Lectric XPress 750: A full-sized bike for the budget-minded
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I'm a fan of pairing a torque sensor with a hub motor. It sort of enables the world's best-shifting derailleur gears because there is no stress on them, up or down.
IMO when mentioning an e-bike is suitable for errands or commuting, you need to adress the question of fenders and cargo. Even if you live in a desert, you might want to keep crap from being flung up from the road onto your non-sport-specific clothing.
IMO when mentioning an e-bike is suitable for errands or commuting, you need to adress the question of fenders and cargo. Even if you live in a desert, you might want to keep crap from being flung up from the road onto your non-sport-specific clothing.
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That's a nice looking ebike, especially for the price. Odd that a bike that would otherwise appeal to commuters would omit fenders as your back is going to be splotched with mud and dirt following any wet rides.
edit: ninja'd.
edit: ninja'd.
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I clicked the store link for the bike, the first two accessories listed are a rear rack and fenders. They don't look particularly robust, but they exist.
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Lectricebikes currently offers fenders for free as part of their holiday sale, but mudguards are also needed...
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Indeed, they do. Looks like the reviewer just failed to install them, or got an advance model that omitted them.
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You would be a large size in this one
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/sizing/
Maxing out the seatpost is asking for trouble at some point, especially if thats a carbon post and has some flex
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This bike is equipped with hydraulic disk brakes. IMO, that's the minimum which should be offered for a heavy bike capable of reaching 28 mph. Kudos.
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Holy seat tube batman! The seat to handlebar drop looks almost like a road bike!
Amusing ergonomics aiside, my shins have scars from my early mountain bike days of pedals with metal pins whipping back and punishing my shins (when I still thought shinguards were dorky and didn't have clipless pedals). No idea why they didn't opt for cheap nylon platforms which are perfectly acceptable for a clearly commute focused bike.
Amusing ergonomics aiside, my shins have scars from my early mountain bike days of pedals with metal pins whipping back and punishing my shins (when I still thought shinguards were dorky and didn't have clipless pedals). No idea why they didn't opt for cheap nylon platforms which are perfectly acceptable for a clearly commute focused bike.
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I recall from my days in college at Davis the large number of fellow students with a damp stripe down their back from the dew in the morning or damp roads after rain. Davis being one of the few cities in the US that was really set up for bicycles as primary transportation for residents. In fact, it was likely the only one.
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They seem to be optional extras for the most part. You have to order them to get them, but they were included in many Black Friday packages this year.
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Yeah, to be clear: right now, Lectric is throwing in a huge number of separate accessories for free. They were not when I received the bike, so I didn't have them for the review, and can't comment on their suitability.
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My first thought when seeing the pictures was, it's kind of odd to see a slick tire on a fork with shocks. Second thought is, if it's a budget bike, did it have to have disk brakes? Is there some regulatory mandate that says that new bicycles must have disks?
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I have to admit I was surprised by the Lectric brand as well. My wife and I just purchased an RV (technically, a motor coach). Its not huge at ~30 ft, but its definitely too much for "around the town" driving (for comparison, try taking a U-Haul through the drive-through at McDonald's).
We searched for viable super-compact car options, but a lot of those had gone away; plus, we have a 7-year-old daughter, so couldn't get away with a tiny 2-seater like a Smart For2.
So instead, we looked at e-bikes, and eventually settled on the Lectric XPedition 2 (a cargo variant with an extended rear-rack and 450 lb load capacity); I got a white one (on which we mounted the "Orbitor" - a kind of cargo pod with bob-sled style seating for two kiddos), and my wife got the blue one.
I'm an engineer, and the assembly process impressed me; the balance between function and simplicity (like the pedals mentioned above) was borderline elegant. The controls for these bikes are arranged a little differently, with a 5 button control (including left- and right-direction signals), and an 8-speed gear assembly using a linearly-arranged gauge, and thumb- and finger- triggers for down/up shifting.
I also agree that the gearing ratios could be better - as noted, even with a load, the lower gears are a bit useless for anything except extreme hills (and I do not bicycle regularly). In road-traffic conditions, I have a tendency to launch from a stop using the throttle in order to get to speed more quickly and disrupt traffic less.
The torque sensing is very impressive, however, especially in conjunction with the various pedal-assist levels. Level 1 is just a bit of boost (I think it caps at something like 100W of assist, and usually nowhere near that). Level 2, is much more noticeable, and Level 3 makes you feel like a superhero. Levels 4 and 5 don't provide much extra on level pavement - they show up more on hills.
