2022 Sur-Ron Light Bee X

Introduction

• 'New' breed of lightweight "e-moto"

From the same people who brought you 13 year olds wheelieing through your nearest suburb, or riding two up without a helmet to the local Starbucks, comes the Sur Ron Light Bee X. The 70’s are back baby! Gone were the days when enterprising teens could rip through the woods above their cul-de-sac or build motocross tracks in the May Company development lot. Now, for better or for worse, those days are back and stronger than ever with a new breed of category defying electric mountain-bike/pit-bike crossover machine.

With a price tag of $4,164, the Sur Ron Light Bee is the most well known name in this new class of small e-motos. The Light Bee X blurs the line between an ebike like a Super 73, and an electric dirt bike. This category is characterized by small size, light weight, and the use of downhill mountainbike style components like suspension and brakes.

Love them or hate them, Sur Ron filled a hole in the market with the Light Bee. So much so, that when our model was delivered the freight driver said he was delivering about one per day. We've tested the Light Bee X as a small-sized stealthy playbike and a beginner-friendly dirt bike, and we'll tell you how the bike performs in those roles. We will also share how the bike worked in its stock form, and what modifications we found beneficial.

Changes

• KKE suspension
• Improved motor control

Since its introduction in 2018, the Light Bee has received numerous design tweaks including suspension, power, and battery capacity. The 2022 Light Bee X features a sine wave motor controller in the place of the earlier square wave model, and KKE suspension components in the place of DNM units.

Power

• Playful, but geared short stock
• Inconsistent throttle response
• Lack of clutch helps riders of all skill levels

We found the power to be playful and entertaining, especially when geared down. In stock trim, there is more than enough torque and pull for an adult beginner rider to start learning basic bike handling and off-road skills –our test riders ranged from 130 to 180 pounds. With modified gearing, there is enough snap off the bottom to loft the front wheel easily and to hop over most obstacles thrown your way. Because of the fixed gearing, and low overall power the bike stops pulling in the mid range, and lumbers along to its top speed in the low 40's mph.

The LBX’s power plant –the battery, motor, and motor controller- together make a claimed power of 6 kilowatts or roughly 8 horsepower. To put this in a more familiar context, this would be roughly similar to a 125cc four-stroke play bike like a Yamaha TTR-125. Though unlike a TTR, the LBX is able to deliver that 8hp right off the bottom if desired, rather than at the peak of the horsepower curve - a trait unique to electric motors.

Power is delivered through a timing belt pulley primary drive, different from that of a gas powered bike, and a chain final drive, something we’re more accustomed to. In our roughly eighty hours of testing, with soil conditions ranging from dusty to muddy and pressure washing like a regular combustion engine bike, the original belt has withstood the abuse and is still performing perfectly. We did tighten the belt tension once when it started squeaking, and we were back in business.

The Light Bee has a power mode switch on the handlebars with a “Sport” mode which allows the controller to use the full power available, and an “EP” or Eco mode. When EP mode is activated, the bike is limited to 29 mph and delivers the power in a tamer way. We found this mode very useful for beginner riders, including riders who had never ridden a motorcycle, let alone a dirt bike. Our more experienced riders favored sport mode for the added power and the more predictable power delivery in every condition, even when intentionally trying to ride the bike under 20 mph for a range test, as the throttle felt more connected and predictable.

Our biggest critique on the Light Bee’s power, and with the bike in general, is the power delivery. In certain circumstances, the bike can give an inconsistent or a notchy feel. This occurs mostly when the rear wheel speed is at or near zero. The bike can hunt and jump between motor magnets, where sometimes the bike is not delivering torque when the rider asks for it, or applying a burst of torque at once when the rider wouldn’t like. This is most evident when stopped on the side of a loose hill where you’d be trying to apply the right amount of power to avoid breaking the rear tire loose, or in extreme enduro conditions.

We were able to compensate for this for the most part by modulating the throttle by large angles, and predicting the bike’s quirks. The better fix came with a larger sprocket, which felt like it moved the magnets closer together and smoothed some of this effect. We went up from the stock 48T rear sprocket to a 54T, a 58T sprocket, and a 60T. While the 54T was a modest improvement, the 58T really helped clean things up. At 60T, we loved the torque and feel for technical riding, but the reduced top speed becomes noticeable.

All of that being said, for most riders this is likely not an issue, especially in the LBX’s target audience of beginners and people looking for a quiet playbike. Overall for what this bike is, we found the power to work just fine.

Range and Charging

Electric bikes (like gas bikes to some extent) can use different amounts of energy depending on the conditions. In trail riding conditions with rolling elevation changes, we typically achieved between 20 and 30 miles of range. On roads where you’d find yourself using full throttle most of the time, that range drops to 20 miles or less. If for whatever reason we found ourselves trying to get the most range possible out of the LBX we could get over 40 miles by riding the bike below 20 miles per hour.

