Focus Paralane2 9.8 e-bike review

Focus pops a motor in its endurance bike for extra oomph on the hills

Cycling Weekly Verdict

The Focus Paralane2 provides a quality ride. Its Fazua motor provides enough push to help on hills without taking over, so you still feel as if you’re having to do some work. There’s plenty of range, with a large – if heavy – battery and Focus has adopted wheel standards to cope with the extra power.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Extra push without too much extra weight

  • +

    Motor and battery well integrated into frame

  • +

    Can switch assistance or remove the battery if not required

  • +

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Road Boost axles limit aftermarket wheel choice

  • -

    Motor only kicks in below 25kph

  • -

    Battery does not lock into the frame

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You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Innovative as always, Focus were one of the first brands to not only utilise Fazua’s clever removable motor and battery system but also deliver a proper performance based e-road bike with the Paralane2. It delivers a realistic ride, one that you still have to work for, and this year’s Editor’s Choice really wouldn’t be complete without it.

The Focus Paralane2 (that’s “squared” not “two”) is one of a new breed of e-bikes based on a performance road bike. Whereas the original e-bikes were heavy urban machines, these newer bikes often have carbon frames and integrate the battery and motor neatly into the frame, so that they’re less intrusive.

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