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Veloretti Ace Two E-bike Review: Rarified Heir

Electric Bikes

Belt drive, removable battery, smooth automatic shifting, and built to be serviced anywhere. This Dutch e-bike checks all the boxes.

By Thomas Ricker, a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He's been a tech journalist for almost 20 years.

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Veloretti Ace Two at home in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.Veloretti Ace Two at home in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

First, let me apologize: most readers of The Verge can not buy the latest electric bikes from Amsterdam-based Veloretti. But for everyone living in the Netherlands, Belgium, or Germany with €3,299 to spend... Well, congratulations because you can buy one of the best e-bikes available at any price and far and away my favorite ride of the year so far.

I recently reviewed the top-of-the-line (€3,498) VanMoof S5, in which I longed for a removable battery, simple belt drive, and smoother automatic shifting. That's exactly what you get with Veloretti's new Ace Two and step-thru Ivy Two e-bikes — the "Two" signifying their second-gen status.

Each new Veloretti comes fitted with a 250W mid-drive motor and 540Wh battery from Bafang, a rugged carbon CDX belt drive from Gates, MT200 hydraulic disc brakes from Shimano, a front light from Osram, and a comfortable saddle from Selle Royal. In other words, Veloretti — a company purchased by transportation behemoth Pon Holdings at the end of last year — is using off-the-shelf parts that most bike shops can replace or repair. That's important because things are guaranteed to go wrong eventually on any high-tech commuter e-bike ridden daily in sun, rain, and snow.

So, if you're a fan of premium e-bikes built with Dutch know-how but distrust VanMoof's specialized parts and history of service issues, then you're going to love the new second-generation Ivy and Ace electric bikes from cross-town rival Veloretti. 

How we rate and review products

‌The Enviolo AutomatiQ shifter and Enviolo City hub fitted to my Ace Two review bike is really something that everyone should experience at least once. It's a very civilized way to bicycle. 

Other specs:

The 36V, 540Wh battery is removable and lockable; and charges to 50 percent in about 80 minutes, to 100 percent in about five hours.

28kg with battery (44 pounds)

Built-in torque and rotation sensors

Anti-puncture tires 

Powder-coated aluminum frame

Options for front and rear carriers coming soon

Fitted with GPS, Bluetooth, 3G, and 4G radios

Veloretti e-bikes are assembled in Portugal

The step-through Ivy Two is designed for riders 164cm to 184cm; Ace Two is designed for riders 173cm to 200cm. 

Enviolo — a company that's also HQ'd in Amsterdam — builds its automatic shifter around an internally geared (0.55 – 1.7 / 310 percent ratio range) rear hub, which is why it can be used with a belt drive instead of an oily chain, cassette full of toothy sprockets, and derailleur that all require regular maintenance. With the Enviolo AutomatiQ, you simply choose the speed at which you'd like to pedal, and all the shifting is done automatically while your cadence remains the same. And because it's "stepless," you won't ever feel it change gear ratios even under heavy load, but you will often hear an electromechanical purrrr above the nearly silent Bafang motor mounted between the pedals.

I tested a Veloretti Ace Two e-bike for almost a month and only have two extremely minor complaints with the overall ride. The powertrain can sometimes — though rarely — feel a bit uncertain at very low speeds, characterized by a slight unevenness in the pedal assist. And a few times after riding over some decent-sized bumps, I felt the motor cut out for about a quarter revolution of the pedals — but it's not something I'm able to recreate no matter how hard I've tried. The vast majority of the time, the ride is effortless and absolutely intuitive.

In general, the Ace Two provided a nice torque-y (65Nm) pedal assist all the way up to 27km/h (17mph), just above the EU limit of 25km/h (16mph) but within allowed tolerances.

From a full battery, I managed to ride 51km (32mi) in max power mode, with the app saying I had 4km (2.5mi) remaining on a battery near empty, reading 7 percent. The thing is, Veloretti begins throttling power around 20 percent to both preserve the lifetime of the battery and warn you that it's time to recharge. There's also a toggle in the app to alert you automatically when the battery is low, which is something all e-bikes should do. At 7 percent, I was riding with so little assist that I decided to go ahead and plug in; 55km (34mi) total range is just shy of Veloretti's low-end estimate of 60km (37mi).

The two buttons on the left mirror the two on the right. Daytime running lights at the front and rear. This one's also a brake light.Yes, the battery is removable and lockable.No messy welds on Veloretti's second-generation of premium e-bikes.

The user experience is built around a 2.5-inch color display flanked by four buttons: two next to the left grip and two next to the right. From left to right, you have the horn next to the on / off / next button, then the minus and plus buttons for scrolling through pedal-assist levels and preferred bicycling cadence (more on that later). 

Press and hold the plus key, and you'll see a Safety Tracking countdown that will alert your emergency contract (defined in the app) to your current location. The alert arrives via text message with a link to a website that shows your geolocation sourced from your paired telephone. This can be useful in an accident or whenever you might feel unsafe. The tracking stops automatically after an hour to ensure your personal privacy.

Both the Ace and Ivy feature integrated front and rear always-on running lights. A press and hold on the minus button near the right grip toggles the brighter Osram fron