Scott Axis 30

The Scott Axis 30 Wave is aimed at riders who want an e-bike that copes with more than a smooth commute, without giving up the practical bits that make daily use easy. Its low-slung Wave frame makes getting on and off simpler than a conventional diamond frame, particularly useful if you're stopping and starting a lot around town, and Scott has fitted it with everything most people would otherwise buy separately: lights, mudguards, a kickstand and a load-rated rack. Bosch supplies the assistance, so the pedalling help feels familiar if you've used other Bosch-equipped bikes, and there's enough capability built in to take you off tarmac and onto rougher tracks too.

Everyday riding, not just tarmac

Scott rates the Axis 30 Wave for its condition of use 3, a classification that covers rough trails and unimproved terrain, including jumps and drops below 60cm. That's a useful figure to know because it tells you the frame and components are built for more than road use, even though this isn't a dedicated off-road bike. A 120mm SR Suntour coil fork with lockout backs this up, giving you suspension to soften rougher surfaces and the option to firm things up for faster road riding, while Schwalbe Advancer tyres and Shimano's two-piston disc brakes with 180mm rotors front and rear give confident stopping in mixed weather. None of this turns the Axis 30 into a trail bike, but it does mean gravel paths, towpaths and poorly maintained lanes are well within its comfort zone.

Assistance, battery and what you can carry

The Bosch Performance Line motor on this build provides up to 75Nm of assistance, drawing from a removable 540Wh PowerTube battery that you can take indoors to charge with the supplied 2A charger. Shimano's Cues drivetrain gives you nine gears via an 11-46T cassette and 36T chainring, a straightforward single-ring setup that's easy to live with day to day. For carrying, the fitted Racktime rack is rated to 30kg, which is a separate figure from the bike's overall 160kg system weight limit. That system figure covers everything at once, the bike itself at around 29.8kg, you as the rider, plus your luggage, so it's worth keeping both numbers in mind rather than treating the rack rating as the only limit that matters.

Sizing and the riding position

Scott offers the newest Axis 30 Wave in S, M, L and XL, all built around 29-inch wheels. Rather than publishing height or inseam bands for this bike, Scott directs buyers to a personal-measurement fitting tool, so you won't find a simple ready-made size chart to check yourself against. The cockpit includes a 680mm Syncros handlebar on an adjustable stem, which lets you fine-tune reach and height once you've settled on a frame size, and there's an SP Connect mount built into the stem for a phone, though the phone itself isn't included.

Choosing between Axis 30 offers

Because Scott has sold more than one Axis 30 configuration, it pays to check exactly what you're being offered rather than going by the year or price alone. Earlier 540Wh builds, both a standard-frame version and an earlier Wave version, use Shimano Cues 10-speed drivetrains with an 11-48T cassette and a rack rated to 27kg rather than 30kg, and one of those earlier Wave builds uses a different fork to the current one. There was also an earlier 600Wh Wave build with a more powerful Bosch Performance CX motor and 11-speed Cues, listed at a higher £3,399 RRP. None of these older specifications should be assumed to carry over to the newest Wave build described here, and the same goes for the separate Axis eRIDE 30, which is an older model with its own 500Wh, 11-speed specification rather than a variant of this bike.

Ownership costs and caveats

Scott's frame guarantee applies if you register as the first owner within a year of purchase: five years of cover if the bike gets at least annual servicing from an authorised dealer, or three years without that, and this doesn't extend to components. At around 29.8kg, this is also a bike that takes some effort to lift onto a rack or carry up stairs, worth bearing in mind if you don't have ground-floor storage. If you're planning to tow a child or cargo trailer, it's worth confirming the actual rear axle and trailer-adapter fit before buying, since Scott's own descriptions of the Wave frame's rear hub aren't entirely consistent on this point.

On the plus side, the fitted rack is built to accept SNAPIT 2.0 and KID'n'CARRY accessories, so if your carrying needs grow, you can add compatible attachments to the existing rack rather than replacing it outright.