Lacros Cyclone Electric Bike review
The Lacros Cyclone Electric Bike, with its 20-inch wheels, step thru frame and front and rear suspension certainly stands out from the crowd.
After riding the bike for a few weeks, here are my impressions.
Let’s start with what I like most about this bike: the frame. It’s got a step-thru frame with an extra-long opening above the bottom bracket. In addition, thanks to the 20-inch wheels, the frame is lower to the ground than bikes with larger wheels. This results in the easiest to mount bike I’ve ever ridden. You don’t have to lift your leg very high and your foot or knee don’t hit the down tube.
Another thing that immediately caught my attention was the rear rack. Instead of two mounting points, the rear rack on the Cyclone has four mounting points and can accommodate up to 55 pounds. If you’re commuting to school, or carrying a small child in a rear seat, this could be very important to you.
At frist glance, the display lacks the glamour and glitz of some other brands, but the simple LED screen is bright and readable in full sun, even with polarized sunglasses on. Living in the Sunshine State, this is important.
I was also impressed with the Cyclone’s acceleration, especially when in the higher pedal assist modes. It seems to accelerate much more quickly than other bikes I’ve tested. Although fair warning, it does take a little getting use to and I began using a lower PAS mode and switching up to five for a more relaxed acceleration.
So this is going to be personal preference, and solely depend on how you use the bike, but I’m on the fence about the handlebars. One one hand, with their swept back grips, they promote a rather relaxed riding style, which I did enjoy while cruising down the road. But when riding on some light off-road trails, I found myself wishing for a straight or riser bar.
It might just be my bike, but the front suspension is really stiff and it’s quite difficult to get to squish. The rear suspension isn’t adjustable, but it does definitely squish when going over large bumps or curbs.
Cylone Stats
The Cyclone is powered by a 750-watt rear hub motor, which moves the bike up to 28 mph in pedal assist mode and also a surprising 28 mph in throttle only mode and provides peak power of 1,400w. The 48v battery is removable and can be charged on or off the bike. The battery promises a range of between 60 and 80 miles. The bike arrived partly charged and I got about 20 miles in before it needed to be recharged. It took about 7 hours to fully recharge.
A smart LCD display, which looks identical to that on Lectric bikes, shows battery charge, speed, distance and pedal assist level. To power on the bike, hold down the “M” button between the PAS arrows. If you press down on the M button while on, the screen switches between Odometer, Trip, Time, Volts and Current.
A front headlight and rear tail/brake combo provide safety and visibility. To turn on the headlight, hold down the PAS Up button. The brake lights illuminate when the brake levers are pressed.
You can also enable Walk mode, where the bike moves at a slower pace – helpful for loading on a ramp, for instance – by holding down the PAS down button.
Finally, if you hold down both PAS buttons at the same time you can enter the settings menu. I discovered that if you press the PAS buttons in the first settings screen, you can adjust the brightness of the display. I didn’t experiment with any of the other settings menus.
The throttle is of the twist variety, which I feel is more intuitive to use than the thumb button. Graduated markings o the seat post are a handy feature if people of differing heights ride the bike. Finally front and rear fenders are standard and help keep road grime and water off the rider.
On the analog side of things, the standard Shimano 7-speed drivetrain shifts the gears, while hydraulic disc brakes with 180mm rotors provide plenty of stopping power . The adjustable oil and spring front suspension fork offers a claimed 80mm of travel, while the rear suspension system brings 30mm of travel to the party.
Shipping and assembly
Shipping from Lacros’ California warehouse took about a week to Tampa Bay. I did have the opportunity to test out the company’s post-purchase customer service when then first bike I recieved had an error code. The bike still rode perfectly fine, but we couldn’t remove the error code even after swapping controller and display, so I returned the first bike and they sent me a new one.
The bike was well packed and unpacking and assembly took about an hour. The cyclone arrived nearly assembled, I just needed to install the handlebars, the front wheel and fender and the pedals. The front wheel is installed using a quick-release skewer, which I really like over the a bolt-on design. I did have to add a headset spacer in order to get the bottom of the head tube to seat properly. A tool kit which contained, a few hex keys and a dual-sided crescent wrench, was also included. Also, in what is a first for me, a little bottle of touch-up paint was in the box as well.
Riding the Cyclone
With the exception of the afforementioned quick acceleration in upper PAS levels, the Cyclone, with its laid-back handlebars is quite nice to ride. The PAS modes are as follows: PAS 1 tops out at about 7 mph, 2 gets you to 10, 3 to 12, 4 to about 16 and 5 to 28 mph.
Weighing in at 82 pounds, the Lacros Cyclone Electric Bike is recommended for riders between 5’2″-6’3″ tall and has a payload capacity of 400 pounds. It is available in Orange and White Color schemes and retails for $1,259 at lacrosebike.com
Despite the couple quality issues I had with the Cyclone, I think this is a fun little bike. The quick acceleration, ease of mounting and rear rack weight limit are the big selling points for me.
This post contains affiliate links. If you order through our links, we may earn a small commission to fuel more hands-on bike reviews. Thanks for the support!