Flyer L885 Cargo eBike Review ($1999 Longtail Kid and Cargo Hauler)

I know a lot of people that have bought an e bike with the intent to replace their vehicle for certain tasks, whether thats going to the grocery store or taking their kids to school. The problem is: is most e bikes, arent? Really equipped to do just that in an effective manner, because they cant take a whole load of groceries or they cant comfortably fit a child on the back or two in this case and thats, where this bike comes in in front of me, this is the flyer. L885, cargo electric bike lets dive into the features and specifications and then take it out for a ride. Review foreign Laughter, ER l885 is originally priced at 1999, but I have it equipped, basically with every single option available, but lets start off with the basics. This has a 48 volt 15 amp hour battery thats integrated into the frame here, thats equivalent to 720 Watt hours, and that is going to get you anywhere between 30 to 50 miles of range flyer says that the rear hub motor produces 500 watts of power. Now I dont know if thats, continuous or Peak, but I guess well find out pretty soon now that is in the rear wheel, which is a 20 inch tire by three inches wide and thats a little bit smaller than the front wheel, which is 26 inches by Three inches wide and thats really going to create a lower center of gravity and flyer, says its going to help with aerodynamics, since the passengers or Cargo in the back is sitting a little bit lower.

Now thats the power, but lets talk about the star of the show, which is this aluminum frame. They call this a long tail and this can support a maximum weight of up to 400 pounds. Thats 25 pounds up in the front rack 220 pounds for the rider and 150 pounds on the rear rack that can even fit two kids by default. The rear rack has flat wood panels and Ive actually opted for this cargo basket. It is huge this is going to be able to support a whole load of groceries for me, but the neat thing about this rack: is it actually folds down so that you can put kids in the back to ride youll also notice back here, theres a foot Rest and a guard over the wheel so that you dont get things stuck in the spokes. Continuing talking about the frame, youll notice that, where the riders gaze is all the welds are Blended out, nearly perfectly you cant even detect where those joints are. But when you look at the back of the bike, you can definitely see them. I wish they would have taken more time to buff these out a little bit more. This paint finish is absolutely beautiful. Its one of four different colors that you can choose from and I really wish that they would have had this red finish on the battery here, but it is nice that it matches the same tone thats on the back of the bike.

I also added a front rack and, as you can see here, this cloth basket is what comes with it, but whats neat is that they have a lot of accessories that you can actually include that are waterproof. So this, if you are going on trips, where it might get a little bit wet, will keep all your things protected and its very high quality. While Im up here talking about the front basket, you probably noticed the front fork now. This one is made out of steel theres, no suspension on this bike, but one unique thing that theyve integrated here that I like is theyve attached a spring on the back of the fork and attached it to the frame on the other side. And what that does. Is it helps the Wheel track straight by default? One last thing that I want to talk about on this Frame is that it has a kickstand. That is dual sided, so it really keeps it balanced when its parked – and this way you can really load in all of your groceries or your kids in the back and it wont tip over and of course, in every one of my e bike reviews. I talk about how I think for the Casual Rider all those types of bikes should have integrated lights and fenders, and this one does. It has a light off of the front and then the one off the back is actually integrated into the fender.

Now lets talk about the brakes and shifting first the brakes. These are tectro mechanical brakes that are paired with 180 millimeter rotors, now, Im actually kind of surprised that they went with mechanical, because if this bike can support up to 400 pounds of payload, you probably want a lot of stopping power and hydraulic brakes are really great. Performing for that kind of feature future, but they are paired with a 180 millimeter rotor, so hopefully this will provide good stopping power. This is a Shimano 7 speed gear set, which consists of assist index shifter up front and then a tourney derailleur on the back. Now this is an entry level system, but it is Shimano which is a brand name nonetheless, so it should be pretty decent. The last thing I want to talk about is one of my favorite add ons for this bike, and that is the extended range battery thats mounted right behind the seat post. This gives me an additional 15 amp hours of capacity, so bringing it to a total of 30 amp hours, thats nearly a kilowatt hour and a half of capacity and thats amazing for a bike like this flyer, says thats up to a hundred miles of range, and I want to really test this out, so I think its time for me to take it out for a ride Music. All right, I am going to start off this review pedaling this bike with no assist, as you guys know.

I like to do this in my reviews, because it shows how easy or how hard it might be, even if the battery dies and in this bike. This is a pretty heavy bike, its 73 pounds and its a long tail. So I have a lot of that weight in the back as well, but no assist on right now: Im pedaling Im in the fourth gear. This is a Shimano seven speed gear set with the CIS index shifter this isnt, my favorite style of shifter, just because um I prefer uh mechanism. That is right underneath the handlebar that I use my finger and thumb to adjust. But regardless this bike is doable to huddle without any assist Im on a flat surface. I can definitely feel it in my legs, but ultimately I think I wouldnt want to pedal for too long in this mode. If I had to, but the nice thing about this bike is that you have the option to get that extended range battery and I just think thats a game changer for a bike of this use case. That has the capability to you know, make longer treks to the grocery store, carry a lot of cargo with you um. So, although, like the things like the tires are pretty efficient because of the tread you have the capability of going even further with this extended range battery, but enough of riding around without no assist lets get to the fun part Im going to turn it up to The first pedal assist mode – and this is a Cadence Sensor, actually Im going to slow down and come to a stop, because I believe the pedal assist is going to kick in when Im going at lower speeds.

