2024 eMTB LITE GROUP REVIEW

AMFLOW PL CARBON PRO REVIEW

Words by Staff  |  Photos by Dusten Ryen

The Amflow PL Carbon Pro is perhaps the most hotly anticipated eBike to hit the market in recent memory. With huge power figures delivered by the DJI Avinox drive unit, yet a total package weight that lets it sit comfortably with other SL eMTBs, we were extremely excited to see if the huge statement that Amflow and DJI have made with the PL Carbon Pro would deliver the ultimate riding experience. If you’d like to dive even deeper into the specs and details of the DJI-equipped Amflow PL Carbon Pro, check out the Dissected feature and video.

We’d like to offer a huge thank you to our sponsors: Outdoor Research, Schwalbe Tires, Ride Concepts and the Running Y Resort. Without their gracious support, these types of content series would not be possible. Give them a thanks down below!

ABOUT THE AMFLOW PL CARBON PRO

The Amflow PL Carbon Pro uses the new DJI Avinox drive unit, which delivers huge power figures at a very competitive weight. The remainder of the bike is built to sit solidly in the lightweight E-All Mountain category, providing a playful and agile ride on the way up and down the hill.

DRIVE UNIT AND ELECTRONICS | The new DJI Avinox drive unit boasts 105Nm of torque and 850W Peak Power as standard, and a 30-second Boost mode that delivers 120Nm and 1,000W of power. Simply put, the power produced by the 5.55lbs (2.52kg) DJI Avinox drive unit is remarkable.

The palm-sized drive unit is powered by a choice of 600Wh or 800Wh fixed internal batteries with impressively high energy densities. The 600Wh weighs in at 6.33lbs (2.87kg), whereas the 800Wh is 8.24lbs (3.74kg). There is currently no mention of Range Extender availability. The Avinox batteries charge impressively fast thanks to the 12A charger, which can charge the 800Wh battery to 75% in about 96 minutes. The batteries are claimed to maintain over 80% of their capacity for 500 full charge-discharge cycles.

The display on the Avinox system is a full 2-inch touchscreen OLED unit, nestled in the top tube. The same touchscreen found on DJI’s action cameras. On the bars are two sleek, wireless remotes – one on each side of the bars. You can opt to remove these remotes, but we like the effortlessness when toggling between power mode and screen display settings. Riders can also access the Walk mode will match your walking speed. There’s an AUTO HOLD function and HILL START assist for when you try to get going on those steep climbs.

The DJI Avinox app offers the possibility to customize riding modes, track the bike, and much more. DJI is making frequent developments and updates to the system as they collect more data and optimize the system further, which can all be added to the bike with the app. By inserting a sim card, an anti-theft and tracking service can be used to keep your Amflow safe.

FRAME AND FEATURES | Amflow is an incubated brand developed to help launch the DJI Avinox. The PL Carbon is their first bike offering. They developed the carbon fiber frame around the drive unit, with a clean Horst Link Four Bar design coming in at 2.27kg. Thanks to a flip chip, this 150mm/160mm bike can be equipped with either a pair of 29” wheels or a mullet (mixed wheel) setup.

Amflow covered the details well, with a large downtube cover and adequate protection on the chainstay and seatstays. There’s internal cable routing through ports on the side of the head tube.

SUSPENSION | Amflow has employed a Four Bar suspension design for their first eMTB, which sports 150mm of rear wheel travel. This is paired with a 160mm fork up front, as standard. The Fox shock options on both of the standard builds are supplied with a custom tune to deliver the best performance.

GEOMETRY | Amflow offers a solid, middle-of-the-road geometry for the PL Carbon, with no figures that stand out. A 64.5° Head Angle and 77° Seat Tube Angle are likely to keep most happy, and the M to XXL size range has even 25mm Reach gaps from 452-525mm to let most riders find a comfortable size. The size Large we tested features a 475mm Reach and 628mm stack height.

