# Aventon Pace 500 and Pace 350 Review



## ask (Aug 18, 2009)

My wife loves her Aventon Pace 500. The whole bike well-sorted w/ a large display, plenty of power/range, and good brakes. The Celeste blue frame is beautiful, and the reflective stripes on the tires are a nice touch. Assembly was about as simple as could be. It only took a few minutes, and the bike was ready to go. The motor torque and speed took a bit of getting used to, but after a couple of rides, she is happy zipping around town on the Pace. My kids and I ride bikes often, but my wife never wanted to join. The Pace changed that. The bike is perfect for family rides along the coast, zipping down to the local taproom for date night, or cruising around town. Great bike and excellent value.


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## fred-da-trog (Oct 28, 2003)

I bought the Pace 500 for wife's birthday when she had asked for a gas Vespa type scooter. She absolutely loves her ebike. After decades of trying to get her into cycling, this finally did the trick. I couldn't keep up so now I have one too. I modified mine with into a mountain bike and have been putting on a lot of dirt miles.


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## Jack7782 (Jan 1, 2009)

The Level is a strangely handsome bicycle. It has a lower standover without that dreaded "girl's bike" look. Looks even better with fenders and rack. This is a 2nd car alternative, not an exercise machine.


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## John_Bergen (Nov 23, 2020)

I'm a 67 year old who used to ride a lot in college and afterwards but then tapered off about six years ago. I love my Aventon Pace 500 step through which I bought back in January 2020. I ride it pretty much daily and I'm approaching 2,000 miles on it and have had no significant issues. I think it's a great ebike value.


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## GlowBoy (Jan 3, 2004)

I just bought a Pace 350 this week. I test rode the 500 and decided that amount of power and speed is overkill for my needs. I agree that there isn’t much difference in power between the 5 levels of assist; the levels pretty much only determine the top assist speed. Also, the gap in speed between levels 4 and 5 is too high, but I think this is a function of their controller (also used on other brands) and not Aventon’s fault. The speed settings on the 350 are also lower than on the 500, which makes the 350 somewhat easier to use in lower speed situations; however, if you adjust down the top speed on the 500 from 28 mph to 20 (easy to do from the control panel) it appears the speed settings for each level will then match the 350.

I bought mine from an LBS and do have the option to upgrade to the 500, which would give me power and more importantly longer range, though just incrementally.

Did my first range test today, using level 5 assist (fastest, uses more battery) but offsetting that my pedaling hard enough to sweat. You can still get a good workout if you want; just pedal harder, and the motor will use less juice but you’ll still go faster than if you didn’t have a motor. Anyway, ran out of juice at 39 miles. Getting the rest of the way home felt slow, but only relative to having the motor running: fortunately, the bike is still as fast without battery power as my normal commuter bike, so no big deal.

I do like to do longer rides than this fairly often, so I’m trying to figure out what to do about that. Obviously using a lower power level and going more like 15 mph will extend the range incrementally (also reducing the fun a bit) - and so would upgrading to the pace 500. But I’m thinking I may just buy a second battery for the price of upgrading, which would double my range rather than just getting me another 25%.

Anyway, fantastic bike for the money, decent component selection with no weak links, standard parts and easy compatibility with most standard accessories, rides great, even comes with decent tires for its purpose. Only downsides are the somewhat limited range for the 350 and the oddness of how the power assist works, as Francis mentioned. By the way, I have ridden torque-sensing e-bikes, which are far superior in this regard, but I’m a retro grouch (still drive a manual transmission car without nav, though I also own an EV, so I can sit on both sides of the fence) and I can totally live with it, especially for this price.


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## GlowBoy (Jan 3, 2004)

GlowBoy said:


> I just bought a Pace 350 this week. I test rode the 500 and decided that amount of power and speed is overkill for my needs. I agree that there isn't much difference in power between the 5 levels of assist; the levels pretty much only determine the top assist speed. Also, the gap in speed between levels 4 and 5 is too high, but I think this is a function of their controller (also used on other brands) and not Aventon's fault. The speed settings on the 350 are also lower than on the 500, which makes the 350 somewhat easier to use in lower speed situations; however, if you adjust down the top speed on the 500 from 28 mph to 20 (easy to do from the control panel) it appears the speed settings for each level will then match the 350.
> 
> I bought mine from an LBS and do have the option to upgrade to the 500, which would give me power and more importantly longer range, though just incrementally.
> 
> ...


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