My review of the 2020 Rize X

MaTar9000

Member
I have this bike since last week and have made a little bit more than 150 km on it so far, and I can tell you I really enjoy it! It's a pretty big bike, but it's perfectly fine for me since I'm 6'1" 180 lbs.

I live in Quebec City, Canada, and I've tested it in all possible winter weather throughout the week. We've had a big snow storm, rain that turns into ice, sunny days, cold weather and warm weather (around 3°C). So far, I am very pleased with the bike, it handled different kinds of weather pretty well. I've been running it on icy hills were cars got stuck and was able to run trough pretty easily. I went to piles of snow like they were nothing, it feels awesome! I tested it on fat bike trails in the wood as well with 7 other people that had regular fat bikes, they all tried it and now all want to buy one ;) The smallest person to rode it is 5'5" 140lbs and it was still ok, although I would not recommend this bike to someone smaller, probably at about 5.7 it would start to be a better fit.

The bike was shipped in a great package and no noticeable damage was apparent on it. The only problem I had was that the front light didn't light up much (almost nothing), I sent them picture of it not working well and one week later, I received another front light that works perfectly fine. It's not that strong, but good enough so that car will be able to see me in the dark at least! It was pretty easy to assemble, it took me and my father about 1 hour to get everything together without any problems. Here we can see the bad light and the good one.

47277 47278

The motor works great, after unlocking it I can go to about 40-45 km/h with the throttle and up to 50 km/h with the pedal assist. First long ride I did was about 50 km on one charge (was about 3°C outside) and then when I recharged the battery indicator was flashing, so I bet I didn't have much left in the battery. I don't know at what % it starts to flash. The are 5 bars on the indicator, so my estimation is that if each of the bar is worth around 20%, maybe that the system starts flashing when it's at 10% or so of the battery charge remaining. My tires were about 15 PSI since there was not to much snow.

Today I ran 35 km on a fully charged battery before it started to flash, but it was around -6°C outside. Can't tell if the outside temperature have a big impact on the charge, but it appears to have had influenced it because I ran on the same roads in the same small hills. I dropped the tire pressure to about 10 PSI as well since it was icier, which might explain why I didn't run as much dinstance since there was more friction.

On both rides, I was almost always at maximum speed and at PAS 9, not really using throttle. I really like the use of the throttle to start the bike or go into big water puddle (it prevents my feet from getting wet since they stay higher), but that's about it. I prefer to pedal like a bike the rest of the time. The torque pedal assist works great, although the is a small delay of a fraction of second before it kicks in. I've adjusted the sensibility to the max, but there is still a small delay. It's not enough to annoy me and I still love the feeling. I can't comment or compare it to cadence sensing since I never rode a bike with it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this bike is not a mid drive motor, so even with the 750 Watt of power, when you'll go up hill, the speed of the bike will diminish by a lot. It still gets the job done, but if you live in an area with a lot of hills that might be something to consider. For the flat surfaces it goes up to 45 km/h pretty easily though (if there is not front wind). If you want to carry trailers or a lot of stuff on your bike, you might want to consider a Bafang Ultra mid drive motor to provide more torque and power.

Also, when I'm on the 9th gear of the shifter, it tends to jump sometimes if I put a lot of torque, I bet I could adjust it a little not to do that, but I just stay on the 8th gear instead and the problem is resolved. If you want to pedal it without the motor assistance, it's feasible but quite exhausting since the bike is heavy and there is more friction with the fat low pressure tires. I have yet to try it with higher pressure tires for the pedaling without assistance and the battery capacity.

Another point to consider is that the battery is a 48V one and not a 52V battery, so you can really feel that the power of the motor is not as strong when the battery gets lower and lower. It still works fine, but you'll be able to notice the difference between a full battery and a low battery, mostly if you are in a hill. On a flat surface it's not as apparent.

I was able to carry this bike on a normal bike rack on my car that's ok for 140 lbs, this one is 70 lbs with the battery, so without the battery the bike rack would probably be ok for 2 of those. We had to be 2 people to make it fit though since it is pretty heavy.

I did not figure out yet how to use the cruse control and thus cannot comment on it, but I don't plan on using it either anyways.

The breaks and suspension work fine even in cold weather so far, so nothing to complain there either. The water bottle holder is pretty small and really close to the upper bar of the frame, so the only thing it could fit would probably be a really small water bottle or maybe a cup or coffee or a glass. The lights, rack, bell, shifter, computer, mirrors and seat post suspension all work well and as intended. Thus, I really recommend this bike to anyone like me who want a torque pedal assist for around the same price as the other fat ebike that only offer cadence sensing.

