Aventon Aventure 2 Fat Tire EBike – Test and Review

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Updated April 9th, 2024

Manufacturer and Model: Aventon Aventure.2
List Price: $1999

Summary

The Aventon Aventure 2 is the next evolution of their very popular Aventure fat tire electric bike. It upgrades to a torque sensor which gives you more control. It still has a throttle for those times when you just want to cruise around and not pedal. The bike is built for offroad use with 26 inch x 4 inch fat bike tires. It has a comfortable upright riding position so you’ll feel good after long rides. The Aventure 2 is available in regular and step thru frames with 2 sizes. The Aventon Aventure 2 is one of the best under $2000 electric fat tire bikes out there.

Aventon Aventure 2 Review and Test

I am a long time mountain biker and love riding bikes offroad. The Aventon Aventure is one of the most popular offroad electric bikes out there. When Aventon released a new updated version, the Aventure 2, we had to get our hands on one to try out. We ordered a large step over frame Aventure 2 in the camouflage green. We hit the road with our Aventure 2 and road it on everything from mountain bike trails to dirt roads to city bike paths to see how it would handle.

1 – 750 watt geared rear hub motor

The Aventure 2 has a 750 watt geared rear hub motor. It is capable of delivering up to 1050 watts of power. This bike feels powerful when you push on the pedal and the assist kicks in. It won’t leave you wondering if the motor is running or not.

2 – 48 volt 15 ah removable battery

The bike uses a 48 volt 15 amp hour battery made with LG cells. The battery is removable by turning the key and pulling it out of the frame sideways. You put the battery back in by inserting the rear and swinging it into place. You do not need to use a key to put the battery back in.

The sideways placement makes the battery more protected for an offroad bike than a battery that lowers down from the frame like the Aventon Level. It would be really nice if Aventon did some commonization with battery packs so that you could use the same pack for multiple bikes.

3 – 4 inch wide fat tires and front suspension

The Adventure is a large fat tire bike with 26 inch x 4 inch wide fat bike tires designed for offroad use. It has a front suspension fork with 80mm travel. You can tune the ride for offroad vs pavement by changing the tire pressure. 80mm is more than enough travel for a fat bike since most of the suspension should be coming from the tires. Most non-electric mountain bikes with fat bike wheels do not even have front suspension.

The wiring runs inside the frame with no exposed components on the downtube where they can get hit by rocks or other trail debris.

4 – Torque Sensor

The biggest change between the Aventon Aventure and Aventure 2 is the switch to a torque sensor from a cadence sensor. You will either love or hate this change. I strongly prefer torque sensors for the extra control and more natural feel they give to the bike. Some people prefer the constant speed pedal assist and the ability to ghost pedal up to high speeds with a cadence sensor.

The torque sensor in the Aventure 2 has good sensitivity. You get motor power almost instantly after pushing down on the pedal. It’s easy to start pedaling if you stop with the bike in a higher gear. The motor will kick in with very little pedal movement. The torque sensor gives you more control over the bike’s speed when you are riding on trails with tight turns.

5 – Recyclable Packaging

The Aventure shows up in a really large box. Inside the box, you will find a ton of smaller cardboard boxes and shapes that pad the bike. There is no foam or plastic used anywhere in the packaging. Brown paper is used to protect some parts of the bike. They use brown paper rope ties to hold things together that need more than just brown paper tape.

I love any time I see recyclable packaging in use instead of plastic bags and foam blocks. We throw away a ton of foam and plastic here from review items. Every bike vendor should pack bikes this way. Our Aventon Level 2 was packed in plastic bags and foam blocks. Hopefully, they will change how that bike is packaged also.

6 – Power (9.5/10)

The Aventure 2 has a 750 watt geared motor that puts a lot of power to the pavement or dirt or gravel or any other surface. They did a good job balancing the initial acceleration and takeoff so the bike doesn’t feel overly aggressive. This is a much friendlier bike to ride than our Himiway Cruiser which has a very aggressive motor controller.

Top Speed

I did 3 speed tests with the Aventure 2. I took the bike to a long straight path with smooth pavement to see how fast it would go. I did each test by riding a mile and then turning around and a mile back and watched the display and also measured speed with a GPS. We did the test with throttle only, pedal assist set at 20mph and pedal assist set at 28mph. We got the following results.

