Our Amflow TL Carbon review bike arrived today, an L/XL frame that took the scenic route to get here. The battery showed up on its own back in October, which made for an interesting few weeks. The bike followed by freight, delivery appointment and all, and the review can finally start.
Amflow announced the TL Carbon in June as its first bike outside the eMTB category, and we covered it here in September. Two things have changed since then. The bike is on sale in the US now, $3,899 in both sizes, and one of them is here for testing.
Amflow TL Carbon
Avinox M2 motor with 125 Nm of max torque · 800Wh removable battery, up to 1,280Wh with the optional secondary pack · Full-carbon frame with FOX suspension, 120mm front and 105mm rear travel
Price: $3,899
Where to buy: Buy at Amflow
Carbon, FOX suspension, and wheels that swap sizes
The frame is full carbon at 2.9 kg, about 6.4 pounds, and Amflow puts the complete bike at 22.6 kg, just under 50 pounds, measured on the M size. Our L/XL will land a touch heavier, and the review will weigh it as delivered instead of repeating the brochure number.
FOX co-developed the suspension for this platform, an AWL fork with 120 mm of travel up front and a FLOAT shock giving 105 mm at the rear. The head angle sits at 67 degrees and can slacken by a degree for descents, standover is low, and both wheels can run as 27.5-inch, 29-inch, or a mullet mix. Strip the racks and mudguards off and it carries a CAT-III rating, mountain bike rules rather than tourer rules.
Two sizes cover the range: S/M for riders from 155 to 175 cm, L/XL for 175 to 190 cm. At 6-foot-2, I ride the big one. The box is generous, too. A 168W charger, bottle cage, torque wrench, tail light, kickstand, pedals, and a battery lock key all come with it, so the first ride doesn’t start with a parts order.
The Avinox M2 is the reason this bike is here
I said yes to this review because of the motor. The Avinox M2 is the drive system from DJI’s bike program, and it packs 125 Nm of max torque and 1,100 W of peak output into a 2.65 kg unit, with 250 W rated for the number that keeps it road-legal. Amflow quotes noise as low as 45 dBA from the helical planetary gearset. A quiet motor counts on a bike built for dawn commutes and forest roads alike.
Shifting is the clever part. SmoothShift, built with TRP, lets the drive unit turn the cassette and change gear without you pedaling, dipping torque mid-shift to keep the chain in one piece. Anyone who has stalled a loaded bike on a hill in the wrong gear knows exactly the problem that solves.
The standard battery is an 800Wh pack that slides out of the down tube with one hand. Amflow claims up to 106 miles in Eco, measured on flat pavement with a 176-pound rider at about 13 mph, so read it as a ceiling rather than a promise. A 480Wh secondary battery bolts on to reach 1,280Wh in total, a 600Wh main pack is the lighter option, and a charging hub can cycle four packs in sequence overnight.
Built to carry 440 pounds, trailer and all
The total rating is 200 kg, roughly 440 pounds, counting the bike itself, a rider up to 275 pounds, and whatever the racks hold. The rear rack takes 59 pounds on a MIK HD interface, the optional front rack takes 44 pounds, and a trailer hooks onto a swapped thru-axle.
Mudguards, lights, a kickstand, and a dropper post come fitted. That sounds mundane until you price those parts as add-ons for a bare trail bike. It’s the part of the spec sheet most e-bikes skip, and the TL Carbon ships ready to work instead.
The smart layer rides along
Pair the bike with the Avinox Ride app and it picks up offline route guidance on the bar display, turn prompts and off-course alerts included. Apple Find My is built in, with location, battery status, and a sound alert. A Bluetooth heart rate monitor can even steer the assist level to hold you in a target zone, and the bars can start a recording on a paired DJI Osmo camera.
None of that is why you buy a bike. All of it is the sort of thing you start noticing around week three, which is when the review will have something to say about it.
What the test has to answer
A spec sheet makes the one-bike claim look easy, and spec sheets always do. The test runs the questions the numbers can’t settle. How far does 800Wh really go with the panniers loaded and a headwind up? Does 125 Nm stay smooth at walking pace with a trailer behind it, or does it surge? Does SmoothShift earn its keep at a stoplight on a grade? Does the suspension stay composed with 50 pounds split across the racks?
Fit and finish get the same treatment. The delivered weight goes on a scale. The battery swap gets tried with cold hands. The app gets judged after a month of updates, and the Find My ping gets tested from the bottom of a parking garage.
Amflow TL Carbon
Avinox M2 motor with 125 Nm of max torque · 800Wh removable battery, up to 1,280Wh with the optional secondary pack · Full-carbon frame with FOX suspension, 120mm front and 105mm rear travel
Price: $3,899
Where to buy: Buy at Amflow
The full review comes after the miles, with photos shot here instead of borrowed from a press kit. That’s the version worth waiting for.
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