Emerging as a low cost option in the ebike industry, Lectric ebikes have become increasingly popular on the road. The XP 2.0 is the newer model of the original Lectric eXPerience. Despite being the 2.0 model, this classic folding ebike styled bike has relatively low quality mechanical components. The bike uses mechanical disc brakes and has a relatively cheap derailleur. The XP 2.0 scored a 47 on our tower ebike score, making it a mediocre bike.
DISCLAIMER - Lectric and XP are trademarks of Lectric eBikes, and use of that trademark in this review does not indicate that the reviewer is claiming any interest in the mark or any affiliation with or sponsorship or endorsement by Lectric eBikes.
Lectric XP 2.0
Today, we're going to be reviewing and rating the Lectric XP Step-Thru 2.0 electric bike from the company Lectric. They’re a relatively new electric bike brand. They focus on folding e-Bikes with good fat tires. The bike has an attention-grabbing look to it as well. But let's get into the scoring on the bikes. The Lectric XP 2.0 scored a 47 out of a hundred on our Tower Electric Bikes score. We'll get into that in the second but that does rate the bike as a mediocre e-Bike.
Before we get into the score and the details of what the score encompasses, I just want to introduce myself. My name is Stephen. I am the CEO of Tower e-Bike Repair Shop here in San Diego. We see thousands of e-Bikes come into our shop every year and we work on hundreds of e-Bikes a week here at the shop.
What we're doing here is just giving our take and offering a little shopping guide by reviewing and rating a lot of the bikes that we see come into our store. We see incredible e-Bikes as well as e-Bikes that frequently come in for maintenance or the like. Thus, we want to give shoppers and riders in general one number that tells you everything about the specific bike or model. This way we can point them in the right direction.
Now, let's get back to the Tower e-Bike 100-point scale. The way we review and rate these bikes is to assess them on seven key attributes and in each of these attributes, the bike can score between 1-10, 10 being the best one being the lowest. Then, we normalize these seven scores to get to a hundred-point scale and we give you that number. It’s nice to have one solid central score that you can just compare and contrast to different e-Bikes.
The attributes we're looking at are as follows:
- Material quality
- Mechanical quality
- Low maintenance
- Hill-climbing ability
- Range
- Comfort
- Universality.
All of these encompass our Tower Score.
The second score that we're going to touch on is the Specialty Score, which omits the two attributes at the end; comfort and universality. The reason we omit these two is that there is a wide range of e-Bikes on the market. Meaning, some bikes weren’t made with comfort as the main goal and some bikes just won’t fit a certain type of rider. Also, looks are more important than actual comfort. And then for universality, there's going to be different sizes across the board for electric bikes.
Sometimes, e-Bike brands will even sell a larger frame bike, or perhaps a step-through model as in the case for this XP 2.0 that we're reviewing today. The Specialty Score speaks about specific things about the bike, whereas the Tower e-Bike Scores, the one that we pride ourselves on, encompasses everything.
Materials Quality - 4/10
Let's get into how it's scored on the quality of materials. Here, it scored a four. Materials are an often overlooked part of electric bikes. A lot of people find themselves getting obsessed with the battery capacity or the motor power on a bike. A lot of marketing tactics will be used in the electric bikes industry. They’ll probably state that they have 750-watt motors and all these other things. All this leads to consumers overlooking more important aspects such as the comfort of the seat, the longevity of pedals, and if the handlebars are even sturdy enough.
It does have some nice materials on it. However, it's not quite up there with higher-end bikes. The materials will deteriorate over time. You may find yourself having to replace the grips after a couple of seasons. That's why it scored a four on materials quality.
Lectric Bikes Mechanical Quality - 3/10
Then in mechanical quality, we're looking at the serviceability of the bike, as well as how well this is going to run in terms of just being a bike itself. Also, we check if it is using hydraulic brakes or mechanical brakes. We also check if it has a nice cassette to it or if the materials here are actually being used in the fundamentals of the bike.
In this category, the Lectric XP Step-Thru 2.0 model scored a three out of 10. And that's in large part due to it having lower-end bike components. It is also equipped with mechanical brakes. We tend to suggest that every electric bike comes with hydraulic brakes because mechanical brakes are going to constantly need tuning. You're going to really find yourself wanting to upgrade to hydraulic brakes. The fact that they would even put mechanical brakes on it is a little bit silly to us.
It's going to make you have to go to the repair shop and get your brakes constantly tuned, especially because e-Bikes travel way faster and also stop at a quicker rate. You're just going to wear down your brake pads really quick on an electric bike. Having hydraulic brakes on them and having one that is continually self-adjusting is going to save you a lot of trips to the repair shop and it’ll give you a nice, cleaner ride without tons of adjustment. That's one of the reasons that it scored pretty low here on our mechanical quality.
Lectric XP 2 Low Maintenance - 2/10
The next attribute we looked at is low maintenance. Again, this is due to the brakes. Hydraulic brakes will always be better than mechanical brakes. Also, it has relatively low-quality components like I was touching on before. We actually see this bike come into our repair shop quite often. Whether it be for tire repair or their chain needs fixing. You're going to have to bring this bike in for maintenance relatively often.
Lectric XP 2.0 Hill-climbing Ability - 7/10
The next score we're going to touch on is the hill-climbing ability score. This bike scores a seven out of 10 on the hill-climbing ability. We tested this against one of the hills close by our repair shop, and it actually did a pretty good job.
