Super73 Electric Bikes: The Whole Range, and the Catch

Search "super 73 electric bike price" and the numbers you get back span roughly $1,400 to $4,500, which is a wide enough spread that the question is not really about price at all. It is about which line you are looking at, and the lines are genuinely different machines that happen to share a silhouette.

Super73 grew out of Southern California in the middle of the last decade, from a crowdfunding campaign for a bike that looked like a shrunken 1970s minibike with pedals bolted on. That bike created a category. Almost everything now sold as a moto-style electric bike is either a direct response to Super73 or an outright copy of it, and the copies are usually cheaper. Understanding what the extra money buys is the whole purchase decision.

The other thing worth getting straight before you spend is the legal position. These bikes ship in a compliant configuration and carry a mode that takes them out of it. That mode is a large part of the appeal, and it is also the part that turns a bicycle into something a police officer can treat as an unregistered motor vehicle.

The category Super73 built, and why the copies exist

Before Super73, the fat tyre ebike market was mountain bike shaped. Suspension forks, sloping top tubes, mountain bike bars, the usual vocabulary. Super73 threw that out and borrowed from a completely different object: the Honda Z50 and the minibikes of the seventies. A long low bench seat, small wheels with very wide tyres, a flat straight frame, headlight in the middle of the fork.

That decision was styling first, but it had engineering consequences. Small wheels with big tyres are strong, cheap to make and forgiving over kerbs. A long bench seat lets you shift position or carry a passenger. A flat frame gives you somewhere to mount things. The result rides less like a bicycle and more like a very slow motorcycle, which is exactly what a large group of buyers wanted and nobody was selling.

Within a few years, the shape was everywhere. Half a dozen brands now sell something with a bench seat, wide small wheels and a headlight in the fork, usually for a thousand dollars less. That competitive pressure is good for buyers, but the cheap versions tend to give away the same things: brake quality, controller behaviour, frame finish and the existence of spare parts in three years. Our guide to cafe racer and retro-styled electric bikes covers the wider styling category if the look is what drew you in.

The lines, and what each one is actually for

Z series: the small one, and the sensible one

The Z line, which includes the Z Miami and the ZX, is the entry point. Smaller wheels, a shorter frame, a smaller battery and considerably less weight than anything else in the range. It is the only Super73 that a normal person can pick up and carry through a doorway without resenting it.

It is also the closest the brand gets to a conventional ebike. Power output is modest, the bike is a comfortable size for shorter riders and teenagers, and it does the short-hop urban job well: a few miles to a coffee shop, a campus, a beach path. What it will not do is highway-adjacent speed or a 40 mile day. If your realistic use is short trips and storage is tight, the Z line is the one to look at first, and it competes directly with the better bikes in our under $2,000 roundup.

S series: the bike most people mean

The S line, currently anchored by the S2, is the mainstream moto-style Super73 and the one that appears in the photography. Bigger frame, longer bench, wide tyres, a substantially larger battery than the Z, and a rear hub motor with enough torque to make the throttle genuinely useful from a standstill.

Two things separate the S from the copies. The first is the battery, which on the current S bikes sits at the large end of what you find on any ebike, well into the high hundreds of watt hours. The second is the controller and app integration, which lets you switch ride modes, adjust behaviour and see diagnostic information rather than just watching a battery gauge guess at things.

The S is also where the weight starts to matter. This is not a bike you carry upstairs. Read how much ebikes actually weigh before you assume you will be fine with it, because moto-style bikes sit at the heavy end of a category that is already heavy.

RX: full suspension, and the most motorcycle-like of them

The RX takes the S platform and adds suspension at both ends plus beefier componentry. This is the version that stops pretending to be a bicycle. With a proper fork and rear shock it soaks up surfaces that would jar your wrists on a rigid frame, and it is the model people buy when they intend to ride off pavement regularly or when the local roads are genuinely bad.