The interesting thing we found when it came to battery life is that most of the time, the range didn’t matter at all. When we put beginner riders on the bike, they often were “out of batteries” before the bike was out of batteries. When our test riders hopped on the bike it was just to play around, or do a short zip through the woods. Especially since you can just leave it on the charger overnight.

The times we did care about the range was when the bike dipped below 15%, and the power system cuts into the low power mode.

The stock battery charger for the bike runs on regular household 120 volt outlet, and charges the battery from zero to one-hundred percent in a little under four hours. A useful amount of charge can be thrown in if you are taking a break somewhere that has a power outlet. We mostly found ourselves doing this to get back above the 15% ‘limp mode’ threshold. The battery is easily removable, which could allow quick-changes of the battery. The battery does rattle around slightly in the chassis, but we didn’t encounter any problems.

Suspension

• Fully adjustable, mountain bike components
• More limited by chassis than by suspension

An interesting aspect of bikes in this market segment, including the Sur Ron LBX, is the use of downhill mountain bike style suspension components rather than the damper rod style found on comparable combustion bike play bikes. The LBX uses the Chinese brand KKE MTB style suspension, and a rear linkage.

Both the forks and shock are adjustable for compression, rebound and preload. One of the single function forks utilize fork air pressure to control compression, exactly like a mountain bike. This level of adjustability allowed us to find a setting that had adequate holdup and traction, but we were not able to find a setting that preserved these characteristics along with comfort. Although we’ve yet to try, these components should be familiar to your local mountain bike shop for tuning and servicing, and we did confirm that the shop local to our Northern California testing areas was willing to work on the suspension if removed from the bike despite having a ‘no Sur Ron’ policy.

That holdup and traction shouldn’t oversold too much as we were able to get the suspension to bottom fairly easily when jumping or dropping off modest ledges.

Chassis - Handling

• Very cramped for an adult
• So, so light
• 19 inch rear rim gives a spindly feeling

For an adult rider, the Sur Ron handles reasonably well. The stock tires worked well enough to use up, and the bike can be steered through the footpegs well, and steers extremely fast. We found ourselves searching for additional stability, and ended up running the front forks slightly lower than flush with the top of the triple clamps. This result was as good as it got, but the bike still had a fairly twitchy character. Beginner riders are likely to feel some discomfort from the lightweight of the LBX compared to a heavier fourstroke when riding, due to the lack of stability. On the other hand, the Sur Ron could hardly be easier to pick up after a tip over; pick your poison. That same weight (125lbs) makes it a cheater in hard enduro terrain, you can absolutely lift the bike over moderate sized obstacles and generally man-handle the bike when needed.

The rider cockpit is quite small, no surprise given the small overall size, but we found ourselves getting used to it after a few minutes of riding.

The stock footpegs offer very little grip, a set of aftermarket pegs were the first modification made to the test bike. We would recommend replacing the stock pegs if the bike is being used even moderately off road. The stock sheet metal skid plate dented after moderate abuse, and a polymer model was installed instead.

The stock rear wheel set is a 19”/19” front and rear. This limited the rear tire options to only tires designed for the front wheel, and gave a spindly characteristic to the handling of the rear end. After changing the stock 19 inch to an aftermarket 16” rear wheel, and getting access to purpose built rear tires the option to steer the bike with the rear end became a viable option, and traction improved considerably.

The chassis has a perimeter aluminum frame to make room for the battery. The stock seat doesn’t extend toward the steering stem, which can make sitting up on the “tank” around corners a slightly painful proposition. We tried an aftermarket seat which extends further over the battery compartment and improved things, but the particular brand of seat didn’t hold up to the normal wear and tear of the use we put bikes through. Between the suspension, the seat, and the chassis there isn’t a great deal of comfort available, but overall we found the handling to be surprisingly sharp, especially after a few modifications.

Conclusion

• A real hoot
• Durability not quite what we’re used to in the dirt bike market

For a playbike that is fairly cheap to buy, and really cheap to run, we found the Sur Ron to be a real hoot zipping quietly around our testing areas. And the key word once again is quietly. Those inclined to be creative may open up riding areas for themselves that wouldn’t be possible on a combustion machine. Complete beginners take very well to this bike, and we found it to be an excellent stepping stone for that first phase of learning when you’re just getting used to two wheels and a motor, before introducing them to the multitasking of the clutch and gearshift –almost like a PW50 for adults.

All in all, for its target mission of a fun bike we found the Light Bee X fit for purpose.