Mokwheel Obsidian

This is a review of Mokwheel’s Obsidian ST, a fat-tire e-bike with a powerful 1,000W motor, a top speed of over 28mph, and a beefy, full-suspension frame.

This bike is marketed as an off-road beast by Mokwheel, so we are eager to discover what it can do. Continue reading to learn more about the Mokwheel Obsidian.

We’ll outline the main pros and cons, cover the details of the build and specifications, share the results of our standardized testing, and compare this bike to similar models we’ve tested. To finish, we provide the BikeRide Score and an overall summary of the Obsidians’ capability, quality, and value.

About Mokwheel

Mokwheel was founded in 2014 with an initial focus on electric mobility products, such as hoverboards and electric scooters. In 2022, the company pivoted to e-bikes with their first model, the Basalt.

Mokwheel sells a modified sine wave inverter that can be plugged into a power port on the Basalt, Scoria, and Obsidian e-bikes, allowing them to power devices via USB or DC5521 outputs. This system can even supply 1,000W of AC power for appliances, all from the e-bike’s battery.

The brand also sells a range of fat-tire bikes, commuter-focused models, an electric folder, and an e-trike.

What is the Mokwheel Obsidian?

The Obsidian is a full-suspension, fat-tire e-bike intended for off-road riding. This bike is available as a step-over or a step-through, the Obsidian ST, which we’re testing.

Mokwheel highlights its powerful 1000W, 105Nm rear-hub motor, 20Ah battery, and full suspension setup as the main reasons riders will love the Obsidian.

A sticker on the Obsidian ST says it’s Class 2, but the motor’s 1,000W nominal power doesn’t comply with e-bike definitions generally. This limits the Obsidian’s legal use in some jurisdictions.

The Obsidian has a UL 2271-compliant battery, and the bike is currently being tested for compliance with UL 2849. Mokwheel hopes to have this completed in the next six months, but at the time of writing, it lacks UL 2849 certification and has below-average IPX4 water resistance.

Pros

Power and Speed

The Obsidian is both fast and powerful. It has a 1,000W rear hub motor with 105Nm of torque powered by a 20Ah battery. This motor easily carries the 83lb bike up steep slopes. The top speed of 28mph is exhilarating, and combined with the adjustable air shock, means the bike can handle bumpy roads at high speed.

Rear Shock Adjustment

The Obsidian’s 50mm-stroke air shock is fully adjustable, offering pressure, compression, and rebound adjustments. The inclusion of compression and rebound adjustment elevates this shock above the basic shocks commonly found on most similar e-bikes and allows riders to properly tune the rear suspension for different terrains.

We regularly highlight shocks that lack rebound adjustment, a critical requirement for maintaining traction and avoiding being thrown around over bumps and jumps. It’s great to see Mokwheel including a shock like this.

Dropper Post

The Mokwheel has a basic dropper post controlled by a lever under the seat. This makes it easy to adjust the saddle’s position while riding, dropping it for enhanced maneuverability in descents and quickly raising it for climbs.

The lever on the post is out of the way, eliminating the need for a dropper cable. However, having to take a hand off the bars to use the lever makes it less practical than traditional bar-mounted dropper levers.

Cons

Range

The Obsidian is fast and powerful, but it disappointed in the range tests, where other e-bikes with 20Ah batteries and similarly powerful motors fared much better. The battery level stays steady over flat ground but quickly drops during steeper climbs. The result of 32 miles in the PAS 3 range test was a surprise for a 20Ah battery, which typically returns 40 to 50 miles of range in this test.

Torque Sensor and Speed Limit

Given this bike’s power, the erratic pedal assistance was another disappointment. It’s hard to determine if the cause is the torque sensor, the controller hardware, the tuning, or a combination of some or all of those.

Sometimes, pedal assist feels responsive and provides quick acceleration, with PAS 5 easily powering the bike to 28mph or faster (even with the speed limit set at 20mph). On occasion, assistance is still available at 32mph. At other times, it seemed to stick to 20mph.

