Heybike Horizon Review – Big and Fast Full Suspension Folding E-Bike

Updated November 16th, 2024

The Heybike Horizon is a large folding ebike that gives you the performance of a big fat tire ebike. It folds letting you store it in smaller places and it will fit in the back of a small SUV without using a heavy bike rack. The Horizon can get up and go with it’s big hub motor, making it a blast to ride on both pavement and offroad. Keep reading to get all the details on this big folding ebike from Heybike.

Heybike Horizon

What we liked:

The bike easily powers up to 28 mph with heavy riders
Good hill climbing ability for a fat tire ebike
The rear suspension gives it a cushy smooth ride
The 24 inch x 4 inch fatbike wheels make it smoother and feel less like a folding bike than other folding bikes
The bike can carry a lot of rider and gear with it’s 350 lb limit

What we didn’t like:

It’s size and weight (75 lbs) make it very awkward to lift up into the back of an SUV.
The automatic headlight feature stays on when the bike is turned off. The auto button under the throttle doesn’t make sense.

Specifications

Max Speed – 28 mph
Range – 55 miles
Max Rider Weight – 330 lbs
Bike Weight – 79.4 lbs
Motor Power – 750 watt hub motors
Battery – 48 volt14.4 ah
Speeds – 7 Speed Shimano
Brakes – Hydraulic disc
Wheel Size – 24 inch x 4 inch tires
Folded Size – 49.2 x 23.6 x 31.5 inches

Video Review

Heybike Horizon Review and Test

Heybike supplied us with a Horizon so we could check it out. Fat tire ebikes are my favorite ebike category. They are a fun, all purpose bike that is good for riding almost anywhere. They do take up a lot of space. You need a heavy duty hitch rack to transport them. The Horizon solves that problem by also being a folding bike.

It has 24 x 4 inch wheels instead of the standard 26 x 4 inch wheels that most fat tire ebikes have. They are still great at rolling over things. They are much smoother than the 20 inch wheels most folding ebikes come with.

Let’s dig into the features and performance of the bike.

1 – 750 watt hub motor with 1400 Watts output

The Horizon has a 750 watt rear hub motor that can dish out up to 1400 watts of power when needed. This means it can go 28mph with ease on both pedal assist and throttle. It has strong hill climbing ability and acceleration thanks to that big motor in back.

2 – UL Listed 48 volt 14.4 ah removable battery

A 48 volt 14.4 ah battery is mounted to the frame in front of the pivot point. It lowers in from the top, making it easy to put in and remove. This gives 30 to 50 miles of range, depending on how fast you go and what the terrain is like.

The battery is UL2849 compliant.

3 – Front and Rear Suspenion

The Horizon has a hydraulic damped front suspension fork with adjustable preload and lockout. The back end has a coil shock and Horst 4 bar link rear suspension. It gives the Horizon a nice smooth ride on bumpy surfaces.

The front suspension does have adjustable pre-load to adjust for rider weight. It has hydraulic damping with a lockout. The rear shock has no adjustments or lockout. It works well most of the time but heavier riders will feel it bottom out on bigger bumps.

4 – 350 lbs capacity

The Horizon is rated to hold up to 350 lbs between the rider and whatever you want to load onto the rear rack. This gives it enough for a heavy rider or a lot of gear if you want to take it adventuring.

5 – Folding Bike

The Horizon can fold making it easier to store and transport. It is still a very large bike with 24 x 4 inch fatbike wheels. It weighs in at just under 75 lbs with the battery removed. It takes less than 5 minutes to fold it and it unfolds just as fast.

I measured the folded bike at 37 inches long by 20 inches wide by 30 inches tall. This is with the front handlebar slid out which makes the bike less long. The official published folded dimensions are 49.2 x 23.6 x 31.5 inches

The Horizon will fit into the back of a small SUV like a Ford Escape or Toyota Rav4. To do this it has to lay on it’s side with the rear seats folded. It took 2 of us to pick up the Horizon and get it loaded. It folds but it is still a big awkward shape when folded.

6 – Power (10/10)

I did some standard tests to see how powerful this bike is.

Top Speed

I measured the top speed of the Horizon using a GPS and what was on the display. I did this for both throttle and pedal assist. I got the following measurements.

• Throttle – Display 28.1mph, GPS 27.0 mph
• Pedal Assist – Display 27.6 mph, GPS 26.4 mph

Heybike publishes the top speed as 28mph. The bike is able to go close to that speed on both pedal assist and throttle.

Hill climbing

I took the Horizon to my standard hill climb test hill. This is a half mile hill with 10% grades and less than smooth pavement. I use a 250 lb rider for the test. I do the test with throttle only once and pedal assist once. I use the max PAS level for this test.

