I’ve been busy testing the Amflow PL Carbon for a while now, both here and abroad, on all sorts of terrain, and I’ve got a full review coming soon (promise!), but before delivering a final verdict on this game-changing e-bike, I needed to find out how far you can ride on a single charge. Not least because there is no range extender, and the battery isn’t removable – at least without taking the motor out. But also because it’s pumping out so much power that there must be a catch. If the motor draws more power, then the battery won’t last as long – simple, right?

The Amflow PL Carbon is the entry level model and comes in at £5,999 with the full 800Wh battery.

More power = less range?

If I’m talking about the Amflow specifically, then the peak power in Turbo mode (not the limited Boost mode) is 850W. The battery in my test bike is 800Wh. So at full whack, giving maximum beans, the battery could theoretically go flat in under an hour. Of course, most motors won’t deliver that kind of power for that kind of duration, nor would you be able to find a climb long enough in to test the theory out in the UK. Instead, my test involves the kind of typical up-down riding loop that most mountain bikers will do at the weekend. Multiple laps of singletrack interspersed with a mix of different climbs. It’s exactly the same loop as I used to range test all the lightweight e-bikes in our recent SL E-Bike of the Year test, and to make the comparison even more relevant, I fitted the same Continental Kryptotal control tyres, in the same compound, and inflated to the same pressures as I used with the other SL e-bikes.

The Amflow PL Carbon seems to offer it all: power; weight; price. But what about range?

Eliminating the variables is impossible

Of course, it’s impossible to eliminate all the variables when it comes to mountain biking, so the weather and trail conditions were different to when I range tested the SL e-bikes. Instead of 20ºC and bone dry trails, the ambient temperatures were in the low single digits, peaking at around 8ºC. Those colder temps will have had a negative impact on the range of the Amflow compared to the other bikes ridden on a warmer day. In fact, being left overnight in the cold van was enough for the battery to lose 3% charge in the morning when I started the test. It was also slightly muddier, particularly on the climbs, which meant that the motor had to work harder to generate traction and forward momentum. Not to the point where I was struggling for grip, but it’s worth noting.

The DJI Avinox motor makes mincemeat of any climb.

Why compare the Amflow with a bunch of SL e-bikes?

So why compare the Amflow – which is more powerful than the best full-fat e-bikes – with a load of SL e-bikes, some of which only deliver half the power? Good question, and of course it would have been just as relevant to test it against a bike with the new Bosch CX motor. But I haven’t range-tested Bosch’s latest drive unit yet, and the Amflow is obviously aiming to compete with the best lightweight e-bikes given the 19.2kg headline weight of the PL Carbon Pro used in all the marketing. To achieve that weight, though, you have to sacrifice the size of the internal battery, dropping to a 600Wh unit, which I don’t think many customers will want to do. Especially given how much power the DJI Avinox motor puts out, the lack of range extender, and the aforementioned fixed battery.

The PL Carbon model I’m testing is the cheaper of the two Amflow models, and the one most people seem to be buying. It’s a very reasonable £5,999, and it comes standard with the 800Wh battery. Out-of-the-box, on stock tyres and with the 29in rear wheel, the size large weighs 21.5kg, and this dropped to 21.3kg with the lighter casing Continental Kryptotals and a 27.5in rear wheel.

Real-world weights and geo

If you want to find out more about the weights and measurements, watch my unboxing video below. For the range test I actually fitted a 27.5in rear wheel and ran it as a mullet, but I kept the flip chip in the 29in setting to give a slightly lower BB height and slacker head angle, which I prefer. The only negative aspects of doing this are reducing the reach a touch, and slackening the seat angle.

The lightweight build makes the Amflow PL Carbon easy to throw around.

Turbo all the way!

For the duration of the test I left the Amflow in Turbo mode, which is exactly what I did with the other SL e-bikes. Of course the Amflow has an even more powerful Boost mode, but I didn’t use this as it’s only limited to 30 seconds at a time, and the Turbo mode is still plenty powerful enough for me to ride up the climbs one handed, chatting to the camera without getting out of breath!

Amflow Vs. SL e-bikes range test table.

Range test comparison

Looking at the comparison chart above, the £8,500 Cannondale Moterra SL had the best range of the SL e-bikes, even if it wasn’t the lightest at 20.44kg. Considering it has the full power Shimano EP801 motor boasting 85Nm torque and 600W peak power, it gave the most range and the most support, letting me ride faster than any other bike as well as further than the competition.

Now throw the Amflow PL Carbon into the mix. It costs £2.5k less (at retail price) than the Cannondale and weighs a bit more (21.3kg) with the same Continental control tyres fitted. And most of that weight difference comes from the bigger 800Wh battery. Move onto the DJI Avinox motor, and in Boost, the Avinox motor has 105Nm torque and a mind-blowing 850 watts peak power. Or, to put it another way, the Trek Fuel EX plus the Cannondale!

If that’s not enough for you, select Boost and you get 120Nn and 1000 watts for 30 seconds. But even 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.

Is there a chink in the Amflow armour? If there is, it certainly isn’t range.

A shock result

The big surprise for me was the range. Considering the stats, I expected the Amflow to deliver slightly less range than the Cannondale’s 1,215m of climbing, given that it has a higher peak power than battery capacity. In fact, the opposite was true. Even starting with 97% charge, the Amflow delivered 1,430m of vertical and 36.02km of riding on a single charge. And if the ambient temperature had been the same as it was when range testing the SL e-bikes, the Amflow would have gone even further.

So while I fully admit that range testing is not an exact science, and that there were temperature variables that can’t be ignored, the Amflow still lasted longer than any of the SL e-bikes, and was considerably faster too. That’s extremely impressive. And if you can resist the temptation to blast around in Turbo, running it in Auto or Eco will likely give you access to 2,000m of vert on a single charge.