Also, pedal assist is laggy when moving at speed. If I stopped pedaling, then started again, it would take five to ten seconds for assistance to kick in again. This was a constant frustration.

Questionable Legality

A sticker on the Obsidian’s down tube states “Class 2, 1000W”, but this is confusing, as US federal law puts a 750W limit on e-bikes. Also, this bike is too fast for e-bike rules.

Mokwheel told us in an email conversation that the top speed can’t be adjusted, but we found a second advanced menu with a speed limit setting. The bike arrived with this set to 21mph, but using PAS, the bike could still reach at least 28mph, sometimes reaching 32mph.

The bottom line is that this bike is technically considered a motor vehicle in most of the US, limiting where it can legally be ridden.

UL Certification and IP Rating

The Obsidian’s battery is UL 2271-compliant, but the bike hasn’t been certified for UL 2849 yet, which is disappointing, given it’s been in production since late 2023.

The below-average IPX4 weatherproofing means it’s only protected against water splashes from any direction and not protected against heavy rainfall. IPX4 is a low level of weatherproofing for a dedicated off-road bike. A bike sold as ready for rugged off-roading should have a higher level of protection against the wet weather.

The Mokwheel Obsidian in Detail

Frame and Fit

The Obsidian is a full-suspension e-bike designed for off-road use. It has an aluminum frame, available as a step-through, like our test bike, or a high-step. Both come in just one size, and our ST model has a stated rider fit of 5’6” to 6’8”.

Mokwheel says the step-through has a 350lb payload capacity, and the high-step can carry 400lb. The ST comes in three colorways: desert camo, red and black, and the blue and grey of our test bike.

Suspension

The suspension includes a 130mm coil suspension fork with preload adjustment and lockout and a Horst-style linkage with a 50mm-stroke air shock.

The shock’s air pressure, compression, and rebound are all adjustable.

E-Bike System

The Obsidian’s 48V electrical system includes a 1,000W rear hub motor with 105Nm of torque and a 20Ah (960Wh) battery. The included 3A charger takes 6-7 hours to fully charge the battery. In addition to the sine wave inverter already mentioned, Mokwheel offers a solar charging kit for the Obsidian.

The bike has a thumb throttle, and pedal assist is managed by torque and cadence sensors. There’s a five-button control pad and a 2.75” color LCD. These are detailed further in the video review.

Wheelset

The Obsidian rolls on 26” spoked aluminum rims wearing puncture-resistant 4” Chaoyang tires. These tires aren’t tubeless-ready. Both axles use nuts, rather than quick-release skewers or thru axles.

Drivetrain and Brakes

Pedal power is handled by a 170mm aluminum crankset with a 48t chainring and single-sided chainguard. The Shimano SLM-315 trigger shifter controls an Altus derailleur shifting an 8-speed 12-32t cassette.

Braking is Tektro hydraulic disc with 180mm rotors and TKD 171 aluminum levers with reach adjustment via set screws.

Cockpit and Touchpoints

The cockpit includes a 680mm handlebar and 70mm stem. The bars are wrapped in flared faux-leather grips with lock-on. The control pad and thumb-style throttle are on the left, the underslung shifter on the right, and display in the middle. Other touch points include the wide padded Selle Royal saddle and aluminum platform pedals.

Accessories

The Obsidian comes with a bright integrated dual-LED front light, but the rear light is powered by an external battery and must be manually turned on and off. The rear light has three flashing modes and two levels of steady light, but no brake activation. The frame has a bottle cage mount on the down tube and a mount for the optional front rack. Like most full-suspension bikes, there’s no provision for a rear rack.

Our test bike came with full-coverage plastic fenders. The Mokwheel website says these are currently included as free extras, but of course, there’s no guarantee this promotion will continue.

Testing the Mokwheel Obsidian

The Obsidian produced mixed results in testing, with impressive performance from its motor, but a lackluster range from the 20Ah battery. We’ve compared it to other bikes with 20Ah batteries, but have only tested one other bike with a 1,000W hub motor. The others in this group have 750W motors with torque outputs of 80 to 90Nm.

