2022 Revibikes Cheetah Mini Review

Video Review

Written Review

The Revibikes Cheetah Mini has all of the same vibes of its older brother, The Cheetah, but just shrinks them down into a more approachable form factor. This vintage-inspired electric bike only cares about one thing: Looking cool and feeling good. Wait. That’s two things. Let’s just say, you may need to break out the leather jacket and shades if you want to be seen riding this Ebike around. 

The Cheetah Mini has a starting price of $1,799 USD and includes free shipping, a 30-day price match policy, and a limited 1-year warranty. The coverage isn’t “mini” here by any means.  

So, let’s dive into the specs! 

The Cheetah Mini is rocking a Revibikes-branded 500-watt, rear hub motor. Now, it is capable of 750-watt peak wattage output, so by no means is this little beast lacking any power! 500-watt motors are generally regarded as “good enough”, and I’m not sure if there’s any optimization behind the scenes, but this motor felt really solid, with plenty of power to handle anything we tackled during our ride tests. 

With the Cheetah Mini, you can adjust the levels of pedal assists. So, if you want 5 levels or 9 levels, you can hop into the menu and customize it to your liking. 

If you’re too cool to pedal, don’t sweat it. Literally. You’ve got a half-grip twist throttle on the right-hand side to maintain your reputation. But, if no one’s looking, you can also pedal the Cheetah Mini, utilizing its cadence pedal assist. 

You’re not going to break any speed records here, but the Cheetah mini is capable of achieving 28MPH with pedal assistance, and 20MPH throttle only, making this a Class 3 bike. It may ship in class 2 configuration, but this is something you can hop into the menu and unlock. 

Let’s check out the battery here.

The Cheetah Mini’s locking and removable 48-volt, 15 amp-hour battery is definitely not as small as you’d expect given the name…In fact, I’m starting to think the Mini name is only referring to the frame size…

This battery uses Samsung cells and offers a max estimated range of 35 miles in ideal conditions. Considering this battery is 720 watt-hours, this estimate feels spot on! But, I do think the real-world range is going to be around 25-30 miles, especially if you want to rip on the twist-throttle every once in a while. And come on…you want to rip on the twist throttle now and again. 

Revibikes did a great job with the Cheetah Mini’s frame. This electric bike has a max payload capacity of nearly 300 pounds. But what I love here is that Revibikes thought ahead with the frame bosses. We’ve got options for a front basket and a rear rack, and although that may change the vintage-esque vibes, it is still an option if needed.  

Revibikes only offers this frame in one color, so if you only ride red bikes, then you’ll have to find a third-party service to customize the color. Or just grab a brush and a can of red paint I guess.

The Cheetah Mini is not a step-through, but we’ve got a very approachable standover height of about 22 inches. With an adjustable reach of 21 inches to 23 inches, this bike will fit a wide range of riders. Anyone from 4’11”-5’9”, according to Revibikes. Based on my 5’9” frame, I’d say those are spot-on ranges. 

Besides being smaller than the Cheetah, there is another difference, and one that we think is pretty awesome. The front forks: these ones move! That’s right folks, we’ve got a suspension front fork! This is one of the biggest upgrades we were looking for when we reviewed the full-sized Cheetah. The Mozo front fork on the Mini doesn’t transform this bike into a jump-ready bomber, but it is going to smooth out the ride quite a bit! We’re not positive about the actual travel here, but it does feel like anywhere between 60-80mm. This is definitely an upgrade that we are stoked to see! 

To help with smoothing out the ride, we’ve got 20’ x 4” fat tires, which are going to travel better across uneven terrain. And though they have a different ride feel, they are definitely the go-to option for riders who are interested in a comfortable ride. We don’t get any sidewall-reflective stripes, which is a night-time safety feature we would like to see. 

The last part of the suspension we’ll chat briefly about is the saddle. The saddle is comfortable and a bit on the wider side. I found that I enjoyed being in the saddle, and could easily see this seat supporting a long ride pretty well. 

The Cheetah Mini features Tektro hydraulic brakes, with 160mm rotors on both the front and rear wheels. Even though this is a smaller bike, Revibikes still went with hydraulic brakes on this bike, and we’re glad they did! Tektro makes some pretty dope brakes, and they were right at home on the Cheetah mini. They functioned well, stopping the bike when needed, and could be feathered to descend steeper embankments at a safe pace. We wouldn’t change a thing about how the braking was set up. 

To switch gears we have a 7-speed Shimano Altus derailleur paired with a Shimano SIS Index Thumb Shifter. It’s great to see Shimano parts here, as you know. These parts are easy to replace, easy to maintain, and have a long-standing place as the go-to shifting components for Ebikes in the US, and around the world. 

We have a plastic chain guide, and while that won’t stop a tree or rock strike at top speeds, it will help keep your pants grease-free! The gearing here is set up pretty well too.If you find yourself pedaling without any battery, it won’t be the worst thing you’ve ever had to do. Imagine sitting at the thanksgiving table next to “that one uncle” for three hours…it wasn’t as bad as that. [shudders]

The Cheetah Mini has an integrated headlight that’s almost bright enough to ride at night if it was your only source of illumination. I would feel more comfortable with a secondary, brighter light mounted a bit higher on the bike, but it’s definitely doable. I love to see the integration with the battery, so we don’t have to source weird power cells that are only carried at ACE Hardware for some reason. So, big plus there. 

The Cheetah Mini also comes with fenders for the front and rear wheels. On this bike, the fenders make a lot of sense and fit in with the vibe well. 

The one thing we’d like to see on future models of the bike would be an integrated tail light. It’s not a deal-breaker, but this would add to the overall safety of the Cheetah Mini.  

The handlebars have a slight upsweep to them, making them feel a little more ergonomic when compared with straight bars. We have an adjustable stem, with quite a good range of motion. So, this will accommodate a pretty wide rider height, as we discussed earlier. 

We’ve got a color LCD screen that gives us all the pertinent information. We can cycle through our levels of pedal assistance, and turn on and off our lights, with the standalone keypad on the left-hand side. The cockpit has a sleek, minimalist vibe to it, allowing you to focus on the ride ahead. 

Overall, the Revibikes Cheetah Mini is a cool-looking Ebike, and it is quite the head-turner! We’ve reviewed a few of the Revibikes models recently, and the style and value of these Ebikes are things we really enjoy!