The bike is equipped with a 750-watt motor on its rear hub and it has nice grainy gears. This means that you can switch gears. Even if you are finding it tough to get up the hill on the throttle or with the pedal assist, you can switch into a lower gear and get up the hill. It did perform pretty well on our hill-climbing tests. We were surprised.
Lectric eBike Range - 2/10
For range, the bike scored a two. This is in large part due to the battery cell. They’re non-branded cells. It's something that's really overlooked in the electric bike market. You're really going to want to find a battery cell that is from either Samsung, LG, or Panasonic. If a company doesn't state what cells are inside of their battery packs, you may as well just assume they're selling you a bad battery. It's not going to last a long time. Also, it's going to need constant charging.
It's really an overlooked feature on electric bikes. A lot of companies compensate by marketing things other than the essentials. In this case, Lectric hasn’t given clarification about the subject. We tested the battery capacity here at our repair shop and it did not hold the charge very long. So, on range, it did get a two.
Lectric 2.0 Comfortability Score - 8/10
On comfort, the bike is decently comfortable. It scored an eight out of 10 on our comfort score. It has a nice feel to it and it’s awesome to ride. This has a good handlebar on it. It has the ability to go up and down. You can find the right comfort zone for riding it. It doesn't go back and forth as much but it is comfortable in how you're riding it. The pedals are a little bit pushed forward; giving you a nice, laid-back feel to it. There isn't too much strain on your back when you're riding. Also, the fat tires on the bike give you a nice and cushiony ride. If you do go over a bumper, a little roadblock, or anything, the cushion tires do offer some comfort there.
eBike’s Universality Score - 7/10
Let's go into the universality of the bike. On the universality score, the bike gets a seven out of 10. This is in large part due to it being able to fit a lot of different size riders. The seat post goes super high. Even if you're a really tall person, you aren't going to look funny or silly on this bike. And, as mentioned before, the handlebars are highly adjustable, as well as being a step-through model.
It's super easy to get on and off this bike. Step-through models are our preferred electric bike style, and it fits a lot of different riders. On universality, the bike scores seven out of 10.
Lectric Low Proprietary Risk Score - 1/10
Finally, we're going to go into the low proprietary risk score. This is an important area to touch on. Because there are a lot of e-Bike brands, this means that there are thousands of e-Bike parts in the world. However, the scary truth is that about 95% of e-Bike businesses are going to go out of business soon. The market simply cannot carry too many brands in one niche.
A lot of these companies are spending a lot of money on marketing and ads but they're eventually just going to die out. They don't have a diversified company and they won’t be able to withstand turbulence within the market.
The low proprietary risk score is just a score we like to offer to shoppers. The score is meant to give you an idea if the company you’ll be buying from will still be present further down the line and if you're going to be able to get parts; which is a massive touching point. Ask yourself, are you going to be able to find parts for this bike in the future? We see customers coming into our Tower e-Bike Repair Shop all the time bringing in their electric bikes. We hear them complain about dead batteries and other parts on their e-Bikes.
Unfortunately, we can't help them because the battery of their e-Bike is proprietary. They need to get a replacement from the brand that they purchased from. This means that if that brand is no longer in business, they are now stuck with a bike that can't be serviced. The customers can't get a new battery and they have already spent a lot of money on their bikes. Sadly, now they can't use it.
Unfortunately, on the low proprietary risk, the Lectric XP 2.0 scored a one. This is in large part due to the battery pack within the Lectric XP 2.0. It's within the mainframe of the bike. It’s not recommended to replace it with any random battery.
Also, there's no standard LCD screen or anything like it that's going to fit on this bike as well. If you need a repair part, you're going to have to go through Lectric. It's something definitely worth considering when looking at bikes.
eBike’s Overall Tower Score (47) and Specialty Score (36)
On our Tower e-Bikes Score, again, it scored a 47 out of a hundred. This means that it is a mediocre e-Bike. And then on our Specialty Score, it did score a 36.
There’s one last touching point here. We don't include it in either score, but we do like to mention it. The weight of the e-Bike is 56 pounds, which is quite heavy for a foldable e-Bike that you're probably going to be lifting in and out of your car. This might even be the very reason you want to get a foldable bike. That's something to consider.
And then we always like to give our own opinion on the looks of the bike. It does look like a stereotypical e-Bike that you'll see if you're in the folding e-Bike niche. You're going to find a lot of bikes that look very similar to this model. It's nice that it comes with a rear rack and it's pretty much just a full e-Bike that you can see with any other brand.
Conclusion
That's the end of our review here on the Lectric XP Step-Thru 2.0 electric bike. Check out our site for other tower e-Bike scores. We have a growing list of other e-Bikes that we see come through our repair shop.
As I said, we love to review different bikes and offer insight into what we see here at the e-Bike repair shop. We see thousands of bikes come in; some more than others. For this instance, Lectric XP 2.0 is one of the more popular bikes we see come here into the e-Bike repair shop.
Thanks for reading our review and hopefully we provided some insight here for you.
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DISCLAIMER - Lectric and XP are trademarks of Lectric eBikes, and use of that trademark in this review does not indicate that the reviewer is claiming any interest in the mark or any affiliation with or sponsorship or endorsement by Lectric eBikes.