What has more traction than a fat bike? A fat bike with All Wheel Drive, of course. The PWR Dually isn’t the first AWD fat bike, or even the first version of this exact bike, but brings the technology to the market with a more approachable price tag.
From a visual perspective, this appears to use the same frame as the Oyama 2WD fat bike that was recently reviewed by Electric Bike Action. That’s not surprising, considering Oyama is a Taiwanese company specializing in OEM bicycle products including folding bikes and e-bikes. That Oyama 2WD was likely used as a way to showcase their 2WD technology, in hopes that someone would pick up the design and run with it under their own brand. Which is exactly what PWR Bike seems to have done with the Dually.
For decades, Christini has pursued the 2WD or AWD concept with a mechanical driveshaft that transferred power from the driven rear wheel, to the front wheel. They also have a line of AWD e-bikes, but they use that same mechanical power transfer system. The PWR Dually takes a different approach by utilizing a 500W hub motor on both wheels. This drives each individual wheel, only needing wired connecting each motor together, rather than driveshafts.
This also opens up the ability to provide traction control where the system senses wheel slip and diverts power from the slipping wheel to the one with more traction. PWR Bike doesn’t go into much detail on how the system works or the level of control, only stating that “the unique drive system powers both the front and rear wheels.”
Built with a 696Wh battery attached to the downtube, the bike includes a digital handlebar mounted LCD display to control the system. Not surprisingly, an affordable fat e-bike with 2WD is not exactly light weight, with a claimed weight of 66lbs. But it’s also priced at $2,999 with free shipping in the Continental U.S., which is less expensive than many standard e-bikes.
