The Hitway BK9S is a budget electric mountain bike – its key selling point is that it’s very well priced at £929/€1300 (at the time of writing).
There’s a huge amount of bike on offer here- so much so that it’s definitely a bike with larger people in mind – if you’re below 170cm or so you may find difficulty in reaching the floor properly. And it’s not just big, one downside is that it is very heavy – well over 30kg – and the well-packed shipping weight is over 40kg.
It’s certainly not a bike you want falling on you, but there is an integrated stand. However, the weight is certainly an issue should you want to take it somewhere on a car as many bike racks are intended for lighter models. You also need somewhere decent to store it, too – it’s 192cm in length while the handlebars are 66cm long.
So far so big. But there are upsides to the size; the tyres are 26in fat tyres and they make the ride so comfortable alongside the suspension on both wheels. You can lock the front suspension should you wish, though we don’t know why you’d want to – surely you just want the comfortable ride?
The tyres also have a reflective white strip for visibility – why don’t more manufacturers do this? It’s a great safety feature to my mind. The mechanical disc brakes have great stopping power – they’re not absolutely top grade, but they’re more than responsive enough for most needs.
In terms of assembly, everything is wrapped very well for shipping, but you’ll definitely need two people to wrangle it out of the box and get it assembled properly. There is a fair amount of assembly and you need to attach the front wheel, handlebars, lights, mudguards and seat (which is reasonably comfortable despite appearances). At times I found the instructions were not the best either – particularly when attaching the mudguards.
These are flimsy at best and can move around, particularly the rear one, which is easy to knock when you mount and dismount. The front light is powered by the bike itself but the rear light is battery powered. It’s a shame, but probably inevitable at this price point.
The bike has three speed modes, the highest of which is locked to 15.5 mph and can’t be adjusted. 15.5mph is shown on the large colour LCD display if that’s the selected mode, regardless of whether you’re going that fast or not. The display is a nice-to-have, but it isn’t that necessary for most rides. The bike can be app-connected via the Hitway app to browse the bike’s status.
There’s a seven-gear Shimano changer, too. Range is cited at between 43 and 93 miles, depending on what mode you’re in, but even if you think about it being 40 miles this is way more than most people will need in a single journey. Be aware that riding it without power isn’t a great experience; pedalling is heavy and I found I just didn’t want to do it. So we wouldn’t really say that was a backup as such. The charge time is understandably lengthy at around 5-6 hours.
Performance is generally excellent thanks to the 250W motor with 70Nm of torque. There’s top-notch acceleration with instant pickup and we found that only on steep hills did it show signs of needing more oomph to keep it going. You can connect a throttle should you really wish, though if you’re thinking of doing that, you probably want another bike.
Removing the Samsung 48V battery for charging was initially awkward but manageable after getting used to it (the battery is lockable and keys are included). Charging in situ is probably easier if the plug is convenient. As well as the charger, Hitway also throws in a multi-tool, bicycle pump and even a lock. Nice.
And I like the appearance of the bike too – despite my concerns that the branding would be too much, the BK9S black and green design is more subtle than you’d think.
Thanks to clear controls and handlebar buttons, it’s a really easy bike to get used to – and definitely worth further investigation if you’re in the market for an eMTB.