So lets start off with zero miles per hour and then kick in first pedal assists all right, so I definitely can hear the motor kicking in now and it is pretty quiet in this first mode Im going about seven miles per hour Im in the fourth shifting Point once again, but really smooth power: it is not a big push, its very mild, so lets take it up to that. Second pedal assist mode, whoa, thats, much more power Im in that fourth gear still, and my legs are starting to get to the point where theyre moving around a lot. I got a little bit of resistance, but this is good power in pedal. Assist too lets see how that Cadence Sensor does take a while to kick in and turn off, as you can hear its like three rotations of The Petal, so yeah it is very delayed. This Cadence Sensor probably needs more magnets, better calibration to get it to be more responsive. The thing about it, though, is the fact that this is a cargo bike, and you might have a lot on board with you. A gradual power delivery is probably going to be rather useful. Puddle Assist 2 is great performance off the line about 10 12 miles per hour. So in this mode, and then you dont really hear after you get up above 10 miles per hour, that motor kicking in lets move it up to pedal assist three. So you see it just takes a long while for it to kick in, my legs are going crazy now, so in pedal assist three I would definitely need to shift up get myself some more resistance and theyre still spinning and Im all the way up now, in The seventh gear, its a little bit better but theyre.

My knees are bouncing back and forth from pedaling, but I can push it a little bit more now, Im in the seventh shifting point and I can get up to about 14 miles per hour, still putting in a little bit of work. Now that Im up in the seventh gear, but about 13 14 miles per hour, its a pretty good performance out of this all right lets – take it up to pedal, assist four, a lot more power, so thats a good burst there. It is fairly gradual yeah. It takes about three or four rotations of the pedal for you to get power, so I feel like it would be better if it was more responsive and precise, but as you can see, I can pick up the pace here. My legs are going nuts, although Id love to see more gears on this than have it married a little bit better with the uh speed and pedal assist, because you know in this case, if Im pedaling, I definitely want to be able to experience some resistance off The line the pedal assist for it is really responsive, though this is a bike. Definitely, if you have some cargo on board that you would want to make sure and be in the lower pedal assist modes just to be very cautious, so you are managing that weight. Lets go up to pedal, assist five and Im in the seventh shifting point and it looks like Ive hit pretty much a Max here of about 20 miles per hour and Ill, probably pedal a little bit harder and maybe get a little bit faster.

But this is a Class 2 bike. It is rated for 20 mile per hour top speed on all their documentation. So pretty good performance, though I would say when you get up into those higher levels of pedal assist. I just wish the Cadence Sensor was a little bit more responsive all right now. Im going to stop here. Well, use this as my starting line so that I can do throttle test Im going to actually leave it in the fifth pedal assist mode here, so that I can make sure I get the maximum performance Ill find out in a little bit. If that is tied to the throttle, because sometimes with e bikes, you can only go a certain miles per hour, depending on what pedal assist level youre in while youre using the throttle. So lets start off with the highest mode to see. If we can maximize that throttle in this bike, so its a half twist throttle on the right, I do prefer to see a thumb throttle, but Ive been riding this a little bit and theres some things that I do like about it so lets test this out And see how it performs three: two one: Music, nice and gradual, but gets up to speed really quickly in my opinion and were maxed out at about 20 miles per hour here, just shy of 20 and 19.8. There we go. We hit 20. great throttle performance, Im. Gon na drop it down a little bit and then change to say two yep, so it doesnt matter what pedal assist mode youre in youll have full access to the throttle power, no matter what and thats 20 miles per hour, something that I noticed while using this Saddle is that it feathers really nicely so, even though I tend to like a thumb throttle this half twist throttle is very precise, so, like I can twist it just a little bit, you hear the power just start to kick in and its only giving me a Certain amount from the motor, so I can consistently stay that 12 miles per hour.

Its really nice, on how precise the throttle is, and a nice gradual transition up to speed its a thumb throttle. I think that its pretty good performance for a half twist now one thing I tend to like with half twist throttles and it doesnt become. You know a sticking point for me that its not a thumb throttle is the when they integrate cruise control so that you dont have to hold your hand back all the way, because on this throttle it has this indentation here, and I could feel like that. Would over time, since its a hard plastic, I could feel that maybe bothering my hand when Im twisting it back for an extended period of time. Now the grips on this bike are really wide and theyre. This rubberized material that I really like they have some texture on it, not too much. But the other thing about this is that you can actually adjust the stem down here and you can make the handlebars come up towards you more so that youre not putting too much pressure down on those handlebars Im sitting fairly upright, but the positioning isnt up as Far as it could go, and so if you do want that experience of sitting more upright, you really can make that adjustment here with the stem, and I think that is a great feature now. As far as the saddle goes that comfort, I would definitely Swap this out, and this bike doesnt have a suspension at all.

