you’ll go. 

The City and Comfort models also feature throttles. When you kick in the throttle, you get an even bigger boost of power to make pedaling easier, or you can kick up your feet all together and just coast. 

New riders don’t have to worry about alarmingly fast acceleration or reaching dangerous speeds though. Our bikes give you extra power to make your ride easier, but they’re not for speed demons or people looking to race across finish lines. They’re for people who want to get where they’re going on their own terms and enjoy the ride. 

What Makes our Bikes Go

There are a number of factors that affect our bikes’ speed. One is the fact that they’re some of the most lightweight on the market, which also makes them nimble and easier to transport and store. 

The Comfort, our everyday electric bike that makes it easy to get around, weighs in at 51 pounds with the battery, while the The City, which is made for urban life and commuting, weighs just 45 pounds.  The XC, our rugged mountain bike, is the heaviest at 55 pounds. Considering some e-bikes weigh upwards of 70 pounds, ours are lightweights. 

Our motors, on the other hand, are heavyweights when it comes to performance and power. The Comfort and City bikes are equipped with powerful 250-watt hub motors, while the XC is equipped with a 250-watt mid-drive motor. The motors are powered by removable, yet lockable, weather-resistant batteries that come with all of our bikes. The Comfort and City bikes feature 418WH Lithium ion batteries while the XC boasts a Shimano E8035 504WH integrated battery. 

Each charge of the battery lets you cover about 50 miles. That will vary a bit depending on how much pedal assistance you use, the rider’s weight and a few other factors, but in general, you can go for about 50 miles, which means you can cover quite a bit of ground.

The battery indicator display, which is built into the handlebars, will let you know when it’s time to recharge, so you don’t have to worry about losing the option of power mid-ride. The time it takes to recharge depends on how much power is left and which model bike, but in general, it will take between 2.5-7 hours to get you powered up again. 

Also fast? Getting your bike on the road once it arrives. We ship our bikes nearly fully assembled. With a few easy steps, you can put one together and have it on the road in about 10 minutes flat. 

To get a better feel for our bikes, we suggest you schedule a test ride. That way you can see for yourself just how easy, comfortable and enjoyable they are to ride. Charge on.