Olympia Explorer Edge CC16

[pagheca]

@Greg Watts , what can you tell me about this e-mtb? They offered it to me at 3,900€. I am looking for a cheap travel / Gravel bike. Nothing stellar, something reliable to travel with it.

 

[Greg Watts]

@Greg Watts , what can you tell me about this e-mtb? They offered me at 3,900€. I am looking for a cheap travel / Gravel bike. Nothing stellar, something reliable to travel with it.

@pagheca - good timing on the question, because Olympia is an Italian brand so it's fairly relevant to you.

The Explorer Edge CC16 is a gravel/adventure e-bike with an Italian-made motor system. The "CC16" is their size code. Here's what I can confirm from the official Olympia site and Italian retailers:

Motor: The OLI Edge motor, described by Olympia as 90 Nm - notably compact for that torque figure.

I should flag that torque claims vary across retailers (some list 75 Nm, some 90 Nm), so treat that number as approximately in that range until you see the actual spec sheet for the exact trim being offered.

Delivery is described as natural and progressive, with an optimised assist curve. Motor maker:

OLI eBike Systems is an Italian manufacturer - likely unfamiliar outside Italy. Their motors currently feature on a handful of ebikes from Italian brands, most notably Bianchi.

This is their proprietary system, not Bosch/Shimano - worth knowing for long-term parts/service support. Battery:

The Powerslim 6 at 615 Wh - compact and fully integrated into the frame. Frame:

6061 aluminium frame with a carbon fork. Drivetrain (from one retailer's spec sheet):

Shimano RD-RX812 11-speed rear derailleur, Shimano CS-M5100 cassette (11-42), FSA 42T chainring, Shimano RX400 hydraulic brakes, 160/160 rotors. That's a gravel-oriented groupset - perfectly decent for touring, not exotic.

For your use case (travel/gravel, reliable, nothing stellar) - here's the honest picture: • Pro: Italian brand with a long history, gravel geometry, carbon fork, 615 Wh battery is reasonable range, 11-speed drivetrain is proper kit.

• Watch: The OLI Edge is a niche proprietary motor. Interestingly, the motor interface hole spacing is identical to a Bosch Performance Line CX, but the motor itself was designed independently by OLI eBike Systems.

That's clever for bike manufacturers switching over, but it doesn't mean you can swap in Bosch parts. If you need a motor service in the Canary Islands or wherever you're travelling, "OLI who?" is a realistic question at most bike shops.

• Price: €3,900 for an alu gravel e-bike with a niche motor and 615 Wh is on the higher side. For context, you could be in Shimano EP801 territory from established brands at that price.

My honest take: if the dealer is local and will stand behind it with warranty service, it's a decent enough gravel tool. If you're buying it to ride far from home with no backup, I'd want a more mainstream motor ecosystem behind it. At 90 kg you'll also work that 615 Wh reasonably hard on hilly touring days - not a dealbreaker, but worth factoring in.

Worth asking the dealer: what's the actual service/warranty network for OLI motors in your region?

 

[Zimmerframe]

@Greg Watts , what can you tell me about this e-mtb? They offered it to me at 3,900€. I am looking for a cheap travel / Gravel bike. Nothing stellar, something reliable to travel with it.

Have you looked at the Megamo Along Flat bar ?? €3699

ALONG FLAT-BAR (27) - Megamo Bicycles

www.megamo.com

Or if you wanted more flexibility, the amflow PR - €4500 ish.

 

[Greg Watts]

Have you looked at the Megamo Along Flat bar ?? €3699 ALONG FLAT-BAR (27) - Megamo Bicycles Or if you wanted more flexibility, the amflow PR - €4500 ish.

The Megamo Along link in your post is worth a closer look, because the page is describing two slightly different things and one number doesn't add up.

The summary lists an Avinox M2 motor and a carbon frame at €3,699 - but the headline price and the motor pairing on flat-bar e-gravel Alongs vary by trim, so I'd pin the dealer down on which exact build that price buys.

For a travel/gravel bike that's genuinely the more interesting suggestion than the Olympia: Avinox is a mainstream, well-supported ecosystem now, the Shimano Deore 12-speed is bombproof touring kit, and 50mm tyre clearance is proper gravel-adventure territory.

Fine for day rides, worth planning charges on long tours.

On the Amflow PR Carbon - I'd gently steer away from it for this brief.

It's a 150mm-travel mullet trail/enduro bike at 24kg with an Avinox M2 (125Nm), not a gravel tourer.

Brilliant value at £3,999 for what it is, but it's the wrong tool for racking up gravel miles - too heavy, too much travel, no mudguard/rack mounts, knobbly Maxxis Assegai/DHR rubber.

If pagheca's brief drifts toward "actually I want to ride trails too," then yes, absolutely - but as a travel/gravel machine it's overkill.

So: the Megamo Along is the sharper shout of your two.

Amflow's a cracking bike fighting the wrong war here.

And @Zimmerframe - "more flexibility" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence from a man whose recent threads include insects and titanium corrosion.

Bow to the master, obviously.

 

[pagheca]

Have you looked at the Megamo Along Flat bar ?? €3699

ALONG FLAT-BAR (27) - Megamo Bicycles

www.megamo.com

Or if you wanted more flexibility, the amflow PR - €4500 ish.

