Amflow PL Torture Test & Long Term Review - Do We Still Love This E-MTB? [Video]

We’ve been testing this electric mountain bike for a little over a year now, and it’s seen more than its fair share of thrashing from numerous riders. One theme has been consistent - everyone has been blown away by the power, torque, and overall level of refinement of the motor and technology. First impressions are always good, but the question remains - how will this E-MTB hold up long term? Well, after more than 1200 miles in this past year or so and countless smiles, we’re here to answer that question.

 

Overview

As we mentioned, this bike has been in our possession for over a year and we've put well over a thousand miles on it (1266 at the time of this article) between several individuals. We have essentially been riding it as if we stole it. If you're looking for a write up on how this bike rides, check out our initial video and blog where we go more into those details. But how has the frame, motor, hardware, components, bearings and everything held up since we took delivery of this steed?

Components and Frame Durability

After absolutely thrashing this bike on all sorts of trails from flow and jump trails to our classic DH tech trails, we've been surprised by the durability of the frame and it's key components with some minor details that could be improved. Once we hit the one year mark I decided to pull all the linkage and motor mount bolts to clean and grease them and inspect the pivot bearings, to my surprise they all felt as good as new. Once I put everything back into place with the fresh grease the bike felt nice and tight and quiet as it was when we took delivery. No issues with the carbon frame to report, and all of the house branded Amflow components held up quite well.

A minor gripe we have with this bike is the proprietary headset/knock block/crown race that it uses. After experiencing some creaking coming from the headset, we decided to pull it all apart to inspect it and see what the cause of the issue was - it turned out to be the proprietary crown race/knock block installed on the fork, and once we pulled it off, cleaned it and put a light layer of grease on there all of our woes were cured. As I mentioned earlier, we've been thrashing the pants off this thing and this could just be a minor service item to check, but it's worth noting that you can't just install a cane creek crown race and call it a day.

Aside from that, all the other high end components operated as you'd expect. We just had to replace our first cassette and chain around the 1,000 mile mark since it started to skip in the smallest cog, which makes sense since this bike lives in that cog most of the time due to how much power it has and how quickly that will wear down those cogs. We also threw a set of Industry Nine Grade 300 wheels with the new Hydra 2 hubs on this bike during our test period to see what it would handle like in the mixed wheel configuration and everyone who tested it in this configuration tended to prefer it over the dual 29" wheel setup. It's nice to have this as an option and we found it cornered very well with the smaller wheel out back. We never had any issues with the new Hydra 2, even when pushing 1,000 watts and over 100nm of torque through the hub. Very nice, we like.

Battery and Motor

One of the coolest parts of this bike is the integration with the Avinox ebike app. You can monitor all sorts of metrics, customize the amount of assist in each drive mode, see where the bike is located on a map among many other things. One key element that relates to this article is the number of battery charge cycles - over the course of the year we're just shy of 50 charge cycles. Keep in mind this isn't anyone's particular bike and it gets shared amongst all of us here at the shop, so it may not see quite as many miles as if it belonged to one person. Also with that in mind, it likely gets thrashed more since it's not any one person's particular bike, and we've been impressed that the 800wh battery has held up very well and continues to perform as new.

During the above video, I was able to squeeze over 6k feet of elevation and nearly 50 miles out of the battery (I'd be able to manage closer to 60 miles and 7k feet of elevation if I didn't kick it into trail mode for my last climb) and that was with those Grade 300 wheels wrapped in Continental downhill casing tires, plus my 190ish pound rider weight. If you had the standard Amflow carbon wheels and EXO/EXO+ casing tires installed, I'm confident it would go even further and longer. Also being a lighter human being wouldn't hurt either.

We never experienced any issues with the motor and battery, even in the hottest conditions while abusing Turbo/boost mode. 

What's the Verdict?