I'll let you know if I spot anything else or if things change in the months to come, but the bike looks sturdy enough so I have good hope I'll still be happy with it for a long time.

All in all, I really recommend this bike and this company since I've had a great experience and nice costumer service!
 
I have this bike since last week and have made a little bit more than 150 km on it so far, and I can tell you I really enjoy it! It's a pretty big bike, but it's perfectly fine for me since I'm 6'1" 180 lbs.

I live in Quebec City, Canada, and I've tested it in all possible winter weather throughout the week. We've had a big snow storm, rain that turns into ice, sunny days, cold weather and warm weather (around 3°C). So far, I am very pleased with the bike, it handled different kinds of weather pretty well. I've been running it on icy hills were cars got stuck and was able to run trough pretty easily. I went to piles of snow like they were nothing, it feels awesome! I tested it on fat bike trails in the wood as well with 7 other people that had regular fat bikes, they all tried it and now all want to buy one ;) The smallest person to rode it is 5'5" 140lbs and it was still ok, although I would not recommend this bike to someone smaller, probably at about 5.7 it would start to be a better fit.

The bike was shipped in a great package and no noticeable damage was apparent on it. The only problem I had was that the front light didn't light up much (almost nothing), I sent them picture of it not working well and one week later, I received another front light that works perfectly fine. It's not that strong, but good enough so that car will be able to see me in the dark at least! It was pretty easy to assemble, it took me and my father about 1 hour to get everything together without any problems. Here we can see the bad light and the good one.

View attachment 47277 View attachment 47278

The motor works great, after unlocking it I can go to about 40-45 km/h with the throttle and up to 50 km/h with the pedal assist. First long ride I did was about 50 km on one charge (was about 3°C outside) and then when I recharged the battery indicator was flashing, so I bet I didn't have much left in the battery. I don't know at what % it starts to flash. The are 5 bars on the indicator, so my estimation is that if each of the bar is worth around 20%, maybe that the system starts flashing when it's at 10% or so of the battery charge remaining. My tires were about 15 PSI since there was not to much snow.

Today I ran 35 km on a fully charged battery before it started to flash, but it was around -6°C outside. Can't tell if the outside temperature have a big impact on the charge, but it appears to have had influenced it because I ran on the same roads in the same small hills. I dropped the tire pressure to about 10 PSI as well since it was icier, which might explain why I didn't run as much dinstance since there was more friction.

On both rides, I was almost always at maximum speed and at PAS 9, not really using throttle. I really like the use of the throttle to start the bike or go into big water puddle (it prevents my feet from getting wet since they stay higher), but that's about it. I prefer to pedal like a bike the rest of the time. The torque pedal assist works great, although the is a small delay of a fraction of second before it kicks in. I've adjusted the sensibility to the max, but there is still a small delay. It's not enough to annoy me and I still love the feeling. I can't comment or compare it to cadence sensing since I never rode a bike with it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this bike is not a mid drive motor, so even with the 750 Watt of power, when you'll go up hill, the speed of the bike will diminish by a lot. It still gets the job done, but if you live in an area with a lot of hills that might be something to consider. For the flat surfaces it goes up to 45 km/h pretty easily though (if there is not front wind). If you want to carry trailers or a lot of stuff on your bike, you might want to consider a Bafang Ultra mid drive motor to provide more torque and power.

Also, when I'm on the 9th gear of the shifter, it tends to jump sometimes if I put a lot of torque, I bet I could adjust it a little not to do that, but I just stay on the 8th gear instead and the problem is resolved. If you want to pedal it without the motor assistance, it's feasible but quite exhausting since the bike is heavy and there is more friction with the fat low pressure tires. I have yet to try it with higher pressure tires for the pedaling without assistance and the battery capacity.

Another point to consider is that the battery is a 48V one and not a 52V battery, so you can really feel that the power of the motor is not as strong when the battery gets lower and lower. It still works fine, but you'll be able to notice the difference between a full battery and a low battery, mostly if you are in a hill. On a flat surface it's not as apparent.

I was able to carry this bike on a normal bike rack on my car that's ok for 140 lbs, this one is 70 lbs with the battery, so without the battery the bike rack would probably be ok for 2 of those. We had to be 2 people to make it fit though since it is pretty heavy.