The only real complaint I have with the hardware (and I'm not alone in this) is the kick-stand. It uses a Y-style stand that has some lateral retraction when folded. However, this means its kind of tough to actually reach the stand with your foot as it tucks under the motor, the running boards, and in our case, the saddlebags (again, these are cargo bikes). Additionally, the radius/rotation of the stand requires the bike to lift up a bit before the stand can lock into place. This doesn't sound like much of an issue for most bikes, but keep in mind that I might have (and have had) a couple-hundred pounds of supplies (including a 90th-height-percentile 7-year-old) on the back of the bike. I've actually taken to standing astride the bike and bracing with my legs and arms while my daughter clambers aboard.
However, that is a pretty minor think compared to all of the plusses.
Probably the most impressive element for these guys so far, above and beyond the actual hardware, has been their customer support. I've contacted them twice. The first one was to get a small modification part for mounting of the front cargo basket (the bikes had evolved to include an integrated front fender and headlight, which required adaptive hardware for shifting the headlight to the front of the basket)
For the second one, I was contacting them to get a quote on a replacement display screen (the same as the one pictured in the article). I had broken the previous one while unloading the bike from the rack on the back of our RV. I'd left the handlebars folded during the unload, and overbalanced while lifting it down; the bike tipped and landed with the screen between the full weight of my bike and my driveway pavers. Amazingly, the screen still functioned, but there was no way it remained waterproof.
I used an online ticketing system (by preference; I mean, talking to somebody on the phone?!??!!! Ewwww!!!), laying out the details of the mishap, and asking for a quote (I fully expected to pay for my own stupidity). Instead, the next thing I see is a shipping notification from Lectric. They didn't even contact me back with questions; they just sent a replacement.
Its funny how a little gesture like that really hits home i this day and age. If you look at it objectively, the cost of the screen is a tiny fraction of the total amount we spent on the bikes (we definitely added a few options), but even so, there are not many companies that would have responded in the same way, no questions asked.
And having a effortless means of traveling from the RV park on Mission Bay to the boardwalk on Mission Beach?
Priceless.
We searched for viable super-compact car options, but a lot of those had gone away; plus, we have a 7-year-old daughter, so couldn't get away with a tiny 2-seater like a Smart For2.
So instead, we looked at e-bikes, and eventually settled on the Lectric XPedition 2 (a cargo variant with an extended rear-rack and 450 lb load capacity); I got a white one (on which we mounted the "Orbitor" - a kind of cargo pod with bob-sled style seating for two kiddos), and my wife got the blue one.
I'm an engineer, and the assembly process impressed me; the balance between function and simplicity (like the pedals mentioned above) was borderline elegant. The controls for these bikes are arranged a little differently, with a 5 button control (including left- and right-direction signals), and an 8-speed gear assembly using a linearly-arranged gauge, and thumb- and finger- triggers for down/up shifting.
I also agree that the gearing ratios could be better - as noted, even with a load, the lower gears are a bit useless for anything except extreme hills (and I do not bicycle regularly). In road-traffic conditions, I have a tendency to launch from a stop using the throttle in order to get to speed more quickly and disrupt traffic less.
The torque sensing is very impressive, however, especially in conjunction with the various pedal-assist levels. Level 1 is just a bit of boost (I think it caps at something like 100W of assist, and usually nowhere near that). Level 2, is much more noticeable, and Level 3 makes you feel like a superhero. Levels 4 and 5 don't provide much extra on level pavement - they show up more on hills.
The only real complaint I have with the hardware (and I'm not alone in this) is the kick-stand. It uses a Y-style stand that has some lateral retraction when folded. However, this means its kind of tough to actually reach the stand with your foot as it tucks under the motor, the running boards, and in our case, the saddlebags (again, these are cargo bikes). Additionally, the radius/rotation of the stand requires the bike to lift up a bit before the stand can lock into place. This doesn't sound like much of an issue for most bikes, but keep in mind that I might have (and have had) a couple-hundred pounds of supplies (including a 90th-height-percentile 7-year-old) on the back of the bike. I've actually taken to standing astride the bike and bracing with my legs and arms while my daughter clambers aboard.
However, that is a pretty minor think compared to all of the plusses.