After all those miles and smiles, we've had plenty of time to collect our thoughts on the Amflow and the Avinox drive system. For their first attempt at an eMTB and even making their own drive system, we are extremely impressed and excited to see what future versions of this motor technology looks like. You'd have to imagine it will get lighter, quieter, more efficient, refined, etc, just like all the other eMTB motors out there. Even for this first version, we feel as though they've hit it out of the park and each and every bike that has been equipped with the Avinox drive system has been an extremely hot commodity and caused a lot of excitement. As for the Amflow, we're still quite stoked on this bike and feel as though it's extremely versatile and checks a lot of boxes for a modern mountain bike. For most people, especially the causal enthusiast, this bike is going to be the perfect tool for the job and will put smiles on tons of peoples faces. For those more hardcore riders, bikes like the Avinox Equipped Forbidden or Crestline will be the apple of their eye and those have been extremely popular since they were released. For now, we're going to continue ripping this bike and we'll be sure to keep you all in the loop on how it continues to hold up.

If you are one strange human that would like to read a transcript of the video above, continue reading below!

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:15:15
Jared
If you are mountain biker and you've been on the internet for, gosh, any time in the last year or so, then you've probably seen something about this bike. This is the Amflow powered by the Avinox motor that's got an insane amount of power and torque. And it's kind of changing the game for e-bikes across the board.

00:00:15:15 - 00:00:25:01
Jared
We've had this bike for a little over a year now, and it's got over a thousand miles on it. We've been absolutely thrashing it and it just kind of keeps coming back for more. So today what we've done

00:00:25:01 - 00:00:34:06
Jared
is we've cooked up a pretty special route to comprehensively test this bike for its durability, its range, its power, its handling,

00:00:34:06 - 00:00:46:08
Jared
we're going to circumnavigate the Canejo Valley with a mix of the area's best trails. We're talking flow trails, tech trails, flow tech jump trails are hardcore downhill trails.

00:00:46:08 - 00:00:47:18
Jared
over 40 miles

00:00:47:18 - 00:00:50:20
Jared
we've got over 5000ft of climbing.

00:00:50:20 - 00:00:59:17
Jared
We're looping together epic trails like Suicide, Happy Ending, Space Mountain, all sorts of iconic trails that this area is known for.

00:00:59:17 - 00:01:03:04
Jared
yeah, I am so pumped to just hit the trails right now.

00:01:03:05 - 00:01:04:05
Jared
Let's do it.

00:01:08:08 - 00:01:24:09
Jared
All right, here we go. Ridin here from my house. We're, almost four miles in by cars, reading 96% feeling optimistic. Says my range is about 52 miles, so hopefully it's accurate.

00:01:32:18 - 00:01:41:01
Jared
So I had to take a quick second to appreciate this wonderful view.

00:01:41:02 - 00:01:46:11
Jared
Definitely not to catch my breath. That would be ridiculous. I’m riding an e-bike.

00:01:46:11 - 00:01:59:18
Jared
And we've just had our first climb that is so diabolical, can't even really make it on an e-bike. So perfect opportunity to pull this bike into walk mode. Look at that.

00:02:03:16 - 00:02:14:18
Jared
Under an hour. Down so hundred feet of climbing. We are at the top of Rosewood. I mean, is that not just the most epic view?

00:02:14:18 - 00:02:26:07
Jared
Time to traverse over to the top of Space Mountain. We're going to rip down that. And then we're going to start making our way over to Suicide Trail. It's maybe over there somewhere.

00:02:28:21 - 00:02:31:07
Jared
Oh, I'm sorry about that. Just me.

00:02:31:07 - 00:02:33:12
Jared
And we're killing people on the trail today.

00:02:33:12 - 00:02:41:19
Jared
Tricky corner up here. It's usually pretty tough to make. So let's see what we got today.

00:02:41:21 - 00:02:47:00
Jared
Oh, nice. Not bad.

