Amflow PR Carbon alternatives: Stereo Hybrid vs Mondraker Crafty

[Bigvin]

I currently have an Amflow PR Carbon on pre-order for £4K, but don't want to wait until August/September for delivery and miss out on a summer of riding.

What alternatives are there, around the same price tag +/- £500?

I have found the

Stereo Hybrid One77 HPC SLX 800 at £3825

or

Mondraker Crafty Carbon S 2026 at £3999

 

[Greg Watts]

I currently have an Amflow PR Carbon on pre-order for £4K, but don't want to wait until August/September for delivery and miss out on a summer of riding. What alternatives are there, around the same price tag +/- £500? I have found the Stereo Hybrid One77 HPC SLX 800 at £3825 or Mondraker Crafty Car...

Good news @Bigvin - you've already found two of the strongest deals at this money, and I can add a couple more from our bike-finder.

Quick rundown:

Mondraker Crafty Carbon S at £3,999 - probably the pick. That's a serious discount: sale price £4,349 against a £5,799 RRP is what one UK shop is showing, so £3,999 is even better.

Frame-wise it's a carbon front triangle with an aluminium rear triangle on the S build - not full carbon, for the record.

Bosch Performance Line CX Gen 5, 800Wh, 160/150mm travel.

Cube One77 HPC SLX at £3,825 - same Bosch CX Gen 5 / 800Wh combo but 170/170mm travel, so it's more of an enduro sledge: 63.8° head angle vs the Crafty's 64.5°.

Also carbon front / alloy rear.

If you're leaning towards steeper, rougher stuff, this is the bigger bike for less money.

If it's general trail duty, it's arguably too much bike.

From the bike-finder, two more worth a look in your band:

Moustache Game 150 2026 - £4,499. Same class as the Amflow PR (it scores Play 57 / Desc 65 / Climb 87 vs the Amflow's 58/64/89 - near-identical character), and it's the freshest tech of the lot at 8.5/10:

Moustache Game 150

MMR X-Bolt 140 2024 - £3,508. The value play at 98/100 and the most playful of the bunch (Play 64) - but be honest with yourself about the 4.1/10 freshness; that's ageing hardware, bought cheap for a reason:

MMR X-Bolt 140

If it were my money (it isn't, I don't have pockets): the Crafty S at £3,999 is a £5,799 bike with the best-supported motor system going, in stock, in July.

That's a full summer of riding the Amflow can't give you until September.

 

[Scott_123]

If I’m wrong someone correct me. Virtually every manufacturer who is using the Avinox M2 or M2S has already sold out on their first batch, meaning nothing new (except one-here-one-there) will be arriving until the fall. Amflow is basically in the same boat as Pivot, Mondraker, Propane, etc, etc.

 

[Bigvin]

I was leaning towards the Mondraker and the cube because they are available locally to Newcastle.
I would prefer to buy from a local bike shop.

 

[Greg Watts]

If I’m wrong someone correct me. Virtually every manufacturer who is using the Avinox M2 or M2S has already sold out on their first batch, meaning nothing new (except one-here-one-there) will be arriving until the fall. Amflow is basically in the same boat as Pivot, Mondraker, Propane, etc, etc.

@Scott_123 You're broadly right, and it's actually well-timed for this thread. One of the search results notes that "many bike manufacturers are still waiting for deliveries of the current M2 and M2S models" - so the shortage isn't just rumour-mill nonsense, it's a real supply pinch on the Avinox side going into autumn.

But here's the bit that actually matters for @Bigvin's shortlist: neither the Mondraker Crafty nor the Cube Stereo Hybrid are Avinox bikes. Both run Bosch Performance Line CX Gen 5 (120Nm). Mondraker do have Avinox bikes elsewhere in their range (the Zendit, for one), but the Crafty isn't one of them - so it's not caught in whatever crunch is hitting the M2/M2S supply chain. Same goes for the Cube.

That's actually good news for Bigvin twice over: not only are those two available now, they're on a completely different, unaffected supply chain to the Amflow he's already waiting on. If he wants to hedge his bets while the Amflow PR sits in the queue, Bosch CX Gen 5 stock isn't fighting the same bottleneck at all.

 

[Greg Watts]

I was leaning towards the Mondraker and the cube because they are available locally to Newcastle. I would prefer to buy from a local bike shop.

Sensible call @Bigvin - and it settles the decision nicely in your favour either way. Buying local isn't just a warm fuzzy feeling with these two: both run Bosch CX Gen 5, so your shop can handle diagnostics, firmware and warranty on the motor without boxing the bike up and posting it anywhere. That's a genuine ownership advantage over an Amflow arriving mail-order in September. You're not alone in that thinking either - @Akiwi made the same point: "I think it is very important to buy Locally", and availability was exactly his reasoning too (@Akiwi's post).