The cost is money and mass. Suspension adds both, and the RX sits at the top of the price range as a result. It is also the model where the gap between "ebike" and "electric motorcycle" feels thinnest, which matters for the class discussion below. If the suspension is what you want rather than the styling, our ebike suspension explainer is worth reading first, because a cheap fork on a heavy bike is often worse than no fork at all.

The adventure models

Super73 has run a series of adventure oriented variants built on the same platforms, typically with knobbier tyres, more protective bodywork, extra mounting points and racks aimed at carrying gear. Treat these as configuration packages on the S and R platforms rather than a separate class of bike. The underlying decisions about weight, range and legality are identical.

Model names in this part of the catalogue change more often than the core lines do, so buy the platform first and then check what the current adventure variant of it is called and what it actually includes.

The class question, which is the one that matters

Every Super73 sold in the United States ships configured as a Class 2 ebike: pedal assist plus a throttle, both cut off at 20 mph. In that configuration it is legally a bicycle in most states, allowed on bike lanes and usually on multi-use paths, no licence, no registration, no plate.

The bikes also carry an unlocked or off-road mode, selectable through the app, that raises the limiter well beyond 20 mph. This is not a hidden hack. It is a documented feature, and it is a substantial part of why people buy the bike.

Here is the part that gets glossed over. The three-class system in the ebike class framework defines an electric bicycle partly by its top assisted speed. Class 1 and Class 2 stop at 20 mph. Class 3 stops at 28 mph and is pedal assist only in most state definitions. A throttle-equipped bike doing more than 20 mph does not fit any of the three boxes. Legally it stops being a bicycle and becomes an unregistered, uninsured motor vehicle, which in most states means it needs a licence plate it cannot have.

The practical advice is unglamorous. Ride locked on public roads and paths. Use the unlocked mode where it belongs. If what you actually want is legitimate speed on the road, look at whether a Class 3 pedal assist bike does the job, since 28 mph legally is faster than 30 mph illegally on any day the police are paying attention. Our explainer on what makes an ebike street legal goes through the state-by-state variation, and the ebike, scooter and moped comparison covers where a moto-style bike sits when it stops qualifying as a bicycle.

The banana seat, and why pedalling is awkward

The long flat bench seat is the signature of the design and the single biggest compromise in it. On a bicycle, the saddle sits above and slightly behind the cranks, at a height that lets your leg extend nearly straight at the bottom of the stroke. That geometry is not a style choice. It is what makes pedalling efficient.

On a Super73, the seat is low, long and flat, and the pedals sit forward of your hips. Your legs work through a shallow, cramped arc. You cannot get your weight over the pedals, you cannot stand on them usefully to climb, and after a few minutes it becomes obvious that pedalling contributes very little. The bike does not fight you exactly, but it never rewards you either.

The consequence is behavioural. Almost every owner ends up riding on the throttle nearly all the time, because that is the path of least resistance the design creates. That is fine, as long as you understand it, because it changes two other things: your range and your legal exposure. A bike ridden on throttle is a throttle ebike in practice regardless of what modes it also offers, and it drains a battery accordingly.

If pedalling matters to you, either for exercise or because you want the range, this is the wrong shape of bike and no amount of seat adjustment fixes it. The geometry is the problem.

Weight, throttle use, and where the range goes

Super73 quotes range figures the way every manufacturer does: lowest assist level, light rider, flat ground, mild weather, steady pedalling. Nothing about that description matches how these bikes get ridden.

Stack the factors. The bikes are heavy, typically from around 60 lb at the small end of the range to comfortably past 75 lb for the suspension models. Wide low-pressure tyres add rolling resistance. Throttle-only riding removes the rider contribution entirely, so the battery does all the work. Small wheels spin faster for a given road speed, which is not free either.

