When these three electric bikes arrived at the office, we scratched our heads, thought about what we wanted to do and who the bikes are aimed at and we came up with a plan. Rope in a riding family and get their opinions…
Regardless of how you might feel about charge-and-go bikes, innovation is something we do enjoy. Electric is, absolutely a thing.
The Schwim family are motorbike people with Dad Bryan and mom Slush both on Yamaha 250’s, 12 year old Rogan racing a YZ 85 and the littlest Skylara (6) still finding her feet on a PW.
They arrived here en mass, dragging their friend Rouen, who owns an old Zero along to join the fun.
Surron had a bike for each of them.
Bryan rode the faster Ultra Bee.
The Ultra Bee sits taller than a mini. It’s more like an early 125, the biggest of the model lineup and fits a full-size adult comfortably.
Its got beefy suspension with the forks and shock made by a company called KKE and those have almost 25cm’s of travel. The brakes look just like Nissin models found on dirt bikes, with axles and brake rotors the same size as those used on a Honda CR125.
The Ultra Bee makes more than enough power for trail riding. The power delivery is pretty smooth, but if you grab a handful in Sport mode, you just get wheelspin. Daily seems to be the better mode, but you can also use the traction control settings to make it more manaheable in Sport mode off-road.
The battery can be changed in a couple of minutes, and they tell us that a full charge takes arond four hours.
Bryan says:
“It’s almost a full sized bike and justs fits so nicelly. It’s far better than I expected with excellent power delivery. Man it’s great! Use the turbo – full power button for that extra oomph, you’ll love it, however… I was warned that the battery would run down quite quickly, so I was a bit selective about when I used it. However. In normal mode, the power is more than fun enough for playing around at our little track.
This is the most powerful of the three bikes, so I was happy to see that it is fitted withsome proper motorcycle components, rather than bicycle stuff. The Brakes are perfect for a bike like this and the suspension was a real surprise.
This bike is definitelly the closest to a motorcycle of the three, simple, easy to ride and huge fun. I really like the simplicity, charge the battery, hop on, take a spin, come back smiling…
Slush climbed aboard the mid-size Light Bee.
The Light Bee X is powered by a removable 60-volt Panasonic lithium-ion battery pack with two modes: Eco and Sport.
The Light Bee uses an aluminum frame, 19-inch wheels, and an inverted front fork with 20 cm’s of travel. The suspension is like a downhill mountain bike. Seat height is right around 80 CM’s and the bike offers 26cm’s of ground clearance. Physically, it’s a bit bigger than a 110cc pit bike and more like a trailbike like a Yamaha TT-R125.
Mountain bike four-piston hydraulic disc brakes come standard front and rear on the Surron.
The Light Bee only weighs about 50kg’s, the brakes make it easy to skid or slide the rear wheel. It takes a bit of getting used to because, like a bicycle, the Light Bee comes standard with two hand brakes and no rear-brake pedal.
Slush says:
“This is the first time that I have ever ridden an electric bike, and I must say that I love the simplicity. No gears, no clutch, just hop-on-and go. So – for a novice rider it’s really simple to learn on. This bike is quite a bit less intimidating in the power department than on the Ultra Bee. It’s also lighter and smaller, so for a shorter rider or a young teenager, it’s built to size. The brakes and suspension are very close to a bicycle feel, so, if you ride fast, you need to keep that in mind. For what we did, I certainly had no complaints. This bike is built to take a lighter rider so it was perfect for me andlots of fun! I’d love to take one to the track to get around and watch the kids race…
Rogan grabbed the Junior Hyper Bee.
The most notable feature of this bike for a young rider is is the weight of just 39 kilogrammes. Thats really nothing.
The Hyper Bee also has about 50 percent more suspension travel at 17 CM’s up front and 18.5 cms out back. The bike boasts hydraulic disc brakes and some other rather innovative features.
Bluetooth remote control.
A remote control allows parents to switch between the three different power levels, turn the bike off completely, or talk tothe young pilot via the onboard speaker and microphone. IE:
“SLOW DOWN DAMMIT!”
Its a cool way to teach a kid how to ride. The ability to switch the bike off when whiskey throttle steps in migh just save a few of your garden shrubs…
Other cool features include small diameter grips that better fit kid-sized hands, a magnetic kill switch, hooter, headlight, and a dash that displays the speed, odometer, power and battery level. The dash is where you can also adjust the Energy Regeneration (REGEN), throttle sensitivity, horn sound, tilt protection feature, remote pairing, Bluetooth headset pairing, and the speed unit setting (mph or kilometers). The REGEN helps recharge the battery when the throttle is off while the bike is in motion and provides something akin to engine braking.
The Hyper Bee has air spring and rebound adjustable forks and compression, rebound and spring preload adjustability on the shock. The ride height can also be adjusted by moving the forks in the triple clamps and the shock mount to one of two positions. This results in seat heights ranging from 66 to 70 and a bit cm’s as your kid sprouts.
The bikes suspension adjustability will allow you to get more use as kids grow.
Rogan says:
“Wow! I had fun. Forget about the slow mode, for me, fast is the way forward! This bike is light, fast and comfortable. I really expected to get stuck in the mud because it spins so quickly, but it’s light enough to just open the throttle and get through! I didn’t sit for the whole ride, because the seat is narrow, so I spent the whole afternoon popping wheelies, doing burnouts and having fun.”
I did go a bit stuck in a big ditch and that’s when dad showed me that this bike has reverse gear. Very cool!
“It’s a lot lighter than my bike, so it’s easy to jump and move around on. Size wise its closer to my old 65. Going fast it had no headshakes – and, in fast mode, I could keep up with my folks. Brakes and suspension, all feel good.
It’s not quite as fast as my bike, but lots of fun. Light, fast and so easy to ride in the tricky terrain.”
A lot faster and more fun than I expected. When can we ride it again?
Usually when we do a motorcycle feature, we hear the bikes roaring out the gate and heading down along our back wall as they hit the trails. This time, we heard… nothing.
And then they snuck back in again, only waking our dogs from their snooze as they rolled into the office area.
Smiling, dirty faces “Dad! Did you see how I jumped that log!” and the bench racing got faster and faster as they washed the bikes down.
Of course our lot took full advantage of the Surrons while they were here.
Thanks to the hop-on-and-go convenience, walking up to the gate was no longer an option.
The junior members of the family were often found racing around the garden and hopping obstacles.
The beauty of it all?
Not a single grumpy neighbour.
Nice!!
Naturally, you can only go as far as your battery allows you to go, so plan your rides…
A few advantages that we can see:
Lightweight and easy to transport – much like bicycles.
Silent. Your grumpy neighbour will not even know what you are up to.
Maintenance. No oil, no fuel, just adjust the chain and check the brakes.
Skills development. They are far lighter than your traditional dirtbike so, you can hone your riding skills without having to waste energy.
Where would you ride them?
Forget about wide open fast trails – they are fun there, but they are not really made for that.
Go and find the tightest, twistiest trails that you can. Open the throttle and just enjoy the ride.
They are a lot of fun.
Hyper Bee (2025 model) R57 900.00
Light Bee X (2025 model) R92 750.00
Ultra Bee X-HP (2025 model) R124 900.00
Ultra Bee X (2024 model) R 118 750.00 Only on order.
