Aventon Aventure.M First Look: The Aventure Goes Mid-Drive

Aventon took its best-selling fat bike, swapped the hub motor for a mid-drive, and taught it to shift gears on its own.

The Aventure is one of the bikes that built Aventon’s name, and until now it has always been a hub-drive fat bike. The Aventure.M changes that. It moves the motor to the cranks, borrows the A100 mid-drive from the Aventon Ramblas eMTB, and adds Shimano’s electronic shifting with an auto-shift mode. It sits above the standard hub Aventure as a premium all-terrain option. We got our first look at the claimed specs and early reviews. Here is what stands out before we run one through our own test loop.

What’s New With the Aventure.M

The big change is the motor. Every Aventure before this used a rear hub motor. The Aventure.M puts an A100 mid-drive at the cranks instead, the same motor family that powers the Aventon Ramblas mountain bike. A mid-drive puts torque through the chain and drivetrain, which usually means better climbing, better balance, and a more natural pedal feel than a hub motor gives you.

It does not stop at the motor. The Aventure.M is the first Aventon fat bike with electronic shifting. It runs a Shimano CUES 10-speed drivetrain with paddle shifters and an AutoShift mode that picks gears for you as you ride. Aventon also drops in SRAM DB4 4-piston hydraulic brakes, a BC280 display, a dual-sided torque sensor, and a 4G ACU that adds GPS tracking, remote lock, and over-the-air updates. If you want the pedal-first mountain bike version of this motor, our Aventon Ramblas first look covers that bike.

Claimed Specs and Price

Everything below is manufacturer-claimed unless we say otherwise. We have not put this bike on our scale or through our range loop yet. The Aventure.M lists at $2,899 in Camouflage, Basalt, and Pacific. It shows as in stock, though one colorway may be pre-order, so check colorway availability before you order.

Mid-Drive Motor and Performance

The A100 mid-drive is rated at 250W nominal and peaks at 750W, with 100 Nm of torque and an IP67 water-resistance rating. Because it drives the chain instead of the wheel, it should climb better and feel more like a bike than the hub motor on the standard Aventure. A dual-sided torque sensor reads how hard you pedal on both cranks, which tends to make the assist come on smoothly rather than in a lurch.

Out of the box the Aventure.M ships as a Class 1 bike capped at 20 mph, and you unlock Class 3 for up to 28 mph through Aventon’s app. There is no throttle from the factory. Aventon sells a Class 2 throttle as a roughly $11 aftermarket add-on if you want one, but plan on that being a separate step. The AutoShift drivetrain is the other headline: the Shimano CUES 10-speed setup can pick gears for you, so you can keep your cadence steady on rolling terrain without thinking about the shifters.

Battery and Claimed Range

Power comes from a 733Wh pack built on LG 21700 cells, rated at 36V and 20Ah. Aventon lists the pack at about 8.7 pounds and a roughly 5-hour full charge. The claimed range is up to 85 miles, and as always that number assumes the lowest assist level and easy conditions.

Early third-party testing has been striking. Electric Bike Report measured 110 miles in Eco mode, which they called the fifth-best result out of more than 300 bikes they have tested, and 37 miles in Turbo. Freshly Charged saw a more everyday 50 to 60 miles in mixed riding. So the real number depends heavily on how you ride, which is exactly why we run our own standard loop. We will post tested range once we get a unit in.

Aventure.M vs Hub-Drive Aventure

This is the cross-shop that matters. The standard hub-drive Aventure 2 and 3 start around $1,999 and weigh roughly 77 pounds. The Aventure.M costs $900 more, but it moves the motor to the cranks for real mid-drive torque feel, comes in about 4 pounds lighter, and is the first auto-shift fat bike Aventon has made. It also steps up to SRAM DB4 4-piston brakes. The trade-off is simple: the hub Aventure has a throttle out of the box and the Aventure.M does not, and you are paying $900 more for the mid-drive setup.

Who Should Buy the Aventure.M

First-look verdict

On paper, the Aventure.M is the most interesting fat bike Aventon has built. It brings the Ramblas-derived mid-drive to the all-terrain line, adds auto-shifting no other Aventon fat bike has, trims a few pounds, and keeps the 4G security stack. The catch is the price jump and the missing stock throttle, so it is not an automatic upgrade over the $1,999 hub Aventure. Early outside testing looks promising, with Electric Bike Report posting one of the best Eco range figures they have recorded. We still want our own numbers on range, climbing, and weight before we call it. If you want mid-drive feel on a fat-tire bike and can live without a factory throttle, put this one on your shortlist. If comfort and connected tech are what you are after, our Aventon Pace 5 REC first look is worth a read too. We will update this review with full tested figures once we get a unit in.

Aventon Aventure.M FAQ

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