Ancheer AN-EB001 26-inch Electric Mountain Bike Review

When you search for affordable electric bikes, Ancheer is one of the most common brands that pop up. They make a variety of models, and the AN-EB001 Class 2 "electric mountain bike" is by far one of the most popular and highly-rated models in this price range. Naturally, we felt compelled to test and compare this mountain-style bike to the competition. With features like a suspension fork and slightly knobby tires, this bike is suitable for use on smooth dirt roads and paths. While its performance was generally average, we still feel this reasonably priced model is a great value.

Performance Comparison

For the price, we think the AN-EB001 is a solid e-bike and a great value.

Photo: Laura Casner

Ride

The Ancheer AN-EB001 has a nice middle of the road ride quality and overall performance. It handles predictably and is relatively comfortable, and we feel it is best suited for cruising roads and bike paths with some light duty dirt road or smooth dirt path riding mixed in.

The Ancheer generally handles quite well. It rolls on 26-inch wheels, and steering felt steady and calm. It performed well in our handling test while taking sharp and gradual turns at both high and low speeds. We found its stability to also be quite good, and it felt composed while riding 20 mph down our steeper speed test hill. It comes with a suspension fork that appears to get approximately an inch and half of travel. While it does provide a little more forgiving ride over rough terrain, the fork's performance is generally quite poor. That said, it's better than nothing when you slam into a pothole that you might not have seen. It also comes with relatively wide tires with a little bit of tread on them. These girthier tires help to dampen the ride a bit with their increased air volume, and they provide a little extra traction should you try and ride this bike off the pavement. Make no mistake, this is not a high-performance mountain bike, and we would not recommend anyone try to tackle any serious trails on it.

The Ancheer has good handling reminiscent of a traditional hardtail mountain bike.

Photo: Laura Casner

We found the overall comfort of the Ancheer to be agreeable. The seat was comfortable enough during our long test rides, and it has a decent range of seat height adjustability. Like most of the bikes we tested, however, our six-foot-tall tester with long legs found the seatpost to be too short to get proper leg extension while pedaling. Taller riders or those with long legs may need to purchase a longer seatpost to get the proper fit. Ancheer doesn't specify a height range for this bike, although they do mention a seat height adjustment range of 30.4-39 inches. The stem is also adjustable and can be raised or lowered to achieve your desired handlebar position.

The components worked well for us during testing. The mechanical disc brakes work well enough, albeit with a bit of a pulse-y, inconsistent feel, and we were able to go from full speed to a complete stop in 20 feet. The 21-speed drivetrain gave us no issues, and there is plenty of gear range for any terrain or in the off chance your battery dies while out on a ride. This bike also comes with an LED headlight that runs off the bike's battery, as well as a horn to alert people you're coming.

With a 288Wh battery, the AN-EB001 has an average distance range.

Photo: Laura Casner

Range

The Ancheer AN-EB001 has a respectable distance range that we found to be consistent with their claims. It was far from the best we tested, but considering this bike's battery capacity, we feel it performed well enough.

Ancheer claims a 15-30 mile distance range for the AN-EB001. We assume the low end of that range, 15 miles, is when using full electric, or throttle only, and on perfectly flat terrain. When we performed our throttle-only range test, we traveled 14.84 miles with 860 vertical feet of elevation gain/loss in an hour and 3 minutes. This test was not done on perfectly flat terrain, so we were somewhat impressed with this performance. While it couldn't quite match the range of some of the bikes with larger batteries, we feel this performance was admirable, given the 288Wh battery capacity. During our range test, the Ancheer held a 14.1 mph average speed with a 20.8 mph top speed that we hit while riding down a hill.

Its no speed demon, but the 250W motor has average acceleration and a top throttle speed of 17 mph as well as three pedal assist modes.

Photo: Laura Casner

Power

The Ancheer AN-EB001 scored right about average in terms of its power output. It can be used in either full electric/throttle mode or any of the three pedal assist modes. Using the throttle, we found that it had decent acceleration and a respectable top speed. The three pedal assist settings provide a good range of support to enhance your own efforts.

