Pimp My Ride: The Roadrunner

nowayfra

nowayfra

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Finally got all parts together for my flatland touring bike. I swapped almost all of the original components for
- a 27.5" (rear & front) wheelset with a silent Onyx Classic XDR hub at the rear plus a shimano XTR hub at the front and low friction Pirelli Angel WT Urban tires
- road derailleur and a 10-33T cassette for better cadence and wear distribution amongst the cogs, 38T chainring at the front
- XTR brakeset and Centerlock Dura Ace brake discs (203mm front / 180mm rear)
- Intend Hero Blackline fork and Intend Hover Monocoque rear shock
- VERTICAL Helium dropper post (120mm travel)
- 50mm stem and 700mm straight handlebar

So far the whole arrangement works quite well, its a very silent and smooth riding bike. My near and far vicinity is mainly flatland, much tarmac and gravel so the first thing on my list was to get rid of the chonky MTB drive train. The Software now has some trouble recognizing the gears i am in but that was expected and i dont't care much about the gear display anyway. The semi slick tires seem to add some range. Depending on tire pressure i got something between 5-10% range gain in comparison to the original tires. These Pirellis have a lot of volume and with their official 2.35" width they are as wide as the original front 2.6" Assegai and even some millimeters higher so there is no problem friction wise going into some gnarly trails by adjusting them to some lower pressure. Since i only ride in dry conditions the tires are fine for all my riding cases. For longer tours i modified the eco profile to compensate for the motor resistance and add only marginally above that so that my legs have some work left to do. This brings the overall range to about 120 km in flat terrain. Got the weight down to 20.7 kg for the XL frame. Next thing on my wish list is a range extender but i will wait until next spring to see what the market has to offer.

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I wonder what is the purpose of a dropper post on such configuration 🧐
 
It would be interesting to hear why you have chosen a full suspension bike for tarmac and gravel riding. However, you ride on slicks.
 
Watching this one!
Not sure I have much to add here.
Popcorn just popped!
Inverted forks and clipless pedals!
This is going to get weird.
 
Last edited:
Pizzman said:
Watching this one!
Not sure I have much to add here.
Popcorn just popped!
Inverted forks and clipless pedals!
This is going to get weird.
Click to expand...
Thought about calling this thread "Pimp My Amflow: Heresy" to make sure the inquisition pops up even quicker 😂
 
Oh I see your point ... I now see why you used this bike ... better to have an full power full suspension emtb for tarmac/gravel rides and need none than otherwise ...
 
steve_sordy said:
20.7Kg!

You are not trying hard enough!
Click to expand...
I could have. Smaller battery, lighter rear hub and lighter tires would easily shave off 2kg but i like the functionality those items give. Roughly 20 kg was the build target, thats still light enough to take curbs via bunny hop for uninterrupted city commute.
 
DylanJM said:
The bikes comes with a dropper.

I would more question the mega expensive after market Intend suspension. Make it make sense OP.
Click to expand...
I needed to change the fork to something with a bit more travel to compensate for my longer cranks (170mm) and my smaller front wheel diameter (27.5") to maintain clearance and since money isn't a constraint here I choose the Intend. Comes with some nice specs: lower unsprung weight, easy to maintanance, relatively light for a 170mm travel fork, variable travel without the need for special tools or disassembling the fork.
Ah and this thing looks f**ing cute, especially from the riders view!
 
What model are those tyres, i'm looking for something like that for my HT
 
nowayfra said:
I needed to change the fork to something with a bit more travel to compensate for my longer cranks (170mm) and my smaller front wheel diameter (27.5") to maintain clearance and since money isn't a constraint here I choose the Intend. Comes with some nice specs: lower unsprung weight, easy to maintanance, relatively light for a 170mm travel fork, variable travel without the need for special tools or disassembling the fork.
Ah and this thing looks f**ing cute, especially from the riders view!
Click to expand...
But why do specs matter if you are not putting it through even 10% of what it is capable of?
 
salko said:
Oh I see your point ... I now see why you used this bike ... better to have an full power full suspension emtb for tarmac/gravel rides and need none than otherwise ...
Click to expand...
Exactly. I have other meatbikes for different riding scenarios but I also wanted an eBike for my lazy moods and it needed to be an allrounder with focus on city / flatland but it should still be able to muster some trails. Downhill isn't one of my ride cases.
 
nowayfra said:
I could have. Smaller battery, lighter rear hub and lighter tires would easily shave off 2kg but i like the functionality those items give. Roughly 20 kg was the build target, thats still light enough to take curbs via bunny hop for uninterrupted city commute.
Click to expand...
The reason for my post that you were not trying hard enough was that @johnc and I met an Amflow rider on the trails and we stopped to chat because @johnc was on his new Amflow. The guy had really done a number on his Amflow. Carbon rims, cranks, bars and saddle. Plastic pedals and narrow tyres. He had even reduced the diameter of his brake discs and swapped to dual piston calipers instead of quads! There was other stuff that I can't remember. I asked @johnc later what weight he said that he'd got it down to and he said 17 something kg. But the guy said that he had plans to do more! I cannot think what they might be (hmm just had a thought; maybe a smaller cassette, power is not going to be a problem). When I asked him why he had bought the bike and then changed it so much he just said that it was for the tuneability of the software. The guy was rail-thin and dressed in cling-fit Lycra. Neither of us asked, but I'm guessing that he had opted for, or fitted afterwards, the 600 W-hr battery (LATER EDIT: He did). Money did not appear to be a problem. He seemed normal otherwise. It takes all sorts.
 
