AMYET G60 vs S8

Price: $360, and what it is attached to

AMYET lists the V9-G60 at $689, down from $899, and the S8 at $1,049, down from $1,599. The gap is $360 — the S8 costs roughly 52% more.

That $360 is not spread thinly. It buys four distinct pieces of hardware: a second 1000W motor driving the front wheel, 240 extra watt-hours of battery, hydraulic rather than mechanical disc brakes, and full suspension in place of a fork plus rear shock. Any one of those would be a meaningful upgrade on its own.

The useful way to frame this is not whether the S8 is worth more money in the abstract. It is whether your terrain will ever ask for what the money buys. A dual-motor, full-suspension bike ridden exclusively on flat tarmac is an expensive way to carry an extra motor around.

One motor or two

The G60 has a 1000W rated rear hub motor with a claimed 1500W peak. The S8 has two 1000W brushless motors — 2000W rated combined, with AMYET claiming 3000W combined peak — driving both wheels.

Rated power is what a motor sustains without overheating. Peak power is a short-burst figure, useful for pulling away or cresting a rise, not something a hub motor holds through a long climb. When a listing leads with the peak number it is describing the best few seconds of the motor’s life. AMYET publishes both figures for both bikes, which is to their credit.

Traction, not just power

The more important difference is not watts. It is driven wheels. A single rear hub motor puts all of its effort through one contact patch, and on a steep pitch the rider’s weight shifts rearward, which helps. On loose gravel, wet grass, sand or snow it does not help enough: the rear wheel spins, the motor loses purchase, and the bike stalls. Two driven wheels split the effort, so each tire is asked for less grip than it has.

That is why all-wheel drive changes loose-surface riding far more than the raw power figure suggests, and why it changes flat tarmac riding almost not at all — on good grip, one wheel was never the limiting factor. Our single vs dual motor guide works through where the second motor earns its keep.

Both bikes run a 7-speed drivetrain, and on a hub-motor bike gearing matters less for multiplying motor torque than for letting you contribute. On a long climb, spinning a low gear and adding 150W of your own reduces how hard the motor works, which reduces heat, which keeps the motor delivering rather than cutting power to protect itself. That is true on either bike. See our e-bike for hills guide and what e-bike motor wattage actually means.

Battery: why the bigger pack may not go further

The S8 carries 48V 25Ah, which is 1200Wh. The G60 carries 48V 20Ah, or 960Wh. On paper the S8 holds 25% more energy.

It does not follow that it goes 25% further, and this is the single most commonly missed point when people compare these two bikes.

Two motors mean two sets of electrical and mechanical losses, more unsprung weight, and a heavier bike overall — and every pound has to be accelerated away from every stop. Run both motors on rough ground and consumption can pass 40Wh per mile. Do the arithmetic both ways:

• G60, moderate assist, mixed ground, ≈25Wh/mile: 960Wh ÷ 25 ≈ 38 miles. An ESTIMATE.
• S8, both motors, loose or hilly ground, ≈40Wh/mile: 1200Wh ÷ 40 = 30 miles. Also an ESTIMATE — and lower than the G60’s figure despite the larger pack.
• S8 ridden gently on flat ground, ≈25Wh/mile: 1200Wh ÷ 25 = 48 miles. The extra capacity does show up, but only when you are not using the reason you bought the bike.

So the S8 is not a range upgrade. It is a capability upgrade with enough extra battery to stop the capability from costing you range. That is a reasonable engineering decision, and a poor reason to spend $360 if distance is what you are after. Our guide to claimed versus real range explains where these numbers come from.

One practical S8 advantage: AMYET lists dual charging support, which should shorten the time to fill a 1200Wh pack. They do not publish a charge time for the S8. The G60 is listed at 5–8 hours.

Brakes: the upgrade that is hardest to add later

AMYET lists hydraulic disc brakes for the S8. For the G60 they list only dual disc brakes, with no hydraulic claim — and because they do say hydraulic where they have it, the reasonable reading is that the G60 uses mechanical, cable-actuated discs.

The difference is not marketing. Mechanical discs pull the pad through a cable, so lever feel is softer, braking force depends more on hand strength, and cable stretch means they drift out of adjustment as they bed in. Hydraulic discs are self-adjusting, need far less hand force, and modulate better — which matters most on a long descent when your hands are tired and you are trying to control speed rather than simply arrest it.