Hill Climb Tests

The Obsidian’s ability to exceed 20mph using pedal assist gives it a small advantage over the other test bikes when climbing hills. Limiting the top speed to 20mph in the advanced menu doesn’t stop it from going faster than that.

The Obsidian’s 1,000W motor pushes it up hills at high speeds. It beat the Himiway Zebra by almost a minute, the Snapcycle R1 Pro by 42 seconds, and the Himiway C5 by 15 seconds. Only the Hero, with its unrestricted top speed, was faster than the Obsidian, needing 15 seconds less to reach the top of the hill.

The Obsidian was even more impressive in the medium-elevation hill climb, where it beat all of the other comparison bikes, even the Hero.

Acceleration Tests

The Obsidian continued its winning streak in the 0-20 test, accelerating to 20mph in just six seconds using pedal assist. This puts the Obsidian among the fastest bikes we’ve tested, matching the times set by the Heybike Hero and Himiway C5. It was one second faster than the Himiway Zebra and beat the Snapcycle R1 Pro by three seconds.

Range Tests

After its impressive performances in the previous tests, we were eager to see how it performed in the range tests. Unfortunately, range proved to be one of the bike’s weak points.

In the PAS 5 test, the Obsidian travelled 25.40 miles and gained 1,024 feet of elevation. Over the same course, the Heybike Hero and Himiway C5 bested the Mokwheel by some 11-12%, travelling more than 28 miles. The Obsidian beat the QuietKat Lynx by half a mile, but the Lynx’s higher average speed of 17mph was quite a bit higher than the Obsidian’s 15.4mph.

We were hoping the Obsidian would turn things around in the PAS 3 test, but it wasn’t to be. The Mokwheel traveled 31.85 miles and gained 850 feet of elevation, another unimpressive result compared to the Heybike Hero, which recently managed 39 miles in the same test.

Brake Tests

The underwhelming performances continued in our 20mph braking test, where the Obsidian needed 20 feet to stop. While this distance is perfectly acceptable from a safety standpoint, it puts the Mokwheel last in this group, which needed only around 15 to 16 feet to stop from 20mph.

Riding the Mokwheel Obsidian

At over 83lb, the Obsidian is a heavy bike, but the speed and acceleration provided by the powerful 1,000W motor make it feel much lighter while riding, and with the plush air shock, it’s enjoyable to ride over a variety of terrains.

Initial acceleration is snappy with the throttle or pedal assist, and the ability to pedal to 28mph and beyond is exhilarating. Thanks to the adjustable air pressure, rebound, and compression, the shock can be set up for different surfaces and makes seated riding comfortable, even over rocks and bumps.

However, compared to that air shock, the stiff, clumsy fork is disappointing. Like other coil suspension forks, it does a reasonable job of ironing out small bumps, but the rebound is harsh and clunky at the top of its travel. An air fork would be a much better partner for this bike’s rear shock.

The frame felt sturdy and flex-free, but with those 4” tires at each end, it’s also big and heavy. While this weight and solidity provided confidence on wide gravel roads and doubletrack, they make the bike a handful in tight singletrack, with big roots throwing the bike around.

Mokwheel’s assertion that the Obsidian ST suits riders from 5’6” to 6’8” seems inaccurate. I’m 6’, but getting a comfortable pedaling position required having the saddle at its max height and the dropper at full extension, so it’s unlikely riders over 6’2” will be comfortable on this bike.

I enjoyed the Obsidian’s speed, power, and rear shock, but I encountered some issues as I began to push the bike’s limits. The lack of a clutch on the derailleur results in noisy chain slap and could lead to dropped chains.

Additionally, the laggy torque sensor is disappointing on the trail, with the motor taking up to 10 seconds to kick back in, at times requiring throttle use to maintain momentum. Generally, PAS 3 was a good mid-range assistance level, but climbs steeper than about 10 percent required PAS 4 or 5.

