MATE e-bike Review

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My girlfriend and I got a MATE e-bike last year. While far from perfect, it has proved a solid purchase and we’ve put more than 2500km on it. Read on for a review and details on some of the modifications I’ve made to our MATE.

We ordered a black 350W MATE S fairly early in the Indiegogo campaign in the fall of 2016. Including shipping I think the price came to around $1000. Production and shipping took a long time and the bike arrived in mid 2017.

Mate before additions

Quality

To be clear, the MATE is not a high quality e-bike. But it’s relatively well-designed, it’s well-appointed with disc brakes front and rear, front and rear suspension, a good battery and a powerful motor. It’s a good deal for the money in my opinion.

On our bike, the screw that holds hasp that secures the collapsing handlebar came out within the first couple days of use (I suspect it hadn’t been threaded in properly). This would cause the steering tube to collapse while riding (not a good thing). Zip-tying the hasp in place solved the problem, and I notified MATE hoping they’ll improve quality control on that component.

After a year of heavy use, 6 spokes on the rear wheel had snapped. Replacing them was not a big deal, but still annoying.

The pedals that come with the bike are of a collapsing type, but they tend to give a little when pedaling hard—not a confidence inspiring trait. I plan to replace them with some leftover regular pedals that I have lying around.

Weight

The MATE is heavy at 23,7 kg. I had hoped that my girlfriend would want to ride the bike to BART, collapse it, take it on the train and then put it back together to ride the final stretch to her office. This proved unrealistic: The bike is way too heavy to schlep around public transport. I sometimes ride the MATE to work and can only barely haul it up a flight of stairs on the way to the bike locker. No single component tips the scales: The battery is heavy, the rear wheel (with motor) is heavy, and the frame is heavy.

Before riding the MATE I thought the suspension (front telescoping fork, rear articulated sub-frame) was a gimmick. But taking into account the weight, the suspension does really help absorb bumps from holes in the road and going up or down curbs.

Bits and pieces

Other than lights and a lock, one of the first things I put on the handlebar was this phone mount. It has wrap-around elastic bands to secure the phone in place. The MATE comes with a USB port for phone charging under the handlebar. Combined with Bluetooth headphones, I can be in meetings while riding to work (with my phone charging), occasionally glancing down to see what’s going on with slides and presentations in the Hangout. I also installed a cup-holder (per girlfriend request), but that just got in the way and I’ve since removed it.

Cupholder and phone mount

Out of the box the MATE e-assist is speed limited to 30km/h. The governor is easily removed (you can Google for instructions) and then the 350W model will go about 40km/h on a flat, even road (40km/h is probably about as fast as you want to go by the way—my eyes start to water up at that speed, and it’s enough to more-or-less keep up with city traffic).

One funny problem is that even the smallest sprocket on the rear cassette is fairly large, and that means low gearing. I suspect the designers couldn’t put on smaller sprockets because they had to fit the motor and power cable through the hub. The result is that you can’t help the bike accelerate above around 30km/h because it’s not possible to pedal fast enough. To remedy this I switched in a bigger 58-tooth front chainwheel to get higher gearing, which helped a little bit.

We’ve gone through several sets of disc brake pads already. Part of the reason is probably the weight and speed of the bike, but I also find that my riding-pattern is different with a motor. Riding my non-e-bike, I carefully try to conserve momentum, don’t accelerate if there’s a stop coming up and generally try to brake as little as possible. Once I have a motor to help me along, all such caution goes out the window, and I just mash the accelerator whenever there’s a bit of open pavement in front of me. That also means way more stopping and more wear on the brakes.

The brake calipers and pads are some sort of off-brand type, and the MATE web-site doesn’t have info on getting replacement pads. I thought bb5 pads would work, but they don’t, so I ended up installing a new Avid BB7 caliper for the rear wheel. This also has the advantage of greater pad surface area which means more stopping power and less frequent pad changes.

