The Bike:
Manufacturer: Haibike
Model: Xduro AllMtn 5.0 Flyon
Model Year: 2020
Price Paid: 5299
New/Used: Brand New
Score (out of 10): 6
Review: This is my first review but after searching and not finding many long term or thorough reviews I thought I would write my own. I have also been able to get my hands on a few ebikes recently so thought I would be able to offer some good insight into how I have found them. To start with, its worth probably mentioning a bit about me. I started riding again two years ago at the age of 33. I decided to give up playing football and thought Mountain Biking would be a safer and less injury prone sport. I might have been wrong with that thinking!
Anyway, onto the bike. I purchased the Haibike Allmtn 5.0 in June 2020. Covid lockdown made me get out a lot more and being constantly overtaken on the climbs by ebikes made me want one. I love the downs and find the ups a necessary evil. When ebikes can do twice the number of runs as a non ebike, it was an obvious decision.
When choosing the bike it was on my shortlist with two others. The Haibike Allmtn 3.5 and The YT Decoy. I dismissed the Decoy purely on the basis of it using the old Shimano Steps E8000 motor and the lack of a UK based warranty and service centre. I felt the E8000 motor was older tech and would likely be replaced (which it now has been by the EP8) and that it slightly lacked behind the other brands in terms of power. Since then, YT have opened The Mill in Guildford. If this was there in June 2020 I think I would have gone with the Decoy based on the components and value for money it offered. I have since had a chance to test ride the Decoy and will be doing a review on one shortly.
I decided to go for the Allmtn 5.0 Flyon over the 3.5 purely on the power figures alone. I couldn’t resist the 120nm motor. Componentry wise, it was certainly a lower spec than the 3.5 but I thought everything eventually wears out, so I could upgrade parts at a point in the future. I didn’t quite realise how quickly parts would wear out!
I am 6ft1 and I opted for the Large 47cm bike. I generally fit between a L and XL and liked the idea of the Large as it would hopefully be a little more nimble. Also, with Covid and the issues this had and still does cause with stock, Large was all that was available. Similarly, this was the main reason I ended up with the 5.0 and not the 8.0 version.
The bike as standard comes with SRAM NX groupset, 150mm of front and rear travel from the Rockshox Yari forks and Rockshox Delux Select plus shock, and the Magura MT5 brakes (can’t recommend these enough they were epic). Motor wise you have the Flyon TQ motor pumping out 120Nm of torque and a 630Wh battery. The bike comes in at 28kg which is pretty substantial. Full spec can be found online but these are the highlights.
I had the bike for a little over 6 months and think I managed to put it through its paces to give it a fair review. I took it riding at the Afan Bike Park, Windhill Bike Park, Rogate bike park, Twisted Oaks and lots of other trail riding. In total I covered a little over 700 miles.
I thought the bike rode really well. It felt super planted and balanced. The 28kg weight disappeared when I got the bike moving and it felt surprisingly playful and nimble in the turns. In the 6 months of owning the bike my skill and confidence grew immensely. I was hitting large gaps and drops with ease. The bike took everything I threw at it in its stride. To be fair to the bike I don’t think it was designed for the type of riding I was doing and I would have definitely been more suited to the 180mm travel Nduro. The mullet setup with the 29 inch front and 27.5 inch rear wheels felt great. It kept the traction and acceleration of the rear wheel and the rollover benefits of the front. The bike would bulldoze itself through rooty and bumpy terrain and with the 120nm of power it very quick and an absolute joy. I felt the RockShox Yari’s were perhaps a little under equipped for really bumpy, rocky and rooty terrain and I found myself getting a lot of arm pump. So I decided to upgrade to the charger 2.1 damper. This was a £300 addition, but it transformed the fork. It made them super smooth and the added High and Low speed compression settings really helped to improve the rideability of the bike. With this damper and the debonair air shaft, the forks were transformed into the higher spec Rockshox Lyrik’s. I have read a lot of criticism of the rear shock on these and to be honest it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Certainly not something I would upgrade immediately. It felt a bit wallowy but not the worst I have ridden.
Geometry wise, the bike is certainly perfect for trail riding with the 65.5 degree head angle and the 29er up front it was comfortable on the ups and planted on the downs. The chain stays are quite long at 470mm. The chain stay length, combined with the weight made the bike hard, but not impossible to wheelie and manual. However, on the really steep technical climbs you can see why they are so long. They kept the front wheel down when other bikes would have you off the back. The bike could climb hills that I struggle to even walk up.
