Momentum Transend E+ review

The Momentum Transend E+ is certainly a striking-looking machine. Its low-slung top tube and massively oversized down tube give this electric bike for commuters an almost beach cruiser appearance.

The choice of a palette of bold primary colour options ('golden yellow', 'royal blue', 'arctic white' and a bold red/orange), combined with all-black components and massive tan wall tyres, creates a funky and chunky look that’s quite appealing.

The Transend comes in the standard shape seen here or with a low curvy top tube mid-step design. It's available in three sizes: small, medium and large (as tested).

Momentum Transend E+ motor and battery

At the heart of the Transend is a powerful mid-mounted electric bike motor built for Momentum by Yamaha. With 60Nm of torque coming from its 250W motor, I was never found wanting for assistance, no matter how steep an incline I set about riding.

The motor is controlled by a simple bar-mounted controller. It has up and down buttons to switch between its five power modes, with a bank of small LED lights showing the battery reserves, along with switches to control lights (which can be added to the system) and a power on/off button.

On the underside of the controller, you can activate the bike's connectivity in order to connect to a compatible head unit. I connected the Transend to my Garmin Edge 830. This enables you to display the current mode and battery level on one of its data screens.

Momentum claims up to 105 miles (170km) of range from its large 500Wh battery. Based on my testing, 105 miles seems somewhat optimistic, but if you only use the lightest of the five modes and only on flat urban terrain, it’s probably manageable.

On my local, more rural test terrain, the Transend achieved an impressive 61miles/98.17km, with 1,417.32ft/432m of climbing.

Range is one thing, but the Momentum has fast charging as another string to its bow, going from empty to 80 per cent in just two hours and fully charged in four.

The charger, however, is a chunky-sized unit at 225x100x50mm, plus its cables, so it’ll take up a fair amount of luggage space should you want to top up the charge when you’re at work.

The battery is removable, so it can be charged conveniently off the bike.

Momentum Transend E+ ride impressions

The Transend’s ride is quite simply great. As with the best electric hybrid bikes, the ride position is the perfect balance between relaxed and sporty.

When you want to have a bit of fun and sprint away from traffic lights, or even sweep through the trees on woodland trails as if you're on an electric mountain bike, the Transend has enough agility to stay with you.

The chunky CST tyres have plenty of compliance for rough stuff and the light tread works well on dry, dusty ground. The ride is rather comfortable and the plush Selle Royal saddle means you won’t need padded shorts even on long commutes or family weekend rides.

The seven-speed hub gear is good, although the revoshift (grip-style shifter) can be a bit of a handful to turn when its wet. It requires a fair bit of effort when moving up through the gears as the cable tension increases.

On occasion, the hub gear suffered a delay between activating the shift and actually shifting (you occasionally need a quick back-pedal to make the hub engage).

The range, however, is well matched to the motor. On flat roads, I rarely felt the need to get out of level one of the motor's assistance.

In fact, the five modes give much more accurate control of the motor than most systems. I found I got the best from the motor power by using these modes almost like a second gearbox, shifting up modes as the road steepened.

I purposely took the Transend to a few of the longer climbs in my locale, and moving up the modes made short shrift of long draggy climbs with ease.

You can ride with a backpack, of course, but racks make more sense and the bike is rated to carry a huge maximum load of 156kg/344lb.

However, I wouldn’t ever want to commute in my office attire without mudguards to stop spray and dirt.

The motor system is equipped to power lights too, but – you guessed it – the Transend doesn’t have those either.

Momentum Transend E+ bottom line

The Transend E+ is a welcome addition to the urban ebike genre. It's great to ride, comfortable and fun with it, opening up all the benefits of riding an electric bike. It does, however, come with a caveat.

As a commuter bike, the specification is somewhat vanilla. The smart frame is equipped with all the fixtures for racks and mudguards you could ever want, but it comes with none of these commuter essentials.

Add all those extras to the price and you’re looking at a few hundred pounds on top of the purchase price. As impressive as the Transend is, you can find better-equipped alternatives for a similar price.

Hopefully Momentum will address this with a better-equipped model down the line.