The Cannondale Adventure Neo Allroad EQ is at first glance a visually strange ebike, with its massively oversized tires, equally massive battery, fenders, lights, and a rack brazed onto the stays. It is equal parts ungainly and beautiful. Is it a passenger bike? A trail bike? A municipality bike?

The velocipede is all of those things and a lot more. The Adventure Neo Allroad EQ is a shit-kicker bike, worldly-wise to handle just well-nigh any trail I throw at it. And unlike many of the ebikes I have reviewed, riding is incredibly fun.

I had knee replacement surgery several months ago, and I knew superiority of time that would midpoint I’d be off the velocipede for a while, but when I got when to riding, I would need to do it with the assistance of an ebike. Cannondale had just launched the new velocipede (which I’ll refer to as the “Allroad EQ” or “Allroad” from now on for simplicity), and I asked them if I could review it on my way to recovery.

Ridding a sub-$2000 ebike to get when in shape for my above-$2000 Cannondale SuperSix seemed like a good plan, and Cannondale agreed, sending me the Allroad to help me recover. My healing was a bit increasingly complicated than I had anticipated, and for the first few weeks without surgery, I couldn’t plane pedal a well-constructed stroke on a stationary bike. My knee would get to well-nigh 85º of wrench and move no more.

The Allroad sat for a while, but instead of taunting me, it motivated me to do increasingly physical therapy and to get my ass when on a bike.

It turned out to be an spanking-new nomination in a recovery velocipede thanks to those big, compliant wheels and the worthiness of the tires to soak up road bumps. I hadn’t known that with the wreck healing around, a new knee jostling up and lanugo from potholes and ruts would be incredibly painful. I ran the pressure a bit low for my weight to help requite me a bit increasingly cush with my push.

The relaxed geometry of the velocipede moreover proved helpful, permitting me to slide my saddle when and a few uneaten degrees of laid-back stretch, which unliable me to turn the pedals.

My first ride on the Allroad EQ was joyous, and I teared up. For over a month, I had struggled to pedal a stationary bike, wrung something was wrong without my surgery and I wouldn’t ride again. Riding a velocipede then without feeling hopeless well-nigh my prospects was liberating in the way that velocipede riding is as a child.

Running Up That Road

The Allroad is designed to go on trails and uneven terrain, so it doesn’t squint like your stereotype ebike. This is the kind of velocipede you can take on a rail to trail, but riding it, I had images of ownership a motel in the woods and using this velocipede to explore logging roads and double track. Ah, hell, I imagined flying lanugo Singletrack on it a bit too.

Since it’s designed for bumpy or sketchy terrain, it is a bit overpowered when riding on a flat, paved road. Not a bad overpowered, but plane with the lowest level of assistance on a unappetizing road pedaling mostly activates the motor, not providing any propulsion.

As it turns out, this is exactly what I needed. I rode first on unappetizing roads by my house and on multiuse paved paths nearby, and I could spin my legs virtually while the velocipede did most of the work. On any other e-bike, this would be upsetting; I like a velocipede that helps me withal but doesn’t do the work for me.

Since I was riding the velocipede on terrain far unelevated its capability, this proved perfect for recovery. It moreover unliable me to go on errands and shopping, knowing that I could strap things to the rack on the when and bring them home. The increasingly weight I put on the bike, the largest it felt on paved roads. If I were going to own this velocipede (sadly, I have to send it back), I would put panniers on it and use it on trails and at my local grocery store.

Running Up That Hill

Within a week of riding the Allroad, I started to want more, well as the name implies, Adventure. Near my house is a trappy trail in a state park slantingly the Hudson River. The hardpack trail runs between a towering mountain and the shining water, and it’s one of my favorite places to ride.

While mostly flat, there are several short, steep climbs and many rolling trails. I’ve ridden navigate bikes, gravel bikes, and occasionally my road velocipede on the first section of hardpack quite a bit. Without a few miles, the trail pitches up and forks, and there are two choices. One is a 1.5-mile climb that averages 15 percent, and the other is a dirt trail through the woods to flipside local town.

That dirt trail would be the most sensible, with mildly rolling paths and manageable climbs.