Put those together and a claimed figure often halves in practice. On the larger-battery S and RX models, plan for something in the 20 to 35 mile band if you ride mostly on throttle at real speeds, and treat anything above that as a bonus you earned by pedalling. On the smaller Z models, the honest number is lower again. Our explainer on what actually determines ebike range breaks down the maths if you want to estimate for your own weight and terrain.

The upside is that Super73 puts big batteries in the larger bikes, and a big battery ridden hard still goes further than a small battery ridden gently. The brand chose watt hours over weight, which is the correct trade for a bike that is never going to be light anyway.

The range compared

Swipe sideways to see all columns →

Treat every figure in that table as a band rather than a specification. Super73 runs promotions, sells previous generations at reduced prices, and revises models often enough that a page you read six months ago may describe a bike that is no longer current. Check the current specification for the exact model and generation you are buying.

Which Super73 to buy

If you want the bike the brand is known for, this is it. The battery is large enough that the throttle habit does not immediately strand you, the frame is the right size for an adult, and it is the model with the deepest accessory support. It is also heavy and it will not fit in a small hallway.

The Z is the honest recommendation for most first-time buyers of this shape. It costs half what the RX does, weighs meaningfully less, and does the trips people actually take. Buy it if your riding is measured in single-digit miles and storage matters.

The RX earns its price only if the surfaces you ride are genuinely bad or unpaved. On smooth city streets, the suspension adds weight and cost for comfort you could have bought with lower tyre pressure. Off pavement, it transforms the bike.

These are worth the premium only if you will use the extra hardware. Racks and bash protection are dead weight on a commute. If your riding is a mix, buy the base platform and add the parts you need from the accessory catalogue, which brings us to the reason people stay with the brand.

Accessories, aftermarket and the resale story

Super73 supports a first-party accessory catalogue that is unusually broad for an ebike brand: racks, seats, bags, guards, lighting, and passenger kit. That last one matters more than it sounds. The long bench genuinely can carry a second person, which puts these bikes in the same practical conversation as the two-seater electric bikes people buy specifically for that job, though you should check what your state allows before you carry anyone.

Behind the first-party catalogue sits an aftermarket that no lookalike brand has. Independent suppliers sell seats, controllers, batteries, lighting, tyres and cosmetic parts specifically for these frames, and there are active owner communities documenting builds. If you are the kind of buyer who modifies things, this ecosystem is worth real money and it is the single strongest argument against buying a cheaper copy.

It is also the reason resale holds up. Used Super73 bikes trade at a far higher fraction of their original price than the category average, because there is a recognisable brand, a supply of parts and a community of buyers who know what they are looking at. That changes the total cost calculation: a bike that costs $1,000 more but returns $800 more when you sell it in three years is not really $1,000 more expensive. If you are shopping the second-hand market, read how to buy a used electric bike first, because battery health is where the risk lives.

Servicing

These bikes are heavy, fast for their category, and hard on consumables. Brake pads, tyres and chains wear faster than on a 35 lb commuter, and the brakes in particular are doing serious work stopping 75 lb plus a rider from 25 mph. Budget for more frequent servicing than a normal bicycle and check pad thickness monthly rather than annually. Our ebike maintenance guide covers what actually needs doing and how often.

The short decision

• You want the look, ride short distances, and storage is tight: Z series. It is the sensible one.
• You want the bike from the photographs and will ride real distances: S series.
• Your roads are broken or unpaved: RX, and accept the weight.
• You want speed on public roads, legally: not a Super73 in unlocked mode. Look at a Class 3 pedal assist commuter instead.
• You only want the shape and will never modify it: a lookalike saves you real money, and you will lose that saving again at resale.

If you are still working out whether this whole category suits you, start with the moto-style ebike guide, then read the class explainer before you touch the unlock setting. If the weight is the part that worries you, the lightest electric bikes will show you what the other end of the market looks like.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

• SUPER73 official siteSUPER73
• Electric bikes and the three-class systemPeopleForBikes
• Electric bike laws by statePeopleForBikes