Road test review: Ubco 2x2 Adventure

Wednesday, 16 March 2022

This awesome little workhorse is the Ubco 2x2 Adventure, a two-wheel drive electric moped.

I’m branching out a bit this month – I’ve managed to nab an electric moped for a weekend! Specifically, it’s an Ubco 2x2 Adventure, similar to what you might have seen Domino’s delivery riders using to shuttle delicious pizza around.

As the name suggests, the 2x2 is a two-wheel drive machine, quite a rarity in the motorcycling world. That’s largely because 2WD is tricky to figure out with combustion power, as you don’t have the same space for extra driveshafts and transmissions and such as you do in a car.

The mirrors and indicators are all that differentiates the Adventure from the Work, the farm-ready, non-road-legal version.

A few makers have tried over the years, but without much success. It’s an expensive endeavour, and the market never really got on board, despite some good reviews here and there.

But now, thanks to electrification, two-wheel drive is easier (and cheaper) to suss out – just whack another motor on the front hub. That’s a very distilled version of what Ubco has done with the 2x2.

Would you commute on an e-moped? (First published April 2019)

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The 2x2 Adventure is the version you’ll see around town, as it has all the bits needed for road-going registration like mirrors and indicators. The Adventure is white, while the Work is black.

Both it and the Work (the one you’d probably see on a farm, not road-legal) are very utilitarian in design, with a step-through trellis frame cradling the removable battery, which can be had in 2.1kWh or 3.1kWh sizes. There are 19 accessory lugs dotted around the chassis that allow you to fit a bunch of add-ons to the bike, including Ubco-official accessories or your own attachments with an extra adaptor pack.

Motors on both wheels means quick take-offs, even by EV standards.

Power is sourced from two 1kW motors, one on each wheel, enough to hit a limited top speed of 50kmh. It’s limited to keep the 2x2 within the moped class, which allows anyone with a car licence to ride one.

Because it’s electric, there aren’t any gears to worry about, making it more like a twist-and-go scooter to ride, just with more of a motorcycle-like seating position. Both wheels also have regenerative braking, with the maximum range for the 3.1KWh pack claimed at 120km. That’s roughly double what most plug-in hybrid cars offer, so plenty to get you to work and back.

And go it does, with the 50kmh top speed coming up on the dash faster than you might expect. It won’t rip your face off with torque like some EVs, but 184Nm combined means it’ll get the jump on most things at a set of traffic lights.

I took the 2x2 to a little forested area for a blast, and while I’m not much of an off-road rider, it was still a huge amount of fun. The suspension is soft with 130mm of travel at the front and 120mm at the rear, and the bike only weighs a total of 70kg with the 3.1kWh battery (52.7kg without), so it scampers over roots and rocks.

Somewhat strangely, the tester didn’t seem to offer traction control nor ABS. I was told that future versions will have the safety tech but the lack of both means off-road riding can be a bit slippery, as the front wheel has enough grunt to lose traction without much effort. Thankfully, it seems to be an even 50:50 power split between each wheel, so the rear digs in enough to prevent big moments.

On-road, things are a lot more predictable. You blast up to 50kmh then enjoy the bitterness that radiates from the cars that make too much effort to pass you, as if it’s a personal attack on them that you got off the line better. Then you can filter between the lanes to the front of the queue again and repeat.

If you’re one of those people that start waving their hands around when a bike or scooter cuts in front, just remember that’s one less car clogging the road, so they’re actually doing you a favour.

It’ll shave minutes off your commute, and you don’t need to worry about the wildly fluctuating fuel prices because you plug it in at home overnight for a full charge. Win-win, right?

Of course, there are tradeoffs, like the inherent increase in danger that comes with riding a bike on the road, not helped by the fact that some of those grumpy sods will cut it very close when passing. You also can’t take it on the motorway, due to that 50kmh limit.

We would wait for a version with ABS at least, as you really don’t want to be locking the wheels of a bike under braking, especially in the wet. From experience, the front end can go sideways very quickly.

At the time of writing, the 2x2 Adventure will cost you $7999 with the 2.1kWh battery, or $8599 with the 3.1kWh version. That is fairly expensive, considering you could get the electric Niu NQi or M1 scooters for $4499 or $4199 respectively.

Granted they’re scooters, so don’t look as cool or have the practicality of the Ubco, and they’re one-wheel drive, and only have 80km of range, but that’s a big price difference.

It’s also the same price as the sold-out FTN Streetdog, but cheaper than the $10,000-plus Stealth range of off-road-oriented electric bikes. Speaking of, Ubco will also soon offer an electric trail bike, the $9999 FRX1.