Stephen K

I wanted to give some time to truly test the R5 Pro before giving it a quality review. This is long but hopefully will alleviate any hesitation on purchasing.
Over the past 6 months my friends and I have ordered a total of 7 of the R5 pros and I have personally put over 700 miles on mine split between road, dirt trail, and truly offroad terrain. Our e-bike gang consists of a wide range of riders 21-55 years old, 100lb to 250lb, 5’4-6’2 in height and of various athletic abilities. I have written this with all perspectives in consideration.
Pros:
– Long range/Battery life – As many reviews before me have noted the range is great. This is dependent on a number of factors. Terrain, Power assist settings, shifting gears, maintaining and cleaning the bike chain and cassette, and rider weight. Our average ride is around 30 miles but we have taken them on rides of up to 70 miles without an issue. On longer rides we do keep it in PAS1 and have returned with 2 or 5 bars on the battery. I am confident we could get 80-90 miles if we tried. That said it is tempting to dial the PAS up which takes away from the battery life. Do not buy this bike thinking you will go 30mph for 90 miles on all battery. Also note that battery anxiety is a real thing so until you are comfortable with the range do not plan long rides. Take it slow and get used to it first.
– Off-Road Performance/Power – Breaking this into two parts off-road and road. I have ridden the R5 pro on some pretty rough terrain with some steep hills, ruts and logs in the path etc. In this kind of terrain the R5 pro handles it like a champ. It is not like riding my hardtail Trek bikes at all. I can reasonably maintain 8-10mph safely. The challenges are the bike is heavy (72lbs) and top heavy with the high battery placement. So there are times that it can drag you over if you are not careful. I am 6’2 220 and I have managed to buck off once but my wife is not comfortable riding the trails due to this. Also note your battery life will suffer on offroad due to the increased load.
– Road Performance/Power – This is excellent. We easily go long distances and can go up to 32 MPH when diving in hard. When riding on PAS1 we average about 12mph on road and PAS5 easily reaches 25 without peddling. Note again PAS5 will kill the battery. On PAS5 I would assume a range of only 15-20 miles vs riding in PAS1 has been proven to us to go 70 miles easily. Usually we do a combination.
– Quality/Value/Assembly – Across the 7 bikes I have built the longest part is opening the box and cutting the 100s of zip ties to protect these things. I am able to assemble them in around 15-20 mins once everything is opened and laid out. That said the instructions are terrible, you kind of need a gut feel on some of the less obvious parts. Also there has been some lite variation between the bikes. Having ordered and assembled so many I noticed the breaks, front fork, fenders, latches and other have changed. Nothing out of the ordinary as they improve the bikes but this has led to some variation in the builds. IMPORTANT tighten all the bolts not just the ones you expect to. Most clicks and noises on bikes are related to loose bolts. On 2 of the bikes we had an annoying click that took awhile to diagnose. Turned out it was the pedal arm was not tight enough. Not a quality issue.
– Customer Service – Across all the bikes we have only had one issue and it was minor and customer support was great
– Size/comfort/features – These are big bikes and demand a presence. That said my wife has no issue controlling the bike on smoother terrain. The twist throttle is a godsend often and utilizing it will vastly improve your experience. The headlight is bright and we have no issues riding after dark, although it is not preferable it happens. The horn is loud enough that you can make people with headphones on jump so does the job haha. Comfort wise I have a lot of experience on bikes and these are not bad. I mean obviously you need to build up some butt tolerance but that’s normal. The Seat is better than most although it does have a button for the light that has poor placement. The only performance upgrade not included in the bike as you may notice in many reviews is the pedals. While they are not bad they can be slick with wet feet. I changed mine out to some gnarly ones and love them. We also put bags on the rear rack to hold bike chains and I always carry the tool kit that came with the bike.
– Documentation/resources – There is a Burchda Facebook group which has a reasonably good community. The YouTube Videos can be a bit misleading in my opinion due to changes in the bike. The App does not work with most bikes but is really not needed the settings are all adjustable on the d-pad but I caution you on this as the flexibility in there could break things if you are not careful.
All this said the reason we have so many is almost every time someone new rides one they get excited and start looking into e-bikes. Everyone loves these things and we clearly found a winner. Several more of my friends intend to buy at least 3 more over the next few months leading to 10+ in our crew. So after all this I highly recommend these even compared directly to some very clear competition that may look better but are not.

DoctorZ

This is my 3rd ebike. The Damson R5 was a great value choice for me because of its quality, comfort, accessories like the light and mirrors, battery life, quick shipping, and easy of assembly.
…and I think it looks cool.
…and it's fun to ride.
My only small suggestion is I wish the handlebars were higher, but I took care of it with an extension from Amazon for $12.
Add your favorite accessory as we all do then hit the road.

Cristina Dalu

Super vélo honnêtement. Cadeau de mon conjoint à lui même. Il part travailler avec. Le vélo est solide, roule super bien. Un homme bien heureux de son achat. En plus, le service clientèle répond dans un délai raisonnable et ils sont toujours à l'écoute.