Ancheer Electric Bike | Commuting E Cruiser Review

Ancheer eBeach Cruisers

The Ancheer 26" Electric Commuting E Cruiser is a classic city styled bike with a rear mounted battery on the back rack of the bike. Due to low component and mechanical quality parts, the Commuting E Cruiser is likely to need routine service and maintenance giving this bike a relatively low tower ebike score rating. With a tower ebike score of 39, the Ancheer 26" E Cruiser has scored below a mediocre ebike on our tower scale, and has been labeled as a "non recommended ebike".

DISCLAIMER - Ancheer and 26" Commuting E Cruiser are trademarks of ANCHEER, and use of that trademark in this review does not indicate that the reviewer is claiming any interest in the mark or any affiliation with or sponsorship or endorsement by ANCHEER.

Ancheer Electric Bike

We're going to review and rate the Ancheer Commuting eCruiser. It's a generic bike that is marketed through Amazon. But unlike other Amazon brands, this Chinese brand's product name is based on its features.

The Ancheer Commuting eCruiser we’ll review today is the 26-inch wheel model which is like a city cruise or halfway between a beach cruiser and a city electric bike. The Ancheer Commuting eCruiser scored a 39 on our 100-point Tower Score, which gives the bike a “non a recommended” e-bike score. It also gets a specialty score of 28, which we will get into detail how that score is calculated.

But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Stephan Aarstol, the founder and CEO of the Tower e-Bike Repair Shop here in San Diego. We work on all different brands of e-bikes and see hundreds of different e-bikes monthly. We also do reviews and give a single-point rating on different bikes. It can be challenging to tell one bike from the other, but we can get a good sense of the quality of each bike with our reviews and that's what we’re trying to get here. We’re reviewing each bike on a variety of variables and then condensing those scores into one single score for the reader/shopper.

The idea here is that we’ll rate each bike based on seven key attributes. Then, we give them a score from 1 to 10 on each attribute. Afterward, we summarize that to get a total point scale. We call this the Tower eBike Score. Each ebike we review will get a score of 0 to 100 on the total quality of the ebike based on the seven individually rated attributes, which are the following:

Materials quality
Mechanical quality
Low maintenance
Hill climbing ability
Range
Comfort
Universality

We also include something we call the Specialty Score which omits the last two attributes, comfort and universality from the scoring. The reason why we also do a second score is that many bikes have different size frames. This is sometimes more common on higher-end bikes or specific types of bikes like mountain bikes. When we talk about universality and comfort, it also makes the bike's overall quality to a specific user, especially to electric bikes users. Some people look more into what bikes do, and if it serves the user’s purpose. But this is more applicable when you’re looking for specific types of bikes, road, bikes, mountain bikes, etc. In this case, it’s best to take a closer look into the electric bike’s size options and comfort features. For example, if you’re looking for mountain bikes built for comfort and performance, some types serve that purpose, like those designed for you to hunch over.

Hopefully, this will make it easy for you to compare the different kinds of bikes we review. It’s like a wine spectator score to make it easier for people to know which mechanics to look for. Or, it’s one way to tell if the bike is good or bad to a certain degree.

So, that's it for introducing the two scores we’ll use after this review. Again, for the Ancheer Commuting eCruiser, the bike scored a 39 on our Tower Score.

Lets get back into how the bike scored on each attribute.

Materials Quality: 3/10

The Ancheer Commuting eCruiser bike gets a pretty low score of 3 out of 10 for the materials, which is not too surprising, given that this is a Chinese off-brand. Although, it does have an aluminum frame, which a nice upgrade. Other bikes like from department stores have a cheap steel frame, which can rust really quickly and can weigh heavy.

Aside from the frame, they also have stainless steel spokes, which is a nice thing to see. This bike is on the lower mid-range side for quality, and also has a relatively decent seat. However, we did notice that the bike has cheap pedals, cheap grips, and generic tires, which could cause flats further down the line

Overall, the materials quality of this bike has a score of 3. The bike is not made of high-quality components just by looking at its materials and build.

