Tuttio ICT

I ran it one way into a headwind and couldn't crack 40, so I turned around and ran it back: 28, 35, 37, 38, 39 — and that was it. The bike computer and the GPS tracked each other closely, which I like to see. Tuttio says 43–49; 39 is the honest number with a normal-sized human on board.

My fire-hydrant hill is long, sustained and 15% — it gives a lot of bikes a hard time. I hit the bottom at about 27 mph and I never slowed down. 27 uphill, held the whole way. This thing eats hills for breakfast, and they weren't kidding about the power.

Same lamp pole and same driveway I use on every bike. My benchmark for a fast bike is 20 mph in that gap. The ICT did 21 — and lifted the front wheel doing it. 4,000 watts will do that.

My standard brake test, run at 28–30 mph so it's comparable bike to bike. It stopped so hard that if I hadn't been holding the bars tight I'd have gone over the front — and I still had a bike and a half of room before the marker. This thing stops on a dime.

At 15 miles I still had 3 of 5 bars left. Ridden the way I ride — throttle, full power, 190 lb — that puts it around 30 miles, and you could probably limp to 40. My rule of thumb is 1 to 1.5 miles per amp hour, worst case. Pedal a bit and you'll do better.

The test that tells me whether a bike is quality. In pedal assist 5 — the most power it can make — I could crawl along at 10 mph on an eighth of an inch of throttle, then roll it on and get more and more. Instant, manageable, zero lag. The throttle gets a 10 out of 10 from me.

You're a thrill junkie. This bike has a ton of power and it goes fast. The torque this motor gives you, the speed, the power you feel when you crank on the throttle — it's addicting. And at the $1,500–$2,000 mark it's the same torque and power as the Wired Freedom and Cruiser for less money.

You want to go exploring. There's a decent amount of travel, the tires dig into dirt and sand, and it'll happily take you up fire roads and rough back roads on mountains. It also fits an unusually wide range of people — low standover, roomy cockpit.

You want to ride black-diamond mountain bike trails — that's not this bike. You want tunable suspension. You care about pedalling it like a bicycle, because it's awkward and it clearly favours the throttle. Or you need something street-legal.