• Throttle – Max Speed GPS – 19.54mph Display – 20.2mph
• Pedal Assist 20mph – Max Speed GPS – 20.0mph Display – 20.8mph
• Pedal Assist 28mph – Max Speed GPS – 26.7mph Display – 28.3mph

The bike does not easily go 28mph on boost pedal assist. You still have to pedal hard and fast. The bike doesn’t need too much effort to go 20mph. Going above 20 to 28mph needs more and more rider effort to achieve. If you want a bike that will do 28mph with little to no effort from the rider then you should look at the Aventon Aventure 1 with cadence sensor. It will let you ghost pedal up to 28mph.

The display on the bike reads 1 to 1.5 mph faster than you are actually going which isn’t too far off. We noticed this both when doing the speed test and reading the odometer before and after the range test rides.

Hill climbing

We took the Aventure out to our standard hill climbing test hill. This is a 0.5 mile hill with an elevation gain of 100 feet. It has 2 sections of 10% grade. We use a 250 lb rider to make sure the bike needs to work. We do the test once with throttle only and once with the maximum pedal assist level. We got the following results.

• Throttle Only – 1 minute and 53 seconds with an average speed of 16.76 mph
• Pedal Assist – 1 minute and 50 seconds with an average speed of 17.15 mph

Acceleration

The Aventure has very strong power when set on the higher PAS levels or when using the throttle. It likes to get up and go and will accelerate all the way up to 20mph with little to no effort. It has the power you expect from a 750 watt motor.

7 – Range (9/10)

We took the bike for 2 rides to test out the range. We started with a full battery hot off the charger. We rode the bike at a constant 15 mph (or as close as possible) for the entire length of the ride. This is with a 250 lb rider. I’m sure that the Aventure 2 could go a really long way on flat ground with a light rider. We want to know how it does with a heavy rider and some hills in the mix.

Pedal assist

We got 44.0 miles out of the Aventure 2 using the “Tour” setting for pedal assist. The route included 1122 feet of climbing. The published range for the Aventure 2 is 60 miles with the disclaimer that it was with a 160 lb rider on flat ground. Add another 100 lbs to the rider and make the ground not flat and you get down to 44 miles which is still really good.

The Aventure 2 provided a good amount of assistance the entire way down to about 8% of battery capacity remaining. At 6% I hit a small hill and the battery very quickly went down to 0% within a couple hundred yards. At that point, the pedal assist completely stopped. I stopped the bike and the battery meter went back up to 5% but the bike was done for providing any assistance. It did read 5% for the last mile ride home.

Our Aventon Level 2 with torque sensor gives good assistance for a mile or so after it reads 0%. The battery meter drops at a steady rate from about 25% on down. The fast drop off from 8% with the Aventure 2 was a bit unexpected.

Throttle Only

We took the Aventure 2 for another ride down the same path using only the throttle going 15mph. We were able to get 35.12 miles with an elevation change of 692 feet. The bike was able to maintain 15mph down to about 10% battery. Below that it struggled to maintain speed or go up any kind of hill at all.

The difference between pedal assist and throttle is only about 9 miles. This just means that the bike is doing a lot of work even on the “Tour” level of pedal assist.

8 – Ride and Handling (9.5/10)

The Aventure 2 is a big SUV of an electric bike. Is it nimble? No. Not really. Does it smooth out and cushion almost everything? Yes. Does it like to go fast in a straight line? Yes. Will it tear up dirt roads? Absolutely. We took the Aventure 2 to a local mountain bike trail to try it out. It loves wider jeep trail kind of terrain. It will do tight twisty singletrack but that isn’t its specialty.

When riding the Aventure 2 on pavement, you can expect some noise from the tires and driveline. 4 inch wide knobby fat bike tires are not the quietest things when rolling over pavement and other smooth surfaces. The big 750 watt geared hub motor also makes some noise just from spinning. This is true of every high powered big fat tire bike we have ridden.

Comfort

The Aventure 2 is about as cushy as a bike can get. If you lower the tire pressure down you can get it to where you feel almost nothing while riding over potholes, cracks, rocks, or roots. The 80mm front suspension fork combined with the 4 inch wide fat bike tires gives the bike more than enough cushion for most offroad use.