Mechanical Quality: 2/10

Looking at the mechanical quality of the Ancheer Commuting eCruiser, it gets a score of 2 out of 10.

Mechanical quality is something difficult for people to inspect, especially if they’re beginners to e-bikes. Most sellers will market their bikes, saying that they have mechanical disc brakes, a battery, great tires, and other stuff. While some of these may sound good, or look nice, some bikes are really equipped with cheap stocks. It’s hard to tell if the quality is there if you have no experience with e-bikes and don’t know what materials to look for.

We gave the mechanical quality of this bike a score of two, which is pretty close to zero. It’s because the only high-point of this e-bike is that it has a French suspension. It’s a nice feature, but it’s not the best high-quality suspension out there. And it’s also good to know that this bike is equipped with mechanical brakes.

In addition, it has a cheap derailleur and a Quill stem on it in a freewheel. That’s all. There’s not much else I can find in this bike as far as mechanical quality goes.

Low Maintenance: 0/10

The next attribute is low maintenance. A score of 10 here means that you’re not going to have many issues on the bike. On the other hand, a score of 0 means more issues and parts to take care of. As mentioned earlier, the Ancheer Commuting eCruiser is a representative of a non-brand Chinese product. It’s similar to when you want to order something, they quickly manufacture one that’s ready to use at an affordable price – and people buy it.

However, bikes from most Chinese brands are high maintenance. This means when users need to take them for a repair, shops won’t even take bikes like this. If they ever find someone to repair this kind of bike, it might take at up to $110 for the repair. We charge in the tower, our electric bike shop here in San Diego, along with other shops in town $125 an hour to work on bikes. The average job would also be 350 bucks, so it’s really expensive in the long run if you go for a cheap bike like this because of maintenance cost – the reason why we score it at 0.

The tires are also low-end and non-branded, and getting consistent flat tires is a huge possibility with this particular ebike. One of our mechanics noticed on bikes like these is that it’s difficult to remove the wheel. Most wheels easily come off on a rear hub motor. Getting a flat tire means you need to remove the wheel to replace the tire, right? However, with this type of bike, you can’t replace the tire without taking the controller off because the motor is hardwired to the controller. As a result, you need to disassemble half the bike just to change a flat tire, which is a very tedious task. Not to mention, an insane way to design a bike. All bikes like this have a little plug between the motor and the controller so you can remove the back tire.

In other words, the maintenance of this bike is a nightmare. Once they sell you this e-bike, its problems are something you have to deal with in the long run. You might get it cheap at first, but you might also end up spending $300 or $400 just to get it working properly.

It’s a bike that you might as well just throw away as it’s basically a landfill piece that doesn’t have hydraulic brakes but has mechanical brakes instead. Now, you may be wondering, what’s the issue on mechanical brakes? Well, on electric bikes, you need to have higher speed as you go for a lot of miles. If your bike has mechanical brakes, you’ll need to adjust the brakes constantly. In contrast, hydraulic brakes are self-adjusting as you go further. So if you use bikes with mechanical brakes like this one, it means you’re going to ride it at high speeds with faulty or no brakes if you forgot to adjust it.

In total, this bike is something that you’ll need to fix on a daily basis. The brakes, the tires, cheap build and gearing system, and the poor quality with minimal rust-proofing don’t make it reliable as an e-bike at all. Expect maintenance issues for the Ancheer Commuting eCruiser. Even though the descriptions sound overwhelming, it’s still a cheap build. Hence, a zero score on maintenance.

Hill Climbing Ability: 4/10

Hill climbing ability is very important on e-bikes because you’ll be using your bike mostly for transportation. Riding a bike that can’t even power you go up a hill is a big problem. It’s like getting a car that doesn’t go uphill when you need it to.

So for hill-climbing ability, the Ancheer scored a 4 out of 10.