Probably the most impressive element for these guys so far, above and beyond the actual hardware, has been their customer support. I've contacted them twice. The first one was to get a small modification part for mounting of the front cargo basket (the bikes had evolved to include an integrated front fender and headlight, which required adaptive hardware for shifting the headlight to the front of the basket)
For the second one, I was contacting them to get a quote on a replacement display screen (the same as the one pictured in the article). I had broken the previous one while unloading the bike from the rack on the back of our RV. I'd left the handlebars folded during the unload, and overbalanced while lifting it down; the bike tipped and landed with the screen between the full weight of my bike and my driveway pavers. Amazingly, the screen still functioned, but there was no way it remained waterproof.
I used an online ticketing system (by preference; I mean, talking to somebody on the phone?!??!!! Ewwww!!!), laying out the details of the mishap, and asking for a quote (I fully expected to pay for my own stupidity). Instead, the next thing I see is a shipping notification from Lectric. They didn't even contact me back with questions; they just sent a replacement.
Its funny how a little gesture like that really hits home i this day and age. If you look at it objectively, the cost of the screen is a tiny fraction of the total amount we spent on the bikes (we definitely added a few options), but even so, there are not many companies that would have responded in the same way, no questions asked.
And having a effortless means of traveling from the RV park on Mission Bay to the boardwalk on Mission Beach?
Priceless.
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Disk brakes are pretty cheap now, and e-bikes tend to be heavy. I think if it's not a mandate, it probably should be.
I took a long time to be convinced, but they are better: lower maintenance and safer because they don't come out of alignment the way pad brakes often do. I think the rest of the putative benefits (modulation, power, water) are baloney, but the maintenance is real.
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No regulations that I'm aware of but for a (likely very heavy) class 3 ebike that will likely be ridden in wet conditions and likely not looked after all that well, disc brakes seem like a really good idea from a safety standpoint. Not to mention that consumers that would buy one of these wouldn't give a hoot about the disc vs rim debate.
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Owning a class three commuter ebike myself the shocks are pretty standard. Hitting potholes without some kind of suspension at 30-45km/h sucks on my roadie and an ebike is heavier.
Which brings me to point two...only a fool would trust their life to rim brakes on a faster, heavier ebike. You really don't want your braking effectiveness to be reduced by splashing through a puddle. When I buy a new roadie it'll have hydraulic brakes too. They are so far superior to rim brakes that they're a non-negotiable feature for me moving forward.
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The weight and speed of eBikes makes rim brakes a sketchy proposition. Very few casual cyclists are hitting 20 MPH on the regular without the pedal assist, and even fewer are pushing up against 30.
Combine that with a bike that is going to weigh double a typical bike, and even if it's not mandated, you as a company want disc brakes. You REALLY want disc brakes.
As far as the shock, it's 100% about control/comfort on bumpy roads. The roads near me are extremely bumpy, and riding on my road bike (with no shock) is really unpleasant for long stretches of road. I've learned routes to avoid as much of the worst roads as possible, but I can't get out of them all.
It also makes rolling off a curb softer, keeps parts from rattling loose as easily, and generally upgrades the whole experience. You don't need 120mm of travel or anything, just a basic, solid shock to take the bite out of things.
All that being said, one frame size is no good for me personally--I'm 6'5" with a 38"+ inseam. You think the frame geometry with the seat all the way up looks aggressive now--try sticking my body on there!
Edit: Ninja'd. Twice. (I guess that doesn't take a ninja then, apparently I was pretty slow submitting that post.)
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Is the battery UL certified? Have one Rad time bomb in our house, I'm not willing to buy anything that's not UL certified.
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100% it is absolutely dangerous.
Without being too critical, these bike reviews really need someone who's more than passively interested in bikes. The fact that 'the frame is too small' required some creative description betrays their lack of bike knowledge.
For a practical ebike I'm wanting to see battery capacity, hub specs, frame sizing, FENDERS, Pannier rack/cargo capacity, lighting/safety, some discussion of the drivetrain. I know it's $1000, but I think the cheaper you go on a bike, the more these factors are probably important to you since it's more likely a car replacement/supplement.
