Super73 Bike Model R Review

Super73 has become one of the biggest names within the ebike industry thanks in large part to its "cafe cruiser" looking bikes and heavy advertising spend. The Super73-R is the company's higher end model bike, with greater components compared to the the S and Z models. The model R is quite heavy weighing in at 78 lbs, due in large part to its motorcycle like frame. This bike scored a 74 on our tower ebike score giving it an "outstanding eBike" rating according to our electric bike experts.

DISCLAIMER - Super73 and Model R are trademarks of Super73, and use of that trademark in this review does not indicate that the reviewer is claiming any interest in the mark or any affiliation with or sponsorship or endorsement by Super73.

Super73 R

Today, we're going to review and rate the Super73 model R ebike. It gets a 74 on our hundred-point scale which rates it as an outstanding e-bike.

Before we get into the review I wanted to introduce myself, my name is Stephen Aarstol. I'm the founder and CEO of the Tower e-Bike Repair Shop here in San Diego. We see hundreds of different models and brands of e-bikes on a monthly basis that come through the repair shop, so we’re in a unique position here to review and get our hands on a lot of the electric bikes in the industry.

Our electric bike mechanics have been in the biking industry for 20+ years. They have run bike shops before and most of these guys have 10 years of experience in the e-bike world, in the skateboard world, and in the electronics world. They really have the unique ability to distinguish between a good ebike and a bad ebike.

At the component level, some bikes are good in certain areas and not good in other areas. And so, we all came together and we put together what we're calling the Tower e-Bike Score. It's a score from zero to a hundred where we get a single-point score from each of the attributes we rate each electric bike on. This’ll allow consumers to get a gauge of the e-bike’s quality.

A lot of people say that this is odd that you're reviewing and rating competitor e-bikes. Well, this is really something that grew out of our repair shop and frankly, our direct consumer e-bike brand is a beach lifestyle company. We were Tower Paddle Boards. We created paddleboards as a direct-to-consumer brand in that space. And now, we make electric beach cruisers.

We don't make mountain bikes. We don't make minibikes. We don't make city bikes. We don't make fat-tire bikes. We don't make folding bikes. We don't do any of these other things. We're actually in a pretty good position to be able to be impartial on what is quality and what is not quality. We don't take price into account here at all. I mean, e-bike prices range from $700 to over $10,000. You couldn't tell what the bike costs from our reviews, we don't even mention that. We just speak to the quality and then you decide if that price is good for that quality.

The way it works is we rate on seven key attributes. We rate each e-bike from one to 10 on each of these seven key attributes. Then we normalize that to get a hundred-point score for each specific bike.

• Materials quality
• Mechanical quality
• Low maintenance
• Hill-climbing ability,
• Range
• Comfort
• Universality

We put all those seven attributes together and create a single-point score called the Tower Score. But you can see the individual scores on those seven attributes as well. These scores will give you insight into anything you may be interested in.

We do have a second hundred-point score called the Specialty Score, which omits comfort and universality. This is for more performance-based bikes or for very specific use-case bikes like mountain bikes, road bikes, or something like that which isn’t necessarily built for comfort. They're built for performance, right? And those brands don't necessarily care as much about comfort because they're not designing for comfort.

As for universality, we look for universal fit. A lot of these mountain bike brands will have five different frame sizes. They're not really incentivized to make a universal fit bike. If it's a specialty bike like that, I look closely at our Specialty Score or any of the other e-bikes our tower e-bikes score. The Specialty Score on comfort and on universality is a pretty important thing, especially when you're ordering these remotely or something like that.

Let's get into it for the review of the Super73-R. This is the higher-end of the Super73 bikes. And like we said, he gets a score of 74, which makes it an outstanding e-bike. What's more, it gets a pretty good score on each attribute.

Super73 R Materials Quality - 9/10

On the materials quality, the Super73-R gets a score of 9 out of 10. That's almost as high as you can get. They use a really nice high-end aluminum frame on this. They've got nice Vee branded tires, premium touch points around grips, seat, pedals, everything on the bike was made with quality and long lasting material in mind.

9 out of 10, that's an excellent score.

