Mokwheel Slate Folding E-Bike – Test and Review

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Updated August 11th, 2024

The Slate is the latest E-Bike from Mokwheel and their take on the popular folding ebike category. The Mokwheel Slate is designed to be easy to carry and store while still performing like a normal sized commuter e-bike. The Slate features a torque sensor to replicate realistic pedaling feel.

Video Review

Let’s get into some of the details of the Mokwheel Slate.

1 – Ride Quality

The overall cornering and steering of the bike feel pretty good. It’s a lighter e-bike that doesn’t feel like you’re riding a tank underneath you. The three inch wheels provide plenty of cushioning and traction. I’m happy they didn’t go with heavier 4 inch wheels.

The seat has enough padding to be comfortable on long rides. The tires and front suspension have enough give to soak up some roughness in the pavement. I don’t find this anywhere near as uncomfortable as some other folding bikes I’ve ridden, where the rear frame just seems brutally stiff. There’s enough give in the back end to make the ride comfortable on less than perfect pavement.

2 – Torque Sensor

The torque sensor on this bike is fairly smooth and responsive from a standstill. You don’t need to put much effort on the pedal to get the motor turned on. The one complaint I have about the torque sensor is at higher speeds. When you stop pedaling and coast for a second, you have to put a big amount of pedal force in to get the motor to turn back on.

It’s not nearly as sensitive as say the torque sensor from Aventon in this condition. This was also true of the Mokwheel Asphalt we tested a few months ago.

3 – Folding frame

Let’s talk about the folding mechanism and how this bike folds. I measured the folded size of the bike. It is 32 inches long, 30 inches tall, and 13 inches tall.

The first thing to note is that if you fold the bike with the handlebar removed, it folds into a much more compact size. If you don’t slide the handlebar out, it sticks out at one end, and the bike takes up much more space.

See the images below for a comparison.

On the Slate, the handlebars fold between the wheels. On most other folding e-bikes the handlebars go outside the front wheel when folded. This gives you a smaller folded size but does add another step to the folding process.

The Slate will easily fit in the back of most SUVs or hatchbacks when folded. We put it in the back of a Ford Edge to try it out.

4 – Power

We did a couple road tests to see how powerful the Slate really is.

Top Speed

The published top speed for the Mokwheel Slate is 25 mph. We took it out and measured how fast we could go with a GPS. I went to a nice flat, straight path with new, smooth pavement. Factors such as wider weight, gradient, and wind speed can affect top speed.

The fastest I was able to get the bike to go on pedal assist was 22 mph. That was mad man pedaling with a very past pedal cadence. On PAS 5, is it easy to ride at 20 mph with a fast cadence. Going above that requires your legs to kick into turbo speed pedaling. The pedal cadence gets so fast that it is hard to put much pressure on the pedals. This has been a common complaint about most torque sensor bikes.

Next I measured the top speed with the throttle. At full throttle, I measured 19.7 mph.

You can set the top speed higher for both pedal assist and throttle in the settings. It does no good to up the top speed for pedal assist since it is already challenging to pedal it at 25 mph. We upped the throttle top speed to 40 mph in the settings to see what would happen.

At maxed out speed settings, the bike would go 23mph on throttle as measured by a GPS.

Hill climbing

I took it to my standard climbing test hill. This is a 1/2 mile hill with some 10% grades. I used a 250 lb rider. I did the test two times. Once with throttle only and once with max pedal assist.

• Throttle Only – 2 minutes and 0 seconds
• Pedal Assist – 1 minute and 50 seconds

For comparison, the Aventon Sinch 2 we tested had the following times on the same hill.

• Throttle Only – 2 minutes and 4 seconds
• Pedal Assist – 2 minute and 2 seconds

The Slate was slightly faster than the Sinch 2 with throttle and 12 seconds faster with pedal assist.

5 – Range

I did my standard range test with the Slate. This involves going on a loop out to a lake and back. It has some steep hills. I use a 250 lb rider. I do the test as close to 15mph as possible. I do the test twice. Once with pedal assist and once with throttle only.

Pedal assist

I used PAS 3 for most of the ride to get a good amount of help on hills. I was able to get the bike to go 45.2 miles before the battery died.

Throttle Only

With throttle only, the bike went 30.3 miles.

Both of these numbers are a bit better than our Aventon Sinch 2 went. For reference it went 29.2 miles on throttle and 35.8 miles on pedal assist. The Slate went a full 10 miles farther on pedal assist.

7 – Controls

Let’s discuss some of the features of the control system.

Anti-Theft Display

The Slate has an anti-theft removable display. You can take the display off, and without the display, you can’t get any power with the bike.

You squeeze two tabs on the bottom and it puffs out. It just snaps back in to put it back on.

When the display is off, it keeps anybody from taking the bike because they can’t get any power.
They could still walk off with the bike and ride it with no power. I would still use a lock if I was leaving the bike unattended.

Control Settings

The display has a number of things you can change. The directions are a bit incomplete for how to adjust these. You hold the + and – to enter one settings menu. You get the second menu holding the left and right button. You tap the power button to accept a setting after you change it.

The first thing to note is that the bike is set for 22 inch wheels in the display settings. The bike has 20 inch wheels. This means that the display will read 2-3mph faster than you are actually going. If you change it to 20 inches, the display will ready close to what the GPS measures.

Turn Signals

This bike also has turn signals. If you press the left button or the right button, you’ll get flashing light. And same thing for the other direction. You get a brake light if you squeeze either brake.

The turn signals use separate lights from the brakes. You can still get a brake light while you have the turn signal on.

Pedal Assist and Throttle

The bike has 5 levels of pedal assist and throttle. There is a noticable difference in power between each pedal assist level. I find that 3 is a nice mix of power and range. I ride 3 most of the time unless I’m somewhere with very steep hills. At that point I want 4 or 5.

8 – Assembly Ease

Assembly Time – 1.0 hours

It took me about an hour from opening the box to ready to ride. There isn’t a lot to do on this bike. Most of the steps are mounting the front wheel, front fender, and light and putting the pedals on.

Extra tools required

No extra tools were required. Mokwheel gives you set of actual tools instead of a cheap multi-tool. So far none of them have stripped. I was able to finish assembly of the Slate without grabbing any of my own tools.

Adjustments needed

No adjustments to the pedal driveline or brakes were needed out of the box. After 75 miles of riding the brakes are still silent which is rare. Usually we need to adjust the brakes by this point to stop them from screaching every time we stop.

9 – Accessories

The bike comes with a standard set of accessories out of the box. This includes front and rear fenders, front and rear lights, and a rear rack. This seems to be the standard setup for almost every ebike these days.

10 – Size and Fit

The published rider range for the Slate is 5’0″ to 6’2″. We tried it with a 6′ and a 5’6″ rider. The bike fits both of us well. Neither of us felt that the handlebar and seat adjustments needed more to be comfortable. The step-thru frame is easy to get on and off of for any rider in the recommended size range.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

The Mokwheel Slate is a good folding ebike for anyone who wants or needs a compact, easy to store and transport bike. It is a fun and sporty feeling to ride. It has good power and range for a 500 watt bike. The torque sensor could use a little more refinement. At 64 lbs, don’t expect it to be super light to pick up for loading and unloading. Overall, Slate is a good performer, and we feel good about recommending it.

See our guide to the best folding ebikes for other good options.

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