Same as the brake pads, tires wear out pretty fast and I had lots of flats (maybe partly because the factory tires are not of the highest quality). As replacements, I installed heavy-duty German Schwalbe Marathon tires. They’re designed for e-bikes and good for up to 50km/h. I haven’t had a single flat since putting those on. They are heavy, however, and (in my experience) almost impossible to seat, even when applying lots of lubricating soap and elbow grease.

Carriers

I use the MATE to get groceries, so I wanted a good basket. Unfortunately, that can be hard to find for collapsible bikes with 20″ wheels. I ended up getting a cheap aluminium front rack that mounts on the fork and zip-tied an IKEA wicker basket to that. This worked OK, but the rack is flimsy and I already had one crumble on me.

The front of the bike now has a Wald 157 Giant Delivery Basket. This is a great product, but it required extensive modification to mount low over the wheel on the MATE: I had to shorten the wheel-hub poles and since it doesn’t sit up high on the handlebar it’s secured with a stay that connects to the front fork.

Since the basket is not hanging on the handlebar, the weight of the basket and its content would have been on the thin quick-change axle-skewer. Some of the weight is transferred to the actual fork when the skewer is tightened, of course, but it still seemed like a precarious setup. To help transfer load to the fork I remounted the carcass of the second cheap aluminum front rack and screwed and zip-tied it all together. The result is sturdy and doesn’t sway or wobble at all.

A Durban rack (UPDATE: This rack is no longer available from Amazon—searching for “bike rack 20 inch” or “folding bike rack” seems to surface similar-looking products) is mounted on the rear wheel and two Wald 582 collapsible baskets are suspended on the sides. These are perfectly sized to hold a grocery bag each. One thing you have to look out for when mounting a rack on the rear of the MATE is to either attach it only to the unsprung subframe (most practical option in my experience) or to the sprung frame. If you use mounting points on both, the suspension loads will be transferred to the rack instead of the shock and you’re going to have a bad day.

Loaded with groceries

Note that in my setup, both the front and rear racks are mounted on the unsprung suspension components. This is not ideal because it makes the suspension less effective and causes groceries to bounce around more. I don’t think there’s a good alternative for a compact bike like this, however, and it hasn’t proved a problem since I tend to ride carefully when fully loaded anyway. Also note that, even though the frame is heavy, it’s not as stiff as one could have hoped, and that shows when the bike is carrying a lot of weight.

The good part is that all the luggage ends up being mounted pretty low, which helps with stability.

Baskets and x-large sprocket

Summary

Overall, I think the MATE is a good deal and would recommend it for anyone looking for a simple and cheap e-bike to get around town. With a few additions, it can be turned into a great commuter bike and grocery hauler. Between the three Wald baskets, I can carry 5 full grocery bags and the motor means I don’t even break a sweat trucking them up San Francisco hills to get home.

Comments

ed on

an excellent review.

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Jeff A Osborne on

Great review. I ordered one and waited more than a year. It arrived in ok condition. After assembly, I rode a quick 2km test ride. The electric portion of the bike completely failed. If I raise the rear wheel the motor will turn it. But as soon as there is any weight on the wheel, there is ag grinding noise and the wheel stops. Either a complete motor failure or controller failure.
I immediately contacted mate to begin a return within the 14 day return policy. The only email I received was a questionnaire about how I was riding. I answered the questions and to this day, 3 months later, no response from mate.
I finally requested a credit card refund. This was very difficult because it was over a year since the “purchase”. Eventually, chase cards returned my money. Still no contact from mate. I’d be happy to return this junk but mate is silent.
Now I’d like to repair it and donate the bike to a charity.
Anyone have any ideas what failed?

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Chantal on

Nice review about the additions for the MATE this was just what I was looking for. Thanks!

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Igor Manenica on

thanks, very useful read!

