I bought an AM100 a few weeks ago. Here's my review on Amazon:
I have put almost 200 miles on the bike and have many good things to say, but a couple major complaints. First, the good:
PROS:
1. Great range! With practice and battery management skills, I'm sure you can get over 70 miles on a full charge. My first effort at 52 miles ended with still 2/5 bars showing (see photo). My latest trip was 43 miles with 3/5 bars left.
2. Great value. At $1,399, this is a lot of bike for the money.
3. Battery recharges on downhill rides! This is really fun, especially for me, an electric vehicle nerd. I love the way my EV recharges when coasting or braking. Now my bike does it, too. It also allows you to add to your workout. If you pedal while going downhill, it increases the charge rate while increasing your heart rate!
4. The battery has a USB outlet. No more dead cellphones!
5. Relatively light. Most large e-bikes can weigh 70 or 80 pounds. This one is under 50 with the battery removed. This is important for my bike carrier which is rated to 50 lbs.
6. Operates with throttle or peddle-assist. The throttle is really nice for starting up from a stoplight. It takes a couple cranks to get the assist going without it, so getting going by throttle really helps.
7. This bike can go fast on the flat. It cruises very comfortably with normal pedaling effort at 25 mph.
8. Tools needed for assembly were included... but no assembly instructions...which leads me to the....
CONS:
1. No paperwork included with the shipment. No assembly instructions, user manual, safety warnings, etc. Is that even legal? If you have never assembled a bike before, you'll probably need some help or at least find a good youtube video. There is an online user manual on the eahora website for the electric operation, but it is not particularly well written and contains some errors.
2. Some adjustments need to be made to make this comfortable. Not all the tools needed for those adjustments are included, so you need a good set of bike tools, especially allen wrenches. The gear shift thumb lever, for example, interferes with the grips, so I had to move it a couple inches to the left on the handlebar.
3. The motor has a mind of its own. It surges sporadically, sometimes when you don't want it. For example, I was turning sharply at a slow speed in a confined space when the motor kicked in, almost sending me crashing into a wall. THIS IS A SAFETY ISSUE THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED. There are many adjustments that can be made on this bike, but the online instructions tell the user to contact customer support. I've done so. We'll see what they can do.
4. Because of the surging problem, this bike SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR MOUNTAIN TRAIL RIDING. MTB trails require careful control of speed, effort and direction. As this bike is sold to be used for trail riding, this is a major problem. If I had bought this bike for trail riding, I probably would have given it 1 star. I will use it primarily for pavement, gravel and dirt roads and flat trails.
5. The motor is not very powerful when going up hills. I am a pretty strong rider, so this is not a real issue with me, but it does take work getting up a hill. The power assist is certainly helpful, but underwhelming.
Would I buy this bike again, knowing what I know now? Probably not. But if customer service can correct the surge problem, I would change that to a yes.
August 1 UPDATE: Tech support was not very helpful. I sent them videos illustrating the problem but they said this is normal. So I decided to make some adjustments myself and was pleasantly surprised to find how easy the adjustments are. I was able to reduce but not eliminate the surging problem. I raised my rating to 4 stars, but if I could rate customer support separately, it would be 2 stars.
The adjustment I made was to change the default power levels from 3 to 5 levels and set the power levels to 45/60/75/85/98. The surging problem was most noticeable at lower speeds. The factory setting for Level 1 was 56, so lowering the power boost on that level to 45 has greatly helped.
As I posted earlier, my main complaint was the surging at low speeds, so I solved that by taking PAS1 all the way down to 40%. And by going to 5 modes, I have much better speed control over the available range. My sweet spot is also 75%, which for me is in PAS3.
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