Lectric XP Review

We're here to take the hassle out of online electric bike shopping. Our professional electric bike mechanics here at the Tower eBike Repair Shop aim to alleviate that stress, and make choosing your next ebike a breeze with complimentary electric bike reviews on the top ebikes on the market. We review all electric bikes on our very own Tower ebike score guiding principles. Our ebike reviews are completely objective and stacked with extensive content detailing everything from purchase experience, to maintenance years down the road. Lets get started!

DISCLAIMER - Lectric and XP are trademarks of Lectric eBikes, 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 Lectric eBikes.

Lectric XP eBike Review

Join us as we review the Lectric XP ebike. Through a detailed scoring system our mechanics review every aspect of the Lectric eBike. Watch our review video or read the full review below detailed with specific commentary videos and content diving deeper into the Lectric.

Unboxing and Assembling a Lectric Electric Bike

As a bike manufacturer that sells only online, Lectric will deliver your bike in a box that will require assembly. Some brands do a better or worse job of handling this purchase and delivery process. How quickly can you expect to receive your Lectric bike? What does the package on a Lextric bike generally look like? These questions are all detailed in our unboxing and assembly guide.

Lectric eBike Unboxing

Follow along with our electric bike expert as we unbox a new Lectric XP ebike. To see the full commentary, read our Lectric eBike Unboxing.

Lectric XP Assembly

Enjoy our complimentary Lectric ebike assembly walkthrough video with some tips form our electric bike mechanic. To read the full commentary, see our Lectric XPpage.

Operation, Troubleshooting and Maintenance of your Lectric XP

Electric bikes tend to have an array of issues and maintenance needed. Our team of electric bicycle experts have put together a helpful resource to help diagnose some of the more common issues you may encounter with your Lectric XP folding bike.

Lectric Screen Walkthrough

Lectric eBike Brakes

Adjusting bike brakes on your Lectric folding ebike is gonna be a recurring task. eBikes require more frequent brake adjustments due to their increased speeds and mileage capacities. For more information on your Lectric brakes,read our Lectric brake adjustment page.

Lectric Flat Tire Repair

Electric bikes are heavier than regular bikes. 20+ lbs on average heavier. With low budget tires and tire liners you may find yourself have lots of flats on your Lectric ebike. Our experts show you how to fix a front or rear flat on your Lectric ebike, and more importantly give you advice on what you can do to minimize flats going forward. Read our commentary on Lectric flat tire repair.

Lectric Bike Maintenance

All ebikes will require service. Due to the fast speeds and quick braking during rides, continued maintenance is always gonna be needed. We detail some maintenance tips that you will want to be proactive about on your Lectric electric bike. A little maintenance can really help you avoid some annoying issues. Read our full Lectric eBike maintenance guide.

Lectric XP Review

Today, we are going to be reviewing and rating the Lectric XP folding electric bike from the company Lectric. Lectric is a relatively new electric bike brand. They focus on a fat tire folding-style electric bike.

They have two models. This is the XP; short for experience. This is their first model electric bike. It comes in a full standard size and a step-through model. The Lectric XP scored a 43 out of 100 on our point scale; which rates the bike as a mediocre e-bike on our Tower e-Bikes Scale.

Before we get into the rationale of that score, I want to introduce myself. My name is Stephan Aarstol. I'm the CEO of Tower e-Bike Repair Shop here in San Diego. We see thousands of different types of e-bikes come into the shop every single month. We have taken an array of electric bikes and created a scoring method that gives all the consumers an all-encompassing ranking.

What we're trying to do here is to get the Tower e-Bikes score. It's a one-figure score for you. Thus, if you're shopping for an electric bike, you can just quickly look at the Tower Score of the e-Bike you’re interested in. This will make it easy to compare e-bikes with similar models, attributes, and figure out which bike is best for you.

As I said, we see thousands of e-bikes come in every single day. What we’re doing here with the Tower Score is we’re having our professional electric bike mechanics review each e-bike on an array of topics. Then, we break it all down into one score. The Tower Score is a 100-point scale score where we rate each bike on seven key attributes. In each of those seven attributes, the bike can score from one to 10. Next, we take those seven points and push them into a number that's out of 100. The closer the number is to a hundred, the better.

The seven key attributes that we review each bike on are as follows:

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

That's the Tower e-bike Score. We also have a secondary score, called the Specialty Score and this score omits the comfort and the universality attributes. The reason we have this Specialty Score along with our Tower e-Bikes score is that some e-Bikes are tough to grade on comfort and universality when they really aren't built or made for those specificities in mind. It'd be unfair to judge a fish by how good it is at climbing trees, so to speak.