The riding position is more upright and closer to a cruiser bike. It feels more upright than on a true mountain bike with closer handlebars. This makes it really enjoyable to ride if you are not used to riding in a more bent over performance position.

The seat on the Aventon is one of the more comfortable I have ridden with for long rides where I’m seated for most of the ride. It doesn’t leave me wishing for a more comfortable seat at the end of a 3.5 hour battery draining range test ride.

Cornering

The Aventure 2 is more of a big SUV of a bike. It likes going fast and it likes big wide open corners. The bike can handle tight turns if you slow down. We rode the bike with tire PSI set at about 18 psi and the bike felt solid on pavement. We could have gone lower with tire pressure for offroading but would not want to go much lower for paved riding at speed.

9 – Mountain bike trails with the Aventure 2

I took the Aventure 2 to a local mountain bike trail. Singletrack with lots of tight corners and some technical climbs. It did better than I expected for a large 77 lb fat bike.

Cornering

I spent most of my time riding in Sport and Boost mode while on the trail so it would have good power in climbs. The bike is more nimble in corners than I thought it would be. It turns through tight corners at slow speeds easily. The torque sensor makes it easy to keep the bike under control without lurching forward when the motor comes on.

I did find that it is very easy to strike the pedal on the ground. The bottom bracket height is about 12 inches which is about 1/2 inch lower to the ground than a standard mountain bike. The pedals do not have a lot of grip on shoes. If I was going to ride mountain bike trails a lot with this bike I would replace the pedals with something with more grip such as my favorite Raceface Chester’s I use on my regular mountain bike.

Climbing

The bike does okay but not great on technical climbs. The pedal cadence is really too slow in the lowest gear and you feel like you are struggling to keep the crank turning to keep the motor going. The low gear on an Aventure 2 is about the mid gear on a regular mountain bike. I found that if the climb was mostly straight and the surface not that rough it does good. If you throw in some large roots and rocks and corners into the climb you struggle just from the slow pedal speed and stall out easily. The motor has plenty of power and could probably throttle up a steep climb.

Suspension

The big fat tires and front suspension do a good job of absorbing roots and rocks. I did the ride at 15 psi and the bike felt pretty good at that pressure. The kickstand bounces a lot while riding over bumps. It makes the bike a lot more noisy than it needs to be. Sooner or later it’s going to bounce the whole way down and cause a problem. I would remove the kickstand before riding mountain bike trails.

Making the Aventure 2 better for trail riding

Here are a few things I would do to the Aventure 2 to make it work better for riding singletrack mountain bike trails.

• Remove the kickstand
• Replace the pedals with better mountain bike flat pedals like Raceface Chester
• Replace the cassette, derailleur, and shifter with a 9 speed or higher driveline with a wider range cassette
• Ride with 15 psi or less tire pressure
• Remove the fenders and rack

10 – Braking (9/10)

The hydraulic brakes provide good stopping power. They feel like a good match for the bike and its weight. They aren’t overkill but they don’t leave you feeling like they aren’t enough either. They feel like they can stop the bike quick without a ton of finger effort. They provide good stopping power for slowing the bike quickly from 28mph if you are using it as a class 3.

11 – Controls (9/10)

The bike has a set of buttons on the left handlebar along with a throttle. It has a color LCD display over the stem. The 8 speed shifter is on the right handlebar. The bike is easy and mostly intuitive to use.

LCD Display

The color LCD display gives you speed, battery remaining in percent, motor power output, and a bottom row that can show a number of different things. Our bike has an odometer that shows total mileage on the bike. The menu has an option for resetting the trip meter. There is no way to display a trip meter.

The display can also show you the number of trees you have saved while riding the bike and the max speed.

Control buttons

The control buttons are not labeled as well as other Aventon bikes including the Aventure 1 and Level 2 and aren’t quite as intuitive. You have to press the top and bottom buttons to access the menu. Our Aventon Level 2 has an info button that switches the display and also accesses the menu. I’m not sure why these 2 bikes are setup differently for controls. I prefer the Level 2 setup over the Aventure 2 setup.