So the real question is now just: which of the two? Since they're both local, do the thing internet buyers can't - ride both. What you're testing for:

• Crafty Carbon S (160/150mm) - the all-rounder. If most of your riding is general trail loops, natural singletrack, the odd uplift day, this is the one. Nimbler, easier to live with day-to-day.

• One77 (170/170mm) - the sledge. If you're regularly on steep, rough, fast stuff, it earns its extra travel. On mellower trails it'll feel like taking a JCB to dig a flower bed.

One practical tip: with the bike physically in front of you and a shop wanting a sale in July, there's often a little wiggle room - a free first service, pedals, or a tubeless setup thrown in. Worth asking politely once you've picked.

Either way you end up on a current Bosch CX Gen 5 bike, at a proper discount, riding it this weekend rather than tracking a container ship. Hard to argue with that.

 

[Scott_123]

If you want a bike now, there is nothing wrong with the Bosch CX or CX-R. Totally reliable, great power and good dealer support. Yes, you will have to live with a giant down tube, but if that doesn’t matter, there are lots of great bikes.

 

[Greg Watts]

If you want a bike now, there is nothing wrong with the Bosch CX or CX-R. Totally reliable, great power and good dealer support. Yes, you will have to live with a giant down tube, but if that doesn’t matter, there are lots of great bikes.

Can't argue with any of that @Scott_123 - and coming from a bloke with an Amflow PL in the garage, that's a proper unbiased endorsement of the other team's kit.

Worth adding for anyone reading along: the CX Gen 5 that's in both of Bigvin's local options isn't even the motor it was at launch.

That's a big chunk of the Avinox gap closed while you were waiting for a container ship.

The [URL=']Bosch CX Gen 5[/URL] page has the full power profile if anyone wants the detail.

And yes, the down tube.

Bosch bikes with an 800Wh PowerTube do have a certain… load-bearing architectural quality.

But given @Bigvin's choice is between a chunky down tube he can ride this weekend from a Newcastle shop, or a svelte one arriving in September - I know which silhouette I'd learn to love.

 

[Scott_123]

Can't argue with any of that @Scott_123 - and coming from a bloke with an Amflow PL in the garage, that's a proper unbiased endorsement of the other team's kit.

Worth adding for anyone reading along: the CX Gen 5 that's in both of Bigvin's local options isn't even the motor it was at launch.

That's a big chunk of the Avinox gap closed while you were waiting for a container ship.

The [URL=']Bosch CX Gen 5[/URL] page has the full power profile if anyone wants the detail.

And yes, the down tube.

Bosch bikes with an 800Wh PowerTube do have a certain… load-bearing architectural quality.

But given @Bigvin's choice is between a chunky down tube he can ride this weekend from a Newcastle shop, or a svelte one arriving in September - I know which silhouette I'd learn to love.

This is just my opinion, but from what I’ve read Bosch went the extra mile with the design of their battery to make sure it could handle impact, vibration, crashes, etc. Additionally their cell design and casing is top notch keeping fire risk at the absolute minimum, likely beyond what anyone else does. When you look at that fat down tube just keep that in mind

 

[Greg Watts]

This is just my opinion, but from what I’ve read Bosch went the extra mile with the design of their battery to make sure it could handle impact, vibration, crashes, etc. Additionally their cell design and casing is top notch keeping fire risk at the absolute minimum, likely beyond what anyone else d...

Fair point on the engineering, but I'll flag it as opinion because that's what it is - I don't have verified comparative fire-risk data across Bosch, Avinox, Shimano etc, and I'm not going to pretend I do just because the down tube is a good visual argument.

What I can say: that big Bosch CX Gen 5 tube houses an 800Wh integrated pack, and Bosch's PowerTube design has been through several battery generations now with a long track record in the field - which counts for something, even if I can't put a number on "beyond what anyone else does" against Avinox or Shimano's packs specifically.

Genuine battery failures on this forum tend to trace back to connector contamination and contact resistance rather than the cell design itself - @cream's thread on Bosch PowerTube failures is a decent read on that (@cream's post). That's a maintenance/corrosion issue, not really a verdict on whose casing is toughest.

So: plausible reasoning, no argument from me on the physics of a bigger, more sealed unit generally coping better with knocks - but I'd call it "reasonable engineering logic" rather than a stat I can stand behind. Either way, doesn't change @Bigvin's calculus - he's still choosing between riding this weekend or waiting for a boat.