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Pixelman on

Hi,
I do own a black MATE X.
Did almost 2000 km.
In my opinion:

PRO:
– frame is ok
– overall design (branding)
– low price
– range and speed

CONS:
– weight: more then 23kg
– very bad brakes > changed to TRP Spyre (what a difference!)
– very bad pedal > changed to Shimano Deore XT PD-T8000 SPD Pedal (non removable)
– bad tires > Schwalbe Marathon tires for E-bike
– no lights > led lights rechargeable
– mobile mount was very cheap > changed to the lifeproof system for iPhone
– don’t like the suspensions: the front one is very cheap. Lots of ‘play’ on the fork. Just a spring has no oil rebound. I am thinking of changing it to a carbon fixed front fork. Back suspension is even worse. Very cheap thing. After 2000km I noticed some ‘play’ on the bolds and sometimes is makes noise. If you lift the bike you notice that there is something ‘loose’. I looked for a decent one, but it is very short. So can’t find a decent oil suspension like fox for it. Any suggestions?

Overall I use it for work/home travelling and the bike does what it should do 😉
So it was cheap but I added already more than 400€ of new and replaced components…
So now my bike has a total cost of more then 1500€.

Pixelman.

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Lukas on

But Mate X doesnt exist for now. It is still in campagne, it is coming at March 2019. Are you sure it is Mate X? with the thick wheels?

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greg on

MATE is indeed a cheap option, however build quality is bad and distance estimates grossly exaggerated. It is a cheap Chinese factory back aggressively marketed. Most important – their customer service does not exist. Awful.

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friism on

I agree Mate’s customer service is not useful, but I guess there’s also only so much they can do at that price point. For myself, after the first poor experience, I decided to just fix stuff myself, and that has worked fine.

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Simon Turner on

I never did understand why they would make a foldable bike that weighs more than my cargo bike. Who would want to lug it into a bus or a car?

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friism on

Yeah, I agree it’s not super useful. On this bike, the folding mechanism is also used for accessing and changing the battery (which is kinda elegant), so maybe – with that in place – they decided they had to go whole hog and also make the handlebar collapsible.

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Sal on

I’ve been thinking about getting this bike but there’s so much bad press about their post sale support. I’ve been checking out others around this price range and so far my favorite is Wing Bikes. It’s been harder than I thought to find something that looks nice without being crazy expensive.

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James Ryan on

This company is a scam. Paid for 2 Mate X’s back in September, they were supposed to be delivered in February. February came and they pushed it back another month, a month went by and they pushed it back again. It is now May, 14th and they have pushed the delivery back to September. Even if the bikes come in September (I doubt they will), that is an entire year from ordering. I asked for a refund and the customer service agent asked for my full name, address, bank account number and bank identification code. The only other person who has ever asked for that type of information was a Nigerian prince who emailed me and wanted to deposit a million dollars in my bank account. Sounds like Mate is the Fyre Festival of the biking industry. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY LIKE I DID!

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friism on

Requesting that kind of account information sounds normal for international transfers. Remember that the “feature” of American bank accounts that lets you withdraw money from an account just by knowing the account number is localized to the US (for good reason).

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Jacob on

Hi James, I bought the Mate X same time as you and I agree that there has been a lot of delays of course not benefitting from the trade war going on which meant moving the production away from China. I guess that you have to expect production issues when you choose not to buy stuff through a shop.
Anyways I had my bike delivered this Monday. So if this company is a scam then it’s a very expensive one … for the company!

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Johannes on

Hi thank you for a good review and great tips – I just bought myself a MATE (the original) bike yesterday. I bought it in a local store (Iceland) and I was wondering about the size of the tyres.
It says 20×1,95 on the tyres that came with the bike howevere everywhere I search on the internet it says that MATE has 20×1,5. Do you think that the heavy-duty German Schwalbe Marathon tires that you used would fit on myy bike? Did they change the tyre size?

Another thing – I would like to use my bike (manly for grocery shopping and going to and from work) in the winter. Do you have any ideas to “winter proof” the bike?

