Style and Pep, Blix Vika+ Flex Review: Is This the US’s Answer to Brompton’s Dominance?
If you’re looking for a classy folding electric bike that doesn’t weigh as much as the competition but also doesn’t skimp on features then the BX VGA plus Flex might be for you in this comprehensive review I’m going to go through a walk around talk about all the components then we’ll get into some
First-person riding footage I’ll talk about how the bike feels rides and performs and finally some third person riding footage where I talk about the pros and cons of this electric bike but first let’s take a closer Look hey everyone Ryan for me bike Escape I certainly think this bike looks classy but it also has a decent Siz battery powerful motor and more importantly us-based customer support and the Via plus is differentiated in the crowded folding ebike space but before we get into that if you are
Looking to purchase any bicks electric bike you can support content like this for free by using our affiliate link down in the description thank you so much for your support so let’s talk pricing standard price on this electric bike is $118.99 though it’s currently on
Sale for $649 which I think is a great deal now what I really like about electric bikes like this is they’re great for shorter Riders this bike is good for Riders all the way down to 410 or up to 6’2 it also has a very accessible 16.2 in standover height very
Easy to hop on I think their size recommendations is spot on I have a little bit more height that I could raise this seat but if you’re shorter this seat goes all the way down to 32 in I said this is a lighter weight electric bike only 55 lb lbs with the battery
Installed take it out and it weighs 47.5 the recommended Rider weight is less than 240 lb total payload with the rider and cargo less than 270 lb and it comes in four different colors burgundy racing green new cream and I did reach out to the YouTube audience help me pick
The color this is the steel blue which looks really sharp stopping power is provided by unbranded hydraulic disc brakes with slightly smaller than we typically see 160 mm rotors and the tires are 20in by 2.35 in wide Kenda tires more of a hybrid tread it’s a bolt-on axle and they certainly paid
More attention to the looks of this electric bike with paint matched metal fenders both in the front and the rear there’s also a bright integrated front light as well as a nice integrated light in the rear and it is breake actuated now there’s no front suspension but that
Does help keep the weight lower and at the end of the walk around I’ll fold it this is a magnet which helps keep the bike together at the front is a Blicks badge and they do sell some cargo accessories both for the front as well as that rear rack there’s nice cable
Management and the cables run external along the frame the handlebars can be raised a little bit this is the lever to fold the handlebars and you’ll notice silver components all over this electric bike in the cockpit we have brown locking ergonomic grips Zoom hydraulic disc brakes with motor cut offs a left-and
Thumb throttle on the right is a bell and a micr shift 8-speed twist shifter with a half grip the display turns on with this bottom button you can turn the lights on by holding the pedal assist up button light indicator here battery capacity at the top speed front
And center headle assist zero all the way up to five odometer in the bottom pushing the bottom button will change what’s displayed trip a trip B with Max Speed and back to odometer it’s a basic display but what’s nice is it’s very easy to see and it’s also large and it
Even has a USB port on the side so you can charge your device there’s very minimal Blick branding the bike comes with metal welgo Silver pedals push in and flip to fold and those pedals are paired with matching cranks as well as a rear-mounted silver kickstand this bike
Is using a Cadence Sensor which is right here there’s two mounting points for a bottle cage here check out the one we sell at shop. ebik escape.com that’s adjustable for large water bottles the battery is located behind the c tube externally turn the keys to the left to
Unlock use two hands to lift the battery out this is a 48v 14 amp hour battery it does have a power button so if you buy this bike make sure the battery is turned on there’s also indicators for the current capacity and if you’re looking for a solution for battery
Storage check out our battery bags again at shop. ebik escape.com to put the battery back simply line up the grooves push into place and don’t forget to lock it to the frame the brown Blick saddle matches the grips and it also has a handle which can come
In handy even the rear rack is paint matched with a capacity of 55 lb and this to me looks like a Tuli up Maxi window for a child seat even the 500 watt motor is silver can you tell that the company cares about Aesthetics and I
Have to show you this motor because it has a lot of torque I’m just going to hit the throttle talk more about the motor power in the upcoming firstperson riding footage for gearing in the rear 11 to 32 teeth again eight speeds and in the front is a dual-sided not surprisingly
Silver 52 to front chain ring there’s a derailer guard motor cable coming in on the right and a microshift 26 rear derailer the bike comes with a Blix branded 2 amp charger an assembly guide some tools you also get an adapter for front access installation and a cool Blicks electric
Bikes bag now Let’s Fold this more petite folding electric bike I’ll start with the pedals then I’ll use the lever on the handlebars fold those down then I’ll fold the handlebars you’ll want to make sure the handlebars are in their lowest position cuz there’s not a lot of
