Aventon Current new Full Suspension eMTB

Aventon enters the full-suspension mountain bike category with the all new Current. A full power emtb weighing 52-lbs, using Aventon’s new Ultro X 750W 110Nm drive unit with a new 800Wh battery boasting up to 105 miles of range. This is a 29″ wheeled trail bike with a 150mm travel fork and 140mm of rear suspension. Prices starting at $4599 for the alloy frame and will be available in sizes from Small through X-Large.

After two days of riding the South Mountain trails found in Phoenix, Arizona, what is this bike all about? What neat features will be found? What are our initial thoughts?

Well, hang tight and let’s get into the all new Aventon Current.

Aventon positioned the Current as a premium trail bike offering with a more consumer-friendly price point.

Yes, $4599 may seem steep, and $5999 for carbon, but it offers rather competitive value compared to other full-power, full-suspension electric mountain bikes from premium brands.

There will be two options available: a carbon and alloy version. Both will share the same alloy rear triangle, 140mm of rear wheel travel, alloy wheelset, and the new Ultro X drive unit and battery.

Like all of the bikes in the Aventon lineup, the Current will also have the ACU Technology, which is their “brain” that packs all the fun tech features we’ve come to expect from the brand.

Being their first full-suspension, they’ve taken what they’ve learned from the Ramblas and completey gone back to the drawing board working alongside Kairn Design Studio to pursue their proper mountain bike goals. Along the way, they’ve been able to include a few trail-specific features that make things even more fun for riders.

We’ll get into the full spec of the Ultro X drive unit and the ACU features and integrations below.

The Current isn’t the only launch happening, this also the unveiling of their Ultro X drive-unit. Something we will begin to see on other models in the future. This is a fully redesigned mid-drive with a peak power output of 850w and 120Nm of torque using their new Boost Mode. Nominal power is 750w and 110Nm of torque that can be hanessed at a comfortable cadence of 78 RPM.

The Ultro X has five Pedal Assist modes, including Boost and their new AUTO mode. With App connectivity, users can pair their bike and utilize the RideTune feature to customize these pedal assist modes for personalized precision of pedal sensitivity, overall power output, overrun and more.

This is a Class 1 listed bike, but users will have the option to unlock a Class 3 mode if permitted in their riding area. Please obey your local laws for Class ratings.

A new bike and drive unit deserve a new battery, and we have gotten a new battery. An 800Wh battery that is located inside the downtube of the Current frame. It is removable, in case you need to. We found it to be a rather easy process, by removing the custom bash guard and sliding it down and out, perhaps not something we’d want to do that often, but it didn’t require removing the drive unit thankfully. They were intentional in making it an easy process for those who will need to drop some weight for loading and transport. A great way to drop 9-lbs for those long drives.

This new combination of 800Wh battery and Ultro X drive unit can see upwards of 105 miles on a single charge.

• Frame – Carbon Frame / Alloy rear
• Drivetrain – SRAM S1000 Transmission 12-speed
• Cassette – SRAM XS-1270 T-Type 10-52T
• Fork – RockShox Lyrik Select 150mm
• Shock – RockShox Super Deluxe Select+ (210×55)
• Brakes – SRAM Maven Base, 200mm Rotors
• Weight ~52-lbs

• Frame – Alloy Frame / Alloy rear
• Drivetrain – SRAM Eagle 70 Transmission 12-speed
• Cassette – SRAM Eagle 70 11-50T
• Fork – RockShox Psylo Gold 150mm
• Shock – RockShox Deluxe Select+ (210×55)
• Brakes – SRAM DB8 Stealth, 200mm Rotors
• Weight ~56-lbs

• Crankset – 6061 Aluminum, ISIS splined, 160mm
• Chainring – SRAM 34T
• Wheel – 29″, Double-Wall aluminum, Tubeless Compatible, 32H 6-bolt
• Front Tire – Maxxis Minion DHF 29×2.5″ EXO
• Rear Tire – Maxxis Minion DHR II 29×2.4″ EXO
• Saddle – Selle Royal SRX
• Seatpost – 31.6mm X Fusion Manic (S/M: 150mm, L/XL: 170mm)
• Stem – 50mm Length 35mm Clamp
• Handlebars – 35mm Clamp, 5° Upsweep, 7° Backsweep. S/M: 780mm, 20mm Rise. L/XL: 800mm, 30mm Rise
• Grips – Aventon Lock-On Grips

Aventon’s ACU technology is the brain behind their bikes. Features like Over-the-Air updates, GPS tracking, RideTune, and more are all things we’ve come to like about the Aventon ecosystem. Unlike the other bikes in Aventon’s lineup, they’ve gone back to the drawing board and redesigned a whole new display with the intention to integrate the ACU into this same unit. Hopefully, something we see creep into the rest of the bikes as the years come.

The new display is a 2.8″ touch screen, neatly recessed into the top tube of the frame. Many features are made available by swiping across the different screens, in fact there are 23 (28) data points that can be customized through the app to show on the display. The 800-nit brightness makes it highly visible even in bright day light, and while riding with polarized glasses I had zero issue seeing the readouts.

A new controller has been designed to pair with this new display. It is mounted on the bars. The Aventon team went through countless prototypes of this simple controller, finally landing where they did. It’s a simple design with two large buttons and a center button. They have already expressed that they are continue to use it and who knows it may evolve as time goes on. They did show us some alternate mounts that they may make available in the future. What we liked most is that it is fully wireless, so one less wire off the bars. Yes you may have to change a battery one day, but that’s a minimal concern in the grand scheme of things.

