Every now and then we run across an e-bike that surprises us. The surprise can take many forms. Some e-bikes are an exceptional value. Some have a motor that could power a rider up Mt. Kilimanjaro, or a battery that would last all the way across Texas. Sometimes the surprises—plural—make a bike seem almost too good to be true. Such is the case with the Denago City Model 1 we reviewed: a newer e-bike company that delivered in multiple areas better than we expected.

The Denago City Model 1, the company’s first e-bike, does so much right that we were reluctant to criticize it much at all. Below $2000, we would be pleased to see a bike offered in three different sizes, or sporting hydraulic disc brakes, or equipped with a motor that would laugh at hills, provided it could laugh. The Denago City Model 1 distinguishes itself by giving riders all three of those features—a killer motor, hydraulic discs and multiple sizes...