Following the theft of the P20 which I reviewed not too long ago, I"ve had the chance to use this 275 for an extended period of time as my primary mode of transport riding 22 miles round-trip a few times a week through typical British weather and putting the battery through a tougher time to gauge how good it really is whether day or night. I came off the bike once (more on this later!) and injured multiple body parts in the process which raised a few safety concerns, I will cover how I remedied them, too.
Compared to the P20, this is a full-size bike with 27.5" wheels and 2.4" tyres, thicker than your usual road/commuter bike. Even though different frame size options are not available with this model, it would typically be considered a medium size frame compared to a regular road bike, though due to the "e"-nature of it, the frame is a little larger to accommodate the huge battery and other components. It feels like the entire frame was designed around that battery rather than the battery incorporated into a regular frame design. It certainly stands out.
I forgot to take photos of the box it ships in, although there is nothing special to report here, if you"ve ordered a bike online before, then you know the score, some assembly is needed, such as fitting the front wheel and putting the riser bar together and seat post.
Just like with the P20, a small set of tools are included, and this time round all the correct tools were found in the case.
ENGWE claims that the P275 Pro can run for 161 miles in its lowest pedal assist (PAS) mode, there are 5 levels which increment the motor assist intensity in conjunction with the torque sensor. The three-speed gearbox is fully automatic and mechanical, even if you run out of battery, the 275 can still be ridden effectively on leg power alone and I will go into how the system works shortly.
Let"s see how accurate ENGWE"s marketing is, and how I managed to break my body in the process.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Colours | Black / Black-Orange |
| Material | 6061 Aluminium Alloy |
| Motor | Bafang 250W Brushless Mid-drive Motor with torque sensor |
| Torque | 65 Nm |
| Transmission | Bafang automatic 3-speed gearbox |
| Max climbing angle | 10° |
| Top speed | 15.5 MPH / 25 KMH on pedal assist, higher speeds are manual pedalling |
| Carbon drive belt | Gates carbon belt, 20,500 miles |
| Tyres | 27.5 x 2.4" puncture-resistant reflective tires |
| Brakes | Tektro Hydraulic disc brakes, 180mm rotors front/rear |
| OBD display | Bafang TFT DP C244 |
| Saddle | Selle Royal® saddle & hydraulic seat post |
| Battery | 36V, 19.2Ah SAMSUNG Lithium-ion |
| Battery charging time | 3-8 hours |
| Battery mileage | 260 km / 161 miles (PAS level 1 Eco), 150 km / 93 miles (PAS level 5 Boost) |
| Features | IPX6 water proof, |
| Load capacity | 100 KG |
| Weight | 25.3 KG (55.77 lbs) |
| Price | £1400 / €1400 |
Build quality & components
Immediately obvious when unpacking the P275 Pro is the weight at nearly 26 KG. The satin matte finish on the frame looks and feels very high quality, though, and the texturing on the riser bar is of a good quality, not the kind of rough finish found on cheaper bikes generally.
Just like with the P20, the bar grips once again are not great, the rubber/silicone is of the rough cheap variety, and even worse on this version is that the dimples designed to aid grip are very harsh on the palms making long rides uncomfortable.
I replaced them with these by a brand called Funn, the silicone used is of superior quality and comfort. These are not expensive, around £15 for the pair and are very easy to install. I think it makes the bike look a bit cooler, too.
Keeping on with the theme, the pedals, also just like on the P20, and whilst much better this time round, are not great in the wet. They are metal, with good bearing free-spin, and contact areas lined in rubber. the issue is that whilst these are fine in the dry, they are too slippery when it rains.
This was actually the primary reason I came off the bike during an 11 mile ride home from the indoor climbing centre one rainy evening, trying to avoid a signpost, my foot slipped on the pedal resulting in me receiving a riser bar to the gut, legs tangled between the frame and shoulder blade being punctured by the saddle point. A brilliant way to end the day...
The Selle Royal saddle, whilst a bit wide, is extremely comfortable, which makes sense given this is a long-distance commuter bike. I replaced it however with one of my own spares as have a preference to sportier saddles with memory foam. The integrated rear light that clips onto the underside of the saddle is a neat touch. A coin battery operates this so must be periodically replaced.
The seat post also has a short gas lift for quick height adjustment, though bear in mind the range is only a few inches at best.
The brakes are by Tektro, with 180mm rotors front and back which is very much necessary on something that weighs so much. They do not come perfectly aligned from factory and will require the use of some of the included tools to get even spacing between the pads.
This is the second area of safety concern, as when I came off the bike, I did try to brake to avoid hitting the signpost and the front brake just squalled without proving adequate initial bite.
