Fiido Air

The Fiido Air is a lightweight single-speed carbon e-bike with a funky design. In this review, we also test Fiido’s smartwatch.

The Air weighs just under 33lb and is the latest entrant in a niche that includes the Urtopia Carbon 1, Vanpowers City Vanture, TENWAYS CGO600 Pro, and Velotric T1 ST Plus.

While the Urtopia costs quite a bit more, it offers more tech. The other bikes listed above are substantially cheaper than the Air, and they provide more power, higher speeds, and greater range.

This review will cover the main pros and cons and discuss the bike in detail, including its performance in our standardized tests and overall ride impressions. To conclude, we provide an assessment of the Air’s value and the BikeRide score.

About Fiido

Though based in Hong Kong, Fiido has had a sizable presence in the US and Europe for many years. The brand has a range of popular models covering most e-biking styles, such as fat bikes, cargo bikes, and city bikes.

We’ve already reviewed several other Fiido bikes on the channel, including the Titan, C11, T2, and M1 Pro.

What Is the Air?

The Air is a lightweight, fixie-style city bike with a single-speed Gates Carbon belt drive, a 250W hub motor with 35Nm of torque, and a 36V, 208.8Wh battery. Without suspension, the Air relies on the carbon frameset and 700c x 40mm Kenda tires to smooth out the ride.

This e-bike only has two PAS assist levels and a max assisted speed of 15.5mph. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a throttle, and there’s no way to increase the speed limit.

At the time of writing, the Air isn’t UL-certified, but Fiido says testing is underway, and the certification should be issued soon. The Air has a meager IP54 ingress protection rating against dust and water splashes.

Pros

Lightweight

The Air’s biggest draw is its low weight, which we measured at just 32.8lb with the optional fenders installed. This low weight makes the Air easy to pick up, carry, and transport when you’re not riding it, and it .contributes to this bike being responsive and a pleasure to ride.

Discreet

Both in terms of looks and the riding experience, the Air does a great job of hiding the fact that it’s an e-bike. The small and quiet motor, absence of wiring, and discreet e-bike controls mean there’s little here to let pedestrians or other cyclists know it’s an e-bike.

High-Quality Ride Feel

The Air is a welcome contrast to most e-bikes, which, at this price point, can be heavy and not much fun to ride. This bike is light, agile, and responsive, and the single-speed drivetrain works quite well up to the Air’s speed limit of 15.5mph.

The Kenda tires are fast-rolling while also offering plenty of grip and a good ride over gravel and broken pavement. Given the lack of suspension, the bike’s ability to handle light trails is a pleasant surprise.

The responsive and powerful hydraulic brakes work very well, thanks in part to the bike’s low weight. The torque sensor is responsive, too. The motor kicks in quickly, and the power feels very natural.

Fiido’s also done a good job of programming the controller to provide good assistance with solid range from such a tiny battery.

Cons

Hill Climbing

The Air’s 250W hub motor only has 35Nm of torque. The combination of this small motor and single-speed gearing means the Air struggles on steep hills. As a result, it climbed slowly in both hill tests.

On steep inclines with Sport mode selected, I found myself wanting a lower gear to be able to spin faster. To keep the pedals turning, I had to stand up and apply a lot of power.

Geometry and Fit

Our test bike was size Large, the middle of three sizes that Fiido says fits riders from 5’7” to 6’3”. To get full leg extension for pedaling, I needed the seatpost’s full extension, and I’m only 6’ tall, so it’s unlikely that riders over 6’1” will find this bike a good fit. I assume the height ranges Fiido gives for the Medium and XL frames are also exaggerated.

When pedaling the Air, my left foot kept hitting the chainstay and kickstand unless kept my foot angled outward. At size 13, my feet are much larger than average, but I’ve never encountered this problem in all of the dozens of bikes I’ve tested.

When I measured the distance between the pedals and the chainstay, the side on which my foot kept hitting the frame seemed a lot closer than the drive side. When asked about this, Fiido insisted the difference between sides is only one millimeter, and they suggested that I adjust my foot position on the pedal.

Frustrating User Interface

Streamlined user interfaces are great if they reduce clutter and make the bike easier to use, but the Air’s extremely simple e-bike controls have been stripped back to the point of being confusing.

The controls consist of one button for the PAS levels and a light ring that changes color to show which PAS level is selected. While this sounds like a great idea, it can be confusing because the purple and blue colors that indicate pedal assist level are too similar.

The battery meter suffers from the same problem. Three colors are used to show the battery’s charge status (33% increments), making it hard to estimate how much range you have left. Most other streamlined LED-based battery indicators have five lights (20% increments).