BUILD SPECS | Amflow is currently establishing a network of dealers worldwide to supply their two initial build specs – the PL Carbon, and PL Carbon Pro (tested). Pricing in North America has not been finalized yet as Amflow have not full established their go-to-market infrastructure yet. We expect pricing to be similar to that found in Europe, China and Australia, which is around $10,000-$10,500 for the Pro build and a slightly lower price for the PL Carbon.

The Amflow PL Carbon Pro is built with the carbon fiber frame, which is fitted with a Fox Factory Float X custom-tuned shock and 160mm 36 fork with Grip X2 damper. The drivetrain is SRAM’s XO T-Type, wired into the drive unit battery, with a DJI Avinox SL alloy crank.

Braking duties are handled by Magura’s MT7 brakes with 203mm Storm HC rotors. There’s a Fox Factory Transfer dropper in size-specific lengths, topped with an Ergon SM PRO saddle.

Amflow provides the finishing kit, with their Enduro Carbon bar and alloy stem; and their HMC-30 Carbon rims laced to sealed bearing hubs. These carbon wheels are wrapped in Maxxis Assegai EXO and Dissector EXO+ combo as standard.

However, as with all of the bikes in this shootout, Schwalbe helped us to equip all bikes with the same Albert Radial Trail tire combo in Ultra Soft rubber, giving us incredible traction and comfort and allowing for better comparison from bike-to-bike.

The Amflow PL Pro with the 800Wh battery in size Large weighed in at 46.5lbs (21.1kg) with the control tires.

THE DIRT

SETUP | Unboxing and building the Amflow was an easy and straightforward process. It came nicely packaged and protected. Once initial build was complete we set up suspension, updated our app, checked all the settings for power delivery and modes and hit the trail.

Suspension proved a little time consuming for some riders, but most of us found a happy spot pretty quickly. We’ll get to that more in ride impressions below.

After just two rides however, we did notice some flex that was significantly affecting our riding and confidence aboard the bike. We swapped out the bars and stem, and then the wheels to begin trying to isolate areas of flex and get a better feel from the bike. We definitely noted some improvements after those swaps, however, we believe that the frame itself is a bit flexy and heavier or more aggressive riders will notice some drawbacks here.

ELECTRONICS & INTEGRATION | Our entire test crew agreed that this bike has the best app interface, electronic integration and user experience on the market. We love it. The OLED touch-screen on the top tube is great, offes a lot of great insights, can be customized, and the Bluetooth controls on the bars don’t take up much space and are easy to use.

We also like some of the safety features DJI Avinox offers within the app. However, we do have some concerns around the data sharing, tracking and other unknowns regarding the brand. Maybe that’s just the tin foil under our helmets rattling though.

CLIMBING | We had testers ride this bike from 5’8 to 6’2, and with the exception of one being a little too short, we all found the bike to be rather comfortable and easy to hop on for long days in the saddle. Overall, we found the suspension platform to be on-par with several other Horst Link style bikes in our eMTB Light Shootout.

Geometry, suspension and general handling all make the bike a competitor for those who like to hit the trail, find techy climbs and ride up as much as they like to ride down. Where the bike leaves all the competitors behind however is in the horsepower, or should we say Wattpower department. Not even touching on the 1000W Boost mode, this bike leaves everything in the category eating its dust in Turbo. In fact, riding the Amflow in the middle, Trail mode still had other bikes working hard in their own Turbo modes. Simply put, if you want to be the first one up the hill, this is the bike for you.

DESCENDING | Here is where our test rider’s opinions begin to take their own paths. While we all agree the bike is a bit flexy, there were differing opinions on how big of a deal that was. Our crew was split about 50/50 on whether it was a trait we could live with and make the bike our own, or if it would be too flexy for us to want it for daily abuse. So, let’s dive into that a bit more.