Slack I’ll lift up and pull put the kickstand Up Lift This lever pull out and because the cables are extra internal there’s less to worry about with them getting pinched and we’ll set it on its stand and something I really like is these magnets that’s just going to hold the
Wheels together and there we go a folded Blix via plus we’ll put the dimensions on the screen due to the narrower tires it’s just a little bit more Compact and it’s easier to move around and even easier if you remove the battery but that’s enough talk about these specs
Let’s get into some firstperson riding footage all right I am excited to show you what this bike can do nice step through frame super easy to get on and no matter whether you’re in pedal s level zero or five full access to the throttle as a Class 2 electric bike
Which means a top speed of 20 M hour while pedaling or of course using the throttle this bike is using a Cadence Sensor our first test will be throttle alone I have the speedometer app by cool NYX on our favorite cell phone mount this is the bracket mounted one fully
Charged battery all right here we go 3 2 1 throttle only starts off real fast 14 mph 16 17 18 19 and there is 20 M hour now I think the motor yes is powerful on this bike but I also think the fact that the bike is a little bit
Lighter also just makes it feel uh like it has a little bit more acceleration and just riding this bike I would say it’s very Nimble thanks to those narrower tires I did raise the handlebars up just slightly I do like the ergonomic grips all right let’s go into the various
Pedal cyst levels I’m going to shift down all the way into first gear with the twist shifter now that wouldn’t be my first choice I really like the trigger shifters some people like twist shifters kind of a personal preference thing what I will say though is it’s
Very intuitive to go up and down so some people might like that and it’s also very clear what gear you’re in all right pedal sis level one in first gear and the Cadence Sensor feels very responsive and I do believe this is a speed BAS system which means I’m
Only going to get assist up to looks like maybe 8 m hour I think I’m maybe pedaling past that with my human power and so a speed-based every pedal cyst level is tied to a current speed so I’m likely not getting any motor power at
Least I can’t hear it and I will say that motor really kind of gets you up to that speed really fast it doesn’t have a easy ramp up so something to be aware of and ready for if you buy this bike and in pedals this level one I’d probably go in third
Gear nice leisurely Cadence not providing too much hour power myself 10 mph let’s go into pedal level two feel the motor engage let’s shift up to fourth gear going about 12 mil hour that feels pretty good let’s go ahead and go into pedal sis level three
I feel a pretty big jump between two and three let’s ship shift up into fifth gear looks like the speed based pedal assyst is cutting me out at maybe 14 or 15 miles hour yeah looks like around 15 cuz as soon as I slow my pedaling a little bit
I can hear the motor engage keeping me at that speed let’s go ahead and go into the pedis level four six gear remember you have eight speeds which is nice on this bike and a larger front chain ring and 11 teeth in the rear 18 M hour again creeping up to the 20
Mph top speed this Cadence feels pretty good and even as a taller Rider this bike is perfectly comfortable to ride hopefully you can see getting full leg extension all right for this next one I’m going to go and T five but I’m going to start from a stop just so you can see
How fast this bike gets up to speed all right here we go and there the motor’s kicking on 10 14 16 17 19 mph display is reading 19.5 I could maybe shift up into seventh gear there’s 20 M hour so gearing wise I would say this bike is well
Geared well thought out for the top speed of 20 mph I was feeling those bumps as was my cell phone mount all right let’s do a a brake test here at this tree I’ll test out the zoom hydraulic disc brakes here we go and no problem stopping power with
The zoom brakes I really like these they perform just fine all right with that let’s see what this bike can do up our Hill Climb test one quick thing before we get started something I was feeling was on the heel of my foot it was coming in contact with the rear
Kickstand you can see just how close and I’m just riding with the ball of my foot on that pedal so something in my opinion that needs to change when they update the spike is that kickstand cuz it just sticks out too far but let’s see how
This bike does on our Hill Climb tests this is the hill that I test out all the electric bikes that I review on the channel so you can compare and contrast the GoPro makes this hill look so much smaller than it is so we’ll put a
Picture on the screen as well as the specs we’ll get up to the 20 mph Mark and we’ll see what the minimum speed is I have no doubt that this 500 W Motor can make it up this hill and I’d be very curious what it’s peeking at because it sure feels
Capable all right Hill starting now8 16 M hour and anything above 15 is very Impressive some of the lower powered motors like Motors that are maybe 500 watts Peak will maybe hit like between 9 and 12 miles hour so far 15 M hour is the minimum speed which confirms my thoughts about this motor and there we go we are approaching
The top of the hill with a minimum speed of 15 mph this has to be the best performing 500 W Motor at least that’s how they’re advertising it that I’ve taken up the hill but it is an electric bike after all so I’m going to go back
