The Hanebrink is an all terrain electric bike with a unique design and  some innovative features.  Most E-bike companies are not offering anything innovative or fresh. Most of today’s E-bikes consist of hastily converted bicycles, made up of all Asian components, and almost always a  hub motor in the rear, and shipped over in a cargo container from China. The Hanebrink is an American  breath of fresh air, a mid-drive bike (although strangely, the motor is a converted hub motor) with a totally different design that is mostly made in the USA.

At first when I saw the Hanebrink I thought it was built for just snow and sand riding. The more I learned about the e-bike, and now that I have gotten a chance to ride one, I realize it is much more versatile then I originally thought, and would in fact  make a wonderful guerrilla commuter. If Mad Max rode an E-bike it would be a hot-rodded Hanebrink at 96 volts…if I were to choose  an electric bike I would run from the Police on, it would be the Hanebrink on 96 volts.  It turns out on further questioning, company owner will build a customer an off road only 96 volt bike (or just a 48 volt bike) upon request (for a price).

The Hanebrink has the following unique and custom components, detailed below in pictures:

The mid mounted hub motor works incredibly well. The system is silent and smooth.  The double freewheel works as it should.  The bike rides like a regular bike when not applying electric power.

The Hanebrink bike is for the most part made in the USA and assembled at its Southern California factory.  The Hanebrink made our list of the 10 most expensive electric bikes . Why so expensive? The Hanebrink has custom made frame and components that are fabricated in the US, not made in huge quantities. The Lithium-Cobalt battery pack is also provided by a USA pack manufacturer with a 2 year warranty.  The Hanebrink bike uses All Cell as its pack producer, which is the same people who make the Optibike pack. Expect a long lasting problem free battery pack in this package. I would highly recommend converting to 48 volts and getting the power and extra range associated. Although this option is not listed on the website, if you talk to the people at Hanebrink they can accommodate such requests.  I rode a 48 version of this ebike and it was nothing short of fantastic.

 

Hanebrink and Sand Riding:

I own several sand bikes and have had much experience riding electric bikes in the sand. With the Surly Pugsley, I have to ride across soft sand just to get to the hard-packed wet stuff. The Hanebrink is the only bike I have ever ridden which has the capacity to ride easily on the soft sand on the beach. That is because it has 8-inch wide tires, it virtually floats on top of the sand. It is necessary to reduce the tire pressure for ultimate traction when riding on soft sand. This is a drawback, because those big fat tires on the Hanebrink would be a bitch to pump back up, if you had to do so by hand when you were going from sand to road.

Check out this video of a the Hanebrink riding on soft sand on a Southern California beach: