Blix Aveny Skyline Review 2021 | Electric Bike Report

To see how well the Aveny Skyline performs in each of its five pedal assist settings, we put it to the test around the Electric Bike Report circuit.

We clocked six laps around the circuit — one for each PAS level plus one more with the motor off — to get a feel for how the performance changes and get an idea for how Blix tuned the bike. We typically like to see consistent jumps in speed between each PAS level and an average speed in maximum assist near the bike’s top motor-assisted speed.

The Blix Aveny Skyline hit all these marks. We recorded a fastest lap around the circuit of 19.1 mph, less than 1 mph short of the bike’s Class 2 limit. Each pedal assist level also had a very distinct change from the next, meaning those wishing to conserve power or ride the bike with less assist can do so easily.

We did, however, notice that the Aveny’s PAS 1 gave very little assistance, yielding just a 0.8 mph improvement over pedaling the bike with the motor off. This is why we chose to do the low assist range test on PAS 2 (the first level we noticed a measurable assist from the motor) and is actually something we notice on most e-bikes with five PAS levels or more.

While I wouldn’t describe the Blix Aveny Skyline as a mountain goat, it can climb hills decently well.

We test the hill climbing ability of each bike we review by subjecting them to two separate hill tests on a particularly steep local grade. That hill, which we lovingly call “Hell Hole,” has a 12 percent to 15 percent grade over its quarter mile length — enough pitch to tax almost any e-bike. The first test is conducted using just the throttle and the second is on the bike’s maximum pedal assist setting.

On the throttle test, the Aveny Skyline cleared the hill in 1:57.00 with an average speed of 9.3 mph. Add in a little help from my legs, and the bike cleared our hill in 1:44.00 for the PAS 5 test with an average speed of 9.3 mph.

Compared to other bikes we’ve reviewed and tested on the same hill, we wouldn’t consider either of those results particularly speedy. But speed isn’t all that’s important when it comes to climbing hills. What I was really impressed with was how little the 500W motor appeared to struggle, even on the steepest sections. Particularly in the throttle-only test, it’s not uncommon for hub motors to make a stressed whirring noise or even vibrate a little, but the Aveny gave little indication that it was suffering. In fact, even though its times are relatively slow, I never doubted that the Aveny was going to clear our test hill — it just took its time.

Handling wise, the Blix Aveny Skyline is a peach.

It’s not a bike designed with laser-sharp handling or hard cornering in mind, but the bike rides with poise and comfort. It’s a perfect bike path cruiser and would be right at home in denser urban environments. The weight distribution feels very balanced thanks to the low battery mounting point and riders looking for predictable and calm handling will likely really like the Aveny. It feels like a through-and-through commuter.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Aveny Skyline’s ride quality is bar-none for a fully rigid commuter. Despite its lack of suspension, the aluminum frame and steel fork do a great job of absorbing vibrations and softening bumps.

The Aveny also has a very nice upright riding position that keeps weight off your hands and your center of gravity very neutral. It’s a mid-step frame, making it a bit easier to get on and off of, and its weight never really was a factor at low speeds or when walking the bike around the office.

I do, however, have one gripe that’s going to be specific to taller people. Though Blix claims this bike can accommodate riders up to 6-foot-2-inches, my 6-foot-1-inch frame didn’t fit perfectly. The main issue for me was seat height, as the factory-spec seatpost maxed out about 2 inches lower than I needed for a full leg extension. I also found myself scooching back on the seat as the swept-back handlebars effectively shorten the cockpit, leaving less space for my arms.

Luckily, it’s pretty easy to have your local bike shop swap out the seatpost for a longer version, so this is a relatively easy fix for us tall folks. A longer post and some minor adjustments with the adjustable stem would also likely solve the reach problem.

Blix spec’d the Aveny Skyline with a 500W hub motor laced into the rear wheel. It ships as a Class 2 unit, meaning it will stop powering the bike at 20 mph on throttle and pedal assistance.