Down the hill and I’ll test it out while pedaling all right we will start in pedal assist level one and I’m going to shift all the way down into first gear now I imagine pretty quickly I am going to want to go into a higher pedal cyst
Level I don’t really feel the motor because I think we’re still above a speed for a little bit there at least where the motor wasn’t even engaging if I slow down my Cadence I can feel the motor helping me up the hill again that’s just the nature of the speed base
Some people like it Some people prefer current based but in pedal s level one I can go up the hill 7 m an hour it’s not going to take me past that first gear though no problem very leisurely Cadence let’s go into pedalist level two two all right we can already shift up
Second maybe even third gear going about 10 m hour pedis level three that’s where we had the big jump before fourth gear fifth gear 12 mph and that’s where you can really hear the motor a lot more let’s go into pedis level four I don’t feel a significant
Difference between three and four at least up the hill let’s go into pedis level five get the maximum Power and it looks like it’s going to hold us at around 13 14 mph and I was just hitting the throttle it feels like using the throttle I’m actually getting more power out of the motor than I was in pedis level 5 which is Interesting undoubtedly a capable bike up steep hills but with that let’s get into some third person riding footage and I’ll give you my concluding thoughts on the Blix vco plus Flex even with the folding KNE bike category being one of the most popular segments of electric bikes the
BX via plus Flex manages to differentiate itself in the $1 to $22,000 price point category at its current price of $15.99 it’s not leading in price but there’s a few reasons that make the Via a compelling ebike for the right buyer it’s petite looking and might I add classy looking ebike that is
Far less intimidating than your average ebike part of this is due to the thinner tubing around the frame helped by the fact that the battery is located externally with that design design Choice leads to one of the most overlooked specs on an ebike with the battery attached the V comes in at 55
Lbs and without sub 50 lb at 47.5 and for an ebike that’s meant to be portable this makes a lot of sense the leading folding ebike the electric XP 3.0 has a stated weight of 64 lb with the battery installed and the ride one up Porta an ebike that I expect to also
Compete in the top three folding ebikes on the market has a weight of around 60 lb both of these ebikes also feature heavy suspension forks something that the via foros another feature helping keep the weight down on the Via more reasonably 2.4 in wide tires instead of
The bulkier 3-in tires we typically see wider tires have their place for versatility but everyone has their own use case and preferences now I’m not someone who particularly cares about looks I’m more of a function kind of guy but it’s hard to ignore the extra thought that went into the silver
Accents throughout paint match fenders and rear rack paired with brown grips and seat plus four unique color offerings and might I add that our YouTube audience did a great job with their selection of the steel blue moving on to the electronics the 500 W Motor is surprisingly powerful not what you’d
Expect when you glance at this ebike in fact it outperformed both the electric XP 3.0 and porola on our Hill Climb test with a minimum speed of 15 mph again my assumption is this is in part due to the weight of the Via plus and certainly those who purchased this ebike should be
Very careful using the throttle for the first time the battery at 14 amp hours is about average for an ebike at this price and the display is a simple one though is large and gives Riders most of the information they need components wise Zoom hydraulic disc brakes provide
Plenty of stopping power I would have liked to see 180 mm rotors but it still stopped plenty fast coming from the 20 mph top speed the micro shift drivve trains perform well in our experience though it is worth pointing out the twist shifter which is a less common
Choice from manufacturers more of a personal preference thing than anything BX also has USB support and has a great lineup for most use cases if you’re not looking at a folding ebike my favorite being the Dubble if we here at ebike Escape have helped you decide on an
Ebike either Blicks or any other brand we’d really appreciate your support by using our links down in the description before you purchase it’s a free and easy way to help support the channel if you’re looking for a classy folding e bike that finds a nice balance between
Weight and power then the Blix via plus Flex might be your next d-bike let me know your thoughts down in the comment section below thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next One
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00:00 Introduction
00:48 Why the Blix Vika+ Flex?
01:18 Price, Height Range, Weight, and Colors
02:27 Brakes, Tires, and Fenders
02:52 Headlight, Taillight, and Magnet?
03:10 Front Accessories, Cables, and Handlebars
03:33 Grips, Brake Levers, Shifter, and Throttle
03:51 Blix Vika Display Overview and Walkthrough
04:25 Branding, Pedals, and Styling
04:54 Blix Vika Battery Removal and Specs
05:31 Rear Rack, Motor, and Drivetrain
06:34 How to fold and move the Blix Vika+ Flex
08:00 Blix Vika Top Speed (Throttle Only)
09:06 Blix Vika Pedal Assist Levels
12:21 Brake Test
13:21 Blix Vika Hill Climb (Throttle Only)
14:53 Blix Vika Hill Climb (Pedaling)
17:22 Good and Bad of the Blix Vika+ Flex