I did not figure out yet how to use the cruse control and thus cannot comment on it, but I don't plan on using it either anyways.

The breaks and suspension work fine even in cold weather so far, so nothing to complain there either. The water bottle holder is pretty small and really close to the upper bar of the frame, so the only thing it could fit would probably be a really small water bottle or maybe a cup or coffee or a glass. The lights, rack, bell, shifter, computer, mirrors and seat post suspension all work well and as intended. Thus, I really recommend this bike to anyone like me who want a torque pedal assist for around the same price as the other fat ebike that only offer cadence sensing.

I'll let you know if I spot anything else or if things change in the months to come, but the bike looks sturdy enough so I have good hope I'll still be happy with it for a long time.

All in all, I really recommend this bike and this company since I've had a great experience and nice costumer service!
Thank you for your thorough review. I am just under 5'8" and was concerned re the size of the bike, but based on your comments on friends who also tried the bike it appears that it may not be too big for me. Just wondering if the headlamp is not too efficient, is it an easy job to change it out for a more powerful and effective headlamp? I would imagine that if you had the tires pumped to maximum pressure and ran the bike in warmer weather that it would greatly improve the mileage that you would achieve on a full charge.

I would appreciate more of your thoughts as you use the bike more.

Thanks.
 
Normally sales are not offered at this time of the year because it is approaching their peak season. However, with the economy going into the toilet right now one never knows how the ebike industry is going to be affected until it happens. At least that's my view
 
Does the company offer any sales to lower the prices?
Like most e-bike companies, I assume that their big sales will be starting around Black Friday. That's what they did last year when they were Spark, and they held those prices for a couple of months.

They were also in the process of rebranding, so maybe the deals were extra good. :)
 
Thank you for your thorough review. I am just under 5'8" and was concerned re the size of the bike, but based on your comments on friends who also tried the bike it appears that it may not be too big for me. Just wondering if the headlamp is not too efficient, is it an easy job to change it out for a more powerful and effective headlamp?
I'm in the same boat. 5'8", but long torso/short legs.

Have you taken a look at the Rize Leisure? It's essentially the same as the X, but a few minor differences... bigger battery, smaller frame (27" standover instead of 29"), and more relaxed handlebars.

It's on my shortlist this, unless I save the money for something fancier.
 
I live in Quebec City, Canada, and I've tested it in all possible winter weather throughout the week. We've had a big snow storm, rain that turns into ice, sunny days, cold weather and warm weather (around 3°C).

Today I ran 35 km on a fully charged battery before it started to flash, but it was around -6°C outside.
I'm in Toronto, so I was curious about winter performance as well, though this has been a mild winter! :)

The outdoor temp can have a big impact on battery performance, as you've noticed. There's some variation, but generally the optimal ambient temp range is 10°C to 35°C (ish).

What you got from the -6°C ride sounds about right.

I have my battery wrapped in a neoprene/USB blanket when I'm out riding, and it does make a difference on battery life. When riding in 0°C weather, the homemade cover took care of over 80% of the energy loss due to cold temperatures compared to the "naked" battery.

The wrap may look goofy, but given that cold weather can also lessen the number of useful charge cycles of lithium batteries, it's worth the effort, if you're going to ride in the winter a lot, especially if it's for more than 30 min, when the cold really gets a chance to "sink in".

There's a MASSIVE "winter e-biking" thread with a lot of handy info, though with St. Patrick's Day around the corner, it might not be relevant for a while. :)

 
I'm in the same boat. 5'8", but long torso/short legs.

Have you taken a look at the Rize Leisure? It's essentially the same as the X, but a few minor differences... bigger battery, smaller frame (27" standover instead of 29"), and more relaxed handlebars.

It's on my shortlist this, unless I save the money for something fancier.
I have looked at the Leisure, but it only comes with A 500watt motor. If it came with a 750watt motor like the US version I would go for it
 
I have looked at the Leisure, but it only comes with A 500watt motor. If it came with a 750watt motor like the US version I would go for it
Ah, okay. Didn't realize the US version was 750W.

To be fair, I think with an unlock code (usually it's "1919" on that display) the real world difference between the two would be minimal. :)
 
Thank you for your thorough review. I am just under 5'8" and was concerned re the size of the bike, but based on your comments on friends who also tried the bike it appears that it may not be too big for me. Just wondering if the headlamp is not too efficient, is it an easy job to change it out for a more powerful and effective headlamp? I would imagine that if you had the tires pumped to maximum pressure and ran the bike in warmer weather that it would greatly improve the mileage that you would achieve on a full charge.