00:02:47:00 - 00:03:02:19
Jared
Oh. Absolutely amazing. I probably got the hardest part of the climbing done for the day. Feels good. Now we're just enjoying this wonderful ribbon of single track. And look at that view. I mean, are you kidding me?

00:03:02:19 - 00:03:23:22
Jared
we are currently riding this bike in the 29er, excuse me, the mixed wheel configuration. So we got a 29er up front, 27.5 out back. And, gosh, it actually helps this bike corner so well. The handle so well I'm not sure how it affects the efficiency or if it does at all, but oh my gosh.

00:03:23:22 - 00:03:31:04
Jared
I mean, if you're getting one of these bikes, definitely recommend running it in the mall configuration. It's pretty epic.

00:03:33:14 - 00:03:48:19
Jared
Woo! Wow! What a beautiful day. Bike is absolutely crushing you right now. Let's see. We've got 8.4 miles down, almost 1500 feet of climbing. Bike's at 81% battery. Still feeling pretty optimistic about this.

00:03:48:19 - 00:03:59:20
Jared
I got to keep reminding myself we got downhills and downhills don’t use any battery, so we're going to hit a few downhills right now. Gonna keep it real conservative on our road section coming up. And

00:03:59:20 - 00:04:03:19
Jared
it's going to be a great day. Not worried at all. A little worried.

00:04:18:21 - 00:04:22:12
Jared
Oh.

00:04:22:14 - 00:04:26:22
Jared
Oh, yeah.

00:04:26:22 - 00:04:51:10
Jared
All right, space mountain down. Check how we are continuing on the low side trail over to Happy ending. What an epic jump trail that is. Super stoked to ride that. Got an 80% battery. We got a little over ten miles down 80% battery. This is going to be cake. I hope.

00:04:51:10 - 00:05:12:16
Jared
All right. We are about to conclude our time on the Los Robles trail about to drop into Happy Ending. I've been looking forward to this all morning. Been on the trail for about two hours now. 70% battery, 2500ft of climbing. 14.5 miles. Did I just say 70% battery? I’m already starting to lose it. It's a little hot out here,

00:05:17:16 - 00:05:38:23
Jared
Woo! Oh, that is good. It's got to be one of the best trails around here.

00:05:39:01 - 00:05:45:01
Jared
Yes, baby. Oh, man.

00:05:45:02 - 00:05:47:23
Jared
It doesn't get much better than this.

00:05:47:23 - 00:05:59:07
Jared
For our first boring section of the ride. Got a little bit of a road stretch from here at the Triunfo Park over to Cheeseboro Canyon.

00:05:59:07 - 00:06:06:21
Jared
You know, you're in Westlake when you start to see some of these. Oh.

00:06:06:23 - 00:06:08:01
Jared
I like that.

00:06:08:01 - 00:06:09:20
Unknown
It's nice.

00:06:09:20 - 00:06:15:07
Unknown
Ooo. Yes. Oh yeah!

00:06:15:07 - 00:06:33:10
Jared
22 miles. 2.5 hours. 62%. We feel like we are a little more than halfway through the ride. And, I'm a little more worried about my own endurance instead of the bike's battery now.

00:06:33:16 - 00:06:41:19
Jared
All right. A little over 2.5 hours in almost 23 miles. We have made it to Cheeseboro Canyon. Let's go.

00:06:41:19 - 00:06:43:10
Jared
I have to see you. Here we go.

00:06:43:10 - 00:07:02:21
Jared
Begin our climb. Probably second. Our third to last real climb on the ride. So that's cool. 3200ft climbing and 26 miles. And we got 56% battery. Oh! Let's go.

00:07:02:21 - 00:07:16:07
Jared
Yeah last punch baby. Hoo! Oh, wonderful.

00:07:16:07 - 00:07:22:08
Jared
Absolutely thrilled to be at the top of one of my favorite trails. Suicide trail

00:07:22:08 - 00:07:44:01
Jared
a classic downhill trail in this area. I've been riding this trail for probably almost 20 years now, and, gosh, I'm so stoked to drop in. I've been on the bike for let's see, 28.5 miles. 4200ft of ascent. And we've got 46% battery.

