Aventon Pace 500 Review 2022

In-Depth Aventon Pace 500 Review

Aventon Pace 500: Comfort, Handling, and Ride Qualities

The Aventon Pace 500 does an impressive job of blending the comfortable position of a cruiser with the handling of a commuter. This is a more impressive achievement than it may sound like. It’s a bit like finding an SUV with the handling and mileage of a sedan. Normally, the upright position of a cruiser requires that a bike have more gentle handling for reasons of balance and weight distribution, but with a few tweaks Aventon has created a bike that is both maneuverable and easy on the butt and shoulders.

A big, underestimated piece of comfort is being on a bike that fits. Even if the handlebar is several inches higher than the saddle, if a bike is too big for a rider they will be forced to lean way forward to reach the handlebar. The Aventon Pace 500 comes in two frame styles—traditional and step-thru. Both the traditional and step-thru frames are made in two sizes, effectively giving riders four sizes to choose from. Honestly, this is one of the bike’s very best features. This will be especially helpful to more diminutive people and anyone who ducks through doorways.

Commuters have an inherent need in handling. Getting to a place of work means dealing with driveways, sidewalks, slow-moving cars and pedestrians. Any of those can be a challenge to someone on a bicycle. Cruisers can be a challenge in these situations because their gentle handling can make them slow to react, which is not so helpful to dodging texting pedestrians. The Pace 500 goes where the rider points it without being so quick to react that it feels like a sports car.

The ride of the Pace 500 is a bit different than many similar bikes in that it doesn’t spec super-squishy tires or a suspension fork. With an aluminum fork and 27.5 x 2.2-in. tires, this e-bike has a snappy feel and rolls quickly.

Aventon Pace 500 Review: Motor, Battery, and Drivetrain Performance

For bikes in this price range, a 500W brushless hub motor is fairly standard. It produces enough power to speed riders up to the Class 3 max speed of 28 mph, something that it manages in part because its top gear is big enough for people to pedal at a reasonable cadence at 28 mph, rather than have their legs whirring like a blender.

The fully integrated, 614Wh battery is positioned well in the frame, helping to lower the bike’s center of gravity, which improves its handling. Lots of weight down low makes a bike easy to maneuver, without being squirrelly.

The Pace 500 received a number of upgrades recently, and one of the more significant ones was in its drivetrain. The big change was at the rear wheel, with a switch from seven speeds to eight. One more cog is nice enough, but what is significant is that it now has a wider range of gears, giving it both more high-end and low-end. The design of the rear wheel changed as well, to one that better supports the rear axle, making for a stronger wheel overall.

Aventon Pace 500 Review: Braking, Safety, Customer Service & Warranty

Any bike that has the capability of going 28 mph needs to have solid brakes in order to give the rider a short enough stopping distance to feel like they are in control. The Tektro hydraulic discs with 180mm rotors do just that. It’s a powerful brake perfect for threading obstacles.

To be safe on a bike, step one is control, i.e., brakes. Step two is being seen. The Aventon Pace 500 comes with front and rear lights and the rear lights are integrated into the frame and light up when the brakes are applied. It gives the bike a very stylish look.

The responsiveness of a company’s customer service can be hard to judge until someone actually has a problem. However, a quick look at their reviews show less than 2 percent of all bikes received bad reviews and in each instance they engaged with the reviewer in an effort to resolve the issue. This is especially encouraging because some companies simply delete all bad reviews.

We were honestly surprised to see just how good Aventon’s warranty is; it’s comparable to what used to be the warranty for big bike companies like Trek. The Pace 500 has a lifetime warranty to the original owner on the frame and fork, while the components are protected for a year. It’s the best warranty we’ve seen (so far) from an e-bike in this price range.

Aventon Pace 500 Review: Smartphone App

Aventon is one of a handful of e-bike makers that offers a smartphone app to give users more control over the functionality of their bike. Impressively, they didn’t punt on this and introduce only iOS or Android; they have both.

The app gives riders the opportunity to track their rides, from distance covered, average pace, calories burned and more. There’s a social media component made up of other Aventon owners posting pictures and rides. There’s also a page where a number of the e-bike’s settings.

One criticism we have of some e-bikes is that the PAS levels can be poorly set. We’ve seen PAS 1 be too weak to offer any noticeable assistance as well as too small a jump in assistance from one level to another. With the app, those parameters can be adjusted as well as setting a maximum speed, such as if a rider wants to make sure their bike performs as a Class 2 and not as a Class 3 bike due to local laws.

Aventon Pace 500 Review: Recommendation/Final Verdict

When we look at the various features that make the Aventon Pace 500 a bike worth recommending, we take note of the solid motor, excellent battery, powerful brakes and wide-range drivetrain. Those are, together, reason enough to recommend the Pace 500. That said, one of the bike’s very best features is something no one can pick up from looking at the bike: the fact that it comes in four sizes.

For someone of relatively average height, plenty of bikes exist to choose from. However, people at the extremes of height, either very tall or very petite, will have trouble fitting any bike that comes in just one size. This bike ought to kill with gymnasts and basketball players.

We also love the fact that this is a bike that doesn’t do backflips to make the rider more comfortable. This is a bike that gives a zippier, crisper feel on the road, which is more of the feel we had on the bikes we rode as kids. The aluminum fork helps give a great sense of road feel. Think BMW, rather than Lexus.

This isn’t a perfect bike, not by any means. However, for it to be a better bike, it would have to be more expensive, more than $2000 in order to make the upgrades noticeable. When we consider all this bike offers and the fact that it is $1699, we can’t really do enough to stress what a terrific value this bike is.

Thank you for reading through our review of the Aventon Pace 500. Still have further questions? Wondering how it compares to a similar bike? Let us know in the comments below!