I found the SRAM NX groupset to be completely inadequate. The 120nm of torque was, in my opinion, too much for the NX to handle. I snapped more chains than I can remember and at one point around Afan Bike Park the chain skipped and tore 3 teeth off the cassette. I don’t mean, rounded the teeth, I mean ripped a hole out of the cassette. This led me to upgrade to the 8 speed SRAM EX1 groupset. It’s an ebike specific setup and I felt the 8 speed complimented the power from the motor.
Range is something everyone asks me about this bike and unfortunately there is no hard or fast answer to this. There are so many factors that impact range (weight, temperature, mode, elevation, effort, etc) its hard to say how far you can get on this bike. The most I managed to get was 31 miles and the lowest I was able to do was 14miles. Thankfully, when you run out of power there is zero resistance from the motor so its realistic that you can peddle home under your own steam. Although, it does feel like peddling a motorbike. The motor has 5 power modes Eco, Low, Mid, High and Xtreme. In Xtreme you will burn through the battery in no time at all. If your out for a quick power hour, its amazing and so much fun. The acceleration cannot be compared or beaten by any of the other mainstream motors on the market. Working through modes and using them sensibly can certainly help to get an average range of 20-24 miles, or a ½ day session at one of the bike parks. Unfortunately, I found a second battery was required for days out or rides longer than 3 hours. The motor is a little louder than the Bosch Gen 4 and Shimano E8000 motors but this didn’t concern me.
The display is very informative providing info on speed, cadence, rider power, motor power, calories burned and most importantly range. It was probably more information than I need but it was nice to have. Also, with the Haibike app you can track the location of your bike so if its misplace you can easily find it again. Similarly, if you crash it will send an alert to your nearest and dearest, with the location of the ditch you are lying in. All nice little extras to have but not something I will necessarily miss.
Reliability was my biggest frustration with this bike. I know of other Haibike owners who have never had a single issue with their bikes and reliability wasn’t a huge concern to me when making the purchase. Mainly due to their reputation but also the very comprehensive warranty. Maybe it was because this was the first generation of the Flyon series or maybe it was rushed to get to market, but I had more issues that I wanted in 6 months of ownership. The first issue I encountered was with the motor switch. The design of the switch and location of the dropper seat post switch meant that you would often hit the power modes when dropping the seat. This meant an uncomfortable setup was needed to avoid the two interfering with each other. After a week or two the switch stopped working and needed to be replaced. All under warranty so I wasn’t too concerned.
The second issue was the development of a very loud creaking from the motor upon every pedal stroke. This developed after a handful of rides and was very annoying. It turned out to be the two motor bolts holding the motor to the frame were working loose. This was a constant issue. No sooner were the bolts re-tightened than they would work loose again and the creaking would resume. I think some thread lock would have solved this issue, but I just built it into my post ride maintenance routine. I believe this is a common fault, as speaking to other Flyon owners they all seemed to have the same problem.
Then the issues started with the wiring, electrics and motor. On a trip to Windhill bike park, after a morning of great riding we broke for lunch. This meant the second battery was required. After fitting the spare battery, I received a critical error warning. No amount of resetting or turning the bike off and on would help. Days riding over and a 3 hour drive home. Upon investigation at the bike shop where i bought the bike, it was identified to be the wiring harness needed to be replaced. Again, another warranty replacement. All the time its not costing me to fix I’m relatively satisfied. However, no sooner do I get the bike back and go for a few rides I get another critical error. This time it’s a different error, but one that clears when the bike is warmed up. Strange! Anyway, took it back to the bike shop and it’s a replacement motor that’s required. Again, under warranty. The issue this time is the time it takes to get a replacement motor. Not Haibikes fault but all down to Covid restrictions.
Despite these issues, the Haibike warranty and my local bike shop have done everything they possibly can to get these issues fixed and resolved as quickly as possible and when I got the bike back it felt brand new. Having a warranty like this has certainly made me see the value in supporting a local bike shop, I dread to think how these items would have been resolved or the amount of time I would have spent sending the bike places if I had bought from an online only supplier.
In summary, I really enjoyed owning the bike and it helped my riding come on leaps and bounds. The enjoyment of riding the bike outweighed the reliability issues and I think I would buy another Flyon in the future. Assuming all the teething issues are all resolved. I didn’t have any issue with the bikes weight (other than lifting over styles), if anything I felt it was more planted and controlled and more playful than I had expected. The power and torque was phenomenal and I don’t think it can be beaten. I would have liked better components in terms of gearing, but I felt the other components were bang on the money. Most importantly it levelled out the climbs!
Check out my Instagram on @emtb_lad for more pics videos and future reviews.
Up next YT Decoy review.