00:07:44:03 - 00:07:45:05
Jared
Shoulda done this ride on turbo mode.

00:07:45:05 - 00:07:53:06
Unknown

00:07:53:08 - 00:07:56:13
Jared
Oh my God.

00:07:56:15 - 00:07:59:04
Speaker 3
It is chunky today.

00:07:59:06 - 00:08:02:14
Jared
Woo hoo hoo!

00:08:06:09 - 00:08:11:13
Unknown
Hoo!

00:08:11:15 - 00:08:15:20
Unknown
Oh!

00:08:27:17 - 00:08:33:12
Unknown
Wow!

00:08:41:04 - 00:09:19:10
Jared
Woo hoo hoo!

00:09:19:11 - 00:09:21:07
Jared
30 miles

00:09:21:07 - 00:09:30:18
Jared
in 4200ft of climbing 46% battery. Still, I'm so impressed. Wow,

00:09:30:18 - 00:09:31:06
Jared
wow.

00:09:32:22 - 00:09:36:18
Jared
I'm so glad I brought the most delicious sandwich.

00:09:36:18 - 00:10:00:05
Jared
We are a little over 30 miles in 4200ft of climbing. Bike has 46% battery left, and I'm pretty confident it's going to make it throughout the day. We have maybe a little over 1000, maybe 1500 feet of climbing left and 15 miles. So I'm not able to just crank this baby up. I mean, we'll see.

00:10:01:19 - 00:10:09:14
Unknown
Oh, we are almost there. Ha ha!

00:10:09:15 - 00:10:11:02
Jared
Sorry!

00:10:11:02 - 00:10:24:13
Jared
we've made it to the Hidden Meadows trailhead over here, North Ranch. Really fond memories of this area. I grew up just around the corner, so you could say I'm back in my old stomping grounds. Let's do it.

00:10:24:13 - 00:10:29:04
Jared
Oh yeah, baby.

00:10:29:05 - 00:10:32:04
Jared
What a great section of trail.

00:10:32:04 - 00:10:36:15
Jared
Woo *front break squeal*

00:10:36:15 - 00:10:39:18
Jared
Hey, at least the front brake is letting people know that I'm coming right?

00:10:39:18 - 00:10:43:08
Jared
We've made it to the top of the Lang Ranch downhill.

00:10:43:08 - 00:10:52:10
Jared
34 miles, 5000ft of elevation and we are at 37% battery.

00:11:05:06 - 00:11:09:20
Jared
I mean, this bike, it handles so well. Great corner right here. What?

00:11:09:22 - 00:11:12:15
Unknown
Ha ha ha ha.

00:11:15:01 - 00:11:17:18
Jared
Brap.

00:11:17:20 - 00:11:20:17
Jared
Yeah.

00:11:20:17 - 00:11:25:19
Jared
About as good as I remember it. Nice and fast, chunky, obviously super dry right now.

00:11:25:19 - 00:11:41:01
Jared
And here we go. Avenida de Los Arboles. We are riding this from this beginning to its end. And we're going to hit Wildwood. And man just means the end is near. Stoked on this ride.

00:11:41:01 - 00:11:46:02
Jared
On the road again. Just can't wait till I'm on the road again.

00:11:46:02 - 00:12:07:20
Jared
riding these roads and all these stoplights. It actually really makes me appreciate the smooth shift feature on this bike, which is where you can basically shift through the gears without pedaling. So you're just coasting to a stop, and you can just downshift into an easier gear without having to pedal. It's actually it's actually really nice,

00:12:07:20 - 00:12:11:17
Jared
I feel like it would be super useful on a commuter e-biker's, an e-bike especially.

00:12:11:17 - 00:12:15:16
Jared
But, I mean, I'm just here to appreciate it right now because it's freaking awesome.