When it comes to our reviews, we always try to position information as our opinions backed by hundreds of bikes we’ve tested over the last decade as bike reviewers. While some people may want a “Best” or “Worst” stamp, we don’t believe that helps people as those are very subjective since riders all live in different areas, ride at different levels and can weigh anywhere from 120lbs to 240lbs. As you can see in our video, even our own crew, with weights within 20lbs of each other felt differently on how the stiffness affected the ride.

In short, the bike is designed to be an aggressive trail to all mountain category bike, and for that type of riding, it’s not terribly flexy. It’s far from a noodle. However, there are other bikes that have similar travel and geo numbers that can be pushed a lot harder, even broaching the “Enduro” category. This bike will let you know it’s not happy there when compressions get big and loads into the frame get bigger. It will also result in a less-confident feel as you’re unsure if you’ll be able to hold a big compression in a sharp corner at the bottom of a steep chute under heavy braking. Similarly heading at full speed into rock gardens with big compressions, like those found in southern California or Arizona, will cause the bike to load up and spring out. I rode the bike for a few days on my hometown trails in Thousand Oaks (LA area) and noticed this sensation a bit on trails with embedded sandstone shelves. Also, when coming into sharp catch ruts or berms under hard braking as we exited steep pitches, the front end’s lack of predictability was a bit worrisome. These instances don’t take place daily in our ride routines, however, it may for some others, or never for others. You’ll have to be the judge on how hard you ride, and how stiff you need a frame to be.

Barring those genre-blurring moments, the Amflow PL Carbon is an absolute blast. We really liked how playful, jumpy, snappy and flickable the bike is. It made some of our Blue flow test trails a blast where other bikes felt a bit tranquilized and dull. It fit was closer to the shorter travel Ari Nebo Peak and Pivot Shuttle SL than similarly-spec Devinci and Norco bikes.

Our riders did notice that the travel indicator ring was regularly at the bottom of the shock, meaning we’d reached full travel. While we almost never felt a harsh bottom out, it was interesting to see how often we were using full travel. It kept the suspension feeling a bit smoother and better to run it this way however, as airing up resulted in a bit stiffer of a feel off-the-top, which transmitted more feedback. This could mean riders on smoother trails will like less sag, whereas those in rockier or rootier areas will like a bit more sag. And thanks to the amazing decision to spec 155mm cranks, pedal clearance is not an issue even with slighlty more sag.

COMPARISON AND RANKING? | Compared to most of the similarly-traveled eMTB Lights in this group test, the DJI is a bit more playful, spritely and packs a whole lot more power. It’s on par with the Santa Cruz Heckler SL in some aspects of playfulness and can even be a bit faster on mellower trails where corners and transitions are quick. Yet when it came time to push the bike into more “Enduro” type terrain or big bermed trails, the flexy frame made the Amflow PL Carbon a little more squirmy and skittish.

Potential buyers of this bike need to look beyond the dazzling numbers of the drive unit and really evaluate their rider weight, how aggressive they want to ride it and what type of terrain they plan on tackling with it. Don’t think you’ll be able to up-travel this bike and make it an enduro-rig even though you really want to as the frame’s stiffness will leave you wanting for more. If you’re looking for a do-it-all trail rig that will let you ride fast, fun and challenging trails at a comfortable pace, this bike is an absolute blast. It doesn’t need the steepest pitch to come alive, it feels fun and playful and will reward plenty of riders with happy miles.

The Wolf’s Last Word

While Amflow’s PL Carbon Pro eMTB is a game changer in some aspects, it does have some polarizing ride traits. That could make it a deal-breaker or a dream-maker, depending on the rider. That said, for a first attempt at both a drive unit and a bike frame, we have to give Amflow two thumbs up and would absolutely put this bike near the front of our rack for regular trail rides.

Price: TBD in USA | Est. $7,500-10,900 Model and Battery Dependent

Weight: 46.5lbs
Website: Amflowbikes.com

Thanks again to our amazing sponsors who made this group test possible.

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