The new flat bar flavoured Cairn BRAVe 2.0 keeps you finding new reasons to just “nip out to somewhere, I might take the long way back”.
- Brand: Cairn
- Product: BRAVe 2.0 Flat Bar
- From: Cairn Cycles
- Price: £2,359
- Tested by: Hannah for 2 months
Pros
- Excellent Shimano motor at this price
- Huge battery capacity and range
- Load carrying potential
Cons
- Rather stiff ride
- Would be improved by a QR seatpost
- 2-finger brakes reduce confidence of steering
I previously tested the previous Cairn BRAVe (Back Road Adventure Vehicle) in its drop bar format. It was something of a hoot to ride, although it was perhaps a little niche. The BRAVe has been transformed from a drop bar bike with mountain bike proportion tyres to a rigid flat bar bike… is that a mountain bike, or a souped up gravel bike? And who is it for?
There are relatively few changes beyond the bars involved in this transformation. The frame has lost the mount to fit a kickstand – this lightens things a little, cleans the lines, and apparently few customers were using the option anyway. You now get flat bars – obviously – and with that comes flat bar brakes, in this instance the Tektro HD-M275 mated to 180mm rotors.
It retains an effective Shimano motor, but gets an upgrade to the Shimano EP6 Cargo motor, and keeps the same massive 630Wh, battery meaning you can ride until you run out of fuel – which will probably be before the bike needs another charge. Obviously range varies loads depending on the hills you climb, the effort you put in, and the level of assist you use, but you’d be really pushing yourself (or just boosting endlessly up giant mountains) if you were to try and use the whole battery in a day.
Flat bars means you can actually easily use the different modes on the motor – more on that in a moment. But another feature of the EP6 update is a screen which offers much more detail about where you are in the life of the battery – there are now 10 little indicator lines instead of 5. But – glory be, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this – there is also now a clock on the display. It is such a small point, but it makes such a difference. Whether you’re racing along on a time-pushed commute, or you’ve lost track of time out on the hills, having the time at a glance on your bars really does add to the ride experience.
The bike comes with 29inch tubeless ready wheels and tyres, though you’ll have to complete the set up to tubeless with valves and sealant yourself if you want to go down that route. Rims are Ryde Disc 30 Tubeless Rims with Formula Boost Sealed Bearing Hubs, 32H, hubs – not from Cairn’s sibling family, Hunt. I’d guess this is a price point choice, but they’re fine. The Maxxis Rekon Race 29 x 2.35 EXO TR Tanwall tyres are on the ‘gravel’ side of things when it comes to tread, although there’s plenty of volume there. For summer trails or light MTB riding these are fine, and don’t feel too draggy on the road. I ran the tyres with tubes, meaning I didn’t risk going as soft as I would with a tubeless set up. In all honesty, on these tyres I wouldn’t have wanted to go any softer than tubes allowed – I found them a touch balloony and squirmy at lower pressures.
Gearing is the Microshift Advent X 10 speed with Microshift 11 – 48t cassette. A great choice, in my opinion – you don’t need tons of gears on an ebike, and the Microshift set up gives nice reliable shifting at a good price point. At £2,359 RRP, the Cairn BRAVe is competing at the budget end of the ebike market, at a price where the Shimano motor is a big plus point. Or, it would be in normal times – some of the big brands are now discounting their equivalents, hotting up the competition in this sector.
On the trail
The Cairn BRAVe 2.0 comes as a fully rigid bike, although you can fit a suspension fork if you want – 80-100mm is what Cairn recommends. You can also fit a dropper post. There are oodles of mounts on the bike, making it possible to fit a variety of racks and cages according to you needs and taste. Load up you life and hit the road, or just use it for everyday life and trips to the shops – plus all the trails in between. It is a bit of a make-of-it-what-you-want bike, and the lack of suspension, good quality Shimano motor, and stacks of battery power do lend the bike towards workhorse duties. It’s great being able to commute to work, yet still have battery power left to do an evening lap of the trails without having to find the time – and power point – to fit in a recharge.
Unless you’re on steep tarmac climbs, Boost is quite a handful when it comes to steering with the rigid fork, which means you’re rarely in Boost off-road. Even Trail can feel pretty lively on rough terrain – though you can use the Shimano app to tune the motor to your needs. It’s a bike on which you can cover the ground without having to keep one eye on battery life.
