Drone maker DJI shook up the ebike market in 2024 when it pulled its motor tech out of the skies and put it to work in a new brand of bikes it named Amflow. Now it's bringing all that performance over to the United States for the first time, offering what's sure to be one of the quickest, sleekest hard-hammering trail/enduro e-MTBs out there. But the Amflow PL's particular combination of tempting specs won't come cheap.
Ebikes have absolutely taken off in Europe over the past decade, and electric mountain bikes serve as possibly the best example of just how strong a market force motorized bike power has become. In Germany, Europe's largest bicycle market, electric bikes at large have edged past standard bicycles in sales, grabbing 53% of the market for two years running ('23 and '24).
Electric mountain bikes? They managed to lock down 94% of the German mtb market last year. We honestly thought maybe extreme mountain biking pioneer Hans Rey misspoke when singing that stat from the mountaintops (kinda literally given the photo), but you don't get to be a legend by making silly mistakes – that stat comes straight from German Bicycle Industry Association (ZIV) data (page 25 of this pdf).
It's no surprise, then, that Germany and other key European countries are leading the new market surge in high-power e-MTB hardware, like the next-gen "full-power" electric drives we've been looking at all summer long, promising game-changing triple-digit torque figures and tiny, power-dense constructions.
DJI really kicked off the latest wave in high-powered e-drives when it introduced the Avinox motor system and Amflow brand a year ago. We looked closely at how the unit is able to pull 105 Nm (77 lb-ft) of torque out of a small package, and unlike those competitors that list max torque, DJI's 105-Nm figure is continuous torque. The Avinox is actually able to fast-dial up to a peak of 120 Nm via a push of the "Boost" mode button.
Similarly, the Avinox motor's 800-watt rating looks quite comparable to the competition, but Amflow notes that a recent firmware update allows riders to free up a full 1,000 watts of trail-tattooing fury – within the letter of any and all relevant local regulations, of course.
All that torque and power are sure to come in handy when climbing up the steep, jagged slopes that lead to big-time descents, but the Amflow PL isn't purely about full-throttling ahead. Amflow positions its high-powered but still weight-conscious 5.5-lb (2.5-kg) Avinox drive within the bottom bracket of a lightweight 5-lb (2.3-kg) carbon fiber frame, keeping total bike weight down as low as 42.3 lb (19.2 kg). That's comfortably above "world's lightest e-MTB" territory, but it's still quite light and lithe for an electric all-mountain-pushing-enduro setup with 160 mm of Fox front travel and 150 mm at the rear.
The low weight means the Amflow PL won't be afraid of ups and pedaling, and the bike is further equipped to get you truly out there. It flirts with a proper 100 miles (161 km) of range, boasting up to 97.5 estimated miles (157 km) via the standard 800-Wh battery pack.
Amflow doesn't offer a range-extender option as far as we've seen, but it does sell an optional fast-charger that promises to get the PL back up and running with 75% charge in as little as an hour and a half – well quicker than the 2- to 3-hour times we're used to seeing on other ebikes, though certainly not full-on 15-minute ultra-hyper-charging.
Helping the rider push forward, the Fox Float rear shock cushions the wheel from inside a four-bar linkage designed to deliver smooth, stable pedaling without unwanted bob and slip. Of course, when gravity and big hits take over, that suspension system opens up the full spectrum of cushioning for confident navigation.
The PL rider can choose from five different electric-assist modes via the OLED display integrated on the upper top tube. In addition to the 120-Nm Boost mode mentioned, the bike features Eco, Trail, Turbo and Auto modes. The first three dial up power successively, while Auto provides adaptive delivery that matches output with changing ride conditions. The modes can also be customized to rider preference in terms of power, torque and cadence.
Separate from the five riding modes, the Amflow PL also offers a Walk mode. If and when the terrain gets too steep or tiring, riders can enjoy light motor assist while pushing their bike forward. It incorporates an anti-rollback function to keep gravity from tugging the bike backwards on climbs and a hill start assist to smoothen that initial lug of getting things rolling uphill.
Other Amflow PL features include Bluetooth-connected wireless mode shifters on both sides of the handlebar, app connectivity with anti-theft alarm and remote location, and full data tracking and Strava syncing. Each bike rolls on 29-in wheels with Maxxis tires but can be flip-chipped over to a mullet setup with a 27.5-in rear wheel.
The Amflow PL is available to order in the US now in two trims: the $7,499 Carbon and the $10,199 Carbon Pro. Both bikes share the same electric drive hardware/specs but differ in terms of other components.
While the US is nowhere near as smitten with electrified bicycles as Germany and other European countries, it has seen increasing interest. Ebike sales have experienced healthy growth in recent years but still lag well behind regular bicycles. For example, US ebike sales surpassed one million units in 2022, but that still calculated out to but a single-digit percentage of total annual bicycle sales in the country.
The US seems to be nearing an ebike inflection point, however. In the past year alone, we've seen a number of land management agencies opening, or at least considering opening, non-motorized trails to electric mountain bikes. That includes access expansion actions in major mountain bike destinations like Moab, UT, Vermont's Kingdom Trails system, and across Oregon.
So maybe we'll be seeing more and more of that high-powered European ebike wizardry hitting US shores. And while we're not sure US riders will embrace $7.5K to $10K ebike price tags, they are known to spend that same kind of money on carbon mountain bikes without any electric power whatsoever. For those high spenders open to the idea of motor-assist, high-four- and five-figure prices need not be an unscalable obstacle.
Source: Amflow
