2022 Rambo Bikes Megatron Review

Video Review

Written Review

The Rambo Megatron is an absolute billy goat of an electric bike. This fat tire behemoth is dual drive, and has a 1,000 watt hub motor in the rear wheel, and another in the front. It’s also loaded up with two massive batteries, quad piston hydraulic disc brakes and a nasty attitude. When it comes to conquering the hills and slogging through deep mud, snow or sand, it’s going to be hard to beat this e-bike.

The Megatron comes in with a starting price of $7,299 USD, which is almost as steep as the hills it can climb, and is offered in one frame size, 19.7 inches, and one color, which is the very groovy TrueTimber Viper Western Camo pattern. 

Rambo offers a lifetime warranty on the frame, which is awesome, and a 1-year warranty on everything else. You can also get free shipping in exchange for an email and phone number number, and you can return unused bikes up to 30 days after purchase. 

Ok I think we need to dive into the specs because I can hear the Megatron in the background chomping at the bit for adventure. 

Right, so, obviously we’re going to have to start with the motors here because a dual-drive e-bike is about as rare as a unicorn, you just don’t see them very often… even when you review them for a living, apparently. 

The Megatron has a 1,000 nominal watt Bafang hub motor in the rear wheel and 1,000 nominal watt Bafang hub motor in the rear wheel, which can bring this monstrous e-bike up to a max speed of 28 mph, which you can reach using the throttle or the cadence-sensing pedal assist. When both those motors are engaged and you hit the throttle, the Megatron launches off the line like a fighter jet from an aircraft carrier. Alright it’s not that extreme but it’s one of the wildest rides we’ve tested to date, and that’s saying something.

Riding with both motors engaged feels a lot like riding a dirt bike. The power and responsiveness, the heavy curb weight, the massive Maxxis 4.8 inch wide fat tires… the fact that it has a throttle. Ya, it rides like a dirt bike. You really have to be careful with the Megatron or you’ll get yourself into trouble quick. 

If you want a milder ride, you can disengage either the front or rear motors, and honestly single-drive this is the way the Megatron should be ridden most of the time. It reminds me of lockers on an off-road rig. When you’re rock crawling or overlanding, you engage the lockers on an as-needed basis. You don’t run with them engaged all the time if the trail doesn’t require it. The same philosophy works well for the Megatron.

There are other reasons to use the dual drive conservatively as well. First of all, it’s hard to control the Megatron with 2,000 watts of power coursing through the e-bike. Second, it devours the battery.

And let’s talk about the battery system on the Megatron, because it too is totally awesome. Right, so there’s two of them — a 17 amp hour one that sits inside the downtube, and another 17 amp hour one that sits on top of the downtube. Both are locking and removable, and combined, there’s a total of 34 amp hours of juice on tap. 34, my fellow e-bike enthusiasts. That’s more than 300% more battery capacity than the average e-bike. 

And all these electrons give the Megatron a max estimated range of 80 miles. I will tell you right now though that these motors are starving, power-hungry, little monsters that will happily chip away at your charge. Of course, that’s the cost of being able to climb unthinkable grades, power through deep mud and tow heavy loads. 

Speaking of heavy, the Megatron is a land yacht. Rambo has the curb weight at 77 pounds, but I think that’s without the batteries. It feels far heavier than most of the e-bikes we review, and that makes a lot of sense given the two huge motors and two huge batteries. 

The frame has a max load capacity of 300 pounds, and there’s bosses in the head tube for the optional front rack, and there’s also bosses for the optional rear rack. Rambo also offers a pretty sweet triple accessory bag and a few different trailers that would probably work well for anyone who plans to take the Megatron off the beaten path.

Now, the Megatron is a single speed, so yes you can pedal it, but with the two huge motors and two huge batteries, it’s clear that the Megatron is intended to do the heavy lifting. And for that we are thankful, because, frankly, pedaling this ride is a chore. 

With a rig this chonky, you want good brakes, and Rambo did not disappoint. The Megatron comes with Tektro Dorado, quad piston, hydraulic disc brakes with a 203 mm rotor in the front wheel and a 180 mm rotor in the rear wheel. The stopping power on the Megatron is phenomenal, and that’s exactly what we want to see here at Electrified Reviews, because good stopping power means good safety. There’s also motor inhibitors on this e-bike so whenever you hit the brakes, both those big ol’ motors instantly shut off. The last thing you want to do with the Megatron is have a tug-of-war contest with 2,000 watts of power when you’re in an emergency stop. Nice job, Rambo. 

The Uding Air 26 suspension has about 120 mm of travel and rebound adjust, and they really help when tackling tough terrain. 

The wire management on the Megatron is great, with everything being internally routed and just overall very well organized. 

The 770 mm Promax handlebars add tons of control, and smack in the middle is the super bright, full color display. It’s plenty easy to read in direct sunlight.

On the left side of the handlebars we’ve got the independent button pad, and on the right side we’ve got the thumb throttle.