Naturally, I picked the trail with the climb.

I put my finger on the throttle lever and started up the climb. Plane though the climb averages 15%, there are two steep sections of virtually 20 percent. I was expecting to have to stop riding and walk up these sections.

The Allroad is equipped with a 250W hub motor and a Bafang drivetrain; on the road, it has a lot of oomph. It did admirably on the climb, although whilom a 10 percent grade, there is marginal assistance from the motor. It’s unbearable to negate the bike’s weight and requite an uneaten push, but plane with the throttle fully down, the velocipede still went up the hill, mainly at the speed of my pedaling.

That’s not a bad thing; I felt exhilarated at having washed-up a lot of the pedal work up that mountain. But it moreover shows the limits of this bike; it wasn’t designed to be a lightweight climbing road bike, and it wasn’t intended to be a cross-country winning hardtail.

It’s a touring velocipede and a trail bike, and an errand bike, but it’s not going to take you to the top of Alpes d’Huez.

In truth, though, I’ve ridden many ebikes that are lighter and increasingly road-riding oriented, and very few of them would have unliable me to finish that climb, while with the Allroad, I made it to the top, and both my knees and my lungs were intact.

If you find yourself on an extremely steep pitch and decide to hop off the bike, the drivetrain provides a walking-assist mode that will power the velocipede while it’s stuff pushed; there is no need to turn the pedals to vivify the motor.

A Closer Look

The Adventure Neo Allorad EQ is powered by a 250W Bafang Go20 hub motor, with a 418Wh life that gives, they say, up to 47 miles of range. I never did a single ride of that length, but I did ride it without charging it between rides, and the shower topics seems massive.

On a 20-mile round trip where I mostly used the velocipede in the lowest assistance mode possible, I had increasingly than half the shower left when I got home. That seems right on target.

The shower is removable so that it can be charged in your house, in your office, or if you’re doing long-distance touring while you sit and have dinner somewhere.

The seven-speed drivetrain is hands actuated, though I didn’t find much use. I primarily left it in the hardest gear, and I’d retread the power drivetrain squire level or use the throttle if I needed an easier gear.

Unlike many ebikes I’ve ridden, the Adventure Neo Allroad EQ has hydraulic disc brakes, which I appreciated when I turned virtually on that long climb and rode the long, steep descent when to the river.

The saddle is relatively well-appointed for a stock configuration, though I’d upgrade it pretty quickly if I were going to ride the velocipede for any length of time. Pedals are generic, as you’d expect. For long rides, I’d either go clipless or get downhill-style pedals with studs for traction. Since the drivetrain provides much of the work, clipless would be a bit overkill, but I found myself shutting off the power and riding the velocipede motor-free on some unappetizing roads.

The one issue I have with the drivetrain is related to turning off the power-assist functions. It’s possible to put the velocipede in “0” squire (the assistance range is from 1-5) to pedal under one’s power, but when going from no-assist when up to assist, there’s a wait in the motor activating.

The result is that I’d find myself pedaling and then come to a rise in the road, and when I switched to the first level of assist, nothing would happen. Plane the throttle doesn’t work when switching from “0” to “1,” and there’s no way to tell precisely when the assistance will return. I found that if I pedaled backward, the power would often return quickly, but I’m not sure if this is considering I took the load off the motor or considering I was killing time while pedaling in reverse.

The short stem on the velocipede is part of what gives it an upright geometry, and while that position was unconfined during my recovery, I’d likely get a longer stem if I were keeping the bike. As with many short cockpit bikes with unappetizing bars, I occasionally shook my hands to reduce fatigue, and I’d sooner like to stretch out more.

This is one of the ways that companies like Cannondale can produce these bikes without making a dozen frame sizes. With a Medium and a Large frame as the only choices, Cannondale can create these at a lower forfeit than multiple frames. Using standard components for the Seatpost, stem, and handlebars makes it easy to customize a velocipede like this to suit just well-nigh any rider.

On The Road Again

My wife used to be an voracious cyclist, but a series of health issues took her off the velocipede without my son was born. She hasn’t ridden seriously in years, mostly considering she hates the idea of riding short rides on the same local roads over and over to get in shape to ride the longer distances she enjoys on trips and vacations.