It has a steel Fork up front and no suspension off the back and its a cargo bike. So I get that, but I think this is the perfect candidate for a suspension seat post to make it a more comfortable ride. For you know the main Rider and as far as the saddle goes, this is just too stiff for me. I dont, like the shape of it. I feel like Im falling off of it. Next thing I want to try out is a full brake test, so let me get up to speed so that Im going 20 miles per hour. This will probably be important, since this is a pretty heavy bike and youll have a lot of cargo on it potentially. But lets come to a full stop here. It actually stays pretty well balanced. It is a wide tire, so I didnt feel like I was going to lose control at all on this particular surface, so good performance out of these brakes. Now these are tectro mechanical brakes. I still think I might like hydraulic brakes just performance and maintenance wise over these mechanical breaks, but they do perform pretty well so thats. A good sign. One thing to note is that if you are ready to switch the battery that youre utilizing, if you have the extended range battery, the one in the frame versus the one that you have behind the seat post, all you have to do with the computer screen is Double tap the power button and youll notice on the gauge that it changes to B2 there so thats, the second battery really easy change.

B1. Now I just changed it back, but really simple and easy to change which battery youre pulling from oh. This bike is truly built for cargo utility, either putting kids in the back. You know your dog in the back or even on the front. This basket would be doable, but I want to test out and see how much how much I could fit in the back. As far as groceries go so lets take it over to the store and see if I can do a full trip and fit it in the back of this River rack. Well, this is a full weeks full of groceries, and not only does it fit back here. I could fit even more. This really is the natural habitat for this bike. With all my other e bike reviews, usually I pick a place for the wrap up thats in nature, in a Scenic location because thats, where Riders will ride those types of bikes – and you can definitely take this bike to the park as well. But I think this is the environment, where most riders that get this bike are going to utilize it and its not like other e bikes that you just could use to go up to the grocery store and get one or two items and put in your basket. This can fill up for a full week, so, whether youre going to the grocery store, the hardware store, do all of your shopping.

With this bike, you can also take your kids to school. So what better place to talk about the things that I like and the things that I like to see improve first lets talk about the things that I like. The frame on this bike is a very beautiful paint finish and there arent any visible welds where the riders gaze is up front and I think that theyve done a great job of blending. A really modern and fresh design, with its historic nameplate of radial flyer, its not too childish, but its brought into an era that is very premium feeling Also regarding the frame even before you add the front Basket in the rear basket here, theres still a lot of Cargo capability and its simply beautiful, they include these wood panels that really make the bike look very premium as well and speaking of the front and rear basket. I would highly recommend purchasing these if youre going to purchase this bike, because it just increases the versatility. So much theyre very high quality as far as the materials go, and especially with the rear rack. I like that, you have the flexibility to zip these down and secure them to the bottom rails and then have kids ride in the back, and actually I can even ride in the back, because Im about 150 pounds and thats what the weight support is back here. But if you dont want to spend the extra money on the accessories, this bike does come with everything you need.

It has integrated lights and fenders, which I think all casual Riders should have on their e bikes. As I mentioned before, one of my favorite features on this bike is the option to add an extended range battery here, which provides up to 30 amp hours of capacity thats, going to get you anywhere between 50 and 100 miles of range and thats super important when Youre carrying pretty heavy loads. The less positive observation Id like to make about this bike is the performance of the throttle. Now I dont usually like a half twist throttle, but if youre going to do it, I like the fact that this one is very precise and you can really feather at lower speeds so that, if you do need to turn around youre not going to get yourself In a situation where youre going to crash its very controllable now on to the things that I think flyer could do in order to make this bike even better for are starting off with the saddle here, its not as comfortable as I would like. It is very firm and it actually isnt as wide as I expected, because of the shape of the seat. Now I think, for under a hundred dollars, I would probably get a suspension seat post and a different saddle to make this a very comfortable ride. Next is in regards to the power delivery, while in pedal assist. This bike has a Cadence Sensor that is rather delayed and it delivers power unexpectedly and is kind of unsettling.

I really wish that they would tighten it up and have a more precise pedal assist. This bike has mechanical Tech drill brakes with really big rotors, so it does have the stopping power to bring you to a complete stop, even if you have a load with you, but I would really like to see hydraulic brakes not only because of this price point, But also because of the performance I wouldnt have to squeeze as hard on these brakes to stop it and also a maintenance Factor. The last thing Id like to see improved is the kickstand. Now it does a great job of stabilizing and supporting all this weight in the back. When I have it up, but it is really hard to get the bike up on the kickstand. I dont really know what the solution is, but I wish it was easier now. Ive seen a lot of other cargo bikes and, to be honest, theyre, not very good looking, but this one definitely is, and it also feels very premium. I would definitely recommend this bike if youre looking for something that has a lot of utility and looks good to be seen on well, thank you guys so much for watching this video and, if youre interested in buying a flyer l885. Please use the link in the description below flyer might help support the misco electric Channel if they find were helping their customers find the right bike for them.