The motor has a really nice acceleration profile that, at least on higher pedal assist settings, has quite a bit of get up and go. I never struggled to maintain a pace near the max speed of 20 mph and I never heard the motor audibly struggle on hills or hard acceleration.

The only qualm some may have is it’s not the most aggressive hill climber. Blix doesn’t publish the torque rating of the motor on the Aveny Skyline, but the motor of the previous Aveny has been cited at 70Nm. Typically that’s an amount of torque that yields some quicker times up hills, but the Aveny Skyline is no high-speed mountain goat. That said, the bike never struggled on hills — it simply took its time.

The Aveny Skyline has a 48V, 12.8Ah externally-mounted battery that makes for 614Wh of available power. Pair that battery with the bike’s remarkable efficiency, and we saw some very impressive range test results.

It is worth noting that the Aveny Skyline actually sports a smaller battery than what was spec’d on the previous Aveny. The old model had a 672Wh battery while the new one has a 614Wh battery. Either way, we are very impressed with how this battery has performed in our testing.

As we’ve mentioned previously, the Blix Aveny Skyline comes stock with five pedal assists settings and a thumb throttle. It’s a Class 2 e-bikes, so both of those propulsion modes are limited to 20 mph.

Even though it has become an industry standard (especially for more affordable e-bikes), I’m not a huge fan of having five PAS settings — it’s just too many. But despite my curmudgeonly view of this setup, Blix actually did a pretty good job of dividing up the Aveny Skyline’s speed among the five settings. This is evidenced in the bike’s circuit test results, where we saw consistently reasonable changes in speed between each PAS level. The only exception to this was PAS 1, which gave very little assist — again, something we see often in e-bikes like this.

On throttle, the bike delivered a very controlled and responsive stream of power to the rear wheel. The throttle has good modulation and you can easily fine tune how much power the bike gives based on how far you depress the trigger.

The Blix Aveny Skyline’s LCD display is a pretty standard-issue unit for a sub-$2,000 e-bike. It’s got a black and white screen that’s extremely easy to read and a dash-style readout that gives important metrics like speed and battery life.

I’m a stickler for battery indicators — trust me, there’s such a thing as a “bad” battery indicator — and the Aveny Skyline has a pretty good one. Your battery life is represented by a chart at the top of the screen that closely resembles dashes on a ruler. As you use battery, those dashes disappear.

Lots of factors have bearing on how well an e-bike stops, but obviously you have to start by looking at the type of brakes an e-bike comes with. The Tektro Aries mechanical disk brakes that come stock on the Blix Aveny Skyline are models we’re very familiar with. When adjusted correctly, they typically stop very, very well.

We put the Aveny’s Skyline’s brakes to the test by conducting five full-power stops from 20 mph then taking the average of those stopping distances, giving us the bike’s average braking distance. The Aveny Skyline’s brakes performed particularly well in this test, coming to a stop with an average braking distance of 15’ 8”, which is better than the 16’ 5” average distance of all the bike’s we’ve tested until now.

This is not to say that the Blix Aveny Skyline will come skidding to a stop that quick every single time, but it is a good indicator that Blix chose appropriately powerful brakes for their bike.

Blix designed the Aveny Skyline with the basic swooping frame shape of a classic Dutch city bike. It’s an elegant design that doesn’t try to hide its e-bike componentry inside oversized tubing.

It’s a mid-step design that’s easy to get on and off of, but the real highlight of the frame is its paint job. I love Blix’s paint jobs. I don’t know paint well enough to accurately put my finger on it, but there’s something about the Aveny Skyline’s paint that makes me think of the paint job on a classic car. It’s one of the main reasons this bike stands out from other affordable e-bikes in its class.

Though I love the frame, as I’ve mentioned before it’s a little small for taller riders. You can fix this easily with a taller seatpost.