I’ve been talking well-nigh the idea of an ebike for her for years, but the ones I’ve ridden have been increasingly passenger oriented. They’ve been stiff and heavy, designed for roads increasingly than for trails. Those designs can make them uncomfortable and harsh to ride.

I put her on the Adventure Neo Allroad EQ, and she pedaled slantingly me as I rode flipside stiffer bike. I’d grimace as the velocipede I was on hit potholes and stutter bumps, which sent jolts into my robo-knee. Meanwhile, she smiled and rode over potholes like they didn’t exist.

“Okay,” she said, “I could get when into riding on a velocipede like this.

On The Trail Again

A few weeks without that climbing ride, I went out with my friend Mike for our regular Sunday ride. I hadn’t been on a weekend ride with my friends this unshortened season. The skies were sunny and blue, the Canadian wildfire smoke had abated, and I was full of energy.

As the trail split in the forest, we turned to the right, lanugo the five-mile bumpy dirt trail to the town up the river. I’d well-spoken the few climbs seconds superiority of Mike and stopped a few times to eat the wild raspberries that grow withal the trail.

In wing to the dangerous haze of wildfire smoke, we have had miserable weather this season. One-hundred-degree days have been followed by days of violent and rabble-rousing thunderstorms. None of my group of weekend friends has ridden a lot this season.

The trailhead comes out at a parking lot on a road whilom a town and we usually throne lanugo the road and protract our Adventure on roads that follow slantingly the river.

This ride, Mike wasn’t feeling it. A few weeks out of the saddle and some knee tendon issues of his own had him feeling like turning back, which we did. On our group rides, we go where the group wants to go, and he wants to throne back.

A trappy ride home, and Mike turned off toward his house. I kept going toward the velocipede path on the Hudson River’s bridge. I widow flipside 10 miles to my day, finishing at well-nigh 20 miles—the uttermost I’ve ridden since my surgery.

A few weeks later, the whole gang got together for a ride; this time, I wanted to see how far the shower would take me. We did a typical route virtually our county, with a total loftiness of 30 miles and 1500 feet of climbing. Typically, we’d do 50 miles and over 2000 feet of climbing on this route, but I didn’t think my knee or the shower would last.

I spent much of the ride sipping power from the battery. My knee is improving, so I need much less assistance, running at the first power level and using the throttle less on climbing. At the halfway point, I still had three bars of power on the computer.

On the return trip, I kicked up the assistance to ensure I didn’t overtax my knee. As we tideway the last climb, a gradual half mile through a park, the shower dropped from the third bar to the second at well-nigh the same rate as the first bar, but right there at the end of the ride, it dropped from two to one bar as I was doing that final climb. The velocipede stopped profitable me on the climb, and I could only kick in some power when the trail flattened out.

On the last mile on the return, the velocipede could squire with the flats, but less than on the outbound trip. This is typical of batteries; as they drop, they aren’t worldly-wise to provide as much peak power. I could still ride virtually my woodcut with assistance, but that’s all the velocipede had left.

This shower performance sounds disappointing, but a thirty-mile ride on a relatively hilly route is spanking-new for many e-bikes, and a unappetizing commute would hit the 40-mile mark without a problem and likely farther on a unappetizing rail-to-trail.

My wits with the battery’s power is just a reminder that no matter what ebike you have, there are limits to its abilities—just as is the specimen with human-powered bikes.

Those 30 miles with pedal assistance represent a mark in my recovery. I’m hoping to ride unassisted that length soon, and I’m hoping to get when to my regular weekly ride lengths of 50 to 70 miles next season.

But I’m moreover planning to have an ebike virtually to go on fun excursions and explore trails and terrain I’m unfamiliar with. I could not do largest on those trips than with the Cannondale Adventure Neo Allroad EQ. At just a hair under $1900 it’s a unconfined value for the voracious gravel and rail-trail cyclist. It’s moreover incredibly durable, fun to ride, and equipped with parts that make it an spanking-new passenger velocipede that moreover hands can haul cargo virtually on the when rack.

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