Last edited:
steve_sordy said:
The reason for my post that you were not trying hard enough was that @johnc and I met an Amflow rider on the trails
Click to expand...
If it pleases him to tune the weight down to the limit.. why not. Remembers me on another thread here where someone managed it to tune his amflow down to something around 18 kg. Its all fun and stuff until things break. I did bike trial for many years and broke a lot of stuff so from experience I rather leave some margin. Especially since some of the parts I broke did not brake on impact but days or weeks afterwards as fatigue fracture when one didn't expect it. Luckily I never got seriously injured because its a slow sport but on a relatively fast eBike i wouldn't gamble with overly enthusiastic weight tuning.
 
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steve_sordy said:
When I asked him why he had bought the bike and then changed it so much
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Thats an interesting topic btw. I am observing the eBike market for years now and was at some point short of buying the Riese & Mueller Superdelite with Rohloff E-14 and dual Battery which from a technical point ticked all my checkboxes safe of weight. It had the Bosch Gen 4 which was derestrictable but I finally abstained from getting it because this thing looked much to ugly. Now years later the amflow is in my opinion only the least worse of the competition:
- dedicated s-pedelecs: heavy, most of them lacking good rear suspension, ugly aesthetics
- rear hub motor bikes like the Stromer series: centered too much on tarmac, ugly
- Bosch centered e-Bikes: some are quite nice but since the new Bosch CX 5 with smart System is nearly impossible to derestrict - no option
- Pinion MGU: not derestrictable for now (they even doubled down with the latest software update) - possibility of buying MGU based s-pedelec and MGU based trial/enduro and swap motors and controls would be a bit too much

So for me the derestriction issue especially rules out all of the new nice drive concepts which I would have preferred over another chain based drive train: a MGU combined with a carbon belt drive all packed nicely in a trail geometry like the Bulls Vuca Evo AM2.
So who limps into the finish line first? The Amflow. As a frame kit. In a closing time window as i suspect they turn of the vpn hack at some time in the future or disable it from the start for coming motor iterations. Besides, I had a look at the Specialized Levo 4 framekit which i would have preferred for the adjustable steering angle and swappable battery and especially the in-house range extenders. But also here: derestriction not sure as far as I digged.
So the customised Amflow it is now.
 
nowayfra said:
In a closing time window as i suspect they turn of the vpn hack at some time in the future or disable it from the start for coming motor iterations
Click to expand...
Looks like the VPN hack which Amflow is very aware of is a major selling point so why would they close that door if they're not forced to do it by some authorities and then the sales will drop and who knows how much.
 
Polar said:
Looks like the VPN hack which Amflow is very aware of is a major selling point so why would they close that door if they're not forced to do it by some authorities and then the sales will drop and who knows how much.
Click to expand...
Just a gut feeling. Once DJI has established their brand and adoption slows down there wouldn't be much need anymore to "incentivize" via easy derestriction as long as their motors and software integration is on top of the competition. And legal issues do weigh in especially as market share grows. Add to that the growing unwillingness of western countries to play the dump site of chinese overproduction then there would be reasons for chinese companies to play it safe and forego any hassle with local authorities.
 
nowayfra said:
Finally got all parts together for my flatland touring bike. I swapped almost all of the original components for
- a 27.5" (rear & front) wheelset with a silent Onyx Classic XDR hub at the rear plus a shimano XTR hub at the front and low friction Pirelli Angel WT Urban tires
- road derailleur and a 10-33T cassette for better cadence and wear distribution amongst the cogs, 38T chainring at the front
- XTR brakeset and Centerlock Dura Ace brake discs (203mm front / 180mm rear)
- Intend Hero Blackline fork and Intend Hover Monocoque rear shock
- VERTICAL Helium dropper post (120mm travel)
- 50mm stem and 700mm straight handlebar

So far the whole arrangement works quite well, its a very silent and smooth riding bike. My near and far vicinity is mainly flatland, much tarmac and gravel so the first thing on my list was to get rid of the chonky MTB drive train. The Software now has some trouble recognizing the gears i am in but that was expected and i dont't care much about the gear display anyway. The semi slick tires seem to add some range. Depending on tire pressure i got something between 5-10% range gain in comparison to the original tires. These Pirellis have a lot of volume and with their official 2.35" width they are as wide as the original front 2.6" Assegai and even some millimeters higher so there is no problem friction wise going into some gnarly trails by adjusting them to some lower pressure. Since i only ride in dry conditions the tires are fine for all my riding cases. For longer tours i modified the eco profile to compensate for the motor resistance and add only marginally above that so that my legs have some work left to do. This brings the overall range to about 120 km in flat terrain. Got the weight down to 20.7 kg for the XL frame. Next thing on my wish list is a range extender but i will wait until next spring to see what the market has to offer.

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Click to expand...
I like it.

All these people turning them from Trail to Enduro bikes.

You’ve gone Motard. Awesome.
 
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