It’s not a single-speed bike. This Ancheer does have a gearing system, but it’s an e-bike equipped with a low power package, with a motor, battery, and basic gearing like a regular e-bike. You can just crank down to the lowest gear and start pedaling, but expect not to get a lot of motors assist. The Commuting eCruiser has a 250 watt rear hub motor which is underpowered. It also has a 12.5 amp hour battery life, which I would call pretty cheap compared to other options on the market. Additionally, it has Chinese cells in the pattern, like those products you’ll find with cheap batteries.

If you get a brand like Samsung, Panasonic, or LG battery cells, then you’ve got yourself high-quality batteries that will last you a long time. Branded batteries can also withstand long periods of use unlike cheap bike batteries which are low-quality and drain faster. You’ll definitely encounter some power issues with cheap batteries.

For the Ancheer Commuting eCruiser, it’s more geared for speed, but it doesn’t even go that fast. So expect to have a hard time trying to ride this bike uphill. Our mechanics certainly did when they took it to a steep hill here in San Diego.

Range: 5/10

This is the attribute the Commuting eCruiser scored best in so far. Although this bike has Chinese cells, it has a 12.5 amp battery. The volume of the battery, however, is fairly large compared to the wattage of the motor. The wattage of the motor has 750 watts on the same hub, which has a lot less range.

They paired a fairly good capacity with a low-powered motor, so it has a low power over a long distance. However, maybe after three months, the range may cut in half after using it for some time. It’s risky when you’re not using branded battery cells in the battery pack.

Comfort: 6/10

I give a higher score on this for comfort because most of the time, Chinese knockoff brands can’t get the comfort correctly, but they’ll still try to make it look good. We found the riding position on the eCruiser quite comfortable and standard for most riders height and size.

Another reason why we gave this a 6 is because it has a decent suspension, and a nice upright ride when cycling.

Universality: 7/10

We give the universality of this bike a 7 out of 10, which is a pretty decent score. Universality answers the question of whether this bike will fit most riders. The Ancheer Commuting eCruiser has a step-through frame with an 18-inch step-over height. The seat is fairly low, too. So, probably, people 5-feet tall or higher are able to ride this bike and be comfortable in it. This bike doesn’t have a lot of adjustability on the handlebars, which can be an issue if you can’t reach them.

Most people can hop on to this bike if it was in a rental fleet of whatever works for most people. If you’re taller, you can just crank up the seat and you’re good to go.

Low Proprietary Risk: 4/10

Next, let’s take a look at the last rating, which is low proprietary risk. We don’t factor this into the tower score at all, so we give the 1 to 10 score separated out. What we’re talking about here is, for example, if this company goes out of business tomorrow, which 95% of these e-bike companies will at some point sooner or later, do you know a store where you can get the shelf parts or replace those parts? Also, is there a lot of proprietary stuff built into this bike? For instance, if this was a 5-year old model, will the company still support it?

The questions mentioned above are big ones that you need to consider. Trust us, as our word is from an e-bike repair shop here. We’re used to people bringing us in some bikes, and some bike companies do not support particular bike models anymore. Unfortunately, you cannot get into these parts, so it will most likely end up in the dump. Unless, you want to opt for getting bike parts from other electric bikes and piece them together, and create some kind of a Frankenstein contraption to get your bike working again, it's important to consider parts sourcing when ebike shopping. Therefore, it’s best to be also aware of how proprietary your bikes are.

The Ancheer Commuting eCruiser scored a 4 out of 10 in this category. While it does have some standards in the case of electronic parts, the majority of this e-bike is proprietary, meaning you have some risk as Chinese non-brand products appear and disappear on the market. On Amazon, they appear on sale for 24 hours, then once it’s gone, there’s a different product that took its place. So, it’s going to be problematic in service, and something to definitely consider if looking to purchase from Ancheer.

That’s it on the overall score here. To summarize, this bike gets a 39 on the Tower Score, which is equal to a “non-recommended” e-bike. It weighs 55 pounds with a decent overall look, like it’s a step-through beach cruiser bike. It does not have flashy colors or anything completely out of the ordinary. Instead, it’s more like a decent-looking bike, minus the quality.

Check out our site for other tower scores of our growing list of e-bike reviews as they come through our repair shop here in San Diego at 3330 Kurtz Street.

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