Anyone have a FREY EX?

Gonzaloan: great looking bike and thanks for the detailed early review. The Frey EX is on my list but no rush so waiting to see what is announced in 2021. The weight of the bike does prohibit some of the fun of a standard MTB but there are trade offs to everything. Please keep us updated as you get more saddle time. Thanks!
 
Thanks, I think I will also wait and see what is announced soon as I am still looking for that perfect bike! Maybe this with the alternate controller from the factory would be nice!
 
Gonzaloan said:
Hello!!

I did get mine! I had to go out for work for a couple of weeks so got no pictures of the first days. I´ll tell you my thoughts at least. [Excuse my poor english, I hope I explain myself well enough!]

Keep in mind that these are my thoughts therefore is MY opinion and may differ from yours. If you are waiting to receive your bike, honestly I would not read this or at leats consider until I get my own opinion about it.

I ordered the Pro version of a Frey EX with dual battery,RS Lyrik 180mm. front fork and a few spare parts & accesories (Copy / paste Alibaba order: " dropper seat post, gear sensor, F/R fenders,rear rack, F/R lights, one usb cable, two extra deraiileur hangers,one extra 11 speed chain, one extra 48V 3A charger;add 3 derailleur hangers. one set of spare bearing set. ").

To the point:

I guess we all have been reading about how heavy the bike is. Man! It's even heavier than I expected, way heavier. Again way way heavier. (main downside as I see it) I haven't weighted it yet. I´ll tell you when I got the number.

There is also another thing, It´s huge!.

Make sure you think about this. It´s quite a big work to put it in a car (in case you have one that fits inside.) for one person,

Quality? Yes, It feels well made (later we´ll talk about how well the bike was put together) wheels, shift, batteries, handlebar...everything is from decent to good but the cranks.

Motor. It is powerful, I have to admit that reading so much about it made my espectations pretty high and honestly thought it´d be a little more "punchy". Don´t misunderstand me, It´s nice and powerful, I just thought I´d be a little more crispy. I do have the hope that playing with the tunning of the motor gets it with better response. It´s lazy when it starts giving you assistance. It takes something between 1 or 2 long seconds to start pushing and that´s not a problem if you´re riding easy paths, but makes you to put foot on the ground on technical rough terrains if you have not made your homework with the shifting on time.
I hope and also read that fine tunning the motor makes a big difference compared to stock configuration. Lets see how it goes when I catch a break.

All right, all right, how does it behave?

Let me tell you, I put the bike together as fast as I could on friday august 15th, I started around 12am (After killer long weeks of work, I was already exhausted before I started), and tried to go "slow" and methodical: I took off the brakes, axles... and checked all the main "security" related things, just in case. At around 1,30 am the bike was put together and checked that batteries were around 60 % charge, so I went out in the night for around 30 min to give a little soft, easy and calm ride check. Everything was fine but there was still all the front and rear shock settings to be made, set the saddle position, etc. It looks good!

With another hour on sunday I properly set up the bike to fit my weight, and size. (Now it feels really good and promising. I gotta admit, First ride on late friday and exhausted mood i really had doubts about the bike.

Again, to the point.

[My perspective: I was used to ride all mountain with a nice set up hardtail regular bike and also a hard tail electric old bike. This is first time for me with full suspension, dropper, etc.]

It´s amazing where this bike can carry you no matter how rough and technical the track becomes. Also, I went down for a few places that really thought I couldn´t. My area is huge fun for MTB, It´s steepy, with lots of rocks, roots, mainly dry terrain but there is some mud and some wet paths around as well. And there are tons of people enjoying their MTB on weekends around the area. Many of them come from even 30-50 kms regularly to ride around.

Strava has spoiled me with some medals (not that I care even a bit ) in some segments the 3 times I took the Frey out. That is expectable i Know... this frey Bike has got a huge motor in it.... wait those segments are descents as well, downhill descents. So i guess it could be a reference that you could go nice and "fast" if you want and know how to.