On bikes that carry this much mass at these speeds, we would rank braking above almost every other specification, and the S8 is both the heavier bike and the one aimed at descending. That it has the better brakes is appropriate rather than generous. If you buy the G60 and ride steep terrain, budget for good pads and a careful setup, or plan a hydraulic conversion.

Suspension and water resistance

The S8 is listed as full suspension; the G60 as a dual shock absorber setup, meaning a fork at the front and a rear shock. Neither listing gives travel, damping type or adjustability, so the practical difference cannot be quantified from the published specifications. What can be said is that full suspension is the appropriate architecture for the terrain the S8 is sold for. On water resistance, AMYET lists IP54 for the S8 and publishes nothing for the complete G60.

Certification, assembly and the small print

Here the cheaper bike wins, and it is worth stating plainly.

AMYET states that the G60 is UL 2849 certified. On the S8 listing, that claim does not appear. UL 2849 covers the complete e-bike electrical system — battery, charger, controller and motor tested together — rather than the pack alone, and several US cities and a growing number of building managers and insurers now require it before a bike may be stored or charged indoors.

To be precise about what that means: the claim is not published for the S8. That is not the same as the bike being uncertified, and we are not saying it is. It means a buyer who needs the certification — for an apartment building, an insurer, or peace of mind — has documentation for the G60 and does not have it for the S8, and should ask AMYET directly before ordering.

Assembly differs too. The G60 ships 90% assembled with a toolkit, manual and key. For the S8, AMYET recommends professional installation, which is a sensible position for a full-suspension dual-motor bike with hydraulic brakes and is also a real cost. Budget for a shop build unless you are confident bleeding brakes and torquing motor axles.

Both carry a one-year warranty and a 30-day risk-free trial. Both are rated for a 330 lb payload — rider, clothing, rack and cargo combined. If you are near that ceiling, our guide for heavier riders explains how the number interacts with spokes, rims and brakes.

Speed, weight and living with them

Both bikes run 20 × 4-inch fat tires, so both are short, both store relatively well for fat bikes, and both have the large air volume that makes potholes and gravel unremarkable. Our fat-tire guide covers what that tire size does and does not do.

On speed, AMYET claims up to 32 MPH for the G60. For the S8 they quote 32 MPH in some places and up to 35 MPH in others. We use the lower, more consistently published figure and flag the discrepancy rather than picking the flattering one. Either way both bikes sit above the 28 MPH Class 3 ceiling used by around forty US states, which means neither fits the standard three-class framework at its claimed top speed. Most bikes in this category ship with a configurable speed limit; check your local rules, particularly for shared-use paths.

On weight, AMYET publishes nothing for either bike. What can be reasoned is direction, not magnitude: the S8 carries a second hub motor, a 1200Wh pack rather than a 960Wh one, and full suspension, so it is clearly the heavier machine. By how much, AMYET does not say. If you have to lift the bike onto a rack or up a flight of stairs, ask them before ordering — this is exactly the specification a buyer needs and neither listing supplies.

The verdict

This comparison resolves on terrain, and almost nothing else.

Buy the G60 if your riding is flat or rolling, if you commute on tarmac, if you want the UL 2849 claim, if you would rather not pay for a shop build, or if $360 is better spent on a lock, a rack and a spare battery. On flat ground the S8’s advantages barely surface: a second motor cannot help traction that was never the limit, and full suspension on smooth roads mostly adds weight.

Buy the S8 if you have sustained climbs that make a single hub motor labour, if you ride sand, snow or loose gravel, if you descend enough that hydraulic brakes are a safety argument rather than a luxury, or if you are near the payload ceiling and want torque headroom. In that riding, every part of the $360 shows up on the first hill.

What the S8 is not is a range upgrade. 1200Wh feeding two motors is not reliably further than 960Wh feeding one. If distance is the goal, the G60 is the better buy and the money saved buys a second pack.

Also worth reading: G60 vs EB26 if you are still deciding at the affordable end, EB26 vs S8 for the two extremes of the range, our how to choose an electric bike guide, and how we review — every judgement here comes from published specifications rather than from riding the bikes.