Heybike Mars 2.0 Folding EBike – Test and Review

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Updated August 5th, 2024

The Heybike Mars 2.0 has a 750 watt motor and a top speed of 28mph. It is a fat tire ebike with front suspension and a suspension seat post and ready for light duty offroad work. It is one of the best folding ebikes out there for heavier riders. It is adventure ready with large offroad tires, lights, and a rack that can hold 100 lbs.

Video Review

Heybike Mars 2.0 Review and Test

The Heybike Mars is one of the most popular folding EBike’s on Amazon. It is a fat tire bike with offroad tires and folds too. This makes it easier to store and transport for those who can’t use a hitch rack on their car. The Mars 2.0 has several improvements over the original Mars.

The biggest change is a 750 watt motor that replaces the 500 watt motor of the original. This also gives it a higher top speed (28mph vs 20mph). The Mars 2.0 also has a new LCD display and a phone app that can be used to change settings.

We got a black framed Mars 2.0 to try out and put through our series of tests to see how well it performs. The Mars 2.0 is one of the most powerful folding electric bikes out there with performance equal to the more popular non-folding fat tire electric bikes.

1 – 750 watt geared rear hub motor

The Heybike Mars2 has a 750 watt rear hub motor that can dish out 1000 watts peak power with 80Nm of torque. It is one of the best folding bike out there for carrying a lot of weight and having power to climb hills.

2 – 48 volt 12.5 ah removable battery

The bike uses a removable 48 volt 12.5 ah battery. The battery slides down into a spot behind the seat tube. This makes it much easier to remove than a folding bike that has the battery inside the frame tube. You can charge or remove the battery with the bike folded or unfolded. The seat can flip forward so that you can remove the battery without raising the seat.

3 – Folding frame

The Mars 2.0 has a folding frame, folding pedals, folding seat, and folding handlebars with adjustable height. The folded bike measures 37 inches x 28 inches x 22 inches. This is still a pretty large bike after it has been folded. The bike with the battery in it weighs 75 lbs. You can remove the battery which drops 15 lbs. That still leaves you with a 60 lb object to pick up.

The bike is easy to fold. The latches have positive locking and engagement. The handlebar folds completely down giving a nice compact size after the bike is folded. The only complaint is just how heavy this bike is. It’s got great functionality for a non-folding bike.

You can fit 2 of these bikes into the back of a standard sized SUV. We also have an Aventon Sinch.2 which is similar sized to the Mars 2.0 and can fit them both into the back of a Ford Explorer with the 2nd row seats still up. If you try to put 2 of them into something smaller you will probably need to fold the back seats to make it work.

4 – Power (9.5/10)

The Mars 2.0 has a 750 watt motor that has a strong kick in. It is an all or nothing pedal assist where you get full power from PAS 1 to PAS 5 up to their fixed speeds. The Mars feels as powerful as the 750 watt fat tire bikes we have tested including the Himiway Cruiser or Aventon Aventure.

Top Speed

I measured the top speed the bike would go using a GPS on a long, flat, smooth section of bike path. I checked with both throttle only and pedal assist. I got the following top speeds.

• Throttle Only – 20.2 mph measured by GPS. 22.5 mph on the display
• Pedal Assist – 19.3 mph measured by GPS. 21.3 mph on the display

• Throttle Only – 27.4 mph measured by GPS. 28.0 mph on the display
• Pedal Assist – 26.2 mph measured by GPS. 27.4 mph on the display

Hill climbing

I took the bike to our standard hill climb test hill. This is a 1/2 mile hill with some 10% grades. I use a 250 lb rider for the test. I do the test once with throttle only and once with maximum pedal assist. We got the following times for the hill climb.

• Throttle Only – 1 minutes and 54 seconds with an average speed of 16.64 mph
• Pedal Assist – 1 minute and 50 seconds with an average speed of 17.27 mph

This puts the Mars 2.0 at almost the exact same hill climbing times as the Aventon Aventure 2 we reviewed. It’s just about average across the other 750 watt fat tire electric bikes we have done the same test with.

Acceleration

The bike has strong initial acceleration. You can feel the motor kick in hard when it activates. You get full power from this bike right from stand still. This makes it difficult to control in congested spaces. It gives it a fast sporty feel and lets it zoom up hills.

5 – Range (9.0/10)

I took the bike out on my standard range test ride. This involves a cruise around on some bike paths and roads. There is a decent amount of climbing along the way with a few steep hills. I do the ride as close to 15mph as possible. I use a 250 lb rider. I do the ride 2 times. Once with pedal assist and once with throttle only.

Pedal assist

I road the bike on PAS 2 which gives it a speed of about 14mph. The bike went 37.9 miles with 741 feet of climbing. This put it at an efficiency of 15.8 watts/mile. This is a little above average for most ebikes we have tested and really good for a bike with 4 inch wide offroad tires which aren’t the most efficient rolling wheels out there.

Throttle Only

I took the Mars 2 out again using just throttle and rode it close to 15mph. This time the bike went 25.7 miles with 562 feet of hill climbing.

Heybike publishes a range of up to 45 miles for the Mars 2.0. 37.9 miles is not too far below the published number. We do our range test on a route with hills and a heavier than ideal rider. I think 45 miles would be achievable on flat terrain with a smaller rider.

5 – Ride and Handling (8.5/10)

The Mars2 is a compact folding bike with big fat tire wheels. It has a lot of power. The front suspension and suspension seat post do a great job of smoothing out terrain. I find that the handlebars are a bit closer than I would like when I’m standing over the bike. The reach is on the shorter side. The bike is fairly nimble for its wheel size although the cadence sensor and strong power kick in make it not great for riding in tight spaces or around pedestrains.

