ebikes

FREY CC fat tire e-bike unveiled as 1,500W full-suspension electric comfort bike

Micah Toll | Apr 24 2022 - 3:01 am PT

FREY Bike, the Jinhua, China-based high-end electric bicycle manufacturer, has just released a fat tire version of the company’s popular CC full-suspension electric comfort bike. The new FREY CC Fat takes the laidback and relaxed riding style of the original CC and opens the door to more off-road trail rides and diverse terrain with its massive tires.

FREY Bike is known for building high-quality and high-powered electric mountain bikes that compete with $6-$8K European models, yet at around half the price. Unlike most of the company’s mountain-oriented e-bikes though, the CC model is all about comfortable cruising.

The original FREY CC electric bike, which was released all the way back in 2019, became one of the most popular high-end full-suspension electric comfort bikes in the market – though the dearth of competitors certainly helped.

Sure, electric comfort bikes are a dime a dozen. But nearly all use lower-tier components to achieve budget prices. That’s because most comfort e-bike shoppers aren’t looking for components designed for ruggedized downhill bikes.

But overbuilt high-end electric mountain bikes and downhill bikes are exactly the kind of two-wheelers that FREY Bike specializes in, and so the company applied their unique take on full-suspension e-bikes to a comfort-oriented model. The end result was the commuter-friendly FREY CC.

Now the company has returned with an updated model that doesn’t just tear up the streets, but is ready to take on the trails too. The new FREY CC swaps the street rubber for aggressive Maxxis 4″ fat tires that are designed to handle just about any terrain.

The comfort frame and relaxed geometry remain though, offering a mid-step full-suspension frame with high-quality suspension. The front air fork features 140 mm of travel, while the rear gets a RockShox Monarch RL shock. Braking is accomplished via 4-piston Magura MT5e stoppers – some of the highest-quality and highest-power brakes in the e-bike industry. And a Shimano Alivio 9-speed drivetrain brings a mid-tier transmission to the bike with a healthy offering of gear ratios to help commuters and leisure riders alike find the right gear for each hill.

But the real prize here is the Bafang Ultra M620 mid-drive motor, which is widely known to be highest power retail mid-drive e-bike motor on the market. Some specialty mid-drives are in the works that could take its crown, but until they reach production, the M620 is the king of the hill for high power. It peaks at 1,500W on the FREY CC Fat, though comes with a more modest 1,000W continuous power rating.

To feed that energy-hungry motor is a frame-integrated 1,000Wh battery rated at 48V and 21Ah. A giant battery like that is the only way to get decent range out of such a powerful motor, unless riders can resist temptation and keep it in a lower power setting. If so, ranges of up 100 miles (160 km) can be possible on pedal assist. If tapping into max power on throttle though, even 30 miles (51 km) can be reasonably obtained – which is still quite a feat for such an energy-guzzling motor.

FREY hasn’t published a top speed for the CC Fat, though many of the company’s e-bikes using this motor handily exceed 30 mph (51 km/h). I’ve personally hit over 35 mph (56 km/h) on FREY bikes before, though the CC’s fat tires might make the low 30s of miles per hour more likely.

The FREY CC Fat is now taking pre-orders ahead of production commencing this July, but it doesn’t come cheap. The MSRP of $4,980 is knocked to just $4,480 for the first 50 bikes and $4,680 for the next 50.

While that price is certainly much higher than most ordinary budget-level comfort e-bikes, the CC Fat is anything but ordinary. This motor combined with the higher-end suspension, brakes, battery, and other components cost significantly more than many other brands, not to mention the wave of price increases we’ve seen recently around the industry due to pricing pressures in the e-bike market.

Hopefully we’ll get to test one of these beasts at some point. In the meantime though, you can check out my review of the standard FREY CC below to get a sense of what such a high-powered full-suspension comfort e-bike can do.