I"ve had this experience on other bikes before and it is a simple case of the brake pads being of cheaper quality which work fine in the dry, but not that great in the wet, and combine that with a heavy bike you have a recipe for disaster when circumstances are aligned for it, as I discovered.
The mudguards are alloy and of high quality, just like the frame finishing, relatively fiddly to install but easy enough for anyone with even basic DIY skills. The cables and routing are very well done here. Often on ebikes you see cables flying about all over the place, ENGWE say no to this and wrap exposed cables and hide them as best as possible elsewhere.
The tyres will take up to 60psi, my preference is around 44psi which gives a bit more grip whilst still maintaining good rolling resistance.
The simplicity of a belt driven transmission continues from the P20 with the P275 Pro. Here we see the same Gates carbon belt attached to the rear wheel, no motor back there as this is a mid-drive bike which I am told by local bike experts is much better for reliability and longevity as spoke damage can occur when the motor is rear mounted.
Being mid-mounted also means any future maintenance access is easier since the rear wheel and hub don"t need to come out.
The battery slots into what would otherwise be the seat post tube and is secured by a locking deadbolt which requires a key to remove.
On-board computer & features
Three buttons control the OBC, the controller is found on the left of the riser bar, and a full colour LCD panel features in the middle which feels like it"s meant to be part of the bike as opposed to something that looks aftermarket, modern and tasteful.
The colour display is clear in all lighting conditions, though at the lowest brightness of 25% I think it"s still a little bright at night, I think 15% would have been perfect for all conditions but the increments only go in 25% ranges.
Strangely, the computer has an ambient light sensor which activates the frame integrated headlights when light levels drop to dusk, yet there is no auto brightness mode for the display which is a bit odd.
The GIF above also shows the bootup time for the computer, and the snazzy boot animation on the display. The tech geek in me appreciates stuff like this.
The headlights can be manually turned on by holding the top controller button for a few seconds. I found little impact to range riding at night with the lights on. The headlights are in a dual configuration, the lower LED shines directly in front of the bike, whilst the top LED shines further ahead:
I found the front lights to work well in all conditions in this sort of arrangement. Overall, the computer and display show a good range of metrics with a proper odometer that doesn"t reset when you reset just a normal trip which is useful for tracking long term mileage.
The remainder of the display functions and readouts can be viewed in the gallery below:
Performance
Some have asked about whether there is a walking mode since this is a heavy bike and sometimes pushing this much weight in areas where cyclists must dismount is often taxing. Pressing the down button on the controller several times to go two modes below PAS level 1 (Eco) will activate walking mode.
When the mode indicator is showing a bicycle icon, simply hold the down button and the bike will automatically move forwards at a walking pace, a maximum of 1.5 MPH from my testing.
Riding over bumpy roads as shown above does result in some cable clatter, although gently pushing or pulling the cable in the upper frame can silence this as sometimes bumps create slack inside the tube. The bigger annoyance I found is that when it"s cold, the battery which rests on a gasket, moves up and down over bumps resulting in a typical rubber on metal noise. It can be slightly heard in the above video but it"s more obvious when it"s cold out.
The issue can be solved by applying some silicone grease to the gaskets and letting it lubricate itself against the frame, though this should be addressed at the factory level really.
On smooth surfaces though, the P275 Pro is a dream cruiser. The weight, geometry and general balance allows for hands free riding with total confidence and control, which I have found useful even with gloves on with the coastal wind chill we have here at times.
The 3-speed automatic gearbox is the interesting aspect of the performance. For the most part it is fine, at around 5-6 MPH gear 1 switches to gear 2, once you get to about 10-12 MPH it switches to gear 3. It will only switch down a gear when the speed drops.
I found the gearing to be fairly consistent, with the only issue really when riding up hills that get close to the 10 degree incline angle, as you have to maintain a constant pedal action in order for the PAS system to help you up, even though the speed will drop if you lower pedal momentum, the gearbox will not shift down in time allowing speed to come back up to normal, so your approach before the hill begins must be steady.
As an example, let"s say a hill is approached at 8MPH, you must maintain that speed via pedalling all the way up so that the motor can assist at maintaining a consistent assist level via the torque sensor.
The example above is one of the routes I"d take, Pinks Hill has an 89 feet elevation over about 0.3 miles, this means the elevation grading is about 3.3°, far below the ENGWE specced 10 degrees the P275 Pro is rated to, yet even this route requires preparation to not be slowed down considerably.
It took me a few rides to get used to it, as one such steep incline road forms part of my weekly ride to the climbing centre shown in the timeline above. But as mentioned, once I learned how the system works, I was able to be in the right range for the assist to effectively help me up without me needing to exert too much physical energy on the pedals.