Super73 Mechanical Quality - 8/10

The second attribute we looked at is mechanical quality. The Super73-R gets an eight out of 10, which is a pretty good score. They use hydraulic brakes. They're not the highest end of premium hydraulic brakes, but they are hydraulic brakes. Which means that it's not cheap at all. That's a very good call to use hydraulic brakes as it means less maintenance down the road for the rider, and less squeaky brakes and brake adjustments when riding. The Super73 Model R also has really nice suspension on the front and rear.

Overall, the parts are pretty good. 8 out of 10 on mechanical quality for the Super 73R.

Super73 Low Maintenance - 7/10

The next attribute is low maintenance. What we’re looking at here is how likely are you to have issues with this bike? Being a repair shop we get a good sense of which bikes we see come into our shop a lot and the reasons they visit the shop and need repairs.

We give the Super73-R a score of 7 out of 10 on low maintenance, which is a pretty good score. They have pretty highly flat-resistant tires on this bike. They're sort of a cross between a motorcycle tire and a bike tire because this thing really is it's sort of a minibike, but it's more like a motorcycle look than a bike.

The tires are pretty beefy. The nice thing about that is it will lead to a lot less flats, which can be pretty tedious moments. With that being said, these tires can be challenging to change, especially the rear tire. Generally on these mini bikes like Super73’s it can be tough to work on the bike as they dont fit on a regular bike stand. They will require a moto stand to get the bike off the ground and fix the rear tire or anything on the underneath of the bike.

Touching back on the fact that the Super73 Model R has hydraulic brakes just means that you're not going to have to constantly adjust your mechanical disc brakes. That's a nice feature they have as well. This is a chain drive, you're going to have some issues there. You're going to have some rust issues in the future. The frame isn't going to rust, but some of the components will.

In total, the bike scored a 7 out of 10 on low maintenance.

Super73 Hill-Climbing Ability - 5/10

The next attribute is the hill-climbing ability and the Super73-R gets a score of 5 out of 10. Now, this is really the weakest score of any of the attributes that the bike got here. What you really have to understand is this is not a geared bike. This bike is made for flatlands and for speed. Not for hills. With no gears you can’t switch into a lower gear and help aid yourself up a hill.

You have to have a pretty solid engine, ideally, a mid-drive loader and with gearing. Only then can you really do well with hill-climbing. They've got a super powerful motor on this thing. It's a rear hub motor that’s a 48-volt system. It's a speed-centric motor but there's no real gearing. You're going to be able to go like a bat out of hell, but this thing is not built for torque and mid-range torque for hill climbing, so the Model R scored a 5 out of 10.

Super73 R Battery Range - 9/10

The next attribute is range. This bike gets an excellent score on range. It gets a score of 9 out of 10. It has a big motor and they pair that with a decently-sized battery capacity. The battery capacity is the most expensive component on electric bikes. A lot of the lower-end brands tend to pair it with a small battery capacity even if they have a big motor on their products. Know that if you buy that small battery capacity, you're screwed. You should look for a battery capacity of 14ah+.

Super73 is a quality brand and they do good. They don't let you make that mistake. Basically, they're going to give you their base model battery and it is going to give you excellent range. I mean, I think they even look at these things as more like a motorcycle than a bike. You're not pedal assisting too much here. You have to have a big battery if you're in that case which Super73 added. One thing to note however is that the battery is pretty heavy on these Super73 bikes.

Super73 Comfort - 8/10

The next attribute is comfort. We gave the Super73 an 8 out of 10 on comfort. Just the style of these bikes, cafe racer style, is fairly comfortable. You're sitting in a somewhat upright position. You don't have a lot of adjustments to make the bike fit you, but you can slide around on the bike because it's got this sort of long seat that if you're shorter, you could slide up on the seat. And if you're taller, you can slide back on the seat. The Model R also has a great front and rear suspension which helps for a smoother offroading ride and if you do happen to hit a bump or rock you wont feel the full blow of the bike on your body.

It's got cushion tires and a pretty comfy seat. Even if you're peddling, it's got a pedal-forward design. You can make it a pedal forward design by just sliding back on the seat to get some real torque on those pedals.

8 out of 10, it's a pretty good score for comfort.

eBike’s Universality - 6/10

And the last attribute here is universality. We give this e-bike a score of 6 out of 10. This is going to work for a large array of rider sizes. And like I said, there's not a lot of adjustability to this bike. The handlebars could come back and forward, but you can also slide forward and back on that seat. The seat on these things are fairly high and it's a step over. This is not a step-through type bike. You have got to step over. It's pretty high. It's about 33 inches on the step over.