ACU Integration and App Connectivity

While there are a lot of cool features of the ACU, many of which we’ve shared before on other Aventon bikes, there are a few that we really like. Unusual activity, this may seem small, but we love the idea of being notified about your bike being moved. Running into the market for a snack is a common occurence and although it may be locked up on the back of the truck I’m always in a rush to get in and out for a fear of coming back to an empty bike rack. This feature helps bring some relief, which leans in to the GPS tracking as well, something ideally you never have to use.

Over-the-Air Updates, something that we’ve become all too accustomed to with our smart devices, make sense that we should be able to push these updates to our ebike as well.

These features, however, are currently seen on almost all of the Aventon bikes.

Unique to the Current are new features that can be found in combination with the App. RideTune isn’t new, but see a new face to get the most control out of each pedal assist mode on the Ultro X drive unit.

Hill Start Assist is new and an extremely cool feature to help riders get that extra help climbing up steep terrain. You can adjust the sensitivity of support, and from a complete stop halfway up a hill, the bike will hold position while you get both feet on the pedals and begin cranking.

Wheelie Control is another feature that helps you keep the front wheel down. With a powerful drive unit, the unwanted wheelie is likely to occur. Specifically on steep hill climbs. The assist tracks the bikes angle and will help modulate power of assist to keep the front end down.

Within the RideTune setting of the App, you have the option to adjust your parameters of pedal sensitivity, run-over, and power, but you can also change the order of the PAS modes. I opted to reorder my modes to go from: Eco, Trail, AUTO, Turbo, and then BOOST.

This is just the tip of the iceburg on many neat features they’ve set out to implement into the Current, there’s even a jump tracking mode to track how much air time you’ve gotten on your rides.

For a complete list of ACU features, head over to Aventon’s site.

If we had to sum it up in a few short words… Absolutely crushed it, comes to mind.

Again, this is Aventon’s entry into the full suspension category of electric mountain bikes. Debatably one of the most challenging to get into, there are a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of really REALLY great eMTBs out there from so many brands. The Current is making a splash for us, though.

Starting with bike setup and connecting with the app. First and foremost, before going out for a ride, it’s important to set up the suspension for you and make sure things are dialed for your first shakedown ride. CHECK. A seamless process that was as intuitive as it gets, very standard for any mountain bike. The RockShox suspension is easy to use with their TrailHead app to get a good starting point on air pressure and tuning.

Pairing to the app was equally fast and not complicated. Check for a quick firmware update if one’s available, and you’re off to the races. Yes, you can dive into the RideTune and start playing around with power settings, but we opted, and encourage you, to leave the settings as they are at first and just get to riding. Feeling out each pedal assist mode, we found them to all to be pretty well off. Both of us quickly got into the app out on the trails and lowered the overrun assist as we found it to be a little too assistive for our preferences.

Considering our first pedalling was getting out of the parking lot and up the trails, let’s dig into the climbing characteristics. Aventon landed on a great frame geometry with Kairn. It’s not overly slack, or XC focused, it’s a proper trail bike with proper trail geo for today’s standards. A 64.6° head tube angle with a 76.6° seat tube angle helps to keep you upright and over the bike while having good posture to start putting all that power from the drive unit to work and climb up those steep hills and punch up the staircase of rocks and roots along the way.

Power is undoubtedly something not lacking on the Ultro X drive unit. Boost mode is still a newer thing for many ebikes, with most brands not having any sort of addtional power in any modes, so it definitely took some time to remember to have the habit of clicking up into that mode. Which I think is representative of conveying the reality of how powerful this drive unit is. Not having the need to punch up into that Boost mode when it really gets steep. To get a good grasp of the pedal assist modes and power, we both opted to commit to a specific mode for the majority of our riding. I’m in Auto and Samson in Turbo. While he would definitely catch my rear tire on some of the climbs, the Auto mode did a fantastic job at supporting me all day. So much so that when I went for a lap in Turbo, I thought that was the Boost mode. Auto proved to be more efficient after a couple of days of riding, just something to note if you’re looking to maximize your range and not have to be in ECO all day.

Turning things around and getting downhill, the Current can hang with the best. As mentioned, it has a very comfortable geometry that is capable of handling the terrain comfortably. Equally the carbon frame and alloy rear triangle we found to be sufficiently stiff and not overly flexy as we’ve found with other first-gen carbon frames from other brands before.

Charging through rock gardens and finding jumps, the Current did a great job. The RockShox suspension is by no means the top-of-the-line spec, but it has more than enough adjustment and tuning to be trusted and be able to dial in for a safe and smooth ride. Equally, the Maven brake spec on the EXP (carbon) with 200mm rotors provided excellent braking control when you needed to shut things down and dive into a flat corner.

Of course, these are just our first impressions; we will be able to expand on our thoughts as time goes on and we get more time riding the Current back home on our local trails. A few things we will likely change for our riding zones are different tires. Something slightly burlier to handle our terrain and the weight of the bike. Also, we may explore upgrading the suspension to see how far we can really push the current.

As it sits, the Current has impressed us. It’s more than just a great first bike from a brand; it’s a solid contender against many of the 150/140mm travel full-power electric bikes that can be found. We are more than excited to get more time riding it. There is so much more to talk about with the app and integrations, the capability of the drive unit, and the bike as a whole. Check back from time to time to see some future updates and adventures we take the Current on as we continue to test the capabilities of this new offering from Aventon.

Price: $4599 – $5999
Sizes: S, M, L, XL
Weight: ~52lbs
Website: aventon.com