Lectric XPress 500 Review: Lectric Without the Fold

Lectric sells more ebikes in America than almost anyone, and it did it with one product: a 20 inch folding bike that undercut everything else and worked well enough. The XP is a genuinely good value. It is also a bike full of compromises that exist purely to let it fold, and a very large share of the people who bought one have folded it exactly once, in the driveway, to see if it worked.

The XPress is the bike for those people. It is a conventional commuter on 27.5 inch wheels with a one-piece frame, built at close to Lectric's usual price. We have not ridden it. What follows is a read of the specification, the componentry, the class rules and the physics, written for someone deciding between it and the XP, because that is the decision most buyers are actually making.

The short version of the comparison: if you need the fold, buy the XP. If you do not, the XPress is the better bicycle in almost every way that shows up on a daily ride, and it costs roughly the same.

Verdict

Value carries this score and it deserves to. A finished Class 3 commuter with hydraulic brakes, lights, rack and fenders around the $1,000 to $1,300 mark is aggressive pricing, and the bike does not read as though corners were cut in dangerous places. Ride quality is a clear step up on the XP because 27.5 inch wheels roll over broken pavement instead of dropping into it, and because there is no hinge in the middle of the frame. Range is solid rather than exceptional for the pack size, since Class 3 speeds are expensive. Build and support scores lowest: this is a direct-to-consumer bike that arrives in a box, and when something fails you are dealing with a support queue rather than a mechanic you can hand it to.

What the fold was costing you

A folding frame is not free. To fold, the frame needs a hinge roughly in the middle of the main tube, plus a hinged stem, plus latches on both. Every one of those is a joint in a structure whose whole job is to be stiff.

The consequences are specific. A hinged frame flexes more under pedalling load and under a loaded rack, which shows up as a vague, slightly wallowy feel when you push hard or carry weight over the back wheel. The latches need periodic checking, because a hinge that develops play announces itself as a creak and then as a knock. And the folding stem raises the bars on a long extension, which is comfortable but adds another flex path exactly where you least want one: between your hands and the front wheel.

None of this makes the XP unsafe. Lectric has sold hundreds of thousands of them and the format works. But it does mean the XP always felt like a bike built around a constraint, and the XPress is the same company's answer without that constraint. Remove the hinge and you get a stiffer frame, more predictable handling under load, and one fewer thing to inspect. The wider case for and against folders is in folding electric bikes, and the XP itself is covered in our Lectric XP 3.0 review.

Be honest with yourself about which of those you are. Storage is the case people most often overstate. A folded XP is smaller than an XPress but it is still 60 lb of bicycle, and lifting it into a car boot is a two-person job for many riders. If your reason for wanting a folder is apartment storage rather than transport, a vertical wall hook and a normal bike solves it better. Our apartment ebike storage guide covers the options.

Why 27.5 inch wheels ride better than 20 inch

This is the other half of the XP comparison and it is pure geometry.

When a wheel meets an edge, such as a pothole lip or a broken slab, the angle at which it strikes determines how much of the impact goes backwards into you rather than upwards over the obstacle. A larger wheel meets the same edge at a shallower angle, so it rolls over more and jolts less. A 20 inch wheel hits the same pothole harder, every time, and there is no tyre pressure that fixes the geometry.

Two more effects follow. Small wheels have less gyroscopic stability at speed, which is why a 20 inch bike feels twitchy at 25 mph and a 27.5 inch bike feels calm. And small wheels need more revolutions per mile, so at any given road speed the hub motor is spinning faster and the tyre is deforming more often, which costs a little efficiency and wears rubber quicker.

The XP compensates with 3 inch wide tyres run soft, which restores some comfort through air volume. That works, up to a point, but a tyre stores energy rather than damping it, so it bounces rather than settling. Bigger wheels solve the problem at the source instead of masking it. The full explanation of the trade-off is in ebike wheel sizes and 20 inch electric bikes.

Where the 20 inch format genuinely wins: acceleration from a stop feels punchier because there is less rotating mass, the lower standover suits shorter riders, and the fatter tyres are better on loose gravel. If your riding is short hops around a campground or a beach town, that is a real argument. For a commute on city pavement at 20 mph and up, the bigger wheel wins comfortably.

The 500, the 750, and the sensor question

Lectric sells the XPress in more than one trim, and the number in the name refers to motor wattage. That is the least interesting difference between them.

The important difference is the sensor. The 500 is generally the cadence-sensing version and the 750 adds torque sensing. Confirm this on the current product page before ordering, because trim contents move between production runs, but as a rule that is how Lectric has split the range.

A cadence sensor counts magnets going past a pickup on the crank and asks one question: are the pedals turning? If yes, deliver whatever the assist level says. If no, deliver nothing. You get a delay off the line, then a fixed slab of power, then a delay after you stop pedalling before it cuts. A torque sensor measures how hard you are actually pushing and scales output to that many times a second, so the bike responds to effort rather than to rotation.

The practical differences are concrete: low speed manoeuvring in crowds becomes easy rather than a game of stop-start, the gears start doing something because shifting changes what the motor gives you, and battery consumption drops because the motor is not delivering full assist during the large fraction of a ride where half would have done. The mechanism is explained properly in torque sensor versus cadence sensor.

Our view: if the price gap between the two trims is a couple of hundred dollars, the sensor is the better place to put that money than any other upgrade on the bike. If the gap is larger, the 500 is still a good commuter and cadence sensing is what almost every bike at this price uses. Just go in knowing which one you bought, because it defines how the bike feels on every single ride.