For instance, some mountain bikes aren't really meant to fit every size frame. Some bikes come in at a smaller size, some bikes come in a larger size, and some are custom built. Especially when you get into the $8,000-range of electric bikes, the bikes are custom built for the customer. Thus, we like to have this Specialty Score added additionally to the score of each electric bike that we review.

Now, let's get straight into the Tower e-Bike Score.

Materials Quality - 3/10

The first attribute that we looked at was materials quality. It's an important quality to look at on these e-bikes. If a company cheaps out on the quality of its materials, they'll usually cheap out on other areas as well. It's one of the first things we like to look at. We check if the seats are made of premium materials or if the bike has nice grips on it. We also look at if the manufacturers just focus all their attention on the motor or the tires.

For materials quality, the Lectric XP scored a three. Although the frame is nice and stainless, it’s a pretty standard aluminum one. It has lower-quality components surrounding the motor. The seats aren’t that comfortable; the same goes for the grips.

We think they spent all their time on the motor and the battery. Thus, when it came to surrounding the bike with materials that will last, they compensated. They were trying to hit a price point here. The focus wasn’t on the quality of its materials.

Mechanical Quality - 2/10

The next attribute we looked at was mechanical quality. The Lectric XP on mechanical quality scored a two; due largely to having mechanical brakes. Here at the Tower e-Bike Repair Shop, we see bikes come in all the time with mechanical brakes that need brake adjustments. Even if the brake pads are new, their brakes are squeaking.

No electric bike should come with mechanical brakes. Every single electric bike should have hydraulic brakes or self-adjusting brakes. Otherwise, you're just going to get a bike that's going to be squeaking and squealing every time you brake. This is especially true when you're going to be riding an electric bike further and harder than you would a normal bike. Having a mechanical brake on them is just not a good idea. You're going to want to invest in a bike that has hydraulic brakes.

Then, there are a couple of other kinds of lower-quality components on here in the mechanical area. It does have a relatively cheap derailleur and a lot of non-branded components. They cheaped out on the mechanical quality.

Low Maintenance - 2/10

The next attribute we looked at here is low maintenance. A perfect 10 would mean that you’d not need to check it every single time you ride, you’d not need to repeatedly visit a repair shop, maintenance is done very rarely, and the bike self-adjusts everything. A zero would mean the exact opposite of all those that I described.

On the low maintenance score, the Lectric XP scored a two. This, again, speaks volumes about the mechanical quality. The bike has mechanical brakes. Meaning, it's going to need to be adjusted all the time. There's multiple gearing on this bike, which is both good and bad. You're going to have better hill-climbing power with multiple gears. However, that does mean that there are more things that can go wrong in the gearing and, most especially, the crankset.

Thus, it scored a two out of 10. It wasn't the greatest, to say the least. Especially when compared to a lot of other electric bikes available nowadays.

Hill-climbing Ability - 7/10

Now, let's get into hill-climbing ability. This is a really important attribute. A lot of people get electric bikes because they want that extra push and power for uphill climbs. A lot of people need assistance and clarification here so that they won’t mistakenly get an electric bike just because they want to get a little bit of a boost while running on flat grounds. A lot of people are in the market for electric bikes because they do live in a hill area and need assistance climbing.

We looked at the motor capacity and a couple of other different settings. The Lectric XP scored a seven out of 10 on the hill-climbing ability. It's got a 500-watt hub motor; which is nice. Plus, it's light. It's got nice, grainy gearing to it. Also, it's easy to switch into different gears. You can play with different areas here. Not only can you get higher pedal access, but you can also switch to a lower gear. Whereas with single-speed bikes, you're stuck in that one gear. Meaning, when you reach a hill, you're just peddling the same amount of force every single time.

It was nice that the Lectric XP had those grainy gears paired with a pretty decent motor.

Range - 2/10

And then, the next attribute we looked at is range. We dissected the Lectric XP’s battery and here’s what we found. It's a 500-watt, 10-amp hour battery with a 48-volt system. And the most important part of batteries is which cells are inside of them.

When you're e-bike shopping, you're going to want to look for an electric bike that has branded cells. Some reputable brands are Lee, Panasonic, LG, and Samsung. If a company doesn't state that they have Samsung, LG, or Panasonic cells, then more than likely they are cutting corners and getting low-quality Chinese battery cells. Meaning, the battery won’t last very long. It's going to run at fewer cycles and its range per charge won’t be adequate.

