Revonte debuted their ONE Drive System at Eurobike 2019, and now they’re announcing their first official bike partnerships. The innovative design combines an e-bike drive unit with an integrated stepless automatic transmission. Designed to work with a variety of bike styles, the unit has a high degree of customization available to each e-bike manufacturer.
Revonte ONE e-bike motor and automatic transmission system
While automatic transmissions aren’t very common for bicycles, they are slowly gaining more acceptance. Revonte has a unique take that combines automatic shifting with an e-bike drive system, rather than having two completely independent parts.
The system was shown at Eurobike 2019, and has its first two official OEM partners secured for 2020 – Tunturi and Lavelle Bikes. They have also partnered with industry veteran, Rolf Singenberger, who was the head of R&D at BMC.
The motor produces 250 watts and 90Nm of torque, pulling from a huge 36 volt, 635 Wh battery. The CVT transmission has a reported 416% gear range at 60 rpm.
All that power comes at a weight penalty – 4.7 kg (10.4 lbs) for the drive unit and 3.98kg (8.8lbs) for the battery. Chainline is reported at 57.8mm, with a q-factor of 180mm.
Revonte concedes that, while a fully automatic transmission is great for most cases, sometimes you want more control (i.e. off-road or high-torque situations). To accommodate this, their system has a semi-automatic mode with a paddle shifter that simulates shifting gears in a traditional cassette. You can set the number of gears and adjust the ratios using the Revonte mobile app.
Revonte says that they’ve designed the ONE as an ecosystem using an open API – giving you the ability to build your own applications. Connectivity is provided via 4G, Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS, and CAN bus.
The Revonte is an OEM product, so no consumer retail pricing is available. The system will begin its availability on the brands mentioned above in 2020.