Coming Soon 2021 Scott Genius eRide 900 Tuned Review
Coming Later 2021 Scott Ransom eRide 910 Review
Manufacturer: Haibike
Model: Xduro AllMtn 5.0 Flyon
Model Year: 2020
Price Paid: 5299
New/Used: Brand New
Score (out of 10): 6
Review: This is my first review but after searching and not finding many long term or thorough reviews I thought I would write my own. I have also been able to get my hands on a few ebikes recently so thought I would be able to offer some good insight into how I have found them. To start with, its worth probably mentioning a bit about me. I started riding again two years ago at the age of 33. I decided to give up playing football and thought Mountain Biking would be a safer and less injury prone sport. I might have been wrong with that thinking!
Anyway, onto the bike. I purchased the Haibike Allmtn 5.0 in June 2020. Covid lockdown made me get out a lot more and being constantly overtaken on the climbs by ebikes made me want one. I love the downs and find the ups a necessary evil. When ebikes can do twice the number of runs as a non ebike, it was an obvious decision.
When choosing the bike it was on my shortlist with two others. The Haibike Allmtn 3.5 and The YT Decoy. I dismissed the Decoy purely on the basis of it using the old Shimano Steps E8000 motor and the lack of a UK based warranty and service centre. I felt the E8000 motor was older tech and would likely be replaced (which it now has been by the EP8) and that it slightly lacked behind the other brands in terms of power. Since then, YT have opened The Mill in Guildford. If this was there in June 2020 I think I would have gone with the Decoy based on the components and value for money it offered. I have since had a chance to test ride the Decoy and will be doing a review on one shortly.
I decided to go for the Allmtn 5.0 Flyon over the 3.5 purely on the power figures alone. I couldn’t resist the 120nm motor. Componentry wise, it was certainly a lower spec than the 3.5 but I thought everything eventually wears out, so I could upgrade parts at a point in the future. I didn’t quite realise how quickly parts would wear out!
I am 6ft1 and I opted for the Large 47cm bike. I generally fit between a L and XL and liked the idea of the Large as it would hopefully be a little more nimble. Also, with Covid and the issues this had and still does cause with stock, Large was all that was available. Similarly, this was the main reason I ended up with the 5.0 and not the 8.0 version.
The bike as standard comes with SRAM NX groupset, 150mm of front and rear travel from the Rockshox Yari forks and Rockshox Delux Select plus shock, and the Magura MT5 brakes (can’t recommend these enough they were epic). Motor wise you have the Flyon TQ motor pumping out 120Nm of torque and a 630Wh battery. The bike comes in at 28kg which is pretty substantial. Full spec can be found online but these are the highlights.
I had the bike for a little over 6 months and think I managed to put it through its paces to give it a fair review. I took it riding at the Afan Bike Park, Windhill Bike Park, Rogate bike park, Twisted Oaks and lots of other trail riding. In total I covered a little over 700 miles.
I thought the bike rode really well. It felt super planted and balanced. The 28kg weight disappeared when I got the bike moving and it felt surprisingly playful and nimble in the turns. In the 6 months of owning the bike my skill and confidence grew immensely. I was hitting large gaps and drops with ease. The bike took everything I threw at it in its stride. To be fair to the bike I don’t think it was designed for the type of riding I was doing and I would have definitely been more suited to the 180mm travel Nduro. The mullet setup with the 29 inch front and 27.5 inch rear wheels felt great. It kept the traction and acceleration of the rear wheel and the rollover benefits of the front. The bike would bulldoze itself through rooty and bumpy terrain and with the 120nm of power it very quick and an absolute joy. I felt the RockShox Yari’s were perhaps a little under equipped for really bumpy, rocky and rooty terrain and I found myself getting a lot of arm pump. So I decided to upgrade to the charger 2.1 damper. This was a £300 addition, but it transformed the fork. It made them super smooth and the added High and Low speed compression settings really helped to improve the rideability of the bike. With this damper and the debonair air shaft, the forks were transformed into the higher spec Rockshox Lyrik’s. I have read a lot of criticism of the rear shock on these and to be honest it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Certainly not something I would upgrade immediately. It felt a bit wallowy but not the worst I have ridden.
Geometry wise, the bike is certainly perfect for trail riding with the 65.5 degree head angle and the 29er up front it was comfortable on the ups and planted on the downs. The chain stays are quite long at 470mm. The chain stay length, combined with the weight made the bike hard, but not impossible to wheelie and manual. However, on the really steep technical climbs you can see why they are so long. They kept the front wheel down when other bikes would have you off the back. The bike could climb hills that I struggle to even walk up.
