Get unlimited access to everything VICE has to offer.

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more here.

Aventon Soltera 3 ADV Review: This E-Bike Turned Me From Skeptic to Fan

My nose wrinkled in disdain when I was assembling this lightweight ebike. Then I rode it, and my whole opinion changed.

By Matt Jancer | Reviewed by Ysolt Usigan

Share on X (Opens in new window)X

Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook

Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard

Lightweight ebikes are my specialty. Expensive ones that wield Porsche-like engineering in exotic materials and construction techniques, cheap ones that try to be the Volkswagen Beetle bike of the masses. All of them. It’s hard to build an ebike that pares away the excesses that push average ebike weights into the 50-65-pound range. And when a brand plans to sell a lightweight bike for less than $2,000, it becomes at least twice as difficult. Given the chance to review a new lightweight, budget ebike is my favorite task because it’s hard for a bike manufactutrer to do well.

When I unboxed the Aventon Soltera 3 ADV in its state of partial breakdown for shipping, I’d fully assembled a disdain for the bike before I’d finished assembling the bike itself. Those handlebar grips, those tires, that seat, and that $1,500 price.

Then I took it out on a beautiful Saturday ride over some of the most beautifully beaten up New York City roads, consisting almost entirely of potholes, gravel, and driver aggression, and I decided that I liked Aventon’s newest bike very much.

TL;DR – My Quick Verdict

I’ve been reviewing electric bikes for six years, and I’ve thrown my leg over the saddle of dozens and dozens of them. When I unboxed the Soltera 3 ADV and began piecing it together, my skeptical eye sized up the barebones ebike rather critically. It had but one single speed. It had no fenders or cargo rack. It had an unimpressive seat and handlebar grips. Once I took it out for a test ride on a sunny Saturday, though, my opinion on Aventon’s newest ebike did a complete 180.

Soltera 3 ADV (opens in a new window)

There’s no magic sauce for this one. I tested the Aventon by riding it down New York City’s pockmarked, gravel-covered streets. Here it’s de rigueur to panic stop when cars, pedestrians, other cyclists blithely cross in front of your speeding bike, which gives a bike’s brakes a stringent, underwear-bunching test of their capabilities. Busted-up roads tax your comfort on the seat and handlebars; uncomfortable ones will make themselves apparent soon. Tires need to have enough grip to handle turns without acting skittish and unstable over dust and gravel. If a bike can perform adequately here, it can do so in any city or suburb.

a deceptively simple bike

Ebikes have evolved so much since the Covid days dumped fuel onto the fire of interest in ebikes. Back in 2020 if you were shopping an ebike for $1,500, you’d have been dreaming if you expected one with a battery integrated into the frame, like the Soltera 3 ADV’s, and not merely tacked on like an unsightly plastic growth. Or hydraulic disc brakes, like those on a car or motorcycle, that use fluid to apply strong, even braking pressure. Inexpensive ebikes until recently relied upon cable-activated rim brakes, like you see on the rows of kids’ bikes at Walmart.

Aventon launched the Soltera 3 ADV in January 2026 as a successor to, what else, the Soltera 2.5. In the process of evolution it lost nine pounds but gained $300 in price. Is it $300........

© Vice