Ebike Weight – How Much Does an Electric Bike Weigh?

Updated July 2nd, 2023

How much does a good ebike weigh? One of the most common things to talk about when looking at bikes is how much do they weigh? This holds true for ebikes and regular bikes. The quick answer is that the average ebike weighs between 50 and 60 lbs. There are ebikes weighing as little as 26 lbs and as much as 80 lbs.

How important is the weight of your ebike? Will a few pounds more or less slow you down or drastically shorten your range? Let’s take a look at ebike weight.

Ebike Weight – what makes them heavy

Bike weight

The average ebike is based on a pedal bike. Most of them are based on mountain bikes, hybrid bikes or cruiser bikes. A good hard tail mountain bike weighs 28 to 31 lbs. A lower end one may weigh up to 35 lbs. A carbon frame may weigh a few pounds less. A hybrid bike or cruise bike will weigh about the same as a hardtail mountain bike. A true road bike with skinny wheels and tires will weigh a few pounds less.

See our article on how much a good mountain bike weighs to learn more. Adding full suspension to a mountain bike adds 4 to 5 lbs to the bike weight. See our article on full suspension mountain bike weight to learn more.

Ebike parts weight

The average ebike starts out life as a regular bike that weighed around 30 lbs. Most are based around $300 to $400 level conventional bikes. They aren’t based on $2000 to $3000 level bikes. See our article on the best mountain bikes for ebike conversion to learn more.

The rest of the ebike weight comes from the drive motor, batteries and controller. The average ebike has a motor between 500 and 750 watts and a 48 volt battery that is 15 to 20 amp hour. It’s probably using a rear hub motor. Let’s look at the average weights of these parts.

Controller

The average ebike controller weighs about 1 pound

Motor

The average ebike motor weighs around 10 lbs. A hub motor built into a wheel will weigh more because of the wheel, tire, and freewheel/freehub. The motor portion itself weighs around 10 lbs give or take a pound or 2.

Battery

This is where we get into the other big chunk of weight. Ebike batteries weigh from 10 to 20 lbs. A 48volt 15 amp hour lithium battery weighs about 10 lbs. A battery’s weight is proportional to its voltage and capacity. A higher voltage, higher capacity battery will weigh more.

Displays, wiring, etc..

The miscelaneous bits of your ebike will add another couple of pounds. This includes the wiring, display on your handlebar, pedal sensor and brake switches.

Total of ebike parts

If you take 10 lbs for the motor, 10 lbs for the battery and 5 pounds for miscellaneous parts it brings us to 25 lbs for the ebike conversion parts weight.

Total ebike weight

When we take our 30 lbs bike and add 25 lbs of ebike parts to it we end up with a 55 lb ebike. This brings us right in line with the average commuter/mountain ebike being sold today.

Lightweight ebikes

At the lightweight end of the ebike spectrum, there are bikes that weigh around 26 lbs. How do they make these ebikes so lightweight? These bikes have some of the conventional bike components removed as the pedal driveline.
The Ancheer 350 watt folding scooter bike has no pedal driveline. It has small wheels. It only operates in a throttle mode since it can’t be pedaled. This ebike weighs a small amount above 26 lbs.

Heavyweight ebikes

At the other end of the spectrum are the heavy ebikes. An ebike based on a fatbike (4 inch wide tire mountain bike) is starting from a 40 lb bike. You add electric components on from there. That gives you 65 lb and up ebikes. Add a long range battery and high power motor and you can go much higher in weight.

The Aventon Aventure 2 weighs in at 77 lbs. This is not a compact small ebike that you can easily carry into the office or take a on a bus or subway. E-bikes can get a lot heavier from there.

Does the weight of your ebike matter?

You have to think about how you’re going to use your ebike to answer that question. If you need to carry your ebike with you into your office or on public transportation weight matters. No one wants to carry a 65 lb bike around.

If you need to commute a long distance weight may not matter so much. Range and speed will be much more important. How do you get more range and speed from your ebike? You use larger motors and batteries which add weight.

The more weight you and your bike have, the more energy the bike and you need to use to move it. The heavier things get, the more battery capacity is needed to go the same distance. It gets worse going up hills where more energy is used. Fortunately, you can double the capacity of your batteries for only a few pounds of added batteries.

If you want to use your ebike for mountain bike trail riding than weight placement matters a lot. A big motor hanging on your rear wheel or battery on a rack over the rear wheel will affect the bikes handling. Your bike will not feel balanced during technical riding. In these cases it is better to keep the extra ebike weight near the center of the bike.

The below video shows the effect or riding a lightweight vs heavyweight bike. The effect is the same for an ebike. The only difference is you the bikes motor is providing some of the power instead of the rider. More energy will be used going up hills on a heavier bike and with a heavier rider.

Do electric bikes have a weight limit?

Most electric bikes have a rider weight limit in their manual or specifications. 220 lbs is a common weight limit but there are ebikes suitable for riders well over 300 lbs. 220 lbs is listed a lot because it is equal to 100 kg. 100 kg was a nice round even number for bike designers to work too.

You might also like:

• The Best Electric Bikes Under $2000 Helpful Guide
• The Best Electric Bikes Under $500 And Helpful Guide
• How To Convert A Mountain Bike Into An Ebike In 15 Easy Steps