Eahora X7 Review

The Eahora X7 is a classic looking folding ebike. Most folding electric bikes possess the same structural frame design with the bike's battery within the center frame of the bike. Eahora as a company also makes electric scooters, electric motorcycles and other accessories. Eahora went cheap with the main components on the X7 with low quality grips, pedals and an uncomfortable seat, and seemed to have invested more of their money in the motor and range on the X7. The X7 scored a 47 on our tower ebike score, labeling it as a mediocre ebike.

DISCLAIMER - Eahora eBikes and X7 are trademarks of Eahora, 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 Eahora

Eahora X7

We're going to review and rate the Eahora X7 e-bike. It is a Chinese-based company that mainly sells through Amazon. Many companies give you low-end bicycle components, but the Eahora e-bike isn’t one of those. The company did a decent job on the electronics. Many of these Chinese companies are often bad at service. Oftentimes, they sell you something that might as well be disposable. However, the Eahora X7 is somewhat unique.

Although, as previously mentioned, it has good electronics, it's also paired with a few horrendous parts. The Eahora X7 e-bike gets a 47 on our 100-point scale, which rates it as a mediocre e-bike. However, the X7 is 10 to 20 points higher than typical Chinese non-brands that, a lot of times, are marketed through Amazon. It’s bad but not the worst.

Before we get into the review on the Eahora X7 e-bike, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Stephan Aarstol. I'm the founder and CEO of the Tower e-Bike Repair Shop here in San Diego. We get hundreds of different brands and models of e-bikes that come through our shop every month. Because of this, we get a good sense of the quality of various bikes. This comes naturally to us because we're always having to repair a lot of different components on a variety of e-bikes.

We also dig into the electronics on certain bikes and, oftentimes, what we see is unbelievable. It's hard for consumers to judge one e-bike from another. Although e-bikes might typically look the same, there's a massive spectrum at play in the e-bike industry. For instance, some bikes go for $500 and $15,000 and they're both considered e-bikes. It's a very confusing industry for consumers unless you're an electronics expert or a long-time e-bike enthusiast.

Thus, we put together the Tower e-Bikes Score. It's a 100-point scale that involves seven key attributes. We give a score of 1 to 10 on each of these attributes, and then we normalize that number to get a single point score so that you can compare one electric bike to another. The seven attributes that we rate are as follows:

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

We’re going to dive into these individually. After which, we're going to combine these seven components, and then normalize them to get to a 100-point score. The higher the score, the better the bike. It’s like a wine spectator score. It has a single-point score where they judge the quality and the level of thought that went into the production of this e-bike. By doing all this, we hope to make it easier for consumers to decide if the bike they want is worth their money.

More often than not, people judge a bike by its price and appearance. This is why consumers are deceived by looks and marketers know that. We want to lift the smoke and marketing gimmicks and show the e-bike for what it truly is.

Our overall score is dictated by the Tower e-Bikes Score, but we also have a second 100-point score called the Specialty Score. The Specialty Score omits the last two attributes, which are comfort and universality. The reason we create the Specialty Score is that, in the traditional bike world, there are bikes that are made for specific purposes and not necessarily for comfort. These are bikes that are meant for recreation. Also, niche bikes such as mountain bikes, road bikes, and racing bikes aren't necessarily made for comfort.

Moreover, these e-bikes are not made with universality in mind. They aren’t a one-size-fits-all type of bike. In fact, they have five different frame sizes. For those more specialty bikes, it's better to look at the Specialty Score instead of our Tower Score because our Tower Score incorporates all seven of these attributes. We believe that comfort and universality are important on e-bikes because most people are getting e-bikes for transportation. It's less about exercise and recreation and more about getting around their area.

e-Bike Materials Quality 3/10

Let's explore the first category; materials quality. The Eahora X7 gets a score of three. It has an aluminum frame, which isn't like a cheap metal frame. They also put a mid-range tire on it, which is the CST tire. Those are the parts they did right. The rest of the e-bike is composed of low-end parts. It’ll rust too. The e-bike isn’t made of great material. They thrifted on money if we’re looking at it from the materials quality standpoint.

Overall, they get a three on materials quality.

eBike Mechanical Quality 2/10

Moving on to the second category; the mechanical quality. This category isn’t so much about its electrical components. It gets a score of two on mechanical quality, which is a pretty low score. This is in large part due to the e-bike having mechanical disc brakes. We will always be advocates of hydraulic brakes for electrical bikes. Furthermore, they’re low-end mechanical disc brakes.

Also, this is a fat tire electric bike. They have the standard 20-inch by 4-inch tires. However, you do get cushion and suspension on this bike, which is nice. But again, it's not high-quality suspension, so you could potentially have problems there. Additionally, you’re getting a cheap derailleur on the Eahora X7.

Since the overall parts on this e-bike are not high-quality, it gets a score of two for mechanical quality.

Low Maintenance Electric Bike 1/10

The next attribute is the low maintenance category. Being a professional e-bike repair shop here in San Diego, this is one of the things that we look at closely. Usually, people get an e-bike and they don't realize how much maintenance will cost them. A lot of people have a regular bicycle, but you don’t even have to take that into a shop. You can repair the flats yourself, even for the bike’s lifetime. But when you get into electric bikes that are a lot more capable than a regular bicycle, you tend to go ten times farther.

You tend to rack up miles while also needing to be on top of maintenance. People are surprised when they come into the repair shop the first time when the bike’s electrical components go wrong. Frequent repairs can be quite expensive. We think that it is important to consider how much maintenance you’re going to have to do for your bike. This is the reason why we include the low maintenance scale. The higher the score, the less maintenance it is going to need.

The Eahora X7 e-bike gets a score of one on low maintenance, which is highly unfortunate. However, there is some rust-proofing on this e-bike. Other than that, though, you may encounter a lot of maintenance issues on this particular e-bike. The tires are mid-range tires, but they're not super durable. So, you're going to get flat tires on this and flat tires are a real pain in the neck to change on electric bikes, especially on the rear tire. You have to, basically, disconnect the electronics to get that electric bike tire off. The rear tires are challenging on e-bikes.

This e-bike also sports mechanical disc brakes instead of hydraulic disc brakes. Thus, they're not self-adjusting. Basically, you’d have to adjust them every hundred miles or so. You're going to have to do little adjustments yourself, and that's going to be every two or three trips that you take on this bike. There will be constant adjusting of the brakes. If you don't, you'll find you don't have brakes to stop. Also, it's got a chain with a derailleur, but a pretty low-end derailleur. In short, you're going to have maintenance issues with all of those parts. It would be best to be prepared for that.

Electric Bicycle Hill-climbing Ability 9/10

The fourth attribute on the Tower e-Bike Score is the hill-climbing ability. Many people want an e-bike so that they can easily go anywhere. In fact, it is built for transportation. Say for example you’d have to go to a hilly area of town. You wouldn’t buy an entire car just for that single purpose, would you? And walking can be a drag. Thus, people tend to go for e-bikes. It’s fun, it’s not nearly as expensive as getting an entire car and it can be a new hobby for you.

This is why the hill-climbing ability of an e-bike is vital. It is also vital that the e-bike has powerful motors on it. You have to put solid cells and good size battery packs on there. You need to have the gearing right as well. A lot of e-bikes don't do that very well.

Surprisingly, the Eahora X7 e-bike did a great job of it. We give them a score of 9 out of 10 on hill-climbing ability. They do have a gearing system as well as a very powerful 750-watt hub motor with gearing on it. And that combination will allow this bike to climb hills pretty well. It’s even a lot better than some of the branded bikes that you see on the market. These guys did a pretty good job of that so we'll give them credit there.

