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The top line
The Muto is built like a tank.
Its a utilitarian but handsome brute.
After a few days of riding it, I sensed something was a little unusual about the Mutos frame.
As it turns out, the frame is glued and bonded rather than welded.
Its a technique borrowed from the aerospace industry where glued alloy parts have been commonplace for years.
The upside is you get a clean looking frame with no visible welds.
Whats more, when welded alloy frames fail, it tends to happen around tube joints and welds.
Like many other bikes in this category, one frame is designed to fit a range of heights.
If youre exceptionally tall or short, this wont be the bike for you.
So most people are covered.
Its position is classic town bike.
For want of better words, you sit-up-and-beg like many other town bikes.
Its ultimately the most comfortable punch in of two-wheeler.
The rest of the build continued to fill me with confidence.
It has 8-speed Shimano Nexus hub gears which require virtually no maintenance and operate flawlessly.
Another big perk of the Muto is that it uses a Gates belt drive system rather than a chain.
Belts might sound cheaper and perhaps less robust than chains, but thats not the case.
Theres no chance of catching your beautiful beige chinos for them to be covered in oil here.
Power to the pedal
The Muto is a front wheel drive peal assist ebike.
Most of the time, I had it set to give me the biggest amount of electrical assistance.
With this, I had to charge the battery every few days.
Some other ebikes, particularly those focused on aesthetics, dont offer removable batteries.
With these systems, there will always be a tiny delay before the motor kicks in.
With the Muto though, that delay was somewhere between one half of and one full pedal revolution.
In reality this is a split second given that most people pedal more than one revolution per second.
The motor power delivery is smooth and progressive, there was no unexpected jerking or surging.
Coupled to the big tires, the whole thing rides with a planted yet cloud like feeling.
Coasting effortlessly over pavement, cobbles, tarmac, and whatever else lay in its path.
The Muto is operated with a simple control panel on the left-hand side of the handlebars.
Nothing more, nothing less.
It means you could hop on and ride, its a positively unencumbered machine.
As a bike should be.
Theres no technology here that will age or runs the risk of breaking somewhere down the line.
It also makes it a great ebike for someone who doesnt want a hyper complex gear.
Which brings me to my next point.
The Muto is designed to be highly adaptable for real life use cases.
It doesnt call itself a replacement for your car, but theres no reason it couldnt be.
For this, the Muto has front and rear mounting points for a whole host of accessories.
you could have front and rear racks, panniers, baskets, child seats, and so on.
Refreshingly simple
But what really impressed me, is the Mutos overall simplicity.
Weve seen ebikes equipped with theft protection, GPS tracking, special apps, and so on.
These are all great features, if you want and use them.
If not, they just make the bike more expensive and complicated than it needs to be.
I should also mention the price, its starts from 1,699 (around $1,900).
But this is still a competitive price for such a well-built and equipped machine.
Ive certainly seen hundreds of them in Holland.
Its a perfect example of ebikes are becoming so popular, I consider myself convinced.
*The Muto is currently only being delivered to the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Denmark.
Story byMatthew Beedham
Matthew is the editor of SHIFT.
He likes electric cars, and other things with wheels, wings, or hulls.