While the Fiido app and smartwatch provide greater control over the bike, the bike can only connect to one device at a time, and the connection is unreliable.

During one ride, I walked away from the Air a few times with the bike configured to lock and unlock based on the proximity of the Fiido watch. However, on one occasion, the bike simply stopped responding. Neither the watch nor the Fiido app were connecting, and the bike’s power button didn’t help. After leaving the bike off for about ten minutes, it suddenly started working when I turned it on again.

The Fiido watch can only maintain one Bluetooth connection at a time, and there’s no way to control the watch’s Bluetooth connections. To use the watch to track health data, you have to connect it to a phone, but that means it can’t be connected to the bike to use the auto-lock function or monitor battery range.

There is also a risk of the watch suddenly swapping connection to the rider’s phone, which results in the inability to control the bike. To avoid this, users must disable Bluetooth on their phones. This problem significantly reduces the usefulness and user-friendliness of the Fiido watch.

The Fiido Air in Detail

Frame and Fit

The Air is a hybrid e-bike with a sporty riding position. The bike is only available in silver, but buyers can choose from three frame sizes (M, L, XL). The frame, fork, stem, handlebar, and seatpost are all carbon fiber.

Low Weight

Fiido says the Air weighs 30.3lb, which is presumably for the smallest frame size: Medium. Our Large test bike weighs 32lb without the optional fenders. With the fenders installed, it’s 32.8lb. This isn’t as light as Fiido claims, but it’s still very light for an e-bike, especially one with 700c wheels at this price point.

The carbon construction, small motor and battery, and single-speed Gates Carbon belt drive all help keep the weight down, and Fiido says the Air can support up to 264lb.

The low weight makes the bike easy to pick up and carry. The Air is no wider than a regular bike, so it will fit anywhere most non-electric bikes will go, including almost any bike rack.

E-Bike System, Controls, and Classification

The Air’s Mivice M070 hub motor is so small that few people will spot it. Likewise, the DMEGC 5.8Ah battery is hidden inside the frame, but that does mean it’s not easy to swap. The Air comes with a 2A charger that should charge the battery in less than 4 hours. Fiido sells a 5.8Ah range-extender battery that mounts on the down tube to roughly double the bike’s range.

The Air’s controls are extremely simple: just a black button with a built-in fingerprint reader on the top tube and a silver power button on top of the bottom bracket. As I mentioned before, I think Fiido oversimplified things here.

As a Class 1 e-bike, the Air doesn’t have a throttle, so the motor only provides assistance when pedaling. The Class 1 speed limit in the USA is 20mph, but the Air’s motor only assists you up to 15.5mph, and there’s no option to unlock this to go faster. When you are pedaling, assistance is controlled by a Mivice S200 torque sensor.

Integration and Touchpoints

The Air has a clean front end with no display, e-bike controls, or shifter, just a set of thermoplastic rubber grips and two brake levers. That clean look is maintained by the fully integrated lighting and aero-style seatpost.

The Air comes with good-size aluminum platform pedals and the saddle is a Velo Vacuum. This is a sporty-looking number that suits the bike’s style.

Drivetrain and Brakes

The hydraulic disc brakes and two-piston calipers provide plenty of power, and the brake levers have adjustable reach.

The single-speed belt drivetrain comprises a 60t chainring and 22t cog at the back. Belt drives are known for being durable and clean. There’s also no need to worry about cleaning and lubricating a belt drive, and they’re quieter than chain drives.

Normally, with belt-drive bikes, the frame comes apart at the chainstay to get the belt on and off. On the Air, Fiido has used a clever carrier that bolts to the chainstay, making it easy to adjust the belt tension.

Wheels and Tires

The front wheel is secured to the fork with a 100mm x 15mm thru-axle, enhancing the front-end stiffness and making it easy to remove and refit the front wheel. The Air’s 700c double-walled aluminum rims come wrapped in 40mm tires.

Larger diameter wheels roll over bumps better than the smaller wheels found on many e-bikes, and the decently wide tires provide some insulation from road buzz and small bumps while still rolling quickly. These tires have puncture protection and a light knobby tread that Fiido says is ideal for gravel.

Accessories

The frame has two sets of bottle cage mounts in the main triangle and some odd-looking rack mounts at the rear. Fiido doesn’t currently offer a rack for the Air, which may deter some commuters.

Between the weird rack mounting points, the aero seatpost, and the unusual frame design, it may be difficult to find an after-market rack that fits, and any rack that works would block the integrated rear light.

The Air has integrated front and rear lights, which we provide the test results for in the next section. Unfortunately, the rear light lacks brake activation.