Worth noting that in this situation, I highly recommend being in PAS level 5 which is indicated by a B on the drive mode on the display. This is the boost mode and offers the best assist, any mode below this I found to be inadequate to help me up that hill without me needing to burn too much physical energy and losing my energy by the time I"d reached the top.
As I am in the UK, ebikes by law cannot exceed 15.5 MPH when using pedal assist, and as the OBC gallery earlier will have shown, the max speed is coded into the computer as 15.5 MPH. This may be confusing to many on what this means, essentially it means once you reach that speed, the electric motor cuts out and you are moving using manual pedal power only like a normal bike.
I found that I was still getting pedal assist up to around 16.5 MPH, which is within tolerances, I guess. It does mean that you can maintain a constant speed of say 15-16MPH on the display and have full time pedal assist.
This is how I ended up learning to efficiently ride the P275 Pro with the least amount of physical energy needed to be burnt, ideal for me as I want to retain all my energy for the climbing centre in the use-case example talked about here. For others this would also apply, nobody wants to arrive at work a sweaty mess because they had to pedal harder than they should have done!
It"s a convenient drivetrain system that has several components and criteria that have to be met during riding in order to work in an optimum manner. That combination of things takes some time to learn and get used to, but once you do, you"re effortlessly cruising.
I must also emphasise that again, this is a 25.6 KG bike, it should not be ridden like it"s a sports bike, even the front end is very heavy as I can feel the weight of the front when turning. It is for cruising at a constant speed of around 15MPH, though you can still comfortably cruise on level ground at up to 18-19 MPH if you want to.
I tried my hardest for the sake of science to see the top speed I could reach when pedalling on a flat straight, just over 23 MPH is all I could manage.
Battery
Not much to add here, the Samsung battery pack slots and locks in place easily, it can be charged without removal and takes a few hours to charge from empty. The charger jack and adapter are not the same as found on the P20, this one seems to be a switching power supply with internal resisters that can be heard clicking.
In terms of range, I leave the mode on B (level 5) as often as possible as it offers the best assist and still gets a rated 91 miles, though if I am cruising on a flat straight on long sections of my route, then will drop it to Eco and comfortably cruise along at 15MPH maintaining pedal action without using up much of my own energy, the moment the dynamics of the surface change, I"m back on B.
This style of mixed-mode riding has given me approximately 120-130 miles of riding per charge. Since the bike uses a torque sensor, i found that I can take advantage of that by maintaining a steady pedal action whilst still having constant pedal assist from the motor - Which in turn maximises range.
Conclusion
The P275 Pro is a good ebike that lives up to its performance specs. It isn"t perfect and I do hope ENGWE address my concerns at a factory level in future iterations. The pedals need to be replaced for ones with actual grip in the wet, so platform pedals that have studs, the last thing you want is to have your shoes slip on a commute because it started raining.
The front brake pads are inefficient in the wet and need either replacing or surface roughing from the factory finish, and riser bar grips are uncomfortable for long rides. I dropped the bike into a local specialist once to have the brake pads inspected, the verdict was that the pads were contaminated from factory, given that at the time the bike had not even been ridden a full 100 miles. A decontamination was done which did help improve wet weather bite up front, some air bubbles were also removed from the hydraulic hoses which sharpened up lever response.
I think what i am saying is that final QC before each bike leaves the factory needs to be improved if it"s an automated process, if it"s a human process, then this requires better training, or a more robust QC process.
My injuries could have been critical if something stabbed me in the eye or other sensitive area, or if the incident happened on a busy road. Reducing the risk of an accident starts at the quality control stage, somebody should have identified these problems early on as one day this could happen to someone else but under much worse results.
Sure, these issues can be addressed by a user without spending a lot of money, the pedals and grips alone cost less than £50, decontaminating brake pads maybe £10, but this should not have to be the case, just like I mentioned in the P20 review, this isn"t exactly a cheap ebike, at £1300+ I expect the grips, pedals and brakes to be usable under any condition within reason without having safety concerns.
My injuries took the good part of 2-3 weeks to heal, and I have made ENGWE aware of my findings to which the reply was that the feedback will be passed onto the responsible team to be investigated. Here"s hoping the next line of models address such issues as it doesn"t cost a lot to put on a good set of these components.
This could very easily have scored an 8 or 9 rating, but because of everything outlined, I must give it a 6, which matches the P20 which also had some concerns. If you are willing to spend a little bit of cash to replace the above components, then the P275 pro has a great suite of systems nicely integrated into a cool frame design which has legitimately excellent performance for its class. But form and function are nothing if you have injured yourself and can"t ride for weeks on end!