What I mean is the bike is able to go uphill well, solidly and with lots of fun, and also downhill... yes It´stime for the BUT. It DOES can take you and make you have lots of fun on rough terrain, yes It definitely does but you really need to know what you´re doing because of its weight. I felt a bit tired on top body parts. Hands, arms, shoulders, neck and back. It requires you to physically work very very hard to keep the right line of the path. It´s like a train, It goes forward no matter what. (Which in many cases will be a help, but will not on others). Lets tell all the truth, I´ve got more weight than ever and out of shape than a few years ago.

The bike performs well, is´t well balanced (One of my biggest fears) and runs nice and smooth. The motor response NEEDS very much fine tunning and better programming than stock and really hope to get it well enough some time soon. At this time my guess is that It won´t run as smooth and natural than others, Shimano, Bosch, brose, etc. But that is something we have read about as well, have we not?

What I don´t like about the bike itself:

-WEIGHT
-Wirings, those wirings are not well thought. It´s just a bunch of cables, thick thing hanging out of the handle bar the quickest possible way the could make.
-Original set up. My bike required to properly adjust rear derailleur (It wasn't even close to be properly adjusted) the front brake tube is twisted and some spokes required adjustment as well. The rear derailleur hose on the gear sensor is just there, there is not "hose ending caps" (Don´t know the name of that in English) I mean poor details on that kind of things.
-Imprecise Motor response.
-Bafang cranks. They're ugly and senseless long. I hit rocks with pedals about 15 times in 85 km I believe the bike has already on the odometer, and most of them has not been pedaling. I plan to throw 155mm Mirandas on it, or something like that.
When dual battery, each battery has got its own different key (And also one is bigger than the other. It would have been nice to be able to use the same key for both)

What I could improve to suit ME better (Personal):

-Handlebar Position.

I put the handle bar highest position spacers let me. I´d like to have it even taller. Probably a handlebar with more rising would fit me better.

Also I believe It would feel better to have it a little further away from me, I might need to change the stem as well.

-Platform pedals.
The welgo pedals are decent but could give us more grip for enduro riding. I will probably change them for another ones with bigger platform and more gripy. For regular riding I use clipless pedals. but for enduro fun the welgo pedals... I mean, of course you could use them they´re decent, but not best choice.

-Brakes. I´ve been always obsessed about brakes. I want them to be crispy, powerfull and solid working. well, I don´t feel them stronger than my single piston Shimano XT with 203mm rotors. I thought they would be a little better but they work fine. The total weight is much higher to be fair. I will check brakes, bleed them, probably change lines.
B plan is to throw 220mm Galfer front rotor and e-bike galfer mt5/7 brake pads for both brakes.

Do I like the bike? Yes, a lot.

Would I buy it Again? Probably but not 100% sure. I've just told you a like it a lot. I wonder How much a price equivalent bike on a local shop I would like. I would probably miss the 28 Amp battery combo, and the 1500w torquy motor, yes, but It would weight from 10 to 15 less kg.

One thing I love about MTB is "playing" with the bike. I like to bunny hop roots and rocks. I love to jump over things. I love to get on top of big tricky rocks. I like to stand still for just a few seconds before going down and love to get the bike in the line I want, and bumping rear wheel to set the right line. I enjoy playing the bike as a proto "everything to still learn trial attempting beginner" rider before facing downhill sections. This weight makes that almost imposible. I guess will miss that. I just hope that when I get used to the bike I could be doing some of that kind of things again but honestly think i could not.

Range? Have no idea yet. I guess depending of assistance, type of use, terrain etc It should be easy to get 60-90 km of range out of it with dual batteries.

I do like the bike, for me it´s still a bit too soon to have a proper opinion about it but looks good and promising as long as the buyer understand is a chinese HEAVY enduro e-bike. I´m talking about enduro, rocks, bumps and jumps because I see this bike in no other atmosphere. Could you use it to commute or go to get some groceries? Of course, and quickly enough but definitely is overkilling. The Frey CC should suit way better for that.