I would appreciate more of your thoughts as you use the bike more.

Thanks.


Yes I think changing the head lamp would be pretty easy, you just have to unplug it, takes about 2 minutes ! I'll keep on posting here the more I use the bike to let you know :)
 
Does the company offer any sales to lower the prices?

I would be surprise they do so now, they just received the bikes and start shipping them out to people, even with the new Covid situation, I doubt there will be any discount soon, not before spring, you might have some if you wait till autumn.
 
I'm in the same boat. 5'8", but long torso/short legs.

Have you taken a look at the Rize Leisure? It's essentially the same as the X, but a few minor differences... bigger battery, smaller frame (27" standover instead of 29"), and more relaxed handlebars.

It's on my shortlist this, unless I save the money for something fancier.

Regarding the leisure, I was thinking of it as well, but it is only 500 watt motor for the same price.

I'm in Toronto, so I was curious about winter performance as well, though this has been a mild winter! :)

The outdoor temp can have a big impact on battery performance, as you've noticed. There's some variation, but generally the optimal ambient temp range is 10°C to 35°C (ish).

What you got from the -6°C ride sounds about right.

I have my battery wrapped in a neoprene/USB blanket when I'm out riding, and it does make a difference on battery life. When riding in 0°C weather, the homemade cover took care of over 80% of the energy loss due to cold temperatures compared to the "naked" battery.

The wrap may look goofy, but given that cold weather can also lessen the number of useful charge cycles of lithium batteries, it's worth the effort, if you're going to ride in the winter a lot, especially if it's for more than 30 min, when the cold really gets a chance to "sink in".

There's a MASSIVE "winter e-biking" thread with a lot of handy info, though with St. Patrick's Day around the corner, it might not be relevant for a while. :)


Nice, thanks for the tip, I'll try doing that as well see what it does! do you have the link to this massive winter e-biking thread? I'd be really interested in reading it!
 
Smaller battery Ah on the Leisure model as well.
Oh, that's weird. Here in Canada, there's two versions of the Leisure - a less expensive 16ah/cadence sensor model, and a higher priced 20ah/torque sensor model.

The 20ah/torque model is priced the same as the Rize X.
 
Nice, thanks for the tip, I'll try doing that as well see what it does! do you have the link to this massive winter e-biking thread? I'd be really interested in reading it!

I can see the link in my above reply, but if you can't, try searching the General forum for "Winter e-biking advices".
 
Just wondering how many watts the controller is for the Rize X?

Is there a way for me to check it out directly on the cpu of the bike? I could do that if you tell me how to! If not we can ask Rize Bikes directly, they are pretty good on answering fast according to what I've experienced.
 
Thank you for your thorough review. I am just under 5'8" and was concerned re the size of the bike, but based on your comments on friends who also tried the bike it appears that it may not be too big for me. Just wondering if the headlamp is not too efficient, is it an easy job to change it out for a more powerful and effective headlamp? I would imagine that if you had the tires pumped to maximum pressure and ran the bike in warmer weather that it would greatly improve the mileage that you would achieve on a full charge.

I would appreciate more of your thoughts as you use the bike more.

Thanks.

I kept on using the bike and it still works really well! I've done more than 600km on it now, and everything still feels new. I've only had 1 problem with the bike so far, at some point I was unable to take out the battery. I wrote to Rize Bikes and they came back to me within few days with a video on how to take out the battery when it is stock. It took me about 5 minutes and everything is now back to normal, so really great consumer service there.

Here's one of the destination I went with it, I was able to take a picture with my crappy camera on my smartphone, sorry for the terrible quality :)

chateau.jpg


Regarding the autonomy of the bike, I've been riding it for short and long distances in different weather conditions, with different PSI pressure for the tires and with different intensity. Lately, it's been around 5°C here in Quebec and I've been riding it with 20 PSI tires. If I run it at full capacity at a constant 45-50 km/h, I would say I have about 30 km autonomy on the battery. If I run it mid capacity at 30 km/h, I can go a good for a good 50 km on one charge. I didn't try it yet at low capacity until the battery completely runs out, but I did a ride at low capacity at 15-25 km/h, with some pedalling were I was putting more effort, and after 40 km I barely lost just 1 bar out of 5 on the battery, so I bet I could've gone like that for a good 100 km, maybe more.