There’s some scope to adjust the throttle speed limit and the bike’s responsiveness by playing with the settings in the second advanced menu. Unfortunately, the intensity setting only alters the initial acceleration and has no effect on the laggy pedal assist response. Still, it was nice to be able to tune the acceleration through five levels from relaxed start to hard launch.

Finally, the motor isn’t as loud as the worst we’ve tested, but when climbing steep hills, it made an unidentifiable squeaking sound.

Conclusion

Overall, riding the Obsidian was an interesting experience. It’s definitely an exciting machine: fast and solid-feeling over gravel roads and rocky double track. However, the size and weight limit its usefulness on tight, technical terrain, leaving much to be desired.

The budget fork and lack of a derailleur clutch were notable drawbacks when riding off-road. Add in the poor range, laggy pedal sensor, erratic top speed, and my gripes about a lack of information from the brand, and the Obsidian definitely isn’t the perfect off-road bike.

Still, it was powerful, acing our hill-climb and acceleration tests, proving it can hang with the best on journeys under 25 miles.

Pricewise, the Obsidian is not cheap. There are more affordable options, as well as higher quality hardtail bikes that can compete with the Mokwheel in terms of performance, especially range. However, it outperforms some more expensive bikes we tested recently, such as the Heybike Hero.

Score Breakdown

• Build quality: 70
• Performance / Innovation: 70
• Design: 75
• Ride quality: 70
• Price / Value: 70

Overall: 71

Detailed Specs

Electric Bike Class: Unrestricted
Warranty: 2-year limited warranty
UL Certification: UL 2271
IP Rating: IPX4
Total Weight: Claimed: 77lb – Actual: 83.4lb
Motor Brand: Mokwheel-branded
Motor Type: Rear hub
Motor Nominal Output: 750W
Max Torque: 105Nm
Sensor: Torque + cadence
Battery: 48V 20Ah (960Wh)
Range Claimed: 80 miles
Range Tested (PAS 3): 31.85 mi – 850 ft. – 14.15mph avg.
Range Tested (PAS 5): 25.40 mi – 1,024 ft.- 15.39mph avg.
Speed: 28mph
Throttle: Yes
Pedal Assist: 5 levels
Charger: 48V 3A
Charge Time: 7 hours
Display: Color LCD
Frame: Aluminum
Fork: 130mm coil suspension, lockout and preload
Brake Levers: Tektro TKD 171
Brake Calipers: Tektro hydraulic
Brake Rotors: 180mm
Chain: KMC
Crankset: 46t
Derailleur: 8-speed Shimano Altus
Shifter: Shimano SL M-315
Freewheel: 8-speed 12-32t
Rims: 26” spoked aluminum
Tires: 26” x 4”
Fenders: Plastic, full-coverage
Lights: Integrated dual-LED headlight, externally powered rear with 5 modes
Grips: Flared, lock-on
Saddle: Selle Royal comfort-padded
Dropper: 55mm – integrated lever
Pedals: Aluminum platform
Handlebar: 680mm riser
Stem: 70mm
Kickstand: Single-sided
Payload Capacity: 350lb (rider + cargo)

Geometry Details

Seat Tube: 17.5“ (444.5mm)
Reach: 19” (482.6mm)
Stack: 25” (635mm)
Stand Over Height: 20 ” (508mm)
Virtual Top Tube Length: 25” (635mm)
Min Saddle Height: 35” (889mm)
Max Saddle Height: 41” (1041.4mm)
Wheelbase: 51” (1295.4mm)

The Obsidian was an incredibly fun e-bike to ride and test (who doesn’t love riding at full tilt?)! We recommend this bike for thrill seekers, explorers, and campers looking for an all-terrain e-bike with the power to handle just about anything.

My three favorite features has got to be the large motor, the nice cushy suspension, and just the reactive torque sensor. Those three things just make it one of the best fat bikes in this price that I’ve tested.

Overall, I’m super happy with this bike.

I feel like this bike is a pretty sweet spot in terms of price, in terms of performance, and in terms of the quality of it. It’s not the best components, but for the price, it’s actually pretty good.