The bike handles very well at speed and doesn’t feel twitchy at all. I thought it felt good up to 28mph. The bike is an SUV of an ebike and not a sports sedan or hot hatch. It likes to straight line a lot more than it likes to corner.

Comfort

The suspension seat post works really well at smoothing out bumps. After riding this one I am going to have to get one to put on our other bikes for the long range rides. It makes a lot of difference. The reach is short and the riding position is upright which gives it a relaxed feel more than a performance feel.

6 – Braking (8.5/10)

The cable disc brakes are adequate for stopping this bike. The smaller 20 inch wheel diameter helps make them feel more effective than they do on non-folding 26 inch fat tire bikes. I’d still choose hydraulic disc brakes any day over mechanical discs for feel and power. Cable disc brakes are still lightyears better than u-brakes or any other form of rim brake.

7 – Controls (9.0/10)

The Heybike Mars 2.0 has an easy to use set of controls with dedicated buttons for most functions. It has 2 button sets on the left handlebar. It has a thumb throttle and shifter on the right handlebar.

LCD Display

The Mars 2.0 has a basic black and white LCD display. Black and white LCD screens are easy to read in all light conditions. Most color displays seem to have some light condition that makes them hard to read. Sometimes simple and basic just works better. The display has all the information you need. It shows speed, how many hours are on the bike, a trip meter, and what PAS level you are in. Battery is shown with both voltage and a bar meter.

The trip meter resets itself every time you power off and on the bike.

The battery bar meter will drive you nuts with how much it bounces up and down due to sag going up hills or heavy acceleration. It easily bounces 2 to 3 bars while riding. You can go from 3 bars to E to 3 bars and back to E with a few start stops and hills when you’re down in the bottom half of the battery. The voltage is a better indication of how much battery you really have left. When you are under 40 volts you want to be close to home.

Control buttons

The bike has a 4 button controller for adjusting the PAS level and turning the bike on and off. It has a separate 2 button controller next to it that operates the lights and horn. Backlighting on the display is turned on and off by holding down the + button. This is normally how most ebikes turn the headlights on and off. There is a separate button for the lights.

Pedal Assist and Throttle

The bike has 5 pedal assist levels. We rode the bike in lowest gear to see how fast it would go while ghost pedaling the bike. We recorded the following speeds.

• Level 1 – 8mph
• Level 2 – 14mph
• Level 3 – 18.5mph
• Level 4 – 20mph
• Level 5 – 20mph (28mph after adjusting the max speed setting)

These values can be customized in the Heybike App.

7 speed pedal driveline

The bike has a Shimano Tourney 7 speed pedal driveline. I hate seeing Shimano Tourney components on bikes that cost over $1000 but it’s common. They work since the hub motor takes a lot of load off of the pedal driveline.

8 – Assembly Ease (8/10)

Assembly Time – 1.5 hours

The Mars 2 comes packaged in a small mountain of foam blocks and plastic wrap. I hate seeing plastic and foam packaging on these things. Some vendors use all recyclable packaging and I hope that trend will become more widespread. We throw out a ton of plastic and foam here from all the items we get.

This bike took me about 2 hours to assemble. There is quite a few steps involved including mounting the front fender and light and also mounting the rear rack. You also have to mount the handlebars/steering tube and get them on straight.

The most irritating step I found during assembly was mounting the rear rack. 3 of the holes aligned very nicely. One was off just enough to make it difficult to get the bolt started. I managed it but it took a while to get the bolt started without cross threading it.

My rear light was missing one of the attachment nuts. I did eventually find it in the bottom of the box. I also lost one of the washers for mounting the fenders when I took the bolt out. Not sure where it went on the floor but that was my fault.

Extra tools required

The bike comes with a small toolkit including several hex wrenches and a couple of small regular wrenches. I did not need any other tools during assembly.

Adjustments needed

The rear derailleur and shifter were set up correctly on this bike which is rare. No adjustment was needed there.

If your bike doesn’t shift smoothly, Parktool has a really good guide for adjusting a rear derailleur. Go there before you start messing with yours.

9 – Accessories

Lights

The Mars 2 has a headlight with 4 LEDs in it and a tail light. I rode it for about an hour after dark trying to finish up the range test ride. The light was bright enough for riding up to 20mph with enough light to see what was ahead and what was on the ground. The tail light also acts as a brake light when you’re stopping.

Fenders

The bike has heavy duty feeling plastic fenders. They feel like they will stand up to riding. They have stainless steel supports mounted to the frame and fork.

Rack

The Mars 2.0 has a very heavy duty sturdy looking rear rack. It is good for 100 lbs of weight. The sides of the rack have a lot of slots and holes that can be used for mounting things to it. This is one of the sturdier looking racks I have seen included with a bike and it’s even more surprising to find it on a folding bike.

10 – Size and Fit

I am just under 6′. The bike has plenty of seat and handlebar height adjustment for someone several inches taller than me. I do find that the reach is on the short side and the handlebars feel a bit close when I’m standing over the bike. The bike would work well for someone several inches taller. It is a step over frame which will limit it to someone 5’5″ or taller. A step thru frame like the Heybike Ranger would work better for really short riders.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

If you are looking for a powerful folding ebike that is good for climbing hills or heavier riders, then the Mars 2.0 is a great choice. It has a more powerful motor than most other folding ebikes. The front suspension and suspension seat post give it a smooth cushy comfortable ride. The Mars 2.0 is an adventure ready folding electric bike.

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