AMYET S8

Price and value

AMYET lists the S8 at $1,049, marked down from $1,599 — a different tier from the rest of their range. The V9-G60 is $689 and the EB26 is $669, so the S8 is $360 more than one and $380 more than the other. One piece of arithmetic is worth doing carefully, because it is easy to get wrong: $689 + $669 = $1,358, so the S8 does not cost more than those two bikes bought together — it costs $309 less than that. What it does cost is about half as much again as the G60, since $1,049 ÷ $689 ≈ 1.52, or roughly 52% more, and about 57% more than the EB26. Anyone moving up should be able to name the problem the extra money solves.

What it buys is a second driven wheel, hydraulic brakes, full suspension and a bigger pack: 48V 25Ah, or 1200 watt-hours, against the G60's 960Wh. Divide price by stored energy, though, and the argument gets awkward.

$1,049 ÷ 1200Wh ≈ $0.87, against about $0.72 for the G60 and $0.93 for the EB26. The S8 is not the battery-per-dollar bike in AMYET's line; the money goes into the second motor, the hydraulics and the suspension. It is still cheap energy by the standards of everything else here — the VTUVIA SX20 is $1,599 ÷ 672Wh ≈ $2.38 per watt-hour and the EUNORAU SPECTER-S 3.0 is $2,999 ÷ 840Wh ≈ $3.57 — but cheap energy is not why anyone buys this bike. If your problem is distance, the cheapest watt-hours are on the G60; if it is gradient or traction, no amount of battery fixes it.

What a second motor actually does

AMYET describes the S8 as having dual 1000W brushless motors driving both wheels, and separately headlines a 3000W peak. Those are not competing claims. Rated power is what a motor sustains without overheating, so two 1000W motors give 2000W combined; peak power is what the controller pushes through for a few seconds, and 3000W is that combined peak. Both appear across AMYET's own pages, which is why we list them separately. Plan around 2000W rated. Our motor wattage guide explains why brands print the peak.

Two driven wheels is not twice as good

Doubling the motors does not double useful output; what changes is where the force is applied. A single rear hub motor puts all its torque through one contact patch, and on wet leaves, gravel or sand that wheel spins and the power goes nowhere. A driven front wheel gives it a second place to put the same effort down. The consequence is traction and torque headroom rather than raw speed, and each motor doing less work runs cooler. The costs are weight, complexity and consumption. Our single versus dual motor guide sets out when the trade is worth making.

Battery and real-world range

The S8 carries a 48V 25Ah removable pack: 1200 watt-hours, the largest published battery capacity of the twenty-two bikes we cover. AMYET claims a maximum range of 70 to 75 miles, which is a ceiling rather than a planning figure — a maximum-range number on a dual-motor bike is almost always generated with one motor driving, the lowest assist level, a light rider and flat ground. Fat-tire e-bikes of this mass typically consume 20 to 45 watt-hours per mile:

• One motor, low assist, flat, gentle pace: around 20Wh per mile. 1200Wh ÷ 20 = 60 miles, still short of AMYET's claim.
• Both motors, moderate assist, mixed terrain: around 30Wh per mile. 1200Wh ÷ 30 = 40 miles.
• Both motors, throttle-heavy, climbs and loose ground: 40Wh per mile or more. 1200Wh ÷ 40 = 30 miles. This is the riding the S8 was built for.

Run the headline claim backwards: 1200Wh ÷ 75 miles = 16Wh per mile, very light going for a bike of this type. Buying the S8 for its headline range is buying the wrong bike.

Rider and cargo weight shortens it most, then cold — cells lose capacity below about 40°F — then speed, gradient, headwind and tire pressure, plus one variable unique to this bike: whether the front motor is engaged. The pack is removable, IP54 rated and supports dual charging. AMYET publishes no charge time for the S8, where they list 5 to 8 hours for both cheaper bikes. Our explanation of why claimed range is never the range you get goes further.

Climbing, traction and terrain

This is the section that justifies the bike. AMYET states a maximum slope of 35 degrees, a claim they make for neither single-motor model. For scale, that is a gradient of about 70%, and very few public roads exceed 20%. Gradient claims rarely come with the conditions they were measured under, so treat it as a demonstration of what the drivetrain can do briefly rather than a gradient the bike holds for a mile: a signal rather than a specification.

Traction, not power, is usually the limit

On a steep climb the binding constraint is often not how much torque the motor makes but how much the tire can transmit before it slips: the rear breaks traction, you lose drive, and you are restarting on a slope. All-wheel drive changes that, because each contact patch is asked for less grip, so the point at which either slips arrives later. On sand, snow and loose gravel that is the difference between riding a surface and pushing across it.

Gears do not multiply hub motor torque as they would on a mid-drive, but the 7-speed drivetrain still lets you contribute — spinning a low gear for a twenty-minute climb might add 150W the motors need not make. The five mid-drive bikes we cover — EUNORAU's FLASH 2.0, SPECTER-S 3.0 and SPECTER-ST 2.0, VTUVIA's FMB and Velotric's Discover M — put their motor at the cranks precisely so the gears do multiply torque: a different answer to the same problem, at roughly two and a half to three times the price. Our guide to e-bikes for hills covers the choice.

