Range anxiety usually occurred towards the end of a second day of riding as the once fully charged battery drained towards 97km. That’s not to say the E-Spillo didn’t perform well on those journeys, and I think that I used the motor as most people will – a mix of all three modes, the majority of time spent in Normal, with occasional Turbo boosts on inclines and dips into Eco when range anxiety kicked in. The brand does, of course, offer sportier e-road bikes for longer rides and its new E-Omnia range looks better suited to bigger commutes. There’s also an E-Tube Ride app which will collect your ride data if activated when paired during pedalling.Ī lot of my testing was carried out on a reasonably flat 30-mile round trip commute which is, arguably, longer than the type of journey Bianchi has in mind for this bike. On Shimano’s more advanced systems this app also allows you to personalise power delivery and connect to Di2 shifters. Very continental, but I eventually claimed my blue passport by downloading the E-Tube Project app and adjusting language, distance and the like over Bluetooth. Initially, the display is set to – naturally – Italian. Battery power is also indicated with a familiar phone-style five-bar graphic.
Scrolling gives you various easy-to-read sets of basic data including speed, estimated range, distance and time travelled. This has two buttons over and above the on/off switch for scrolling through the display options and controlling the lights. The E-Spillo is brought to life by the GPS size-and-style Shimano Steps E6100 head unit.
That’s decent enough for riding around town, but you’ll want something with a bit more punch if you’re riding anywhere really dark. The rear is built into the slim, detachable battery that powers both lights and the front is a retro-styled 20 lux unit. I’m not sure why all powered bikes don’t come with some form of built-in illumination, so I’m glad to say that the E-Spillo ships with front and rear lights. The rear light is integrated into the battery pack, which neatly slides into the rack. There’s also a walk assist mode to help push the bike along if needed. To that end, the E5000 motor offers three power options with varying levels of grunt up to 250 watts and 40Nm of torque: Eco will deliver 40 per cent of your effort, Normal will match you and Turbo gives 200 per cent. With an ebike, of course, weight is somewhat moot because you’ve probably bought the E-Spillo Luxury so that you don’t have to worry so much about the bike’s (or your) mass. The total weight puts it in the ballpark of the best electric hybrid bikes, such as those in Specialized’s non-SL Turbo Vado range. The removable third-party battery itself weighs 2.7kg and the Shimano Steps E5000 mid-mounted drive unit around 2.4kg. With the battery, it weighs in at 21.65kg. The bike is available in 47cm and 53cm sizes and I tested the larger of the two. The E-Spillo’s traditional-looking frameset is aluminium – standard 6061 if you’re interested – while the fork is steel. The Luxury on test – also available in a women’s-specific version – trades up Shimano’s mid-mounted Steps E5000 with a slim 418Wh battery under the rear rack for a maximum claimed range of 120km.
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