Aventon Abound SR: Budget Mid-Tail Bike with Incredible Security Features

Today, Aventon is launching the Abound SR, a new offering in the budget cargo bike market. The Abound SR is a mid-tail bike with a low rear deck, suitable for carrying a single passenger. It fits a similar space in the cargo bike market to the Tern HSD or Radio Flyer Flex.

Overall, the Abound SR seems a substantial upgrade to the existing Abound offering. With a number of terrific new security tech features, improved ride quality that removes all of the most common concerns about the Abound, and new accessories expanding the capabilities of the line, this bike is the first bike in the market that really seems to open the door to competing directly with the Tern HSD for the cargo bike family looking to carry a single kid.

The MSRP for the Abound SR is $2199, a similar price point to the Radio Flyer Flex ($2099), but offering a much lower cost alternative to the Tern HSD ($4299) or Quick Haul ($2500).

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Biggest Win: New Security and Safety Tech

The Abound SR is an evolution of the electronics of the Aventon line. At a technical level, the bike has moved to including a new “ACU” (Aventon Control Unit) – a central computer with a built in GPS and 4G internet connectivity for remote tracking and security features, as well as a more complete package for tuning the bike available via app connectivity.

In practice, this allows the bike to offer a few key differentiators over any other bike in the budget market:

• The bike has an automatic locking kickstand, which can be set to enable any time the bike is turned off, and unlock whenever the bike is turned on and unlocked. This automatic locking kickstand makes the bike unrideable by a thief, meaning even if they cut a lock, they won’t be able to ride the bike away. Similar to a cafe or wheel lock in security functionality, the automatic nature of this locking adds an additional level of security even over keyed locks: you can never forget to lock the bike, or forget your keys on the bike after locking it.
• The automatic locking kickstand also acts as a stability feature when loading and unloading the bike: when loading the bike, simply leave it turned off, and the kickstand will be locked in place, ensuring that wiggly precious cargo won’t be able to knock the bike off the kickstand. The locking feature is a key differentiator of the Atlas Lockstand on the Tern GSD, and for those of us loading kids in the back, creates a great feeling of security in loading up the bike. The integration with the power-on/power-off of the bike makes this simple to engage/disengage.
• The integrated GPS tracking is akin to the functionality provided by the Bosch Connect Module in the Bosch Smart System (available on bikes like the Tern HSD or Urban Arrow Family Smart). Connect to the app on your phone, and configure GPS reporting on the location of the bike; as well as vibration detection so you can be alerted if someone is attempting to take your bike.
• The bike also has an integrated audible alarm that can trigger when the bike is disturbed, alerting a potential thief to the fact that the bike is being tracked, and potentially alerting passerby to the theft.
• The bike has remote motor cutoff functionality, allowing you to disable the bike’s electric assist remotely from the app.

The locking kickstand in particular is an incredible addition; while it does not act as a full locking solution, it adds a new level of automatic security that is beyond any other bike on the market.

Since both the kickstand and battery are electronically controlled, unlocking the bike uses a simple passcode system: it uses a set of 6 keypresses on the up/down/left/right buttons of the display. This code is quick and easy to enter, while offering a decent level of security against thieves walking off with a battery.

Note: At the time of writing this review, not all of these over-the-internet features seem to be fully available at the time of writing this review, so some features (like remote motor cutoff and remote alerting of vibration) are based on reviewing the settings in the app and descriptions of these features, and have not yet been fully tested.

Ride Quality

The overall ride quality of the Abound SR is a continued evolution of the torque assist drive on the Abound, and competitive with the best assist available in the budget market. While there is still a minor difference in elements like response time between the drive of the Abound SR and higher-end mid-drive motors like the Tern HSD, the Abound SR provides a nice improvement in responsiveness and the natural feeling ride over the existing Abound, and puts it at the top of the line in the budget cargo bike market. The bike delivers plenty of power when you need it.

The bike also adds the RideTune functionality that was originally limited to the A100 motor on the Ramblas model. RideTune offers complete control over the power level and torque response on the bike, allowing you to tune your Eco, Sport, and Turbo assist levels to match your preferred style of riding. This fixes one of the complaints about some of the Aventon line from riders, that Eco is too powerful; with RideTune, you can adjust down the maximum torque as well as the pedal assist response to make Eco a gentle boost rather than a more aggressive jump off the line.

Moving from the folding stem of the Abound to a “BMX-style” front handlebar has greatly increased the stability in steering the Abound SR, fixing one of the more notable concerns about the Abound. While the original Abound is difficult to ride with no hands, the Abound SR has highly stable steering, and provides the solid ride and quality that riders need. The front fork also uses an adjustable quill stem, allowing for easy (though not tool-free) adjustment of the height of the front handlebars to provide a ride style that works best for riders.