Testing the Fiido Air

Hill Climb Tests

Overall, the Air proved disappointing in our hill-climb tests. The impressively low weight and efficient tires don’t make up for the motor’s low torque output and the lack of gears.

The Air only really has enough kick to make it up small hills. The bike accelerates slowly and struggles to maintain speed on shallow inclines. Only Velotric’s T1 ST Plus took longer than the Fiido Air.

Three of the comparison bikes, which, admittedly, have larger 350W motors, were much faster up the small hill. The single-speed Tenways CGO600 Pro completed the climb almost a minute faster.

The Air performed even worse in the steeper hill test. To keep the pedals turning over, I had to pedal out of the saddle. Like in the small hill test, the T1 ST Plus came last, but the CGO600 Pro was over a minute faster than the Air.

Acceleration Tests

The Air’s pedal assistance stops at 15.5mph, but it’s hard work to pedal this bike faster than that, so it’s not easy to compare it with the other bikes. The Air does reach its top speed of 15.5mph in a relatively quick seven seconds, but that’s it.

Range Tests

Unlike most e-bikes, including the comparison models we’ve chosen, the Air doesn’t have the usual five pedal assist levels. It makes do with two modes: Normal and Sport.

Using Sport mode, the Air lasted just 18.6 miles. Once again, only the T1 ST Plus did worse. The Urtopia Carbon 1 traveled almost 70% farther than the Air.

The Air’s range improves substantially in Normal mode, but it’s still underwhelming compared to the competition. In this test, even the Velotric outperforms the Fiido by quite a margin, and the Urtopia manages almost 33 miles, compared to the Air’s 23.5 miles.

The Fiido Air isn’t a great choice for those who need plenty of range, but at least it charges in less than four hours.

Brake Tests

Our braking tests are usually done from 20mph, but as the Air is limited to 15.5mph, we used that speed instead.

This bike took 18 feet to stop from 15.5mph. This is a longer distance than many e-bikes that completed the test from 20mph.

The three comparison bikes stopped from 20mph, and even from this higher speed, the Urtopia Carbon 1 needed only 21 feet to stop.

Light Tests

The Air’s fully integrated lighting seems like an attractive feature, but it’s not very functional.

The headlight is aimed down too steeply and can’t be adjusted, so it illuminates the road too close to the bike. It’s also dim. In the comparison tests, our Cateye 1100 reference light is much brighter, even at its lowest setting of 400 lumens.

The rear light is large and bright, but there’s no brake activation. This is disappointing, given the Air is supposed to be a high-tech take on the urban e-bike.

For those who plan to ride at night, we recommend adding an after-market front light to enhance visibility and to give a better view of the road ahead.

Riding the Air

The Air gets many of the basics right: it feels very light, it’s easy to maneuver, and it accelerates well over flat ground. It’s also relatively easy to pedal without assistance.

Hills are a different story. The single-speed drivetrain means climbing hills with the motor off is very hard work, and even with motor assistance enabled, the lack of torque and gearing makes steep hills and strong headwinds hard work.

The Air struggles to maintain speed when climbing hills, putting extra strain on the battery and the rider’s legs. Climbing any grade of more than around 8-10% is challenging, even with the motor giving full output in Sport mode.

In Normal assist mode, pulling away takes a lot of effort, and quick acceleration requires standing on the pedals.
The single-speed drivetrain doesn’t just handicap pedaling from a standstill, either. Trying to pedal faster than the 15.5mph PAS limit results in ghost pedaling. This and the resistance from the motor make trying to go faster a pointless endeavor.

The 40mm Kenda tires are fast-rolling, and the extra volume compared to narrower road tires provides welcome shock absorption when riding over broken pavement and extra traction on loose surfaces. The Air is also comfortable over light gravel.

The slightly aggressive riding position inspires pedaling and makes the bike easier to maneuver. Overall, the Air feels like a sporty bike and makes a decent option for getting exercise while having some assistance available to travel farther with less effort.

To conclude, the Large frame fit me well, and the grips and saddle were comfortable. The only issue was my size 13 shoes kept colliding with the kickstand and non-drive side chainstay. So, riders taller than 6’ should consider XL frame, but those with large feet should look elsewhere.

Testing the Fiido Smartwatch

The Air marks our first opportunity to test the Fiido watch. At the time of writing, Fiido is including the watch for free. If they start charging for it, but it doesn’t seem worth paying for. Even as a free extra, it’s frustrating to use.

Again, the lack of an option on the Fiido watch to choose or disable Bluetooth connections and the risk of the system getting confused and making the bike useless, at least for a few minutes. The watch also has poor battery life.

The watch has two modes: Watch and Bike. Once linked to the bike, the watch automatically enters bike mode whenever it has connected to the bike. Holding the side buttons for three seconds switches mode.

