Riese & Müller Homage5

There is no top tube on the Homage5 at all. You step through the frame instead of lifting a leg over 32 kg, the seat drops so both feet are flat at the lights, and front and rear suspension takes the kerb and the crack in the path out of the ride.

Nothing to swing a leg over, and the surface taken out of the ride. Come and ride one at our Ivanhoe showroom, seven days a week.

How far will it go? It is the question we get asked more than any other, and the answer is not one number. Bosch publish no fixed range figure for this drive unit and this battery. What they publish instead is a Range Assistant that takes the things that actually move the distance.

Those things are:

• The assist mode. The biggest single lever on the list, and it is entirely yours.
• Your weight, plus the bicycle, plus whatever is on the rack.
• The hills. A climb draws hard and a long descent gives some of it back.
• The surface. Sealed road, crushed gravel and soft ground are three different answers.
• Wind, temperature, tyre pressure and how fast you like to go.
• Whether the 250 Wh range extender is on the bicycle or in the shed.

So tell us the ride you have in mind, and we will put your weight, your hills and the assist mode you actually use into Bosch's own calculator and give you a figure for that ride.

Most people arrive with a ride already in their head, and that is the ride to bring us. The Sunday loop, the commute, or a rail trail with a date on it: the Bellarine Rail Trail runs 35 km from South Geelong to Queenscliff and the Warburton runs 40 km. Those distances are published, so they are the fixed part. The surface, the stages, the load and the assist mode are the part we work through with you, and they are also what decides whether the 250 Wh extender is worth having.

The frame is why most people come and look at this bicycle. On a Homage5 the top tube is not lowered, it is not there at all. One wide down tube runs from the head tube to the bottom bracket and above it there is open air, so you put a foot through and you are on. Nothing is balanced on one leg while you get on or off, and a loaded rack behind you does not change the movement. An X-Fusion Manic dropper post then lets the saddle drop, so you sit with both feet flat on the road at the lights. An owner of two step-through e-bikes put it this way: "I'm a Grandad and have two step through ebikes, so what, they are easier to get on & off. Saw one being bought a couple of weeks ago by some one of similar age who confessed he couldn't get his leg over any more."

What wears out, and when? Four parts carry this bicycle:

• The Gates Carbon Drive belt runs on both builds. No oil, no rust, no stretch. The belt and its sprockets are replaced together as a wear item in time, and we will put the interval in your logbook.
• The gears are sealed inside the rear hub rather than hanging off the frame, so there is nothing to bend on a kerb and nothing to adjust after a wet winter.
• The Bosch Performance Line CX drive unit is the same system as every bicycle we sell, which is why our own workshop puts a diagnostic on it rather than sending it away.
• The Bosch PowerTube 800 Wh battery lifts out by hand, so it charges and stores indoors and can be replaced on its own later.

Owners of Riese & Müller bicycles report 16,000 km with brake pads, tyres and one rear rim as the whole consumables list, and 9,500 km since 2020 with no repairs at all. Riese & Müller have confirmed spare parts for a model 23 years old. One of our own customers did nearly 6,000 km in his first six months. One owner's own words: "I drive for 10 years an E bike with Rohloff and since last year a R&M with E14 and have over 10000 km with the new bike. Clean thing, no chain maintenance with oil because belt drive."

How do you get it onto a car? The bicycle weighs about 32 kg and the battery lifts out by hand as the heaviest single part, so it comes off first. Owners of this exact bicycle carry theirs on a rated tow-bar rack with step-through frame adapters, which give the rack arm something to hold on a frame with no top tube. Bring your tow bar's vertical load limit in and we will work through it with you.

Which build? It is a terrain and load question. The Enviolo stepless hub on the vario build shifts at a standstill and suits shorter urban riding. The Rohloff 14-speed hub on the rohloff build gives you the spread for mountains and long loaded weekends, and takes about a kilogram off the bicycle. Both run the same belt. Book a ride and we will have both ready, so you can try them one after the other.

Will it fit you? Sizes M, L and XL cover rider heights from 1.70 m to 2.00 m, with the reach, stack, wheelbase and standover published for each. Maximum rider weight is 120 kg and the bicycle plus rider plus luggage is rated to 160 kg. The luggage rack takes 27 kg and it is sprung on the swing arm, so the load rides with you rather than being bolted to a rigid frame. A child seat is permitted on the carrier and a two-wheel trailer with a single attachment point; Riese & Müller add their own note and we carry it as written, please check national legislation.

Every configuration is open to you:

• Three sizes: M, L and XL.
• Two colours: night, a dark blue-grey slate, and warm silver, a pale champagne silver.
• Two builds: vario with the Enviolo hub, rohloff with the Rohloff hub. Both on the belt. There is no chain version.
• The options: Bosch eBike ABS with Magura MT C brakes, the Bosch PowerMore 250 Wh range extender, the Comfort kit with a swept handlebar and a wider saddle, the Offroad kit with knobbly Schwalbe Johnny Watts tyres, a pannier rack in place of the co-sprung carrier, a visibility kit and a front carrier.
• Or specify it yourself. Any specification on the Riese & Müller site can be ordered from the factory. These bicycles are built to order, so tell us the combination you want and we will tell you what happens next.

Who fixes it in five years? We do, at 1075-1087 Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe, seven days a week. The shop that sold it is the shop that services it, and we are the point of contact if something is wrong. You ring us, not Germany.

Riese & Müller is a German maker at Mühltal near Darmstadt, founded in 1993 by Markus Riese and Heiko Müller, still privately held and employing roughly five hundred people. The Homage5 frame is manufactured in Portugal and the bicycles are assembled by hand in Germany. Every one is built to the order it was placed on.

The best way to know is to ride it. An hour settles the mount, the seat height and the hill, and those are the three things reading cannot settle. There is no pressure to buy on the day.