How far? Amflow/DJI PL Carbon real-world range test

The DJI equipped Amflow e-bike has impressive stats. But how high can the entry-level Amflow PL Carbon climb on a single charge of its integrated 800Wh battery?

To answer that question, I headed back to the exact same spot where I range tested all of the motor and battery systems in our SL E-bike of the year test.

Yes, it was colder out, but the trail conditions were dry and hard-packed, and I was running the same Continental tyres to help level the playing field. To bring you up to speed on my previous range test, the results were as follows:

811m - Trek Fuel EXe 9.7 - TQ HPR50 motor, 360Wh battery
844m - Specialized Turbo Levo SL Expert C - Levo SL 1.2 motor, 320Wh battery
861m - Whyte ELyte 150 RSX - Bosch Performance Line SX motor, 400Wh battery
955m - Orbea Rise LT M10 - Shimano EP801 motor, 420Wh battery
1,202m - Santa Cruz Heckler SL S - Fazua Ride 60 motor, 430Wh battery
1,215m - Cannondale Moterra SL 1 - Shimano EP801 motor, 601Wh battery

Clearly the £8,500 Cannondale Moterra SL had the best range, even if it wasn’t the lightest at 20.44kg. But that’s not the whole story. With the full power Shimano EP801 motor booting out 85Nm torque and 600 watts peak power, not only does the 600Wh battery give you more ride time, the Cannondale was faster covering ground and made it easier to complete the test loop than any of the other SL e-bikes in that test.

Now let’s take a look at how the Amflow PL Carbon stacks up. It’s £2.5k cheaper than the Cannondale and weighs 21.3kg with the same Continental control tyres fitted. And the weight difference is mostly due to the bigger 800Wh battery.

But what about the DJI Avinox motor? In Turbo, the Avinox motor has 105Nm torque and a mindblowing 850 watts peak power. That’s like adding the power of Trek Fuel EX to the Cannondale for some extra kick. Stick the DJI motor in Boost and you get 120Nn and 1000 watts for 30 seconds. Insane, right?

Obviously I didn’t use ludicrous mode during the range test, but I did ride in Turbo mode for the entire duration of the range test, as it delivers the maximum sustained power output. But Turbo on the Amflow is a very different ride experience to Boost on the Shimano equipped Cannondale or Rocket mode on the Fazua Ride 60 motor fitted to the Santa Cruz Heckler SL.

Now, given that the Amflow can kick out 850 watts peak power, has an 800Wh battery, and is slightly heavier than the Cannondale, I actually expected it to deliver slightly less range than the Cannondale as the latter only drains a maximum of 600 watts of power from the 600Wh battery.

Much to my surprise, the opposite was true. Even starting with 97% charge, as the bike was in the van overnight and it was pretty cold out, the Amflow delivered 1,430m of vertical and 36.02km of riding on a single charge. And if the ambient temperature had been 15 degrees C higher, like it was when I tested all of the other SL E-bike systems at the end of summer, the Amflow would have gone even further.

And it’s not even reached its full potential. There’s also a lot of drag in DJI Avinox the motor, so there are obvious efficiency gains that would improve the range of the Amflow further. But whatever way you slice it, the Amflow PL Carbon is delivering lots of power, torque and range and all at an impressive price.

Full test coming soon.

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[tonybennett]

Thank you for the effort you put in to make this review.Superb video of this very impressive bike.

[jeanrenaissance]

Merci pour le test, j’attends le mien et ça me conforte dans mon choix 👍

[MBRmagazine]

Rear-end flex? There isn’t any. If anything, it’s probably a little stiff for me at 84kg. As for the Pro model with Amflow’s carbon wheels, I can’t comment as I’ve not tested that specific bike. I’d also add that Amflow’s alloy wheels have been bomber solid, as I rode them on some seriously rocky, high-speed trails in Italy with zero problems. 👍👍

[hughjardon]

Range on an ebike depends on three factors: The amount of charge in the battery; how much power the ebike gives you; and how hard you pedal. The power the ebike uses depends mainly on what you set it to, but also on your mass and the type of rides you do. Light riders will always get more range than heavy riders. You can always go a long way if you turn the power down and pedal harder right up to infinite range if you set the power to zero and use only pedal power.