In bike mode, the watch has a simple interface that shows the time, a headlight icon (if the lights are on), a Bluetooth link icon, and a five-bar meter for the watch battery at the top of the screen.

Under this, the watch displays the bike speed, PAS level, and a five-bar meter for the Air’s battery. Tapping the PAS level area of the watch screen cycles PAS modes. Swiping left opens a detail screen showing the time, top speed, average speed, and bike odometer. Swiping left again opens the options menu with machine status, screen brightness, about device, and reset.

Machine status allows users to choose miles or kilometers per hour, disable the top speed display, and turn the lights on and off. The screen brightness option is used to adjust the watch’s backlight time-out.

In bike mode, the smartwatch data like heart rate isn’t available. It’s annoying to have to exit out of bike mode to use the fitness features of this watch, and while in bike mode, it was too easy to accidentally change PAS level by touching the screen.

Being able to monitor the bike’s remaining battery via the five-bar meter on the watch is helpful, but the battery level fluctuates a lot. When the battery is almost depleted, the battery meter on the watch turns red and the system starts to limit power to the motor. Assistance will then gradually taper off until the battery is completely dead.

My favorite part of the watch was the easy locking and unlocking of the bike, although this doesn’t always work reliably.

Conclusion

Fiido calls the Air “A revolutionary lightweight bike” and speaks of “Effortless Motion Like Floating Through Air,” but there isn’t anything particularly revolutionary about this bike.

For those who like the look of the frame and want a mostly carbon build, the Air is a solid option, but the Urtopia Carbon 1 offers similar styling and much better performance for a few hundred dollars more. The Vanpowers and TENWAYS comparison bikes provide more performance and range, though they weigh more.

The Air is a poor choice for tackling hills, traveling extended distances, or pedaling faster than 15.5mph. However, on level ground, around town, and on light gravel, the bike is great. Its low weight, engaging ride, and ability to hide the fact that it’s an e-bike will undoubtedly appeal to certain riders, and it should be plenty quick for some people.

Score Breakdown

• Build quality: 90
• Performance / Innovation: 80
• Design: 75
• Ride quality: 90
• Price / Value: 85

Overall: 84

Detailed Specifications

Electric Bike Class: Class 1
Warranty: 2 Year – 30-Day Return
UL Certification: Not Listed
IP Rating: IP54
Total Weight: Claimed: 30.8 – Actual: 32lb Size Large (32.8lb with fenders)
Motor Brand: Mivice M070
Motor Type: Rear hub
Motor Nominal Output: 250W
Torque: 35Nm
Battery: 36V 5.8Ah (208.8Wh)
Range Claimed: 37.5 miles
Range Tested (PAS 1): 23.51 miles – 892 ft. – 11.7mph avg.
Range Tested (PAS 2): 18.63 miles – 710 ft. – 12.9mph avg.
Speed: 15.5mph
Throttle: No
Pedal Assist: 2 Levels (Normal, Sport)
Charger: 36V 2A
Charge Time: 4 hours
Display: NA
Frame: Carbon
Fork: Carbon
Brake Levers: Tektro HD-M275
Brake Calipers: 2-piston hydraulic
Brake Rotors: 160mm
Chain: Gates Carbon belt
Crankset: Gates CDX 60t
Derailleur: NA
Shifter: NA
Freewheel: Gates Carbon CDC 22t
Rims: 700c Aluminum double-wall
Tires: Kenda 700c x 40mm – K-Shield puncture protection
Fenders: Not included
Lights: Integrated front and rear, no brake indicator
Grips: TPR non-slip grips
Saddle: Velo Vacuum
Pedals: Aluminum platforms
Handlebar: Carbon fiber 640mm wide
Kickstand: Included – Single-sided
Payload Capacity: 264lb

Geometry Details

Seat Tube: 21.2“ (540mm)
Reach: 15.9” (404mm)
Stack: 24.2” (616mm)
Stand Over Height: 33.2” (845mm)
Virtual Top Tube Length: 23.3” (592mm)
Min Saddle Height: 36.2” (920mm)
Max Saddle Height: 39.7” (1010mm)
Wheelbase: 41.8” (1063mm)

And after spending more than a month with a Fiido Air as my daily rider, I gotta say — I’m impressed… so long as you ignore the app and the silly smartwatch it ships with, and aren’t afraid of doing a little wrenching and troubleshooting yourself.

For an e-bike in this price segment, the Air aims for a lot of new things at once but it’s also able to deliver them.

The Fiido Air Carbon Fiber e-bike stands out as a top choice for urban commuters seeking a lightweight, durable, and stylish e-bike.