I found the SRAM NX groupset to be completely inadequate. The 120nm of torque was, in my opinion, too much for the NX to handle. I snapped more chains than I can remember and at one point around Afan Bike Park the chain skipped and tore 3 teeth off the cassette. I don’t mean, rounded the teeth, I mean ripped a hole out of the cassette. This led me to upgrade to the 8 speed SRAM EX1 groupset. It’s an ebike specific setup and I felt the 8 speed complimented the power from the motor.
Range is something everyone asks me about this bike and unfortunately there is no hard or fast answer to this. There are so many factors that impact range (weight, temperature, mode, elevation, effort, etc) its hard to say how far you can get on this bike. The most I managed to get was 31 miles and the lowest I was able to do was 14miles. Thankfully, when you run out of power there is zero resistance from the motor so its realistic that you can peddle home under your own steam. Although, it does feel like peddling a motorbike. The motor has 5 power modes Eco, Low, Mid, High and Xtreme. In Xtreme you will burn through the battery in no time at all. If your out for a quick power hour, its amazing and so much fun. The acceleration cannot be compared or beaten by any of the other mainstream motors on the market. Working through modes and using them sensibly can certainly help to get an average range of 20-24 miles, or a ½ day session at one of the bike parks. Unfortunately, I found a second battery was required for days out or rides longer than 3 hours. The motor is a little louder than the Bosch Gen 4 and Shimano E8000 motors but this didn’t concern me.
The display is very informative providing info on speed, cadence, rider power, motor power, calories burned and most importantly range. It was probably more information than I need but it was nice to have. Also, with the Haibike app you can track the location of your bike so if its misplace you can easily find it again. Similarly, if you crash it will send an alert to your nearest and dearest, with the location of the ditch you are lying in. All nice little extras to have but not something I will necessarily miss.
Reliability was my biggest frustration with this bike. I know of other Haibike owners who have never had a single issue with their bikes and reliability wasn’t a huge concern to me when making the purchase. Mainly due to their reputation but also the very comprehensive warranty. Maybe it was because this was the first generation of the Flyon series or maybe it was rushed to get to market, but I had more issues that I wanted in 6 months of ownership. The first issue I encountered was with the motor switch. The design of the switch and location of the dropper seat post switch meant that you would often hit the power modes when dropping the seat. This meant an uncomfortable setup was needed to avoid the two interfering with each other. After a week or two the switch stopped working and needed to be replaced. All under warranty so I wasn’t too concerned.
The second issue was the development of a very loud creaking from the motor upon every pedal stroke. This developed after a handful of rides and was very annoying. It turned out to be the two motor bolts holding the motor to the frame were working loose. This was a constant issue. No sooner were the bolts re-tightened than they would work loose again and the creaking would resume. I think some thread lock would have solved this issue, but I just built it into my post ride maintenance routine. I believe this is a common fault, as speaking to other Flyon owners they all seemed to have the same problem.
Then the issues started with the wiring, electrics and motor. On a trip to Windhill bike park, after a morning of great riding we broke for lunch. This meant the second battery was required. After fitting the spare battery, I received a critical error warning. No amount of resetting or turning the bike off and on would help. Days riding over and a 3 hour drive home. Upon investigation at the bike shop where i bought the bike, it was identified to be the wiring harness needed to be replaced. Again, another warranty replacement. All the time its not costing me to fix I’m relatively satisfied. However, no sooner do I get the bike back and go for a few rides I get another critical error. This time it’s a different error, but one that clears when the bike is warmed up. Strange! Anyway, took it back to the bike shop and it’s a replacement motor that’s required. Again, under warranty. The issue this time is the time it takes to get a replacement motor. Not Haibikes fault but all down to Covid restrictions.
Despite these issues, the Haibike warranty and my local bike shop have done everything they possibly can to get these issues fixed and resolved as quickly as possible and when I got the bike back it felt brand new. Having a warranty like this has certainly made me see the value in supporting a local bike shop, I dread to think how these items would have been resolved or the amount of time I would have spent sending the bike places if I had bought from an online only supplier.
In summary, I really enjoyed owning the bike and it helped my riding come on leaps and bounds. The enjoyment of riding the bike outweighed the reliability issues and I think I would buy another Flyon in the future. Assuming all the teething issues are all resolved. I didn’t have any issue with the bikes weight (other than lifting over styles), if anything I felt it was more planted and controlled and more playful than I had expected. The power and torque was phenomenal and I don’t think it can be beaten. I would have liked better components in terms of gearing, but I felt the other components were bang on the money. Most importantly it levelled out the climbs!
Check out my Instagram on @emtb_lad for more pics videos and future reviews.
Up next YT Decoy review.
Coming Soon 2021 Scott Genius eRide 900 Tuned Review
Coming Later 2021 Scott Ransom eRide 910 Review