Motor, speed and the range bill

The XPress uses a rear hub motor, which is the correct choice at this price. Hub motors are cheap, quiet, need almost no maintenance and do not wear your chain out, and the drawback only appears on sustained steep climbs. Because a hub motor spins in fixed ratio to the wheel, it cannot use the gears to multiply torque the way a mid-drive can, so on a long grade it gets hot and slows down and there is nothing you can do from the saddle. On rolling city terrain this simply never comes up. The reasoning is in mid-drive versus hub motor.

On speed, the bike is Class 3 capable: pedal assist to 28 mph with a throttle capped at 20. On a suburban arterial with 35 mph traffic that is the difference between being an obstacle and being traffic, and it is the strongest argument for this bike over a 20 mph alternative. If the class system is unfamiliar, start with ebike classes explained and then the Class 3 explainer.

The cost is physics. Drag rises with the square of speed and the power to overcome it rises with the cube, so going from 20 to 28 mph roughly doubles the power required to hold it. That comes out of the battery, not your legs.

Lectric fits a 48V 14Ah pack, which is about 670 Wh. The arithmetic:

Swipe sideways to see all columns →

These are estimates from pack size and rolling physics, not measurements. A heavier rider, a headwind, hills or cold weather move every row down. Treat the manufacturer's headline number as a ceiling reached under ideal conditions and plan around the second row. If your commute is 15 miles each way with no charging at the far end, a Class 3 bike ridden at Class 3 speeds will not do the round trip comfortably. For the wider picture, see longest range electric bikes.

One advantage the XPress has over the XP here that nobody mentions: bigger wheels at the same road speed mean the hub motor turns more slowly and sits closer to its efficient range, and a narrower commuter tyre has meaningfully less rolling resistance than a 3 inch balloon tyre. Same battery, slightly more miles.

Commuter equipment and the two frames

The XPress arrives finished. Lights run off the main battery, so there is nothing separate to charge and nothing to remember, and fenders and a rear rack are fitted rather than sold as accessories. That last part matters more than it sounds. Retrofitting a rack to a bike that was not designed for one means hunting mounts, buying adaptors and usually accepting a rattle. Check the rack's rated load before you plan around it, because a rack rated for 55 lb and one rated for 25 lb look identical in a photo.

Brakes are the specification to be pleased about. Hydraulic discs at this price are not universal, and a 60 lb bike carrying a 180 lb rider at 28 mph has roughly twice the kinetic energy of the same rider on a 30 lb road bike at 20 mph. All of that becomes heat in two rotors. Hydraulics give more power for less lever effort and, importantly, self-adjust for pad wear, which is the maintenance job most owners skip on cable discs until the lever hits the bar. Rotor diameter is worth checking too. See ebike brakes, rotors and pads.

The suspension fork is where to keep expectations modest. Forks at this price are coil sprung with minimal damping, and they exist to take the sting out of expansion joints, not to control the bike. Set the preload so it does not clunk, use the lockout if it has one, and treat the 27.5 inch wheels as the real comfort feature. Our suspension guide explains the difference between a comfort fork and a functional one.

On frames, the step-through and the high-step are the same bike with different top tubes. The step-through is easier to mount and dismount with a loaded rack and easier to get off quickly in traffic, and it is the sensible default for most riders. The high-step is slightly stiffer, which shows up if you are tall or carry heavy loads over the rear wheel. Ebike frames and materials covers why the difference in stiffness is smaller than it looks.

Specifications at a glance

Every figure above is a band rather than a promise. Lectric revises its bikes between production runs and the specification differs between trims and frame styles, so confirm the numbers for the exact model in front of you before you buy on any single line.

Who should buy it, and what else to look at

Buy the XPress if you were about to buy an XP and you cannot articulate a weekly reason to fold it. That is the majority case. You get a calmer ride, a stiffer frame, better rollover on bad pavement and slightly better efficiency, for money that is close to identical. Buy it if your commute involves real roads with real traffic and you want the 28 mph capability, and buy it if you want a bike that arrives finished rather than one you have to accessorise.

Buy the XP instead if the bike lives in an RV, a boat, a car boot or a cupboard, or if a shorter rider needs the low standover of a 20 inch frame. The fold is worth its compromises when you actually use it, and the XP remains one of the best value ebikes anyone sells.

On the competition, the honest comparison is against two brands. Ride1Up tends to fit better components for the money than anyone, and the Core 5 is the direct value rival if you want the same category with a different set of compromises. Aventon costs several hundred dollars more for the equivalent bike, and what that premium buys is a torque sensor as standard and a network of independent shops that will assemble and warranty the bike in person. Our Level 3 review makes that case in full. Which of the three is right depends almost entirely on whether you want somewhere local to take the bike when something breaks.

Look elsewhere if the bike has to come up stairs regularly, because 60 lb does not get lighter with practice, or if your route has sustained steep climbs, where a hub motor on a heavy bike is the wrong tool. The full field at this money is in best electric bikes under $2,000 and best commuter electric bikes.

Where to buy

Lectric sells direct only, so there is no dealer price to shop around. What does vary is what comes in the box. Lectric habitually bundles accessories rather than cutting the headline price, so compare the total package rather than the number: a bundle that includes a suspension seatpost, a phone mount and a decent lock is worth real money. Whatever you buy, budget separately for a good lock, because the theft rate on ebikes is not comparable to the theft rate on bicycles.

If you are still deciding, the two comparisons that matter are the fold and the sensor. Read the Lectric XP 3.0 review to settle the first one, and our Lectric brand guide for how the lineup fits together. If you conclude that you want a torque sensor and a dealer, the extra few hundred dollars for an Aventon is money well spent.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

• Lectric eBikes official siteLectric eBikes
• Range AssistantBosch eBike Systems
• Electric bikes and the three-class systemPeopleForBikes