The saddle is comphy (Again, Enduro perspective)

On flat roads
Its easy to go up to 35-40km/h using just throttle in Sport 5. (No sense for my kind of riding, but tested it)
It´s doable to go up to 52-55km/h pedaling for almost any person I guess.
Making an effort you could go up to 60/63 km/h.
further than that requires a big effort. I´ve seen 68. and 76 going down.

Again, I need to use it a bit more to know it better.

Charger looks cheap but does its work. It´s easy to plug.

It´s a bike that will bring tons of fun, I believe it´s a good buy, but there are shadows as well, one of them a big one actually.

I regret ordering:

Gear Sensor If you just soft touch any break lever makes the same thing and wirings would look much nicer without it. I probably take it off and only leave connected front brake to the brake sensor. Rear could be useful even with the motor working.
The gear sensor saves a bit the transmition for those friends of your when you let them try it. For your personal use It´s total waste in my opinion.

Mud fenders. Since I order a rear rack the rear mud fender is a huge aluminium thing. I wanted a little one. Probably my mistake.

Probably It´s easy to find a more powerful front light but it´s nice to light them up from the control.

I will change display and control buttons for something smaller sometime.

If I knew there was a dual battery connector cover I would have ordered it on time. And honestly I think It should be included in the dual battery option. I Ordered it the day before I received the bike...


Sorry for such a long post.

Hope this is useful for someone.

Have fun and enjoy your toys!!

PD: Terrible pictures, but the only ones I have. I took those when putting it together to send them to a few friends like, Hey man! look what finally got home!!
Click to expand...


Great review. Thank you. Makes me glad I went for the AM 1000 however. The weight. I would rather just have a second battery for the few times I need that much range. I'm not a fan of integrated batteries. I don't care for the look of the huge extruded tube.
 
Hello again,

As soon as i get 30 min free i will update my thoughts about the EX.
I have riden the EX for about
160km now and I'm very pleased with the bike after all and definitely i dont think its anything better out there for the price.

It's amazing how it can go up to the rocks!!
I needed some time to get used to it.

Strava again spoiled me with a couple of medals and 3 DH section records. I know this doesnt mean really anything but, hey those segments were DH, so I guess that we can assure the EX is not that slow going down, even with not a lot of a qualified rider on it!
 

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Last edited:
If only there was a cost effective way to get the Innotrace controller direct from Frey on this bike.
 
D.Unwin said:
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the video review on Electrek... here is the link to the article and final specs.

electrek.co

FREY EX Pro review: A 1.5 kW full-suspension electric mountain bike on steroids

There are two things that FREY doesn’t mess around with: quality and power. The Jinhua, China-based electric bicycle manufacturer lays...
electrek.co electrek.co

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1275386973448998912

FREY EX Pro eMTB tech specs:
  • Motor: 1 kW continuous, 1.5 kW peak-rated Bafang Ultra mid-drive motor
  • Torque: 160 Nm
  • Top speed (tested): 59 km/h (36 mph)
  • Battery: Dual 48V 14Ah packs (1,344 Wh total)
  • Range: Varies considerably by ride style/terrain, but 30-100 km (20-60 miles) is the ballpark
  • Frame: 6061 aluminum
  • Front suspension: Rochshox Lyrik RC Boost 110*15mm, 180mm travel
  • Rear Suspension: RockShox Deluxe 205x65mm, 160 mm travel
  • Transmission: Shimano Deore XT M8000
  • Brakes: Magura MT5-e hydraulic disc brakes with 203 mm rotors
  • Extras: 3 frame sizes (M, L, XL), color LCD display, side stand, Maxxis 27.5*2.8″ REKON+ TLR tires
 
I could see having two batteries on a tour bike but not on a emtb/all-around bike. Better to have a second battery but not on the bike. JMO

Weight is the 'fly in the ointment' with ebikes. I'm leery of carbon frames but I will probably get over it. I also look forward to a possible day when they can cut the weight of motors substantially. It would be nice to have an ebike that was no problem to ride without power.
 
So after 11wks and 6 days i received an email this morning saying 'your order has began to produce and the frame is being assembled and adjusted'

i have asked for the rear brake to be controlled by the left lever, not sure why its on the right?

only another 6 months to go JOKE
 
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