00:12:15:16 - 00:12:17:08
Jared
its freaking bats.

00:12:17:08 - 00:12:27:00
Jared
We've made it to Wildwood. Wow, I am so stoked. Some battery anxiety has definitely been relieved. Here we are, baby. Wildwood Park.

00:12:27:00 - 00:12:40:20
Jared
Check in here. 40.5 miles. 5,150ft of elevation. And we got 32% battery left.

00:12:40:20 - 00:12:51:10
Jared
Another summit, another epic view. I mean, are you serious? I mean, gosh, the beautiful wastewater treatment plant down there

00:12:51:10 - 00:12:54:16
Jared
Beautiful day. I mean, this bike is so fun.

00:12:54:18 - 00:12:59:04
Jared
And now I get to rip down this epic downhill down into the valley floor.

00:12:59:04 - 00:13:02:11
Jared
Go hang out near a beautiful waterfall. I'll see you guys there.

00:13:13:13 - 00:13:18:14
Jared
All these little rocks can jump off of.

00:13:18:15 - 00:13:21:09
Jared
Whoa!

00:13:21:09 - 00:13:33:01
Jared
It's like just rocky and flowy. Whoa! Poppy enough. Oh, that was sketchy.

00:13:40:09 - 00:13:41:18
Jared
Wonderful.

00:13:41:18 - 00:13:55:10
Jared
Yeah.

00:14:01:19 - 00:14:03:02
Jared
Beautiful.

00:14:03:02 - 00:14:36:12
Jared
Wow, what a ride it has been 43.74 miles, 5527ft of ascent and descent. We got 25% battery left. I'm just absolutely shocked. This thing is so impressive. Wow. I'm just blown away. Waterfall’s absolutely gorgeous. I just need to take a moment to just soak the saw in. I mean, if ya just give me a sec.

00:14:36:14 - 00:14:38:04
Jared

00:14:50:06 - 00:14:54:07
Jared
So, you know, I've been riding eco mode all day, so I figured I'd kind of treat myself.

00:14:54:07 - 00:14:59:05
Jared
Cheers.

00:14:59:07 - 00:15:00:14
Jared
Very nice.

00:15:01:13 - 00:15:05:05
Jared
as I sit here and I gaze upon the beautiful,

00:15:05:05 - 00:15:11:22
Jared
flowing waterfall of Paradise Falls, it makes me think. How is the Amflow?

00:15:11:22 - 00:15:15:21
Jared
It's absolutely phenomenal. I mean, I think the real shining star of this bike.

00:15:15:21 - 00:15:18:21
Jared
I mean, obviously it's the Avinox drive system and battery.

00:15:18:21 - 00:15:29:05
Jared
I have ridden 44 miles with 5500ft of ascent, almost 5600ft of ascent, and there's still 25% battery left on that bike.

00:15:29:05 - 00:15:52:15
Jared
Absolutely blows me away. I mean, yes, I turned it down. So it's basically half power. But I mean, isn't that what it's all about? This bike gives you the option to customize and tune the power. If you want to go out and rocket around for going 20 miles in an hour, or if you want to spend all day riding and get, you know, 44, 45 miles in and just have an absolute blast hit all the best trails in your area.

00:15:52:15 - 00:15:55:13
Jared
The Amflow itself. Such a fun, versatile bike.

00:15:55:13 - 00:16:00:07
Jared
we're running it in the mullet wheel configuration, so it just handles super well. It corners so well

00:16:00:07 - 00:16:03:09
Jared
you have fun on all sorts of trails. Just meandering single track

00:16:03:09 - 00:16:04:09
Jared
jump trails,

00:16:04:09 - 00:16:05:09
Jared
tech trails,

00:16:05:09 - 00:16:07:17
Jared
gravity oriented DH trails.

00:16:07:17 - 00:16:10:06
Jared
the bike really just takes everything in stride.