The fork is rigid and made of steel, a pretty common material for non-suspension forks. I’m not sure if credit is due to the fork, the overall construction of the frame or both, but the Aveny Skyline has a very smooth ride for a fully-rigid e-bike.

This year (and honestly probably the next several years) is the year of name-brand component shortages, especially anything built by Japanese component giant Shimano. But somehow, Blix appears to be shipping all its e-bikes with a full suite of Shimano drivetrain components.

We love to see it.

The Blix Aveny Skyline comes with a mixed Shimano 7-speed drivetrain with a Acera rear derailleur tied to the seldom-seen RevoShift twist-grip shifter. Acera componentry is one of the workhorse drivetrains we see very often on affordable e-bikes — well, at least until the pandemic made the bike part supply chain go crazy. It functions very well and usually holds up fine against heavy use.

The RevoShift shifter, however, is not something we see often. In fact, I’m pretty sure Electric Bike Report had never tested an e-bike with the Shimano twist shifter until the new batch of Blix bikes arrived (the Vika+ Flex and Sol Eclipse we just reviewed also have RevoShift). It basically functions with the same wrist movement you’d use when twisting a throttle, but instead of powering the bike you cycle through the gears. It’s a setup I personally like quite a bit because it keeps the cockpit clean and it’s actually pretty intuitive.

The Blix Aveny Skyline puts you in a body position that feels very balanced; never did I feel like I was overweighting my hands or the seat.

It comes stock with a broad comfort-style saddle from Selle Royal that looks a little like its shape was inspired by a horseback riding saddle. The grips are ergonomic and made of a very forgiving rubber and the swept-back handlebars have enough shape to keep you in an upright riding position but not so much that it throws your center of gravity backward.

The bike also comes with an adjustable stem so you can set the handlebar height accordingly, though I used that adjustability to set the bars as far forward as I could — helping the bike fit my lanky arms a little better.

The 27.5” x 2.25” tires on the Blix Aveny Skyline are unbranded with a semi-slick chevron tread pattern.

They boast a puncture-resistance liner, according to Blix, and I thought they hooked up well on asphalt and pavement. If you’re looking for a tire that’ll be at home on gravel and dirt, this probably isn’t it; but it did handle some very light off-pavement riding without flatting or becoming noticeably squirrelly.

Like any good commuter, the Blix Aveny Skyline comes stock with a rear pannier-style rack rated to a respectable 55 lbs (25kgs). It also has front and rear integrated lights that operate off the main battery supply and full coverage fenders front and rear, which are nicely painted to match the rest of the bike.

The Aveny Skyline also has mounting points for Blix’s proprietary racking system, which allows you to easily bolt on a number of different racks and baskets to carry even more cargo.

Affordable elegance is the key phrase I want you to remember from this review of the Blix Aveny Skyline.

This is one of the few bikes I’ve reviewed in a long time that I was actually surprised didn’t cost more than its $1,799 MSRP. While the components it’s spec’d with do fit that price point, there’s something about the Aveny Skyline’s finish that makes it feel like a more expensive e-bike. Maybe it’s the high-brow styling or really smooth and balanced ride quality, but either way, I’m finishing up this review with the distinct feeling that this bike is a bit of a bargain.

It’s not perfect — particularly if you’re a taller person like me. But even with that gripe about seatpost length and a slightly cramped cockpit, I’d still choose to ride this bike over many other sub-$2,000 electric commuters. Blix did a really exceptional job of capitalizing on small details that by themselves don’t equate to a whole lot, but all added together make for an e-bike that’s really fun to ride. It’s also refreshing to see Blix decking their bikes with name-brand componentry, even in a day and age where those parts are very hard to source.

The Blix Aveny Skyline is sold on the Blix website and will be shipped (mostly assembled) directly to your door. Or, if you find yourself near Santa Cruz on the California coast, you can stop by their showroom to test a bike and buy it in person.

‘Happy Riding, make sure to let us know if you have any questions down in our comments section or if you think we left anything out in this review of the Blix Aveny Skyline.