Considering all this, any statement about the range of ebikes is pretty well meaningless, except for comparisons using the same rider over the same rides in the same conditions, like this test, though most bikes have similar efficiency, so any comparison of similar bikes would show that the range goes in direct relation to battery capacity.

[cd]

Thanks Alan really informative and pretty impressive results. My PL with MX wheels also feels pretty solid especially as I’ve changed the bars and wheelset. There’s people saying it’s a good motor in a Temu frame and that’s simply rubbish. For me it’s close to a perfect package taking account of the usual compromises 👍

[davefreeman]

Great video Alan 👏 the amflow is in a league of its own in so many ways it’s streets ahead of the competition, and I completely agree it would have gone further again in the optimum conditions, nice to also hear that you had a lot of fun on the bike lot of people said that found the rear end flexy but you did not find that 👍

[shaneycarter]

Excellent review there as always Al, I have the same model with a full list of upgrades as I've mentioned already 👍 Great to hear you views on the so called rear end flex?? I've had mine since November and I seriously haven't felt anything to untoward. The bike tracks brilliantly both up and down the trails. I'm loving how I can now climb parts of the trails that were to date impossible, this has opened up new levels of tech and skills for me 👍
Really looking forward to your next review and very interested in the rear shock settings you have made, as you have previously touched on how you initially found the fox float a little tricky to set up.
We are similar in height and weight so your findings are of great interest 👍
MBR with both yourself and Dan is my go to. 👍👌

[BKER]

What mode were you riding in? I probably missed it, so sorry if you did mention it. I'm a heavier rider, but fit so most of the time I pedal my ebike in Eco and I'm fine. Most of the reviews I see on this bike people are running full gas the whole time. It's also hard to say if the tune on Eco of one bike is the same as others but I'd really like to be able to understand how much range you could get on a day when you are using the e to make things easier but you are trying to get a massive day in.

[jeffmnacra]

love those trails, old good times ... Top bike, though

[richdevil]

Great review, my only wish is to get a real world test of the bike being range tested against similar Bosch / Brose motors with all bikes being ridden at a similar pace like you would on a ride with your mates! Then we can see what would happen on a regular group ride out! Who would have to bail first using the same assistance as I bet the Amflow is going to go for hours in Auto?

[gingerb]

The cold really affects range on my plug in car, so the same effect will be present on the e bike battery. £6k for that performance is knockout! 🤙

[finroddd]

Thanks for the videos and for the efforts! I was just thinking that in e-mtb mode this bike probably will put out 2500m of vertical climb. or more

[UrbanSelfSufficiency]

Love these videos on this specific Amflow; really looking into it for myself. Thank you; I'm really looking forward to your full review!
I'm curious, other reviewers have said that the middle power mode is about the equivalent of other powerful e-bikes. Any guess (loose ballpark figure) what the amount of elevation it could achieve off of one charge in that mode? I'm interested in a full capability bike that I can take on really long trips (several days) without access to power.

[chrispederson]

That rear hub only has 21 points of engagement to make it stronger. With that powerful motor I bet during testing they were breaking rear hubs. I broke my rear Hub on my RM Fatbike e-bike and dT-swiss recommend going with less engagement.

[CafeDisco]

Great vid! Thanks. How tall are you and what size did you go for? Cheers!

[Oldmanenduror]

Excellent video. Have you tried the Rocky Mountain power play?

[Biano]

Great review……but surely using just Turbo is unrealistic unless you use total ride time as a metric?
I know everyone uses their E-bikes differently but I would love to see how far they go if using the Eco mode or better yet, the Auto mode.

[beng]

Nice test, ! How does the bike rides in the mullet low setting compare to the stock setting 29?

[michaelandrew]

I'm a little confused...if it a full power why is it being compared to SLs rather than other full power bikes? What am I missing here. Still a good video and interested in the AMflow but think I would still prefer a neuron onfly.

[mchmtbbcn]

Have the same bike, i get usually 40/50 kms and 1100m ... i am heavier with 93 kgs , XL bike ... Question, what wheels did you fit the bike please? Great videos !