Wilier Filante Hybrid Road Bike

Wilier Filante Hybrid: A Stylish and Lightweight E-Road Bike

Can we be frank for a moment? Is how obviously e-bikey they look one of the main reasons you have never seriously considered an e-bike? Then the Wilier Filante Hybrid should change your mind about just how clunky an e-bike has to be. The Wilier Filante Hybrid impresses even the most skeptical by using a lightweight frame design based on their top of the line Filante SLR racing bike and the lightest e-bike system currently on the market.

Now we know, especially in America, a lot of folks like to joke that riding an e-bike is cheating. Luckily, that’s not how the Italians think. The Wilier Filante Hybrid has been developed so that every type of rider can enjoy a nice long ride without having to worry about hitting a climb that is unexpectedly hard or accidentally taking the long way round. It’s all about fun. And you’ll have loads of fun on the Filante Hybrid because the Wilier designers have taken extra care to ensure not only does the bike handle like a regular road bike but that the motor kicks in smoothly to make it feel effortless without a jerky acceleration.

Getting the ride feel right was the first step. So Wilier decided to take their Filante SLR that pro teams are riding in the WorldTour and use it as the foundation of the e-version. That means that it’s a monocoque frame with a totally integrated cable system through the monocoque carbon handlebar. The battery has also been integrated into the down tube to ensure the frame retains its rigidity. But an even more important contribution to the natural ride feel, the Filante Hybrid incorporates a new bottom bracket with a torque and frequency sensor. That means that the bike’s power sensor can communicate with the firmware connected to the motor to ensure that it can modulate the assistance delivered to your pedaling power. If you have used e-bikes in the past, you will know that oftentimes there is either a delay before the power assistance kicks in and then when it does kick in, it really kicks, sometimes hard enough to throw you off balance. This clever new system fixes that problem.

Thanks to the Mahle X20 system rear hub motor, even if you are tackling double-digit gradients, the power sensor keeps your pedaling smooth and nearly effortless. This power system with the updated firmware will optimize battery consumption and provide a sensitive and proportionate power output. If you think this rear hub solution is sounding familiar like the ebikemotion rear hub motors, you are correct. Mahle is a German company that bought the Spanish ebikemotion a few years ago and have used their technology as the foundation of a new and miniaturized X20 motor. They have also reduced its weight considerably, so the whole system only weighs around 3.5kg, while the hub delivers 60Nm of torque. Wilier says that all the improvements to the X20 system result in an overall energy saving of 8% compared to earlier iterations. And if you are the type to like longer tours, that savings can ease your range anxiety significantly.

What makes the Mahle X20 hub motor exceptionally practical is that you can remove the rear wheel using the through axle without having to worry about disconnecting wires or reconnecting them when you put the wheel back in. That’s because the rear dropout has a slider with a built-in electrical connector that ensures the hub positions itself directly in contact with the battery, quickly and with no risk of misalignment. The hub body can be removed from the motor casing quite easily for maintenance. And though currently spec’d with either Shimano or SRAM components, Wilier says that its hub body can be compatible with Campagnolo hub bodies as well. It’s hard to find a Campy-equipped e-bike, so you could be the first on your block.

User-Friendly Control System of the Filante Hybrid

To control the whole system, the Filante Hybrid comes standard with Pulsar One, a compact and easy-to-use on-board computer. The large display will keep you updated on everything to do with the electrical system in addition to the usual selection of ride statistics. The Pulsar One computer connects via ANT+ to the X20 system as well as to other sensors like cadence sensors, power meters, and heart rate monitors so that the data can be displayed on the screen as well.

Integrated into the cockpit, the improved iWoc controls allow for easy access to e-system changes without even having to lift your hands from the bars. You can adjust the level of power assistance just by moving your thumb. It will also give you a clear indicator of just how much battery life remains in the system depending on the level of assistance you choose.

The Wilier Filante Hybrid provides 250 Wh of assistance, with an additional 185 Wh if you add the additional bottle-shaped battery that can be carried in the seat tube bottle rack. Battery life depends on how long you ride, on what gradients, and at what level of assistance, but Wilier says that the battery should get you up a climb of at least 3000 feet on full assistance. Available in sizes between XS and XXL, this is a dropbar e-bike that will make riding of all gradients a lot more fun for a lot more people.

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