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Yeah, I did not want to nitpick and merely suggest the above. I do enjoy the author’s other articles
I ride a Trek Madone and learnt to maintain it the hard way and the importance of a good torque wrench and staying to specs when altering any part
One fall on a bike and you could wind up with some serious injuries
For some odd reason people think they are invincible on an ebike, probably because they are not clipped in, but these are much heavier bikes and it’s easier to go head over the handlebars
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I checked the details on this bike at the website. Based on my experience commuting by ebike in Chicago, good disk brakes are a non-negotiable. This bike comes with hydraulic disk brakes. Given the price of the bike, I expected the brakes to be cable. The brand isn't mentioned. My guess is that at this bike's price point, going with whatever supplier gives the best price on brakes that meet Lectric's specs is one of the compromises made. I often see a few Lectric bikes on my route, typically flying past me since my bike is a Class 1. I usually hear them before they pass because their motors are noisy; their whine would make a good sound effect for a Star Wars movie. In spite of that, the owners I have spoken to say they are great ebikes for the price.
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Albino_Boo
Ars Praefectus
Disc breaks are the standard these days. Performance in the wet is far superior to rim brakes and on cheaper wheels rim brake wear will make the rims dangerously weak unless carefully maintained
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Torque sensors are great since they make the motor just amplify the power you put in with your legs which really is what you want (as long as what you want is a bicycle with electric support and not a motorbike with pedals).
Hub motors are very limited with this though since they can only apply the torque right to the wheel while you're applying your leg's torque to the pedals and the gears between both get in the way. Like in a low gear and at low speeds it's totally impossible for the motor to amplify your legs 2x, 3x or 4x because the motor just can't provide enough torque for that in the hub. Other than your legs the motor is missing the gear reduction then.
I have found that for a really natural and fluid "I have superpower legs" effect that never forces you to even notice the motor there's no way around a mid-motor. With this it just works, no matter how slow or fast you are or in which gear you are, because the motor acts right where you're are pedaling and uses the gears just as your legs do.
I have a bike with a quite mundane Bosch motor (Active Plus) and even at really steep inclines in low gear the problem is more that I have to keep the front wheel on the ground and never the motor not being able to still amplify my legs by the chosen ratio.
Of course bikes with mid motors are usually more expensive and also need high quality components since all the torque goes through the chain and gears. They work great though with internal gear hubs, since these have much wider chains and always a straight chain line and hardly need any maintenance.
Well, if you mostly ride on flat ground a hub motor with a torque sensor still is a good thing to have and much better than a hub motor without a torque sensor. But if you want an e-bike especially to help you going uphill a hub motor isn't ideal since it easily runs out of breath exactly then.
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You now have my full attention. All 6' 4" of it. Thank you for putting this up front!
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This is true for a direct drive hub motor, but a good geared hub can give you the "superpowered legs" effect when coupled with a torque sensor. I considered a mid motor but ended up with a hub largely due to cost and the utter lack of hills in my area.
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Yes, the thing is that fenders and some way to carry stuff don't look as good in PR images and cost money, so they're easy to do away with for better sales.
The problem is that the lack of fenders and any racks can really make you to hate the bike in practice very easily...
Also the typical long, narrow rear racks are often a bit useless anyway. Personally I like wide front racks mounted to the frame for several reasons: Much easier to reliably fix things to them, you have them in sight all the time and it's so much easier to rummage around in whatever you have on them at a stop. This is one thing the hipsters got right for once...
I really don't understand why so few bikes have mounting points for a front rack on the frame. Just try to fix any bag to a narrow rear rack and maybe even use it at a stop. Front racks are the best thing since sliced bread.
By the way, thats a Cube Compact Hybrid.
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That is a lot of e-bike for the price. There are many e-bikes that cost twice what this does and offer very little to show for it.
One thing I like about Letric is their bundled headlights are configured not to blind oncoming traffic.
One thing I like about Letric is their bundled headlights are configured not to blind oncoming traffic.
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There's never been a better time. I paid $2300 for a bike of a similar spec to this one when I got it 7 years ago and it was considered a bargain at the time. Prices have fallen a lot and the bikes are better in many ways.
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I've been very happy with my current gen XP4 and pretty happy with my first gen XP. they're both massive bikes though, but they're foldable and can be put in a tote so they're more manageable in an SUV or car (for when I don't want to use the bike rack). And I love the huge headlight.
I wonder if this bike is a new direction or just a new option for people that don't want such a big bike.
I also wonder if "bestselling" is real or not because the XP line was "bestselling" and I can't imagine a new product line would suddenly be bestselling.
I wonder if this bike is a new direction or just a new option for people that don't want such a big bike.
I also wonder if "bestselling" is real or not because the XP line was "bestselling" and I can't imagine a new product line would suddenly be bestselling.
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28mph on the greenway so more people can complain about "cyclists", sounds great!