Electric Bike Range 7/10

The next attribute that we looked at was range. We give it a 7 out of 10, which means it has adequate range on a single charge. They also use decent cells in the battery. They paired the 750-watt motor with a 15-amp hour battery. In fact, the battery is the most expensive part of an e-bike, especially if you give it high-end cells. Although they placed high-quality battery cells on the Eahora X7, it could still be better. We gave it a 7 out of 10, which isn't horrible.

eBike Comfort 5/10

The next attribute is comfort, and the Eahora X7 e-bike gets a five on comfort. It’s a folding bike. It has a lot of adjustability to the seat as well. Although it seems to be a low-end seat, it's not horrible. The seat is adjustable. Also, you've got a semi-upright sitting position. There's not much of a pedal-forward design but it's a compact bike. So you won't have to stretch for the handlebars and whatnot. All these factors combined give the Eahora X7 a five on comfort.

e-Bike Universality 6/10

The last attribute that we rate is universality. On this bike, we give it a 6 out of 10. This is partly because the Eahora X7 is smaller than the standard e-bike. You've got a seat post that goes down pretty low. Thus, most people, even kids, can get on this. I think it’s about 30 inches high if we measure how high the seat post can go. You've got a little adjustability on the handlebars; it goes up and down. Thus, heightwise, this will work for most people. It does have some universality to it, so six is not a horrible score.

Tower e-Bike Score (47) and Specialty Score (44)

Those are the seven attributes that make up the Tower Score of 47, which makes it a mediocre e-bike. As I said, this is a tale of two bikes. It's somehow a mixture of a low-end mechanical bike but with impressive electronics on it. They invested the money in the electronics and cut some corners on the e-bike or the bicycle parts of it. Overall, it gets a score of 47 on our 100-point scale. It also gets a 44 on the Specialty Score. This means that it’s in the mediocre e-bike range on both scores.

Weight - 63lbs

The weight of this bike is 63lbs. This is a folding electric bike, so it’s quite heavy. Basically, if you have to fold this up and then lift it into the trunk of your car, it'll be quite the task. Especially if you have to do this repeatedly. Typically, folding bikes are quite light and they're made to be portable. However, the Eahora X7 e-bike is a heavy yet portable bike. We don't factor that into our Tower e-Bike Score, but it is something we want to make consumers aware of.

Looks

Another thing that we don't factor into the e-bike score is its overall looks. The Eahora X7 has a weird-like rear shock and it folds up. It looks funky. However, beauty will always be in the eye of the beholder. Some people will like it while others won't. This is why we don’t include this in the above categories.

And people will be able to tell it's an electric bike because it's got fat tires, and it’s quite noisy. Going down the boardwalk or sidewalk will make you feel a little bit obnoxious, particularly when you get into these sort of fat tire mini-bikes. Also, it looks more like a trail rider or a motorcycle. Some people like that though. If you're going to use it for camping and activities of the like, that might be great.

Low Proprietary Risk 3/10

Another attribute that we dive into is the Low Proprietary Risk category. For this category, we give a one to ten score, but we don't include this in the Tower e-Bike Score. This bike gets a 3 out of 10 on low proprietary risk, which is a low score.

What if this company goes out of business, or they stop producing and supporting this model? What will happen to you? Those are things that we’re trying to judge here and we see this a lot in our Tower e-Bike Repair Shop here in San Diego. People bring in a bike of which the company they bought from went out of business a few years ago. Now, there's no ability to get parts on it.

If they tend to use more universal parts on the bikes, we can replace those from other sources. But if there's a lot of proprietary parts that were from a long-gone company, then you've got a problem. Basically, you can't fix your bikes. You may have spent a couple of thousand dollars on it, and now you might be forced to throw it away. You can't fix it unless you're going to redo the whole electrical system yourself, which can run upwards of $1000 or more.

To sum up, we give this e-bike a 3 out of 10 on Low Proprietary Risk.

So that's it for the Eahora X7 e-bike. You can always check out our site for Tower Scores on a growing list of other e-bikes that we get our hands-on, as they come through the Tower e-Bike Repair Shop.

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