While using the throttle only, we did numerous speed tests on a perfectly flat stretch of road. Despite a claimed top speed of 15 mph, we were able to consistently get the Ancheer up to 17 mph and hold it there. Its acceleration felt reasonable but not especially fast, similar to the other models with 250W rear hub motors that we tested. During our range test, we made a note of how well it was able to hold speed while cresting a small hill in the course, and it performed relatively well and was able to stay above 10 mph.

The AN-EB001 has three pedal assist levels, low, med, and high, and can also be ridden with pedal assist turned off. We couldn't find information on the amount of support provided by the different levels, but they offered a nice range. The low level felt pretty light; we'd guess approximately 30%, while the high setting felt quite strong, around 90% support. Pedal assistance kicks in with about a full rotation of the pedals, and it provides the same amount of output regardless of how hard you pedal. One thing we noticed is that in the high setting, the power comes on gradually and ramps up to max output as opposed to coming on strong all at once. This helped keep this bike from feeling as jumpy as some of the others we tested. The power delivery felt smooth and consistent, and shifts between modes were no problem. When you stop pedaling, the power extends for another second or so. We found that the 20 mph mark was about as fast as we could get this bike to go while pedaling hard and using the high output setting.

The controls on the AN-EB001 have poor ergonomics, but they work well enough.

Photo: Laura Casner

User Interface

The AN-EB001 has a very basic but completely functional user interface. It can't compete with the highest-rated models in this metric, but the controls and display serve their purpose and get the job done.

The AN-EB001 has a simple handlebar-mounted unit that is home to both the control buttons and the LED lights that show your pedal-assist mode and remaining battery life. There are three buttons, power, up, and down, situated across the bottom of the unit. The power button is in the center, and it is used to turn the bike's power on and off. The up button is on the right side, and it scrolls up through the bike's three pedal assist modes. The down button is on the left side of the unit, and it used to shift down through the pedal assist modes. The ergonomics of the buttons are relatively weak, as their location across the bottom of the unit makes them a little harder to reach with your thumb while riding.

Battery life is displayed with a row of five red LED lights just above the control buttons. All five of the lights illuminate when the battery is fully charged, and they turn off sequentially as it is depleted. The pedal assist mode indicator lights are across the top of the unit, and a bright red light illuminates above the mode you are currently using. To use the full electric/throttle mode, you need to press the down button until all of the pedal-assist mode lights are turned off. The throttle control is integrated into the right grip and is actuated by twisting the throttle back towards you.

The large silver battery pack sits in a cradle on the down tube of the bike frame. The battery has an on/off switch that needs to be flipped to the on position before pressing the power button on the handlebar controls. The battery has a standard charging port and comes with a charging cord. It can be charged on the bike or easily removed for charging anywhere you like. Ancheer claims a battery charge time of 4-6 hours, and they recommend against leaving it charging for more than 10 hours.

The AN-EB001 had an average amount of assembly required and arrived well packaged and protected from shipping damage.

Photo: Jeremy Benson

Assembly

The AN-EB001 scored about average for its ease of assembly. The process included most of the standard procedures with just a couple of extra simple steps to complete. The bike arrived in a regular size bike box 80% assembled, and the entire process from unboxing to ride ready took about 45 minutes.

Our test bike arrived in good condition. It was well packaged and protected from shipping damage. After pulling it from the box and removing all of the protective packing materials, the remaining assembly was relatively straightforward and about the same as most of the other bikes we tested. The Ancheer came with all of the tools needed to complete the process as well as printed instructions detailing all of the necessary steps. The instructions are simple, but they are clear and concise with written descriptions and photos for each step in the process. Like most bikes, you will need to install the front wheel, handlebar, and seatpost. This bike also has the additional simple steps of installing the stem, kickstand, headlight, and seat to the top of the seatpost. The battery also needs to be placed in its cradle on the downtube of the frame.

Value

We feel the Ancheer AN-EB001 is a pretty good value. This is one of the least expensive models we tested, and while its performance was generally middle of the road, we think its quite good considering the asking price. We feel you'd be hard-pressed to find a better bike for the money.

This is a versatile electric bike with a consistently middle of the road performance offered at a reasonable price.

Photo: Laura Casner

Conclusion