Time to change? A First Ride with surprising results

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? We’re told not. But if you can convince an ex-racer with a penchant for petrol, who’s only ever ridden sportbikes, that there’s a load of fun to be had on electric off-roaders, anything’s possible.

WORDS: Andy Bell PHOTOS: Motocom / Surron UK

I’m not an off-road rider. I passed my bike test as soon as I was old enough and have covered plenty of miles – but in truth, it’s always been about sportbikes for me. Until very recently, my only encounters away from the Tarmac have been those split seconds before a crash or bouncing around in the grass after running too fast into a corner while club racing – trying to resist the urge to grab the front brake.

But in the last few years I have found myself being increasingly tempted to get stuck into a bit of off-road action. While I’m probably getting a little long in the tooth to ever truly be competitive in MX or Hard Enduro, I see plenty of appeal in blasting about on the rough stuff, whether it’s getting an adrenaline fix all-year round, keeping fit away from the four walls of a gym, or green laning with a group of like-minded friends.

That’s why I was quick to take up the opportunity to try out Surron’s Ultra Bee, despite having a few reservations regarding my riding experience (or to be more precise, lack thereof). With a promise of some tuition by the top team down at Wheeldon Off-Road Centre, and a curiosity about what the latest Surron’s capable of, I nabbed some body armour, bought some goggles and set the sat-nav for South Devon. 

Surron was founded in 2014 in China with the aim of providing affordable, high-performance electric bikes. It invested tens of millions of quid into research and development before releasing itsr first e-bike in 2018: the Light Bee. This lightweight machine quickly became popular worldwide – and in 2021 Surron followed it up with the release of its full-sized electric enduro bike: the Storm Bee. And now it’s launched the Ultra Bee, adding a third even more capable option into the range.

With the success of the two previous models, and plenty of experience gained and wisdom learned, the latest model promises to be better than ever before. I was curious to see whether or not the bike would live up to the hype, and was intrigued to see how I would get on riding an electric bike for pretty much the first time in a pretty much alien environment.

Rocking up at Wheeldon with my bag of borrowed kit I was keen to have a look around and find someone to give me a few pointers in off-road riding.

Thankfully, Paul from Surron was more than happy to show me a few basics to help me get through the day relatively unscathed.

We headed out to a wet grass field on a couple of Ultra Bees – and it quite quickly became apparent that there’s lots to like about these little lightweight off-road beasts, particularly for those lacking a bit of experience.

Firstly, there are three different riding modes which completely transform the performance of the bike. There’s Eco, Daily and Sport mode (as well as a reverse gear) which allow you to fine-tune the power delivery and ensure that a heavy hand on the throttle doesn’t end in disaster. Under Paul’s watchful eye, I whacked it into the reduced-power Eco mode and got to thinking about my body position, without the need to worry about spinning up the rear on the slippery grass. The benefit of their near silent running came as a pleasant surprise, too; allowing us to ride side by side while still discussing technique was a real boon in this particular scenario, which would have been impossible with a ringing two-stroke or thudding four-stroke.

That silence continues to have benefits out in the wild, too. Myself and a couple of the other lads on the test managed to get in some extra time on the bikes during the dinner break (I can afford to miss a few dinners), and we took the chance to explore a small portion of the extensive network of green lanes around the centre. After spending the morning learning some basics, working my way around the enduro loop and lapping the outdoor motocross circuit, I felt a lot more confident on the bike – and was keen to get out and have a good explore.

After a couple of miles we ended up at a clearing near the River Avon and decided to take the chance to stop for a few photos and compare notes. That’s when a couple out on a walk with their dog made a beeline for us. Now, in usual circumstances on ‘normal’ bikes, you’d likely expect a bit of grumbling – but that wasn’t the case at all. They were curious. They wanted to chat. If we’d been blighting the quiet woodland with noise from a smoky old stroker, I’m not sure the conversation would have gone the same way – but as it was, we were able to make our way up, down and across the local lanes in near silence and not disturb a soul. I reckon that’s a massive plus.

The heart of this bike is its lithium-ion battery – and I am sold with the firm’s vision to create eco-friendly travel. A range figure of 87 miles is apparently achievable; though that’s with the bike in the Daily rider mode which prevents you from riding flat out. The maximum charge time is four hours with top-up charges obviously achievable in much shorter time.

There is also a regenerative braking system to help keep the battery topped up, and space under the seat has been created to carry a charger to plug it in anywhere you might find a power outlet. A day with the bike isn’t enough time to really see what it’s like to live with – and in an ideal world I would have liked more time to dig a bit deeper into charging times and the ranges achievable from riding in each mode. Maybe next time…

The aforementioned battery powers a 12.5KW motor with 17bhp and its claimed 440Nm of torque (no, that is not a typo). In Sport mode you have full access to all of that punch – and in practice that means the bike’s capable of lightning-quick acceleration, with 30mph seen off in just 2.3 seconds. That’s pretty feisty – so you’ll be thankful for the slightly less aggressive rider modes, particularly when things start to get a little slippery.

When needing to slow down for the tighter spots on the tracks and trails, I felt the brakes with 240mm discs front and rear were more than adequate, and at no point of the day was I asking for more force, especially on the loose stuff. The forks are fully adjustable with an impressive 240mm of travel and an adjustable rear shock absorber with 85mm of travel.

Tipping the scales at a ridiculously lightweight 85kg, the Ultra Bee proved itself super-easy to manoeuvre – and when I did get into difficulty later in the day on the trickier sections of an enduro course, I was able to manhandle the bike with relative ease to face the right way, get back on and fire away again without tiring myself out too much.

There’s little criticise about the Surron – though one flaw I found during my time on the bike was the standard tyres. The slim CST rubber did the job for the most part, but as I got more comfortable on the bike and began to want to push harder either on the ‘gas’ or the brakes, the lack of grip became an issue. Admittedly, the problem was partly down to the Ultra Bee’s 19-inch front and rear wheels which immediately limit the choice of hoops which can be fitted. Thankfully, there is the option to purchase a set of 21-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels, which I would say is necessary to get the best from this machine. The only problem is that you’ll have to lay down an additional £1100 for the privilege, although we were assured that future bikes will come with this preferred wheel size as standard.

Overall, I was seriously impressed with both my time at the Wheeldon Off-Road centre and with the Ultra Bee. This is a great bike with plenty of scope. Dialling the power down to get used to both machine and terrain or even to prolong battery charge for a longer ride is easily done, but when asking for full power on the circuit or up a steep slope I felt there was enough to excite me. Seat heights on bikes of this nature are often quite high, but the Ultra Bee wasn’t too tall – and coupled with its light weight it never felt too intimidating. I am by no means ready to turn my back on the loud petrol-guzzling way of life that I love, but I can’t deny that there is a place for electric bikes – and that’s particularly the case off-road when keeping the noise down is of a real benefit. I reckon the Surron’s a winner.