Thanks, Sir... I am not yet fully convinced to make a change. My point is that my current Trek Powerfly Is getting old. However, I do not like to buy without an actual need. On the other side the trek was great when I was living in a rocky, steep island (La Palma, Canary Islands), but now, in Italy my requirements changed: I need a real gravel / travel bike to do some long, multi-day trip next year.

p.s. I will contact you with a PM for another reason soon, if you don't mind...

 

[Greg Watts]

Thanks, Sir... I am not yet fully convinced to make a change. My point is that my current Trek Powerfly Is getting old. However, I do not like to buy without an actual need. On the other side the trek was great when I was living in a rocky, steep island (La Palma, Canary Islands), but now, in Italy ...

That's a sensible reason not to rush it, and honestly it reframes the whole question.

The Trek's not broken - it's just a full-power, full-suspension trail bike that was perfect for steep rocky terrain and is now the wrong shape for what you actually want next.

No shame in keeping it running until the multi-day trips are real and you know exactly what you're packing.

When you do pull the trigger, the brief sharpens things nicely.

For long, loaded, multi-day gravel touring, two things matter more than motor headline figures:

•

Frame mounts - rack and bikepacking attachment points, bottle mounts, mudguard clearance.

This is where a purpose-built e-gravel beats a trail bike adapted into one.

•

Tyre clearance - 45 - 50mm gives you the asphalt-to-rough-track range you'll want crossing Italy.

On the Megamo Along that Zimmerframe flagged: the page describes it as a purpose-built e-gravel with bikepacking attachment points and 50mm clearance, which is exactly the right shape for your brief.

I'd just confirm the exact motor, battery and price for the specific trim before committing - I can't independently verify those figures against a gold spec sheet the way I can for the trail bikes, and that page reads as a brand-new model with no reliability history yet.

For a bike you'll trust on multi-day trips far from a dealer, "no track record" is worth weighing.

Whatever battery the Along ships with, plan your charging stops around the loaded figure, not the marketing one.

A removable battery would be a real plus for touring - easier to charge overnight in a B&B without wheeling the whole bike inside.

No rush, though.

Buy when the trip's actually booked and you know the terrain - you'll choose better.

And yes, PM away whenever - that's what I'm here for.

 

[pagheca]

let me also add that they offered me 2,200-2,300 € for my Trek (2100 km, 4 years old), if I buy another emtb from them.

 

[Greg Watts]

let me also add that they offered me 2,200-2,300 € for my Trek (2100 km, 4 years old), if I buy another emtb from them.

@pagheca - that's actually a decent trade-in offer worth factoring in properly. A 2022 Powerfly 7 FS with low mileage and four years of use - the Bosch Performance CX motor is the thing that holds value here. Applying a rough depreciation rule (roughly 25% in year one, then about 10% per year after), you're looking at perhaps 40-50% of original RRP after four years, depending on condition. A €2,200-2,300 part-exchange credit is reasonable territory, possibly even the upper end depending on what the Powerfly originally cost you.

The catch, as ever with part-exchange: the dealer has built that number into their margin on the new bike. Worth a quick sanity check - what would the same Trek fetch privately? If it's similar, the PX is genuinely convenient rather than a trap. If private sale would get you significantly more, the calculation changes.

On the broader decision: the trade-in offer does make the Olympia Explorer Edge CC16 at €3,900 land at an effective net cost of around €1,600-1,700 - which changes the risk calculus on the niche motor ecosystem somewhat. At that net figure, a bike that's "decent enough for your use case even if it's not the perfect choice" starts looking more defensible.

The question I'd still ask the dealer: what's the OLI motor service network in Italy? If they can point to a named service centre within reasonable distance of where you're actually riding, that concern shrinks considerably.

 

[pagheca]

Someone (or something?) may have edited the title of this thread, which has made it somewhat unclear.

To clarify:

1. €3,900 refers to the price of a new bike, not a used one.
2. The original title mentioned an Olympia Explorer Edge CC16

It’s possible this change was triggered by some anti-spam filtering, but I wanted to clarify the context for anyone reading the thread.

 

[Greg Watts]

Someone (or something?) may have edited the title of this thread, which has made it somewhat unclear. To clarify: €3,900 refers to the price of a new bike, not a used one. The original title mentioned an Olympia Explorer Edge CC16 It’s possible this change was triggered by some anti-spam filtering, ...

@pagheca - thanks for clarifying that. You're right that the thread title has drifted from the original context, and it's worth having it on the record: this is about a new Olympia Explorer Edge CC16 at €3,900, not a used bike.

Doesn't change any of the analysis we've already gone through - the OLI motor ecosystem question, the trade-in maths, the Megamo Along as an alternative worth considering - but it does mean the price is what it is rather than representing any kind of used-market discount.

If anything, knowing it's new actually sharpens the OLI service network question slightly: with a new bike you'll presumably want warranty support, and that means the dealer's ability to back the motor ecosystem matters more than it would with a secondhand purchase where you've already priced in the risk.

Still the same bottom line: ask the dealer where the nearest OLI-authorised service point is in Italy before signing anything. If they can give you a straight answer, great. If they look vague, that tells you something useful.