Review: Jackrabbit MG Doble

At first glance, it’s tough not to love the MG Doble. About the size of a Schwinn Stingray, it looks like a toy on steroids. The model I tested has a candy-apple red aluminum frame, a cushy black banana seat, chopper-style handlebars, built-in head and taillights, and 3-inch-wide tires. The MG Doble projects such a sturdy, powerful vibe that, five minutes after it arrived, my partner Brian was riding laps around our backyard like it was a mini motocross course, laughing his head off.

The 52-pound MG Doble, with a capacity to haul up to 325 pounds—one or two people, plus a few surfboards or bags of groceries—is petite compared to your average electric cargo bike. Compared to JackRabbit’s original 25-pound OG2, however, it’s huge. Like all six JackRabbit models, the MG Doble has no chain, derailleur, or pedals, which makes it hard to wrap your head around what exactly this e-thing is.

When I asked JackRabbit CEO Jason Kenagy, he told me that JackRabbits are hard to categorize. “They’re about transportation,” he said, adding that Google employees use them to commute across its Mountain View campus. “Our competition is cars more than bikes.”

Doble the Fun

Photograph: Steph Pearson

It may look like a toy, but the Doble is purpose-built to be an urban workhorse. It has a 749-watt motor; two easy-to-charge (on or off the bike) batteries that live on the outside of the down tube with a combined total of 720-Wh and a range of about 48 miles; and three official modes—Eco, Mid, and High. The latter tops out at 20 miles per hour, and it also has an additional off-road mode can be “unlocked” for use on private roads and riders 18 and older.

The mixed-wheel mullet design—with a 20-inch tire in the rear and 24-inch tire in the front—is all the better for rolling over potholes or pesky curbs.

Jackrabbits, especially the XG Pro, are known to be jumpy. Kenagy didn’t divulge the amount of torque on the MG Doble, but he did tell me that it has even more than the XG Pro because it’s meant to climb hills while hauling hefty items.

In lieu of pedals, the bike has two foldable platforms, about the size of a Crank Bros Mallet pedal—which is to say that it’s enough for the foot to find purchase, but not much more. For the rear passenger, two forged aluminum foot pegs jut out. Both foot rests, along with the handlebars, are designed to fold flat against the bike so it can be placed against a wall in a small apartment, thrown into the back of a car or a toy hauler, or even pushed through a crowd of people.

A key Jackrabbit trait is to accessorize. The MG Doble has 10-plus connection points (or braze-ons) to add a myriad of accessories, like a rear basket, frames compatible with Ortlieb panniers, and a trailer hitch that works especially well with a Burley bike cargo trailer.

Other accessories include an FAA-compliant lightweight travel battery that adds an extra ten miles of range; and a Lift Kit that extends the bench seat three more inches to fit riders 6’ 3” and taller. And we can’t forget the sissy bar—that stylistic chrome statement piece that can be attached to the back of the seat for a little added sass.

The Ride

Photograph: Steph Pearson

After the backyard warmup laps, the MG Doble’s first serious test was to haul my compost down to the city waste management site—a journey that required navigating parkways, busy city streets, and a freeway overpass frequented by garbage trucks going to the same location as my compost.

The ride, with the Burley attached to haul 25 pounds of discarded carrots, pumpkins, and coffee grinds, was impressively smooth and seamless even over rugged, patched-up side roads. Because the MG Doble isn’t an electric bike and might not be allowed on bike paths depending on the municipality, I rode it on the city streets as if I were driving a car.

That’s when I realized just how small the MG Doble is compared to a garbage truck. That’s also when I realized that, on a street, I had to be on the highest power level, moving at 20 mph, to keep up with the pace of traffic. When starting up again in power level three after a stop sign, I found that the twist-grip throttle was sensitive and would surge ahead.

On the way home, with an empty trailer, I took the MG Doble up the steepest street I could find, which happens to be near my house and is about a 16 percent grade. At full throttle, the digital speedometer topped out at about 12.5 miles per hour—enough to get me up the hill, but surprisingly slow for a bike that feels like a bucking bronco on the flats.

To test its dual-human capacity, I took Brian out for a joy ride after work one day. It took me a few blocks to get used to balancing another body on back. After a few miles I revved it up into High, stopping at a busy street crossing. When traffic was clear, I revved the throttle once more and the bike reared up into an accidental wheelie.

Brian slid off the back, while the bike kept moving forward until I lifted my hand off the throttle—a counterintuitive action because I was simultaneously trying to not fall off. It was funny at the time, because it was my first motorized wheelie and neither of us were hurt, but it was also horrifying because if I had done that in front of an oncoming car, we would have both been toast.

The Good and the Bad

Photograph: Steph Pearson

There are a lot of practical uses for the MG Doble that will make life way more fun, like hauling surfboards to the beach through un-busy streets; hauling picked apples through an orchard; riding across a bucolic school or work campus with few cars; or throwing it on your RV’s bike rack to use it as a campground vehicle.

But there are also a few reasons to pause before purchasing. If budget is an issue, the accessories that make this bike so functional add up quickly. With no pedaling involved whatsoever, the MG Doble doesn’t provide a shred of exercise. And since the Doble is not legally an electric bike, it’s a toss-up, in many cities, to ride it legally on a bike path. If you have to ride on city streets, it's up to you to navigate the risks that come with them.