Test Riding the Haibike XDURO AMT Pro with Bosch Electric Bike System [PICS & VIDEOS!]

The other day I got a call from Marty Schlesinger at Currie Technologies and he asked if I would be interested in riding the Haibike XDURO AMT Pro full suspension mountain bike with the new Bosch Performance Line mid drive kit…….hmmm that is hard to pass up!

So Marty arrived at my house in his Currie Tech demo truck with the AMT Pro ready to roll.  This high end e-mountain bike with 27.5″ wheel (650b), 150mm (6″ of travel) front and rear, SRAM 11 speed drivetrain, Crank Brothers Iodine wheels, etc.

The AMT Pro is priced at $7,800!

In addition to Marty visiting, Susanne Brüsch, Uwe Schlemender, and Andreas Gutmann from the Iceland Challenge team paid a visit to checkout the mountain biking after they showed their Iceland Challenge documentary film at Interbike.

So with that, let’s take a look at some more videos and pictures of the Haibike AMT Pro.

Here is a quick video of Marty and I riding the Haibikes (video from Andreas Gutmann):

 

Marty from Currie Tech (distributor of Haibike in the US) showed up on my door step with the Haibike Xduro AMT Pro ready to ride!

Your’s truly on the AMT Pro on the singletrack.

Here is the group of us out on the trail: Susanne Brüsch, Andreas Gutmann, Uwe Schlemender, myself, and Marty Schlesinger.

Panorama of one of the slickrock trails that we rode.

The AMT Pro in it’s natural environment.  In the background is an older model Haibike that Marty rode.

Up close and personal with the Haibike AMT Pro.

Here is a view of the hydroformed 6061 aluminum frame.  The rear suspension is a 4 bar link design with 150 mm of travel.

This is the Bosch Performance Line mid drive motor that provides power through the cranks.  The US model will have 350 watt of power and it powers the bike up to 20 mph.  It is a pedal assist only system that sense how much pedal power you are putting in, the wheel speed, and the crank cadence.  The location of the motor and battery (center and low) is very important for keeping the traditional balanced mountain bike feel.  The AMT Pro weighs 47 lbs.

The 36V, 400 watt hour battery is remarkably small thanks to recent improvements in battery cell energy density.

This is the left side of the bike with the battery and motor in view.

The left side of the Bosch motor.

The Bosch display is large enough to provide all the info that you need to see while riding the trails.  At a glance is shows speed, pedal assist level, battery level, how much electric assist you are using, AND how much range you have left (based on the current ride info)….pretty cool!

The Bosch pedal assist level can be changed quickly by the control on the left side of the handlebars.  That is handy when you are riding on rough trails.

The right side of the handlebars has the SRAM X01 11 speed  shifter and the lever for the Crank Brothers Kronolog dropper seat post.

This is one of the SRAM X0 hydraulic disc brake levers on the AMT Pro.

The massive SRAM 11 speed cogset that has a range from 10-42 tooth cogs!  That is an amazing spread of gears .

This is the Crank Brothers Kronolog dropper seat post.  The dropper post is one of my favorite new components for a mountain bike.  It allows you to drop the post and get it out of the way for rough and steep downhill sections.  It is also good to drop the post an inch or so to get your center of gravity lower for improved cornering.

The Fox 34 Talas CTD Adjust FIT with variable travel between 120-150mm.  Yeah, this soaked up the rough stuff!

The Avid X.0 Trail hydraulic disc brake, with 200mm rotor on the front and 180mm on the rear.  These did a good job of shedding some speed when needed.

The Haibike AMT Pro comes stock with the Crank Brothers Iodine 3 27.5″ (650b) wheels with thru axles front and rear.

The Schwalbe Hans Dampf 27.5 x 2.25 tires hooked up well on the rough trails.

The group of us out on the single track!

A desert sunset.

Yeah, the Haibike AMT Pro is a lot of fun to ride!

Alright, so now that you have an idea of what the Haibike AMT Pro is all about, let’s talk about the ride.  At first I was a little skeptical because I really enjoy my traditional (non-electric) mountain bike because of it’s lightweight and efficient ride feel.  Would this electric mountain bike be as much fun as my Santa Cruz Tallboy?

Yes.  The Haibike AMT Pro with the Bosch Performance Line kit does an amazing job of blending your pedal power with the electric assist.  You can tell the assist is there but you also feel like you are contributing your fair share of pedal power.  Of course that depends on which assist level you select but overall it feels like a balanced ride when it comes to the assist.

350 watts of power may not seem like a lot but when you multiply that through the drivetrain of the bike it really shines.  It can climb just about anything and in the high gears it can cruise at 20 mph easily.

The weight (47 lbs.) balance of the AMT Pro is spot on with the motor and battery located center and low on the bike.  That is very important for overall mountain bike handling.  I was very impressed with how it almost felt like my traditional mountain bike in that way.

For me, being able to pedal a big travel bike (6″ front and rear) up steep climbs was incredibly fun.  A bike like this could eliminate the need to shuttle (drive) a big travel bike to the top of hill (common for most downhill/freeride specific mountain bikers).  It is amazing the kind of terrain you can ride up with 6″ of travel bike with a 350 watt mid drive motor!

It is important to note that pedaling this bike with out assist wasn’t that bad.  I turned off the system for a significant portion of the riding and it was still manageable to pedal the 47 lbs. bike…….it just wasn’t as fast!

One thing I noticed while riding was a little bit of drivetrain “drag” from the chainguide cog when the chain was on the large 42 tooth cog (on the rear wheel).  The chainguide cog is required to make the suspension design work with the small chainring on the Bosch motor.  In other gears on the cogset I didn’t notice it so much.

The 400 watt hour 36V lithium battery seemed to really go the distance.  I was surprised at how many miles were covered in relation to how much energy was used.  I don’t know about true total range (maybe in a full review later) but I imagine it would be good, especially if you use the low to intermediate pedal assist settings.

Overall the Haibike AMT Pro was a lot of fun to ride.  It is an e-mountain bike that has a nice balance of power, weight, suspension, and quality mountain bike components.

The Haibike AMT Pro is not cheap at $7,800.  There are lower priced Haibike’s that start at $4,000.  Here is more info on the 2014 US Haibike electric bike line up.

And here is a video of Larry Pizzi, President of Currie Technologies (Haibike US Distributor), talking about the full line of Haibike XDURO which includes the AMT Pro: Trekking RX, Haibike XDURO RX 29er, Haibike XDURO FS RX 27.5″, Haibike XDURO AMT RX 27.5″, Haibike XDURO AMT Pro 27.5″, Haibike XDURO NDURO Pro 26″, Haibike Superrace Electric Bikes at Interbike 2013.

All of these bikes feature the new Bosch mid drive Performance line.

 

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