However, to my mind it is a bit of a rough ride. The mountain bike ride position encourages you to ride it like a mountain bike – which had me getting myself a little more out of control than I would have done on drop bars. This isn’t helped by the brakes, which do work, but are of a two-finger braking style. This leaves only two fingers holding onto the grips as you get knocked about by the trail’s rocks pinging through that stiff fork, and I had plenty of occasions where I felt like I was going faster than truly sensible. If you’re coming from something more old school in geometry, or less enduro, then the high ride position at speed might not feel quite so unusual. I’d at least have liked a quick release seat post (or dropper) to stop the saddle bucking me in the bum when hitting water bars at speed. Fighting the front end alone, rather than the back end joining in, would have felt more manageable.
These experiences had me debating whether I was expecting too much of the BRAVe. Was I taking a gravel bike beyond its limits? Or was it a mountain bike limited by some spec choices? Was it really meant for the campervan customer who is going to use it to pootle to the pub and back to the campsite, or is it for the adventurer who’s going to rely on it into remote places? Again, the BRAVe’s make-of-it-what-you-want potential shows itself – but I wonder whether the plain canvas might have potential for many, but perfection for none?
For me, the off road comfort – or lack thereof – makes me think that the campsite commuters will look elsewhere, in search of off-the-shelf suspension and a cushy ride. If you’re an off road commuter that doesn’t want drop bars, then I think the Cairn BRAVe 2.0 could be a great choice – solid reliable performance spec, and more than enough battery power to get you through a commute – or two, or three. If it’s multi-day adventures all loaded up, I think you’d definitely want to swap the brakes, possibly want to try different bars and grips, and maybe add a suspension fork, in order to keep your hands ahead of the kind of fatigue that I think you would otherwise feel.
For something like a hire fleet on easy trails or a sight seeing location, I can see these being a useful addition – they’re easy to use, there’s loads of standover for confident handling, loads of assist if you need it, and I doubt anyone would ever run out of battery. For this use case – and the casual campsite pootler – I can see a QR seatpost being a useful addition. It’s the kind of bike that lends itself to be swapped between riders and using in a casual ‘just popping out to…’ fashion.
Overall
The Cairn BRAVe 2.0 in its new flat bar guise is like a good pocket tool – yes, there are other specialist tools which would do a better job in this or that instance, but the pocket tool shifts between tweezers and pliers, screwdriver and knife. It’s useful because it’s there, and because it’s there you use it more. If you get one of these, expect to be sharing it with everyone else in your household, and to keep finding new reasons to just ‘nip out to somewhere, I might take the long way back’.
Cairn BRAVe 2.0 Flat Bar Specification
- Frame // 6061-T6 alloy w/ mounts for 3 x bottle cage, top tube fuel bag, rack and mudguards
- Fork // Alloy with mount for Anything cages, rack and mudguards
- Wheels // Ryde Disc 30 Tubeless rims on Formula Boost Sealed Bearing hubs
- Front tyre // Maxxis Rekon Race 29×2.35in EXO TR
- Rear tyre //Maxxis Rekon Race 29×2.35in EXO TR
- Chainset // Shimano EM600, 170mm, 38T
- Drivetrain // Microshift Advent X 10sp, 11-48T
- Brakes // Tektro HD-M275, 180/180mm
- Stem // Cairn Adventure 45mm
- Bars // Cairn Adventure, 760x,12mm, 31.8mm
- Grips // Lock-on
- Seatpost // Cairn Alloy, 30.9mm
- Saddle // Cairn
- Bottom Bracket // Shimano
- Motor // Shimano EP6, 85Nm
- Battery // Shimano BT-EN606, 630Wh
- Size tested // M
- Sizes available // S, M, L, XL
- Weight // 18kg
Geometry of our size M
- Head angle // 68°
- Effective seat angle // 74°
- Seat tube length // 450mm
- Head tube length // 149mm
- Effective top tube // 591mm
- BB height // 75mm BB drop
- Reach // 410mm
- Chainstay // 460mm
- Wheelbase // 1,151mm