00:16:10:08 - 00:16:15:04
Jared
And you know what? You can hop on it and then you can go off to the next trail, which is really the beauty of it.

00:16:15:04 - 00:16:19:18
Jared
am I stoked on the Amflow. Absolutely. I'm super impressed with the drive system.

00:16:19:18 - 00:16:22:17
Jared
Super stoked to see these things come out in more bikes.

00:16:22:17 - 00:16:23:20
Jared
So let's talk a little bit about,

00:16:23:20 - 00:16:26:11
Jared
how the spike has held up over the last year.

00:16:26:11 - 00:16:30:23
Jared
Like I mentioned, the spike has over a thousand miles on it. Probably closer to 1200 at this point.

00:16:30:23 - 00:16:32:22
Jared
it's been ridden hard and put away wet.

00:16:32:22 - 00:16:34:22
Jared
I want to say it's got about 50

00:16:34:22 - 00:16:36:06
Jared
charge cycles on the battery.

00:16:36:06 - 00:16:42:07
Jared
super impressed with the battery longevity so far. I mean, today was a really great example of that.

00:16:42:07 - 00:16:54:01
Jared
we've been out riding, you know, over five hours moving time, and the battery still has 25% left. That's pretty impressive for a battery that's been absolutely thrashed in the harshest conditions by some pretty savage riders.

00:16:54:01 - 00:17:00:03
Jared
some super properly fast guys have been thrashing this bike. And it just keeps on coming asking for more.

00:17:00:03 - 00:17:03:10
Jared
the durability has been impressive and it's exceeded our expectations.

00:17:03:10 - 00:17:04:14
Jared
they really did a great job,

00:17:04:14 - 00:17:05:13
Jared
spec’ing this bike,

00:17:05:13 - 00:17:06:17
Jared
the geometry.

00:17:06:17 - 00:17:08:04
Jared
They did a really great job developing it.

00:17:08:04 - 00:17:10:04
Jared
it's really just kind of the whole package. It's super fun.

00:17:10:04 - 00:17:10:17
Jared
I'm just

00:17:10:17 - 00:17:13:01
Jared
still just as stoked on it as when we first got it.

00:17:13:01 - 00:17:19:20
Jared
So cheers to that and many more miles as well.

00:17:19:22 - 00:17:20:22
Jared
Oh that's good.

00:17:20:22 - 00:17:29:15
Jared
just one thing left to do. That's ride on right out of here, and right back to the shop.

00:17:29:15 - 00:17:47:08
Jared
All right, party people. Final leg. Very excited. Climb out of here. Back to the shop. We are home free. Oh, we will.

00:17:47:10 - 00:17:48:23
Jared

00:17:57:22 - 00:18:13:00
Jared
Wooooo!

00:18:13:02 - 00:18:40:11
Jared
Wow. Absolutely glorious. What an epic day. Hit some of the best trails in the Canejo Valley. Sick route. I hope it kind of inspires some of you to go create your own dumb route and go connect a bunch of different trail systems. Do whatever you want. If you have an e-bike, if you do, maybe you don't. Years back, we did this ride not on e-bikes, and it was absolutely brutal, but we still did it.

00:18:40:13 - 00:18:57:06
Jared
Let me tell you what an e-bike just makes it a little bit easier. We are here with 4% battery. I'm not gonna lie to you guys. I kicked it into trail mode just to squeeze the rest of the juice out of her and, get up out of the super nasty parts of Wildwood. But here we are, 48.5 miles.

00:18:57:08 - 00:19:18:06
Jared
6300ft of climbing. Blown away. Absolutely blown away. This thing is so impressive. And gosh, thank you guys so much for watching. If you did. If you did, watch to this far. Oh, I'm so stoked. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I had a great time. Hope you guys have a great rest of your day. We'll see you in the next one.

00:19:18:08 - 00:19:24:11
Jared
Cheerio.

00:19:24:13 - 00:19:27:20
Jared
Hooo!