A lot of older people aren't going to be using this bike because they just can't get onto the thing. Even shorter people, if they get up, they're going to be high-centered. It does get knocked a little bit there on the universality appeal of it, but I think they make this for a very specific audience.

eBike’s Overall Tower Score (74) and Specialty Score (76)

When you add those up and we normalize those seven 10-point scores, it gives this an overall Tower Score of 74, which rates it as an outstanding e-bike. And as we touched upon before, the Specialty Score, which omits the attributes of comfort and university, is 76 on this bike.

It even gets a little better when you take out the adjustability and comfort of this bike. That was an outstanding e-bike score. We don't factor the next few things into the Tower e-Bike Score, but we do mention them.

Super73 R Weight

The weight on this bike is 78 pounds. That's quite heavy. These minibikes tend to be pretty heavy because basically, they're building a motorcycle here. It's not really a bike. They have pretty beefy frames and fat-tires. The batteries and motors are also big. Still, 78 pounds is pretty heavy. However, we've seen some of these bikes that are a hundred pounds.

If you're looking to get an e-bike and you've got to carry this upstairs, or you're going to have to put this into the back of your truck. I mean, it's not that easy to pick up 78 pounds.

Super73 R Looks

Another thing to touch on is its looks. We think it looks pretty cool. It has a retro look to it. The company is somewhat Instagram famous. I think they're out in LA. But it's sort of a cool look and they have a cool brand. If you're riding this thing down the boardwalk or the sidewalk, people are definitely going to look and think that you're riding a motorcycle on the sidewalk.

It's not a bike, it doesn't look like a bike. In the Tower e-Bike Repair Shop, we tend to favor and prefer e-bikes that look like bikes because then that allows you to go on everywhere that our bike can go.

 

eBike’s Low Proprietary Risk Score - 1/10

The last thing we give a score on here is the low proprietary risk score. Low proprietary risk rates the likelihood of the e-bike company to stay in business for decades. Essentially, if you buy an e-bike from a company that is long gone, in a way you’re kind of screwed. Think of it this way, are you going to be able to get replacement parts? Will you be able to take it into a repair shop that can work on a bike whose mother company is gone? How fast or likely will you be able to get replacement parts when your e-bike needs it?

And the reason we even bring up this low proprietary risk rating is that we see bikes come into our e-bike repair shop all the time; even ones whose brand went out of business two to three years ago. These people have a bike that they basically can't fix. Now, it is at our displeasure to inform them that it isn’t fixable because there are no parts for this particular bike anymore. We can Frankenstein something together and get it running. Maybe. But it's going to look pretty horrible. It's going to be like tagging on spare parts around this thing. This is the horror customers have to face if there are no more sourceable parts for their particular model or brand of e-bike.

We like to bring this up because a lot of people really don't consider this when they buy an electric bike. If that e-bike business goes out, you can still maintain this thing and use it for about 5-10 years into the future, however. But if they use a lot of proprietary stuff and a lot of these e-bike brands do that, the consumers are a little safer.

Unfortunately, on the low proprietary risk rating, the Super73 gets a one out of 10. This has a lot of proprietary components around it. It has a standardized battery pack; however, that’s the only thing standard about it. Everything else is proprietary. This includes the controllers, the LCD, and the motor. It is their own branded parts. Even the tires are non-standard. It’s akin to a hybrid-motorcycle tire thing that you're going to have to get from them. What will the customer do if Super73 goes out of business? Customers won’t be able to get tires for their bikes anymore. On top of all that, they’re only an e-bike business. There are some risks to the business from that.

That's it, the Super73-R gets a Tower Score of 74 which rates it as an outstanding bike. If you're looking for this type of bike, this is probably going to be one of the premium bikes of this sort. Check out our website for Tower Scores and a growing list of other electric bikes as we get our hands on them as they come through the Tower e-Bike Repair Shop, and we'll keep you updated.

*****

 

DISCLAIMER - Super73 and Model R are trademarks of Super73, and use of that trademark in this review does not indicate that the reviewer is claiming any interest in the mark or any affiliation with or sponsorship or endorsement by Super73.