Hydraulic breaks are great and belt can be nice but I’m not seeing it here. The article author really seems to like the style but it also feels not quite right somehow. The way they see no suspension as a con on a type of bike that really shouldn’t even have one bothers me.

I’m really biased towards mid drive but even accounting for that I feel like battery and motor shouldn’t both be over the back wheel. If it wouldn’t jump it into the next price and weight bracket both, I’d put the motor in the front, battery mid, and igh rear belted to cranks.

Actually if I had to buy a prebuilt and could get it to my region I want one of the pinion mgu bikes. Otherwise I’ve been having a blast on a cyc photon fat bike and an open tsdz2 not-quite-road bike and building them myself has given me a lot more for the same price. A lot of Ali parts I have tested outclass the entry level Shimano stuff found on most ebikes and some even come with the lesser crap off Ali anyways.

In any case though I couldn’t recommend this bike unless it was significantly cheaper, but if it was then the lower maintenance of the belt drive and step through mounting would make for a decent ride for relatively flat commute or shopping runs if there was any guarantee of it not being stolen. Even if I don’t like the look it still probably isn’t too ugly to steal