Last month the Surron Hyper Bee impressed us at the Frank Purcell Enduro, proving it could handle race conditions and deliver serious battery life. This month we decided to put it through a very different test: two weeks on the road heading to and from the Finke Desert Race.
The trip itself became an adventure. We loaded the Hyper Bee into the ute and headed west, stopping to ride at Louee, Broken Hill, the Flinders Ranges and eventually sections of the old Finke race track. If there was ever a test of durability for a kid’s bike, this was it.
The first surprise was just how easy the Hyper Bee is to travel with. At every stop it was simple to lift in and out of the ute, which makes a huge difference when you’re doing it multiple times a day.
Charging was another area where the Hyper Bee continued to impress. We were running a Bluetti Elite 300 power station in the ute and could charge the bike while driving between destinations. That meant we never really had to think about range or finding power points. We’d ride, throw it back in the ute, plug it in and head to the next location. By the time we stopped again, it was ready to go.
At Louee, Jax spent time riding both the enduro trails and the motocross track, which was the first stop of the trip. The versatility of the Hyper Bee really stood out here. One minute he was cruising through bush trails and the next he was jumping onto the motocross track without changing a thing on the bike.
As we continued west, the terrain got rougher and rougher. By the time we reached the old Finke track, the bike was getting treated far worse than most six-year-olds would ever subject a motorcycle to. Deep sand, endless braking bumps and long sections of whoops are enough to test any bike, let alone a small electric machine.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure how it would cope but it did it better than expected.
Jax absolutely loved riding the whooped-out sections of the old Finke track and the Hyper Bee handled it remarkably well. The suspension continued to do its job and the bike never felt out of its depth. Considering how much abuse it received over two straight weeks, I came away genuinely impressed.
The only damage we managed to inflict was a broken front brake lever after Jax dropped the bike. Considering the amount of riding it did and the variety of terrain it covered, that’s a pretty impressive result.