As I said earlier in the tread, I ran the bike at full capacity (45-50 km/h) with tires inflated at 4 PSI at -5°C and the battery was good for a 20-25 km, so I see that in warmer temperature with more inflated tires I have more autonomy. But, after these test, I realize that the most impacting factor on the autonomy is really the speed at which you want to commute. The faster you go, the more energy it consumes and the faster the battery gets depleted.

I really like to be fast in my commute, so for that reason I've ordered a new battery. I'll be able to do 40 km round trip at maximum power, that will be great and almost as fast as a car! With this Covid thing and the movement restrictions all over the place, I bet that the planes and the frontiers won't be open yet this summer, so I've plan an ebike trip around Quebec province here with my girlfriend and I'll probably order a third battery to be able to do 100-150 km per day at medium to high speed :)

As I mentioned before, the bike looses power as the battery gets depleted. When it is full and I'm on a flat surface, it's easy to hit the 50 km/h mark without much effort and I'm 6'1" 185 pounds, so it's a pretty powerfull bike for that price! When there's 20% power left on the battery, for the same amount of effort, I would run about 40-45 km/h.

The torque sensing feels great as well, never tried a cadence sensor so I can't compare it, but at level 9 you really have that feeling to have more assist the higher you put the gear in, it's really nice. The lower you go into the assists level, it feels more like if the bike takes you to, let's say, 15 km/h for assist level 2, no matter the torque you put in. For that reason I'm almost always on assist level 9 :)

There's a slight delay of maybe 1 second between when you apply the torque and when the motor gives the power to you, so I bet that higher end bikes with mid drives and cadense sensing combined may react faster than that and give a more natural bicycling feeling, but I'm all good with that, doesn't change much of the fun for me! I even find it convenient when I don't move since even if the pedal move a little or there is torque apply to them in some way, the bike will stay still, which is good. For that reason, for all of my starts, I always use the throttle for the initial boost and it responds almost instantaneously, love those starts!

All in all again, the bike is awesome, the quality of the components seems to be there since I ran it pretty hard for more than 600 km and didn't encounter any big problem yet. People at Rize Bikes are also really responsive and helpful when it comes to consumer service, so I still highly recommend the Rize X!

*I'll keep on updating this thread as I ride more of the Rize X*
 
Thanks for the update on your experience with the Rize X. I pulled the trigger a week ago today. Bike arrived in two days and I have been venturing out each day getting used to the controls, size and handling. So far my experience has been very positive. When I assembled the bike I pretty well had no issues other than a couple of tightly fitting plastic parts that were attached to the front wheel axels. Removing them was like pulling teeth.

On the road the bike works flawlessly. Speed range is about the same as Martar9000's experience. I took it onto some back trails yesterday for a 12km trip and the bike took me up a steep hill effortlessly. I notice the odd unusual noise once in a while when I'm going slow. I think it is just the motor at low speed, but I don't think it is an issue. I'm posting a couple of pictures of the bike. One at the top of the ridge from yesterdays ride and the other in front of the garage after assembly on Wednesday of last week.
 

Attachments

  • 20200405_134612#1.jpg
    20200405_134612#1.jpg
    730 KB · Views: 943
  • 20200401_154244.jpg
    20200401_154244.jpg
    651.6 KB · Views: 950
Thanks for the update on your experience with the Rize X. I pulled the trigger a week ago today. Bike arrived in two days and I have been venturing out each day getting used to the controls, size and handling. So far my experience has been very positive. When I assembled the bike I pretty well had no issues other than a couple of tightly fitting plastic parts that were attached to the front wheel axels. Removing them was like pulling teeth.

On the road the bike works flawlessly. Speed range is about the same as Martar9000's experience. I took it onto some back trails yesterday for a 12km trip and the bike took me up a steep hill effortlessly. I notice the odd unusual noise once in a while when I'm going slow. I think it is just the motor at low speed, but I don't think it is an issue. I'm posting a couple of pictures of the bike. One at the top of the ridge from yesterdays ride and the other in front of the garage after assembly on Wednesday of last week.

Nice bike you got there :) ! Glad that this thread was of some use for you!

I have the same noize with the motor when I'm going really slow, It sounds pretty normal to me, think it is the usual slow sound for this motor, so I just avoid going to slowly ;)
 
Back