Test: The traditional northern Italian manufacturer uses its lightweight e-carbon frame to build a racing bike, a speed bike and a Graveller. It is solidly built and is particularly appealing due to its comparatively large range. We tested the CBT Italia Blade 99 for you.
Road racing bikes with an electric drive may still be rare, but the support motor has long since established itself on gravel bikes. It's no wonder, since off-road you're often traveling at speeds below 25 km/h; unlike the road bike, the drive should therefore be used in many riding situations, not just uphill. And since you can ride a gravel bike on the road, but not off-road with a racing bike, it makes more sense to electrify the off-roaders anyway.
CBT Italia proceeds somewhat differently: The frame on which the Blade 99 is based can also be ordered with Shimano Ultegra - instead of the E-Graveller you then have an E-racing machine. There is also the fast pedelec with “Flatbar”, i.e. straight handlebars, as a sporty urban bike. So there's a lot to choose from, but the Schwalbe Cross tires and the Sram Apex 1×11 are perhaps the best for the E-frame.
CBT Italia Blade 99 with a comparatively large battery
Briefly presented in this way, you can now take a closer look at the E-Graveller. Of course, the drive that the traditional company helped to develop is of particular interest. It is a classic hub motor that disappears optically between the sprocket set and the brake disc and is therefore hardly noticeable on a sports bike, but on the other hand it provides the support that is useful in this segment: no furious torque, but rather gentle extra thrust on mountains and on exhausting surfaces.
The motor is fed by a battery that is well adapted to the frame design and sits in a U-shape on the actual down tube; at its lower end, however, the clear jump in cross-section is noticeable. The manufacturer specifies the capacity of the battery as 380 watt hours and emphasizes the high efficiency of the system, which should actually lead to a 50 Wh higher capacity. In view of a bike weight of around 13,5 kilos, you can definitely assume solid ranges; It should also not be forgotten that comparable systems such as the Mahle drive or the Fazua mid-engine have just 250 watt hours in the tank.
The drive system is fully equipped with a button block on the handlebars and a large display; there is also an app that allows, among other things, to link the support performance to the heart rate. So the engine always pushes when it gets too strenuous. In the mountainous northern Italian homeland of CBT Italia, that's certainly not a bad idea - and not only there.
CBT Italia Blade 99 - Classic look, modern standards
With a slim fork and horizontal top tube, the light carbon frame of the CBT looks classic, but with a square seat tube, low-set struts and successful internal routing of all cables and lines, it is very modern. What is striking is the tight tire clearance on the rear end - much more than the 32 Vittoria fitted in the series should not fit through, which makes the Blade 99 more of a cross bike than a gravel bike. This is also indicated by the very simple, narrow tires on the test bike. The Apex 1 from Sram is always a good choice: the supplier's cheapest 1×11 groupset is heavier than its big siblings, but you can't really tell them apart in terms of function. CBT Italia does without an integrated bottom bracket and mounts the Apex crankset in the classic way with BSA bearings - it couldn't be more solid and low-maintenance. Deda add-on parts round off the e-racer, which appears solid and valuable overall.
So the 4.490 euros that the manufacturer is asking for the Blade 99 seems reasonable overall. Sure, CBT Italia has to compete with more well-known providers in the growing niche of e-gravel bikes; However, it is precisely the long range that makes the bike from the mountains attractive.