The Horizon took 1 minute and 44 seconds to go up the hill on throttle only. This was 9 seconds faster thahn an Aventon Aventure 2 and 13 seconds faster than a Himiway Zebra.

I took the bike up the hill again using pedal assist set on level 5. The Horizon took 1 minute and 37 seconds to go up the hill. For comparison, a Aventon Aventure 2 took 1 minute and 50 seconds. A Himiway Zebra took 1 minute and 52 seconds.

The Horizon has some good power and goes up hills quickly. It has power that is equal or better to other popular non-folding fat tire ebikes.

7 – Range (8/10)

I took the Horizon out for a range test to see how far it would go on a full battery. I use a standard route with a bunch of hills. I do the test at 15mph or as close to it as a I can. I use a 250 lb rider. I do the test twice, once with pedal assist and once with throttle.

Using pedal assist the bike went 30.7 miles on a charge. I used PAS 3 which was closer to 18mph. PAS 2 was about 10 mph and too slow for how people will realistically ride it. The faster you go, the shorter the range you get with any ebike.

Using just throttle the bike went 24.2 miles going 15mph.

The published range for the bike is up to 55 miles. 30.7 miles is about where we would expect our test to come out if the vendor publishes a 55 mile range. Hills, speed, and rider weight all take their bite out of the range.

8 – Ride and Handling (9/10)

The full suspension of the Horizon feels very good. It makes the back end of the bike feel soft going over cracks and potholes. The bike is folding so the head tube angle is a bit more upright. This does take a little bit of the stability away from the bike that you get with a slack head tube angle.

The bike is very smooth and feels good going 28mph. I felt very comfortable going those speeds on pavement.

I took the Horizon for a bit of off roading. I took it to some double track, dirt road type of trails. It was a lot of fun. The rear suspension did a good job of absorbing ruts, roots, and rocks. It did bottom out on a few larger bumps. The rear suspension is not adjustable so you can’t up the pre-load for heavier riders. This would have taken care of the bottom outs.

Overall the Horizon was a lot of fun to rip around on what I would call light duty offroad trails. I got a few complements from some guys who were hiking who thought the bike looked really fun.

9 – Braking (9/10)

The hydraulic disc brakes on the Horizon do a good job of stopping it. They have 180mm rotors which are enough for the bikes weight and speed. I wasn’t wishing for more stopping power. I wouldn’t have wanted to ride with less.

10 – Controls (8/10)

The Horizon has a set of control buttons on the left handlebar, an LCD display, and a thumb throttle on the right handlebar. The Shimano shifter is on the right bar also.

The button stack on the left side is a bit busy. It has pedal assist level adjusts, turn signals, a headlight switch, button for headlights, power button, and a horn. It is one of the more complicated control buttons setups I have seen. It does have dedicated buttons for almost everything. I do like that.

Automatic Headlights

The bike has automatic headlights. They automatic feature is turned on and off with the “auto” button underneath the throttle. Why it is with the throttle and not the rest of the buttons? I don’t know. It’s also not mentioned in the manual.

The auto headlight feature will turn on the lights when the bike goes into a dark area. It will turn them off again when it gets light out. The auto headlight function works whether the bike is turned on or off as long as the battery is plugged in.

If you have the auto headlight feature turned on and you leave the bike somewhere overnight, there is a good chance you’ll come back to a dead battery in the morning. The bike will turn the lights on overnight when it’s dark.

If you use the auto-headlight feature, turn it off, before you leave the bike sitting somewhere where it will get dark.

Phone App

There is a Heybike phone app you can download to use with the bike. It will let you control some features and adjust some settings on the bike. You can customize the PAS levels with it if you want to them work at different speeds. You can adjust most of these settings from the bikes display too. The app is just a bit more user friendly.

11 – Accessories

The Horizon comes equipped with front and rear fenders, rear rack, and front and rear lights. This makes it ready for commuting or bike packing or any other activity you want to do with it.

The light is adequate for night riding on the street. It is bright enough for 10-20mph riding. If you are riding somewhere with a lot of curves, a helmet light is a nice addition so you can see around the corner where the handlebars aren’t pointing.

12 – Assembly Ease (9/10)

The Horizon went together quick. It took me about 45 minutes from open the box to ready to charge and ride. The only real steps are putting the handlebar on, mounting the front fender and light and mounting the rear rack. Heybike gives you enough tools to get the job done without using anything else.

The rear derailleur required a bit of adjustment for smooth shifting. Everything else was good out of the box.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

The Heybike Horizon makes a great bike for someone who wants a full size fat tire ebike but they want the smaller storage size and easy transport of a folding bike. The Horizon easily goes 28mph and the rear suspension makes it feel smooth and cushy.

It is a bit large and heavy to pick up and you really need 2 people to load it anything. That is only major downside to it. If you want an offroading folding bike, check out the Horizon.