The bike comes with an integrated suspension seatpost, offering some smoothing of the bumps and jumps on the road; however, this seatpost slightly increases the minimum rider height that the bike is comfortable for. For shorter riders (below 5’2” or so), replacing the suspension seatpost with a standard seatpost may be necessary to get a comfortable ride. Similarly, the min insertion point on the seatpost is somewhat modest, meaning taller riders (above 6’0”) may find the bike is not a good fit for them; the somewhat compact cockpit contributes to this feeling, meaning that tall riders may need to look elsewhere for a comfortable fit.

Accessories

The Abound SR brings new accessory options to the Aventon line, adding a “Captain’s Chair” style seat pad arrangement, a seating arrangement with armrests for your rear rider. This addition has been a missing component in the Aventon line relative to some of its peers.

On the other hand, the SR does not bring a fully enclosed set of rear cargo bars (a la the Clubhouse Mini from the Tern HSD line or the Kid and Cargo Carrier for the Radio Flyer Flex). Overall, the Captain’s Chair comes pretty far forward, but there may be a gap between kids who are able to ride in the Thule Yepp Seat and the Captain’s Chair; for kids in that age range, the Tern Sidekick Seat Belt may be an option to include in your consideration.

The Abound SR can be used with the Thule Yepp mini seat; this is unlike other options in the market which use folding handlebars (like the Abound or the Tern HSD/GSD) or have smaller front stems (like the Radio Flyer Flex) that do not allow mounting the Yepp Mini seat in place.

Like the Abound, the SR also does not have a design for a winter enclosure, like the Tern Storm Box/Storm Shield. It remains to be seen whether adapting the Tern Storm Shield Mini is practical with the Captain’s chair accessory bars. (It does not go unnoticed that Radio Flyer, which is designed in Chicago; and Tern, with a major European market; offer these winter accessories, while bikes like Aventon and Velotric designed in California do not.)

Cargo Capacity

Like the Abound, the Abound SR has a rear rack listing a capacity of 143 pounds. (Like the Abound, this capacity seems somewhat arbitrary; in practice, riding with small adults in the back seems an intentional design of the bike.) The front fork mounts are designed to support the same mounting as the Aventon Front Utility Rack; however, at this time, Aventon has stated that the Front Utility Rack is out of stock, and the intended availability of front racks from Aventon is not entirely clear. As racks become available again, we continue to recommend a flat front rack with a high quality milk crate as the best option for adding cargo capacity to the bike.

Potential Areas for Concern

The new tech stack of the Abound SR creates new opportunities, but it also raises a few questions that will remain to be resolved with the test of time.

• The battery has moved to dropping into the top of the downtube, with only electronic locking. The electronic locking/unlocking is a nice addition in theory – it’s not possible to forget your battery key at home – but for those of us storing bikes outside in the winter, it remains to be seen if the locking mechanism will be reliable when stored outside while the battery charges indoors. Given the design, I think this will likely be okay, but if the retraction mechanism fails, it is difficult to see how the battery will be removed.
• Similarly, the kickstand mechanism is one of the best features of the bike, offering security and stability while maintaining ease of use. However, if the retraction mechanism gets stuck when faced with snow, ice, and slush (as we have seen from the Tern GSD Atlas Kickstand), it may complicate things somewhat. Unlike the GSD, if the kickstand locking mechanism fails, the bike doesn’t become unusable; but a failed retraction due to built up crud could create an annoying complication for riders.

Overall, both of these mechanisms feel like they should be able to work okay: design and placement do not seem to raise major red flags, and the mechanisms are relatively protected from these risks. However, until the bike has gone through a Boston winter, these factors remain a small risk.

Who Is This Bike For?

Overall, for anyone considering the Tern HSD for their cargo bike needs, I think that the Abound SR is an extremely competitive option. With a ride quality surpassing other hub drive cargo bikes on the market, the SR provides a nimble option that is probably 90% of the way to the quality of the much higher cost mid-drive bikes. This includes one-kid families looking to carry a kid and cargo, as well as those looking to just have more room to drop bigger panniers for the larger grocery runs on the back of the bike. For anyone looking to carry one kid on the back of a bike long term with some room for cargo, and a frame designed to carry it, I think the Abound SR is my go-to recommendation.

Aventon also seems to be targeting this bike to compete with other utility bikes like the Velotric Go 1 and RadPowerBikes RadRunner 2. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Abound SR is an improvement in many ways over those options: even basic features like a well-tuned cadence sensor, hydraulic brakes, and more offer a great improvement over those options. That said, the price difference means that it may be hard to see the value of the SR for those looking for a deep budget option. In short: the Abound SR is a better bike than those bikes; but they still succeed at being cheaper bikes.

Price

The Abound SR has an MSRP of $2199. Pre-orders start today, and bikes are expected to be shipping in mid-November.

About This Review

Two members of Community Pedal Power were invited to join Aventon at a pre-launch event for the Abound SR in California at the start of October. During that event, we were able to ask questions to the Aventon team about the bike, examine the bikes, and test ride them more than 20 miles around Huntington Beach, California. Additionally, Aventon provided one pre-launch Abound SR to the Community Pedal Power E-Bike Lending Library for lending purposes. No other compensation was offered for this review, and Aventon did not have any opportunity to read this review before it was released.