Thus, after all that, we find that it's only fair to give this bike a two out of 10 on range.

Comfortability Score - 7/10

Next, we looked at the comfortability attribute. This is a commonly overlooked attribute on most e-bikes. A lot of people look at bikes and are both fascinated and blinded by their looks. So much so that they don't really pay attention to the glaring fact that it's not comfortable. Meaning, you're not going to want to ride it.

Here on comfortability, we looked at a couple of different things. We looked at the positioning of the seat. Does it make the ride more comfortable? And on the Lectric XP, it scored a seven out of 10 on comfort. This is in large part due to it not having a suspension, however. It does redeem itself by having nice fat tires. Thus, if you do run over hard rocks or go off-roading, you have minimal suspension with those tires there. It also has a nice riding position. They have a flat bar as the handlebar. This gives you a nice stand-up position. It isn't too uncomfortable to ride. The bike scored pretty well here.

We gave it a seven out of 10 on comfort, and then we also looked at the universality of the bike.

Universality Score - 7/10

Basically, universality specifically refers to how vast the demographic range this bike can cater to. Is it just for smaller people or can it reliably cater to bigger ones? Is it just for kids or for adults as well? Here, look at a bunch of different measurements within the bike. And for universality, it scored a seven out of 10. You will find a common theme. A lot of these folding electric bikes are fitted for almost any height of any rider.

They do have nice adjustments that you can turn. You can move the handlebars up, which is highly appreciated. If you are a taller rider, fret not because there's enough space to customize here.

Low Proprietary Risk Score - 3/10

Now, the last thing we looked at here, which is I think the most important, is the low proprietary risk. We see it all the time, especially here at the Tower e-Bike Repairs Shop. Customers come in and, maybe the company they bought their bikes from ran out of business and now they have a components problem. Some bikes have a proprietary battery or a proprietary controller. We can't fix their bike because you can't just install a new controller or a new battery and conjure Frankenstein. You're going to have to go directly through the original company to get replacement parts.

For this attribute, we’re looking at if the companies selling or manufacturing the bikes are using standard, off-the-shelf parts. Are they easily accessible? Can you call the company to get replacement parts? How difficult will they be about it? We also consider the potentiality of the company to go out of business and leave you stuck with a bike that you can't repair.

Thus, you see, it's critical to consider all of these facts before investing tons of money on an electric bike. You want to make sure that if something goes wrong, you can get those parts, you can get it fixed, and that it wasn’t too much of a hassle.

On low proprietary risk here, the Lectric XP scored a three because there are a lot of non-standard parts on this bike. To their credit, this is common with folding electric bikes especially. The battery is inside the frame of the bike. Moreover, it is custom-sized. You can't just put any other battery inside this frame. You're going to have to go through Lectric to get the replacement battery if and when needed. It also has a non-standard LCD screen and a non-branded motor. Again, on the motor here, it's not something you can just easily replace.

In our experience, especially dealing with customers here in San Diego who do have electric bikes, we did find that Lectric does have pretty good customer support. They are reachable on the phone and they are quite capable of sending replacement parts. I did score a three here, which is decent for the low proprietary risk.

Overall Tower Score (43) and Specialty Score (32)

Again, it scored a 43 out of a hundred; giving it a mediocre e-bike rating. For Specialty Score, we omit universality and the comfort of the bike. On the Specialty Score, I gave it a score of 32.

Weight - 56 pounds

And then the last attribute we'll look at here for the Specialty Score is the weight of the bike. It weighs 56 pounds. For folding bikes, that's quite heavy.

The main reason customers purchase folding bikes is because they can easily lug them into their car. You can maybe store it in your garage as well. You're probably going to be picking up this bike if it's a folding bike more often than not. That may be the potential reason people get folding bikes; because they don't have ample space to store them.

56 pounds is quite heavy to pick up. Even though you can fold it down and move it around, when it is folded, 56 pounds is something to consider. Even for folding bikes, it is a high number.

We haven’t talked much about its look. It looks like a run-of-the-mill, stereotypical folding bike. If you’re in the market for a specific folding bike, you'll notice that a lot of these bikes look very similar. It does look very similar to other folding bikes.

Conclusion

That's our Tower e-Bike Score and our Specialty Score. I hope you enjoyed this review. Check out our site for other Tower Scores and a growing list of other e-bikes; especially the ones that we see come through here on our repair shop very frequently.