I was lucky enough to spend ten days in Spain this year, part work, part vacation. Urban Armor Gear held its European sales summit in Ibiza, and I decided to bring my wife along and tack an extended vacation onto the end of the trip. We flew in a few days early to explore the island before the work started.
Part of that exploration meant hopping a ferry to Formentera, the smaller island roughly seven miles off the coast of Ibiza that's only reachable by boat. It's the kind of place that rewards slowing down... but first you have to figure out how to get around.
Your options on Formentera: taxi, bike, or your own two feet
Once you step off the ferry, transportation comes down to three choices: grab one of the island's handful of taxis, rent a bike, or walk. Formentera is large enough that walking isn't realistic if you actually want to see it, so I started looking into bike rentals and quickly landed on renting an e-bike.
This isn't my first European e-bike rodeo, and it won't be my last. I went with Love Bici to rent a bike based on their Google reviews, and when we showed up they walked us through a few options.
One thing worth knowing before you go: every e-bike you'll rent in Europe is Class 1. That means they're capped at 250 watts and have no thumb throttle. You pedal, the motor assists, and that's it.
The bike: a mid-range Youin fat-tire folder
We rented their mid-range option, a folding fat-tire model from a brand called Youin (pictured below).
Specs
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Power | 250 W |
| Range | Up to 45 km (~28 mi) |
| Top speed | 25 km/h (~15.5 mph) |
| Weight | 30 kg (~66 lb) |
| Max load | 127 kg (~280 lb) |
| Full charge | 5–6 hours |
| Battery | Removable 10Ah / 36V, integrated into the frame |
| Wheels | 20-inch |
| Tires | 20×4.0 FAT-type |
| Drivetrain | Shimano 7-speed |
| Suspension | Lockable front fork |
| Brakes | Disc |
On paper, it had everything you'd want: comfortable saddle, color display, front and rear lights, and a frame that folds for easy transport. In practice, the experience was more complicated.
Where it fell short
I figured the modest power wouldn't matter much. Formentera is pretty flat, after all. I was wrong. A top speed of about 15 mph means that the moment you hit any incline, you drop to somewhere between 8 and 12 mph.
That alone wouldn't be a dealbreaker, except Formentera's cycling infrastructure isn't great. So you spend a lot of time sharing the road with cars that have no trouble going faster than 15 mph. Rather than bury this in a paragraph, let me just rant about what didn't work:
- 250 watts isn't enough to be genuinely usable — especially the second any hills enter the picture.
- The speed cap throttles your range, literally and figuratively. When you top out at 25 km/h, you go 25 km/h. That doesn't cover much ground by American standards.
- The folding frame flexed. A lot. It never inspired confidence, and that feeling got worse the closer I got to its 15 mph top speed.
- Hills turned me into a moving obstacle. Crawling uphill while cars passed at unsafe speeds was not my idea of a relaxing island ride.
- The brakes were brakes in name only. Yes, it had disc brakes — but they were cable-actuated with tiny ~140 mm rotors. Stopping was more of a suggestion than a command.
On top of all that, I dealt with some range anxiety. The 36V / 10Ah battery just felt small compared to what I'm used to. To be fair, a 250-watt motor sips power, so the little battery stretches further than you'd expect. But the 15 mph ceiling caps how much you can actually accomplish on a charge. When you're used to cruising between 20 and 28 mph on better infrastructure, an e-bike becomes more than basic transportation — and this one never got there.
The American Standard
For context, here's what I ride at home: a Murf Alpha cargo and a Higgs cargo. Both are 52V systems — 20Ah and 15Ah batteries, respectively. They'll do 20 mph on throttle alone and 28 mph if I'm pedaling. They haul me and my kids up steep hills without complaint, and their oversized disc brakes stop us on a dime. I've put over 3,000 miles on them, and they perform flawlessly day in and day out.
The single biggest difference between those bikes and the Youin really just comes down to size and power and quality, and..well you get the idea… But hey... they say everything's bigger in America. Anyways, I wouldn't be able to get these cool photos if I didn't have access to peddle-powered transportation.
The verdict
Would I rent on Formentera again? Probably — when boat access is your only way in, an underpowered e-bike still beats walking the whole island or splitting a scarce taxi. Just go in with the right expectations: this is gentle, flat-ground transportation, not the torque-y, do-anything cargo machine you might have parked in your garage back home. Adjust your speed, respect the brakes, and enjoy the scenery at a slower pace. Formentera is worth it.