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ColdWetDog
Ars Legatus Legionis
Do you drive pedal to the metal in your car down - well, anywhere? You don't have to go 28 mph. Especially when it is isn't legal, advisable or sane. Yes, there are assholes that do that but in reality not all that many (we just remember them).
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For whatever reason people abandon all logic or sense when it comes to ebikes. My city's shared pathways have a posted speed limit in many areas. Just because you can do 45km/h doesn't mean you must.
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I'm just curious why so many bike people leap from "this review didn't give me what I was looking for" straight to "the reviewer must not know much"?
I've been writing on the internet for far too long to have my feelings hurt by someone calling me ill-informed, but this seems to happen for more often when I write about bikes than when I write about subjects I understand far, far less. I'd normally ascribe it to just being something about bike people, but the cyclists I've interacted with in the last two places I've lived have been open, generous, etc. So I find the whole thing a bit mystifying.
(This one seems especially funny because what seemed to set them off was something about my writing that I thought might be a fun way to intro the review.)
EDITED TO ADD - I've clarified that I only extend my seat post to the "maximum recommended height" instead of "maximum height", as people apparently thought I was an imbecile.
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This bike seems to do a good job hitting its price point without too many major compromises.
The only thing I don't like (that I don't like a lot whenever I see it) is the short front fender on the pic of the bike showing it with fenders.
That fender will allow water spray to spray your feet, and will not keep your feet dry. (A front fender has only one job...)
Front fenders need to be low in the back, and can benefit from an additional rubber flap below the fender bc riding through puddles or even just a damp road from light rain or after the rain has stopped, will get your feet wet if the fender doesn't do a perfect job of preventing it, happily perfect is easily achievable via long-in-the-back front fender.
The only thing I don't like (that I don't like a lot whenever I see it) is the short front fender on the pic of the bike showing it with fenders.
That fender will allow water spray to spray your feet, and will not keep your feet dry. (A front fender has only one job...)
Front fenders need to be low in the back, and can benefit from an additional rubber flap below the fender bc riding through puddles or even just a damp road from light rain or after the rain has stopped, will get your feet wet if the fender doesn't do a perfect job of preventing it, happily perfect is easily achievable via long-in-the-back front fender.
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If someone is doing 45kph in a 30kph posted bike path they should get a ticket. That's pretty straightforward.
I wish more bike paths would be like this. I really dislike when they do stuff like "this path is Class I only" as if anybody, cops included, has any idea what that means.
I would also make it apply to pedal bikes. If someone's pumping the pedals real hard and doing 35kph in a 25kph zone that's also a ticket.
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ColdWetDog
Ars Legatus Legionis
Hell, on multi use paths I tend to practice my slow speed stability drills whilst navigating through dogs, children, strollers, quail and the occasional snake. I only drag race ATVs on jeep trails.
Slightly derailing the thread, yeah, we need speed limits and cops on scooters. Of course, we won't get any enforcement in the vast majority of places because the US doesn't do that. Aircraft carriers don't build themselves....
The class II setup on this bike is interesting. Of course, this is clearly NOT a mountain bike but you could ride it on some MTB adjacent trails. In my neck of the woods, class II bikes are limited to the same places as motorcycles. The very occasional BLM enforcement includes checking for a throttle. If it has one, it's a motorcycle. But that has really little relevance for this particular bike.
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That's how it is in my city. It's a flat speed limit, not a speed limit for ebikes or scooters or whatever.
My Class 3 is technically not even legal in Canada, but I've never had an issue even when cycling at 45km/h alongside police because I reserve that for the road when I need to reduce closing speeds between myself and passing traffic for my safety. If there's a bike lane I'm generally only doing 20mph/32kph.
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This is impossible to control in practice. And people "pumping the pedals real hard and doing 35kph in a 25kph zone" are very rare. There's no point in arguing with something that basically never happens over any length of time.
Germany (and the EU in general) has a very simple rule: bikes that can do only 25 kph even with motor support count as bicycles, no strings attached, and are free to use any bicycle infrastructure, including paths in parks and forests.
Everything that can go faster with motor support counts as motor vehicles (just as cars and motorbikes) and are banned there, these have to use roads only and are not allowed in parks and forests, on bicycle paths and so on. It's a bit restrictive, but it works great. It's a strictly binary rule (either it's a bicycle or it's not a bicycle) and as such easy to understand and easy to control.
There ARE legal e-bikes that are faster than 25 kph but hardly anyone buys them because you can't use them in most places you would want to use them.
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