I’m an S3 owner whose bike is currently broken after multiple failures, so I took the S6 for a proper test ride.

What I liked

• Much more refined and comfortable than the S3
• Looks even better
• Excellent brakes
• Very responsive boost
• Seamless gear changes

What I didn’t

The extra handlebar controls feel unnecessary to me. I’d rather just have boost and bell.

The deal breaker

The 16 mph limit killed it for me.

My S3 does 20+ mph, and at 16 mph the S6 felt no faster than a Lime bike despite costing £3,000.

Worse, once it hit the limit it felt noticeably difficult and tiring to pedal beyond it. That surprised me because I can pedal a Lime bike beyond its assisted limit much more easily.

If the S6 could do 20+ mph, I’d be seriously considering buying one.

What the store told me

Staff said they knew people who had unlocked higher speeds on the S6, “But I haven’t spoken to them since they told me that, so I can’t confirm it.” (seems fishy)

I also asked about the S5 2.0. They no longer sell it and cited reliability issues, although several of the problems they mentioned seemed to me to relate to the original S5 rather than the 2.0.

What would you do?

Repair the S3 again, or move to an S5 2.0 that can be unlocked?

For anyone who has owned both, is the S5 2.0 meaningfully more reliable than the S3?

(I used AI to structure this post after brain dumping my thoughts.)