My guess is that the new control setup is because of the turn signal lights on the rear stays. The newer button has a left and right away for activating them. The old button stack had the power button and light button in place of the arrow buttons.

Mobile Device App

Aventon has a nice app that links with the bike that can be used to adjust some settings. The most useful is setting the top speed for pedal assist. If you are someone who wants to ride at max 28mph speed you need to use the app. The app can change a few other settings. It has a ride tracking function similar to Strava or Garmin Connect.

Pedal Assist and Throttle

The bike has 5 levels of pedal assist. Off, Eco, Tour, Sport, and Boost. They give you more force multiplication as you go up in level. I find that I spend most of my time riding in Eco and Tour. I’ll use Sport if I’m riding up steep hills to get a little more help. Boost if I want to ride fast up steep hills.

The bike has a thumb throttle on the left handlebar. You can use the throttle at any time while riding. You don’t need to stop or change modes. The bike does need to be in Eco through Boost for the throttle to work. It doesn’t work when the bike has pedal assist in off mode.

8 speed pedal driveline

The Aventure 2 uses a Shimano Altus 8 speed driveline. This is one area where I wish they would have stepped up a notch or 2 in component level to get something that shifts a bit smoother. It works. It’s a bit clunky feeling.

12 – Assembly Ease (8.5/10)

Assembly Time – 1.5 hours

It took me about an hour to put together the Aventon Aventure 2. I spent more time breaking up the cardboard box and all the small spacer and cushion boxes than I did assembling the bike. The basic tasks are to attach the handlebar, attach the front seat, attach the front fender, put in some fasteners on the rear rack. Oh yeah, mount the pedals also.

The Aventure 2 comes with a variety of assembly tools. There is nice multi-tool. They give you a small wrench for the step where you need the multi-tool and a wrench for the rear rack bolt. They also give you a very nice pedal wrench that is also used for tightening the front wheel. This is a very complete tool kit compared to most other e-bikes.

The trickiest step is getting the front wheel on with the brake rotor going into the brake caliper while you are doing it. The bike is very heavy and not so easy to just set it on the front wheel. I did this task myself and used the cardboard box that was under the rear wheel for shipping to prop up the front wheel so I could lower the fork onto it. This is much easier than trying to hold the front wheel with one hand while trying to lift the bike with your other hand to align it.

Extra tools required

No extra tools were needed.

Adjustments needed

After riding it for a few miles I noticed that the front wheel had a noticeable wobble in it and needed some trueing adjustment. The rear derailleur needed some adjustment to shift smoothly. No other adjustments or work were needed so far. See the below video from Parktool for how to adjust a rear derailleur. Almost every e-bike we have received has needed some derailleur fine tuning out of the box.

13 – Accessories

Lights

There is a front mounted light on the handlebars and 2 rear lights mounted on the frame side stays. The 2 rear lights can function as turn signals using the left and right arrows on the control buttons. I’m not sure who will use this feature that much but it’s kind of interesting.

The lights are bright enough for street riding and dirt roads. I would use a brighter after market light for trail riding at night or supplement the lights with a helmet light.

Fenders

The Aventure 2 comes with metal front and rear fenders. The rear fender is installed. You have to install the front fender yourself. They are metal with stainless steel supports. They don’t rattle too much while riding and do a good job of keeping dirt off of the rider and bike.

Rack

A metal rear rack is included. The angle is adjustable so you can customize it for whatever you want to mount there. The rack has a max capacity of 55 lbs which is stamped into the rack. The bike has mounts on the frame front tube for mounting a front rack. No front rack is included.

14 – Size and Fit

My bike is a size Large step over frame. I am 5’11” and I am just barely large enough to comfortably ride it. My crotch just clears the frame top tube when I’m standing over it. The handlebar reach is close enough to give me an upright comfortable riding position even on the large frame.

I would not recommend the large frame for anyone smaller than I am. The Aventure 2 is available in a step over or step thru frame design. Both frame types come in regular and large sizes to fit a wide variety of riders.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

The Aventon Aventure 2 is a lot of fun to ride both off road and on pavement. It is very cushy and comfortable to ride over bumpy surfaces. The torque sensor gives it excellent control and a more natural riding feel. If you are looking for an off road fat tire electric bike, you should give the Aventon Aventure 2 a serious look.

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