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friism on

You can get 20″ x 1.5″ Schwalbe tires, so those would fit for sure. It’s not that the tire won’t fit on the rim (you can put relatively wide tires on relatively narrow rims), the only problem could be whether very wide tires fit between the forks. I’d recommend checking current tire/fork clearance and get tires that are either same width or only as wide as you think will fit between the forks.

Re: winter, I suspect the bike is designed to work through Danish winter (at a minimum) since MATE is run out of Denmark. I’ve taken mine apart and things look pretty rugged, eg. the controller seems relatively watertight (rubber membrane) and all the electrical connectors are of an OK quality waterproof type. The battery connections are insulated with hot-glue.

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Ra on

How about the front light ?

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friism on

The motor controller has a red plug for a light but I never found a compatible off-the-shelf one. I just zip-tied a normal USB-chargeable light to the front basket.

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Sven on

What type of brake pads fitts to mate s

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friism on

Yeah I never figured out which pads fit the calipers that came on my bike. I bought some at some point where I managed to snip off and grind down extra material to get them to fit. But as mentioned in the article I ended up putting on completely different calipers with standard pad sizes.

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Michelle on

Great review!
How did you install your rack? I’m having trouble finding the perfect rack that fits on my Mate bike, Durban is not available on Amazon.
Thanks

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friism on

Hm yeah I see now that the Durban rack is no longer available. It looks like if you search Amazon for stuff like “bike rack 20 inch” or “folding bike rack” then similar-looking stuff shows up. I’ll update the post, thanks for pointing this out.

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John on

Looks like they changed the design. My battery and charger died after 1500 km. The cost to replace the battery and charger is more than a new bike with lower power. I liked it but it was super heavy. I think I’m going to sell it for parts and move on.

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Ben on

I just got a second hand mate City s. It had hardly any miles and wear on it which had me worried, but I’ve put about 100 miles on it now and had no issues. I replaced the chain ring with a 58t and upped the speed limit to 40kph. Will put the same rear break on it as you. I’m also looking at new forks and rear suspension as the stock ones are poor. I’ll probably go for a seat post mounted rear rack so that what ever I carry still benefits a little from the suspension rather than being shaken about.
Enjoyed the read, thanks for the review

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Eileen Chu on

I also have a mate city and live in the Bay Area. I spent too much money fixing the pads. They would squeak so much when I’m going down hill.

It was an exciting purchase, but not a very good bike. I too am just trying to make the best of the situation.

Are they any 20 inch rear bike rack that will support 180 lbs?

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Vince on

Hello great review, i had the same problem with the spokes at the rear wheel since the beginning . Do you have the dimension of spokes ?

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friism on

Hm, I don’t remember exactly. Looking at my order history it looks like it’s 12 gauge spokes, maybe 135mm. But please measure on your bike since they may have changed the part specs and because I ended up changing out the rear wheel and that spoke measurement may be for the new wheel.

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Maria on

I know I’m replying to a very old post here, but I own one of the original Kickstarter MATE bikes and, although it’s done what I need it to, it has been fraught with problems. It took 11 months to arrive damaged and then another 3 months for a replacement fork to arrive so I could finally assemble and ride it. I’ve got no complaints about the battery life, but I did have to replace brakes, brake cables, and a gearshift. (The gearshift is still not replaced so I’m stuck in a middle gear.) The computer turns on about 50% of the time, which means I have ebike assist 50% of the time. The buttons on it do not work so I’ve got level 1 assist (which is better than nothing, I guess). The bike wasn’t used much for its first 4 or so years but then it started accompanying me on camping trips and boat trips. (I bought it as ground transportation for my helicopter.)

Anyway, it’s still working good enough to maybe sell it to someone for $100, but I can’t wait to replace it with something lighter and more reliable.

The thing that bugged me most about MATE? The kickstarted made it seem as if they were going to be made in Denmark. They sent the project to China so not only is it a Chinese-made bike, but the design was copied and basically used to make and sell a ton of cheaper off-brand bikes. That was my last Kickstarter investment.

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