First Ride: The Amflow PX Carbon Pro – Too Powerful for the Trails?

I spent a lot of time on the Amflow PL Carbon Pro, and it was a pretty important bike in the grand scheme of things. It brought a new era of power to the masses, but it wasn’t without criticism from every corner of the industry. Those who love eMTBs even had things to say about the platform and what it means for the sport, myself included. And with the new motors from Avinox, things are only getting more foggy. So how does Amflow’s second attempt stack up? Well, it’s impressive, but there’s also a certain feeling about this bike that’s puzzling.

Underneath the power and weight on offer from the Avinox M2S motor and new battery, the bike felt like just that: a bike. I rode it primarily in a super detuned assist mode and didn’t hate pedaling it without any assist (crazy, I know). So when the new crop of Avinox motors started dropping, and Amflow put the M2S inside the new PX Carbon, I was curious to see if the soul of what makes an eMTB still feel somewhat like a mountain bike remained. After only a couple of rides on the new PX Carbon Pro, I’m left with some things to ponder, and a whole lot more to discover and reflect on. 

This is my first impression and feelings on the PX Carbon Pro; for all the details on the new bikes from Amflow, head over to this article.

Initial Thoughts

Maybe I’m getting older and turning back into one of those “eMTBs aren’t all that they’re made up to be” type of riders, but the Amflow PX Carbon seemed to be lacking a bit of the sparkle that the PL Carbon had. At least that was my thinking at the beginning of testing, and all it took was a little tinkering to get the bike feeling less like an eMTB and more like a MeMTB. Despite the bike feeling pretty good, there’s still something about it that feels a little strange, and I wish I could put my finger on it.

Looking past the mystery, the PX Carbon Pro is definitely a really great offering on paper. For USD $10,199, you get a build kit that makes sense. Magura Gustav brakes, Fox Factory Suspension (36 & Float X), and Amflow carbon wheels with Schwalbe Radial tires. I would love to see more eMTBs come with a 38 or Zeb as standard, because I just know there’s going to be another creaky CSU in this bike’s future.

The most noticeable change in the new PX Carbon is the increased geo adjustability. While the PL Carbon had one flip-chip for wheel-size changes, the PX now has 4 chainstay positions thanks to two sets of chips. There’s also a chip in the yoke, and a pair of headset cups to fine-tune the headtube angle. It seems that Amflow has been paying attention to what the majority of the industry is doing and is now offering more adjustment for the better.

Necessary Changes

Out of the box, I made a few tweaks to the bike because the trend toward a short stack and not enough dropper seems to carry over from the PL Carbon. I swapped to some 50mm-rise OneUp Components Carbon bars, cut to 760mm, and a 240mm OneUp Components dropper. Other than that, the bike is very well specced, and I immediately noticed that Amflow decided to go with Gravity casing tires for this build – something that every eMTB should get.

View the 2 images of this gallery on the
original article

A few weird aspects of the unboxing were the omission of tubeless valves and the inclusion of Schwalbe Clik valve cores. Seems like a weird decision, but thankfully I have valves-a-plenty. The PX Pro also comes with a headlight installed out of the box, which is strange to me, but removing it was easy and does require pulling the screen out of the top tube. I also pulled the steering block out of the headset assembly. Not sure why they have that since the fork clears the frame as do the bars.

View the 2 images of this gallery on the
original article

On the bars, the Magura Gustav Pro levers have some interesting posts for shifter and dropper lever mounting, both of which developed some rattle early on that keeps coming back. Thankfully, Amflow includes more traditional mounts in the accessory box.

View the 2 images of this gallery on the
original article

Early Ride Impressions

I have ridden the bike at both chainstay-length extremes, and with the pre-installed chip in the chainstays, the length is 438mm; flipping the chip pushes that number to 451mm. While the 451mm chainstays are very stable-feeling, they do make the bike much more planted and precise in corners, which is nice if you’re going for all-out speed. I like to play around a little more, and found that the 438mm chainstays make the bike feel a little more alive if you like to hop around.

I have yet to mess with the headset positions and the flip-chip in the shock yoke, but it’s nice to see all the options available now, even if there is a massive number of configuration options, and I will certainly be exploring them in continued testing, and thankfully, they are pretty straightforward to change and understand with the info included in the PX Maintenance Manual.

After a bit of tinkering to get the large frame to fit my 6’2” body, I set the tire and suspension pressures, and the bike really started to feel more soulful. I ended up going back and forth with the pressures on the Schwalbe radial tires and dropping pressure in the fork and shock – it’s always surprising how a few PSI here and there can drastically change the way a bike handles. Overall, the PX feels quite similar to the PL, but the few geo changes and mullet wheel configuration really make the bike feel a bit more refined, and it’s clear how much Amflow has learned from their first swing at a bike.

Motor, Battery, and Charging

I don’t have a ton of time on the PX Pro, but over the course of my few rides and just under 80 miles on varied terrain, I’ve got a hint at what the bike is all about aside from just the 150nm of torque and 1500 peak watts that the M2S is able to unleash. Climbing is obviously impressive; descending is what you might expect from a 160/150mm trail bike, and the overall UI in the app and on the display is dialed.

The obvious talking point with the Amflow PX Pro is the M2S motor, and it’s damn powerful, especially when you’re faced with steeper pitches – that’s when the power and torque really shine. It’s a personal shuttle system, and really smacks you in the mouth with the get-up-and-go that it puts out. Thankfully, you can still tune each assist mode, and as you might know, I went all the way down with the eco mode and left trail and turbo as-is. I usually turn the assist off or set it to Eco when descending because I don’t like any surprises on the way down.

Charging is also pretty dang quick for this new 700Wh battery, and at under 20% state of charge, the time to 100% is under 2 hours. I was also surprised at how much ride time I could get out of the smaller battery – with my first jaunt on the PX being 30+ miles, 4,600″ of elevation, and mostly in Trail mode with 18% state of charge upon my return home. In fact, I haven’t gone on a ride less than 25 miles and under 4,000″ of elevation on this bike and felt like I was nervous about running low on juice. Even with mixed use of Turbo and Trail modes throughout. Pretty, pretty cool.

In Summary

All things considered, the Amflow PX Carbon Pro is a hell of a bike, and even if there is a little something-something that I can’t quite put my finger on, the more I ride it, the more the bike is beginning to make sense – even if I can’t help but struggle with the guilt of riding an eMTB or the internal conflict that arise from all the power it puts out. 

I’m looking forward to spending more time on this bike, and I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to find the words to describe the feelings that this bike evokes – stay tuned for the long-term review.