Suspension, wheels and comfort

AMYET describes the S8 as full suspension on a full-suspension fat-tire frame, where the G60 and EB26 are described only in terms of shock absorbers front and rear. What is not published is the linkage design, travel at either end, damping type or adjustability — a meaningful gap, because suspension quality is almost entirely about damping, and damping is the part that costs money.

The tires still do most of the smoothing on any fat bike; our fat tire guide covers pressure and tread. The 20-inch wheel is the compromise: busier at speed, but stronger for a given spoke count, and the rear shock buys back the compliance it gives away.

Hydraulic brakes, and why they are here

AMYET lists hydraulic disc brakes for the S8, a claim it shares only with the K10 among AMYET’s five; the G60 is listed only as "dual disc brakes" and the EB26 explicitly as mechanical. The difference is not cosmetic. A mechanical disc pulls the pad via a steel cable, so braking force depends on hand strength and pads need manual adjustment. A hydraulic disc moves fluid through a sealed line: it self-adjusts, needs far less hand force, and modulates more finely, so you can hold a controlled speed on a descent. On this bike that is a safety specification rather than a luxury — two hub motors, a 1200Wh pack and full suspension put it at the heavy end of the category, and a 32 MPH claim on steep loose ground is where mechanical brakes fade. AMYET publishes neither rotor diameter nor caliper piston count. Hydraulics also need occasional bleeding, part of why AMYET recommends professional installation here rather than the "90% assembled" framing used for the cheaper two.

Top speed, and where you can legally use it

AMYET's headline figure is up to 32 MPH, and their own materials also reference up to 35 MPH in places. We quote 32 as the more consistently published figure, but a buyer should know the discrepancy exists.

Either number sits above the line most US states draw. Under the three-class framework used by around forty states, Class 3 tops out at 28 MPH of pedal assist, and a bike assisting beyond that falls outside all three classes — potentially not an e-bike at all in law. Some jurisdictions also define an e-bike partly by motor output, with 750W the most common ceiling, and two 1000W motors sit outside that whatever speed the bike is limited to. If legal simplicity is your priority, the EB26 tops out at exactly 28 MPH.

Build, payload and what is not published

AMYET rates the S8 for a 330 lb maximum load, the same as the G60 and EB26, and recommends professional installation. It ships with a charger, manual, toolkit and key, in black and green, and the IP54 rating is adequate for rain but not for pressure washing.

The specification most buyers want is the one AMYET does not publish: the bike's own weight. Two motors, a 1200Wh pack, full suspension and hydraulic brakes put it at the heavy end of AMYET's line, alongside the dual-motor Ares 2, but neither figure is stated — and that matters before you plan to lift it onto a car rack. The 330 lb payload is a total, so the same allowance is carried by hardware already working harder; our guide for heavier riders explains what that rating covers.

The gaps are the recurring AMYET story: no weight, no torque figure, no assist sensor type, no suspension travel, no rotor size, no charge time, no rider height range. Eleven of the seventeen non-AMYET bikes we cover publish a weight, sixteen of the seventeen publish a torque figure, and thirteen publish an assist sensor type. AMYET's answer is price per watt-hour — $0.87 here against $2.08 to $4.46 for everything else on this site. That is a real trade and a defensible one, but it is a trade, and more of this purchase rests on trust than we would like.

Certification, warranty and support

This is the part of the listing we would most want AMYET to fix. They state UL 2849 for the V9-G60 and the EB26; we could not find that claim on the S8 listing. That is not the same as saying the bike is uncertified — it means the claim is not published. But a buyer cannot rely on a claim nobody has made.

UL 2849 covers the electrical system of a complete e-bike — battery, charger, controller and motor tested together — and is broader than UL 2271, which covers the pack alone. That matters because most lithium incidents involve the interaction between charger, pack and controller rather than a cell failing alone, and several US jurisdictions, insurers and building managers now require UL 2849 before an e-bike may be charged indoors. If that applies where you live, ask AMYET in writing before you order.

Warranty is one year with a 30-day risk-free trial and free shipping and returns: standard rather than generous, and on a bike with two motors, two controllers and hydraulic brakes there is more that can fail.

How it compares

Against the V9-G60, the S8 costs $360 more and adds a second driven wheel, 240 watt-hours, hydraulic brakes, full suspension and a 35 degree slope claim, while wheels, gearing, payload and top speed stay the same — see our G60 versus S8 comparison. Against the EB26 the gap is wider: $380, 480 watt-hours, a second motor and hydraulics against mechanical discs, answered by 26-inch wheels and a Class 3 ceiling. See EB26 versus S8.

Buy it if your route has sustained climbs a single hub motor labours on, if you ride sand, snow or loose gravel, or if you descend steep ground often enough that hydraulic braking is a requirement rather than a preference. Do not buy it for range, despite the largest published pack of the twenty-two bikes we cover: the arithmetic puts realistic planning distance nearer 30 to 40 miles in the terrain this bike exists for. And do not buy it for flat commuting, where $360 over the G60 buys capability that never surfaces. Our round-up of the AMYET range places all five side by side.