Ride 50 Trail and Ride 50 Street: New Power from Fazua

Update 19th April 2022

With the Ride 60, Fazua has brought another drive onto the market. It follows on from the Ride 50, but takes a different approach in important details.

Original post 1st September 2021

About half a year has passed since Fazua gave its brand a refreshment and renamed its drive to Ride 50 Evation. Now the product family is being expanded. Ride 50 Trail and Ride 50 Street are the names of the two new products. As the names reveal, they are specifically designed to meet different requirements. For e-bikes from model year 2022 with a Fazua motor, it is therefore worth taking a closer look at which system is installed. In addition, you will soon be able to replace an existing Ride 50 Evation with Ride 50 Trail or Ride 50 Street.

1. Fazua Ride 50 Trail and Fazua Ride 50 Street – The similarities
2. Fazua Ride 50 Trail and Fazua Ride 50 Street – The differences

Up to now you could easily keep track of Fazua with featuring only one drive system. Now the situation has changed somewhat. Two new variants have been added to the already established one. We discuss the details so that you can decide which drivetrain best suits your needs.

1. Fazua Ride 50 Trail and Fazua Ride 50 Street – The similarities

Basically, the Ride 50 Trail and Ride 50 Street from Fazua are updates of the Evation system. The motor and gearbox have been technically developed further – at a level that is reflected in the entire drive system. Trail and Street differ only slightly, however. That’s why the focus is first on the similarities between the two.

Fazua itself estimates the increase in performance of the revised engine at ten percent. According to the manufacturer, this is directly related to a ten percent increase in efficiency. As a result, the energy consumption of the battery is reduced. In the end, you should gain slightly in range despite the same capacity.

Lighter and quieter

The weight gain for Trail and Street also plays a role here. The entire system is six percent lighter than the Ride 50 Evation and now weighs 4.4 kilograms. All e-bikes with the new drive systems benefit from this further improved weight-to-power ratio. Even the noise level, previously already at a low level, is said to have decreased further. How this will be noticeable in reality, however, depends on how each bicycle manufacturer integrates the drive into the respective e-bikes. Of course, Fazua is sticking to the modular design. E-bikes with this drive can still be ridden with the Drivepack including motor, electronics and battery – or you can remove the Drivepack and ride an regular bike.

Better power transmission and more stable connections

Lighter and slimmer are also the two attributes that sum up the changes to the bottom bracket. The housing around the angular gear takes up slightly less space. In terms of weight, this results in 100 grams less than before. In terms of perception while riding, the new freewheel is probably even the more significant detail. Its 40 teeth mean 67 percent more than before, which should ensure a faster power transmission. On the outside of the bottom bracket, you can still use your old spider. This is compatible with each other. Cranks can still be attached using an ISIS mount. Incidentally, the cover with the crank mount will be black in the original and not silver, as shown in the picture.

For the second generation of the bottom bracket gearbox, Fazua has paid additional attention to the connections. The interfaces to the drivepack and the control units have been surrounded with plastic to increase their stability. Those of you who are a little more vehement when connecting or disconnecting in future will be less likely to cause mischief. The cover for the bottom bracket will continue to come either directly from Fazua or be a proprietary development of the respective bicycle manufacturer.

Bottom Bracket of Fazua Ride 50 Trail and Fazua Ride 50 Street at a glance

• Weight: 1.2 kilograms (previously 1.3 kilograms)
• Freewheel: 40 teeth
• Software: Ride 50 firmware
• Sensors: internal torque sensor and cadence sensor

Detailed work on the motor and drivepack

Consisting of motor, electronics and the Energy 250X battery, the drivepack of the Fazua Ride 50 Trail and Fazua Ride 50 Street is also largely identical. The leap forward in development compared to the Ride 50 Evation is the new motor. Stronger magnets are said to be responsible for its higher efficiency. The torque has remained almost the same. The previous 55 newton metres are now replaced by an available 58 newton metres.

Apart from that, two other external changes are noticeable. The new cover of the drivepack has a large recess. The idea behind this is to make it easier to remove and insert the battery and to clean the cover. The capacity of the battery remains unchanged at 252 watt-hours. And you can still use the old downtube cover.

Fazua has also changed the cover for the USB mini-connector. Previously, this was behind a screwed plate. This effectively prevented dirt and moisture from accessing it. At the same time, getting to the interface required a little more patience. Now you will find a fold-out rubber cover. A small safety catch ensures that it always remains “dangling” from the drivepack, even if you forget to click it back in place. Should the cap break off or get lost in some other way, Fazua offers a single replacement for it.

Drivepack of Fazua Ride 50 Trail and Fazua Ride 50 Street at a glance

• Torque: 58 newton metres
• Weight: 1.8 kilograms (previously 1.9 kilograms)
• Maximum power (mechanical): 350 watts (mechanical power at the crank)
• Maximum power (electric): 450 watts
• Rated power (electric): 250 watts
• Capacity: 252 watt hours

2. Fazua Ride 50 Trail and Fazua Ride 50 Street – The Differences

Given the many similarities, the differences almost tend to get lost in the shuffle. In principle, we are only talking about the new design of the radiator. The heat exchanger on the drivepack makes it easy to distinguish between the three drive variants Trail, Street and Evation.

In the Fazua Ride 50 Street, the fins are arranged at a fairly small distance from each other. This structure is intended to guide the direction of the air flowing past in a targeted manner and provide the necessary cooling effect. Fazua speaks of convective airflow cooling. In any case, it looks quite aerodynamic. This member of the Ride 50 family is intended for e-bikes that you primarily ride on the road and in urban environments. In this environment, experience shows that average speeds are so high that air cooling proves to be particularly effective.

On the other hand, due to the ground conditions and often more demanding route profiles, the driving speed off-road is usually lower. This means that the air flows by more slowly and contributes less to the temperature exchange. Fazua responds to this with more open ribs. The slightly larger gaps promote the emission of thermal energy and thus ensure the cooling of the drive. The approach also has the advantage that the exterior can be cleaned more easily because the fins are further apart. You know the principle from the different tyre treads, for example. Those intended for off-road use have larger distances between the lugs so that dirt that has accumulated can either be loosened during the ride and removed more easily afterwards.

Open system allows update of existing drivetrains

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the new drive variants are not only installed as standard in e-bikes, but are also offered as an option for upgrading the Ride 50 Evation. Fazua has not yet finalised what such an exchange will cost. It will probably be around just under 1,000 euros.

You can be surprisingly flexible in deciding what exactly you want to replace. Both the system as a whole and each individual component are possible. Fazua has made an effort to ensure extensive backwards compatibility. This is not only convenient for you, but also very welcome from the point of view of sustainability. For example, if you want to, you can combine bottom brackets and drivepacks of different drive variants with each other. The following options are conceivable:

Bottom Bracket + Drivepack

Ride 50 Evation + Ride 50 Trail

Ride 50 Evation + Ride 50 Street

Ride 50 Trail + Ride 50 Street

Ride 50 Trail + Ride 50 Evation

Ride 50 Street + Ride 50 Evation

Ride 50 Street + Ride 50 Trail

The associated battery is usually always the Energy 250X.

The new drive variants will be accompanied by a comprehensive firmware update. The Black Pepper update from 2020 serves as a benchmark here.

According to Fazua, specialist dealers should be able to respond to your requests for a change to the Ride 50 Trail or Ride 50 Street from the 4th quarter.

Pictures: Fazua GmbH