Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike review – a fun long range fat tire e-bike

REVIEW – There are quite a few choices these days if you’re looking for an electric bike for fun or for commuting (or anything in between). My experience testing and purchasing quite a few e-bikes over the years has helped me learn that there can be large differences in seemingly-similar bikes. Because so many brands are online orders only, it’s impossible to test ride many of them before purchasing so I’ve taken the Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike through 50+ miles and hours of testing.

What is it?

The Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike is a fat tire off-road bike (mountain bike style). It features dual suspension, Shimano shifters, and a hefty 20 amp-hour battery for extended range.

What’s included?

• Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike
• AC Charger
• Installation tools
• Installation hardware (nuts and bolts)
• Zip Ties
• Rechargeable tail light
• Manuals/guides
• Cable wrap
• Front light
• Pedals
• Tire pump

Tech specs

Design and features

The Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike has an aluminum alloy frame and is available in Graffiti Gray (reviewed), Blue, Dark Green, Metallic Gray, and Forest Camouflage. I picked the Graffiti Gray colorway because it’s somewhat unique to the many other bikes around town.

The seat is the best one I’ve sat on, full stop. I know that professional riders aren’t going to pick this style of seat, but if you’re a casual rider who’s just cruising around for fun (or commuting, or errands), you’re going to love it. It’s super soft, has a bit of spring suspension built into the seat itself, and was a delight to ride on for miles on end. The seat post is one of the smallest that I’ve seen though (the high frame and the design of the rear suspension leaves little room in the rear tube for the seat post. I swapped it out for a much taller one for my long legs.

The handlebars are wide and straight, with (from left to right) the control cluster, hydraulic brake lever, center LED screen, Shimano thumb shifter with gear indicator, hydraulic brake lever, and finally the thumb throttle. The grips are comfortable and grippy. Like the seat post, this was too low for my riding style and 6’4″ body, so I added a handlebar riser and curved higher handlebars. Everything was easy to swap to the new bars and there was enough cabling to spare (sometimes if you go higher and the cables are too short you have to replace those too).

Speaking of cables, they were all nicely wrapped and there’s extra cable wrap in the box. Pictured above is the front shocks and tire tread pattern. I like the lockout option for smooth paved riding, and the tire tread pattern makes for a smoother-than-most-fat-tires ride while still giving good traction in gravel and loose dirt.

On the left side of the front fork is a pre-load adjuster, but they were good for me out of the box so I didn’t mess with it.

The control cluster has a power button, up and down buttons for PAS (pedal assist) levels as well as menu navigation, a light control for the headlight, and an electronic horn button under the main controls.

The Shimano thumb shifter does a great job and is easier than most to see what gear you’re on. The gears were also perfectly adjusted out of the box, something that is not the case with every bike we get sent to review. The thumb throttle is easy to push and doesn’t lurch forward when pressed.

The rear suspension does a great job of absorbing shocks. Bumps and potholes that normally rattle my bones on my ride became subtle bumps with the combination of the rear suspension and the cushy seat. There’s no lockout on the rear suspension, but even with energetic full pedal pumping I didn’t have the bounce that you experience with some dual suspension bikes (said bounce results in less power to the drivetrain, effectively making pedalling harder).

Assembly, Installation, Setup

The Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike arrives like most e-bikes purchased online: mostly assembled minus the front wheel and handlebars.

I threw it up on my bike stand and got to work. Following the directions in the manual was easy, and they have videos online as well if you’re a first-timer. Make sure the front fork is facing the right way, and carefully slide the front axle into the fork. This will be easier with 2 people, or if you can secure the front fork so it doesn’t wiggle around like I did. You need to make sure the disc rotor slots into the disc brake as well (and remove the shipping tab from the disc brake before installing the wheel).

Handlebars are next, and this step is as easy as rotating the handlebars into place and securing four bolts. Bonus points if you have a torque wrench but if not you’ll want to just crank them down hard enough so that the handlebars don’t rotate when you apply a decent amount of force to them.

The pedals are plastic and nothing to write home about. I’ll probably end up replacing these in the future, but they do the job.

The included AC charger is very light and does take a while to charge the bike. It arrived with about a 50% charge, and it was at least 4 hours to get to 100%.

Performance

Let’s start the performance section with my only real performance complaint: the screen is harder than most to see in bright sunlight. There is a brightness setting hidden in menus to make it a bit brighter, but nearly every other bike I’ve tested has better daylight visibility compared to the Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike’s. I was always able to see the speedometer, but important info like the battery level required me to lean closer and/or squint in bright conditions.

Almost everything else was uphill from there, metaphorically speaking. On default settings, the push throttle gently takes you up to about 20 mph and cruises along there (though it doesn’t have cruise control – a feature some bikes and scooters have that keep the bike going if you’ve held the throttle down for a few seconds). Pedal assist ranges from 0 (none) to 5 (in which setting I easily reached 30 mph with medium effort on flat ground). I didn’t get any “ghost pedalling” (a scenario on e-bikes where you have to spin the pedals but with no resistance just to keep the motor engaged), the gears were still letting me add my own power even at full PAS. The thumb throttle isn’t affected by the PAS level, it’s disabled if PAS is set to 0, and works the same on any other PAS setting.

For range testing I did a mix of city and off-road trail riding, almost entirely using the throttle. After 30 miles in a day that included several decent hillclimbs, the battery on the Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike was still at 50%, so on track for the 40-80 miles range they quote. Here’s a video of some of my off-road testing:

After several rides on default settings, I played around in the menus and set the speed limit to 35 mph and also changed the riding mode to a higher setting (this increases acceleration). I topped out at around 30 mph on throttle alone and had a blast zooming down trails. Check your local e-bike laws or ride only on private property if you’re going to do this though! At higher settings the battery drains faster, but I was still on track for 30 miles of range with mostly throttle riding at this higher speed setting.

What I like about the Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike

• Very nice top speed and power after changing settings
• Smooth ride and suspension is better than most
• Excellent range
• Better handling than expected for the size and weight
• Most comfortable bike seat I’ve ever used

What needs to be improved?

• Too heavy for narrow mountain bike trails (but is lighter than comparable bikes I’ve tested)
• No rear rack offered at time of review
• Short seat tube means <6″ seat height adjustment – if you want to go higher you’ll need to swap this out for a longer one
• Display can be a bit hard to read in bright sunlight
• Rear tail light isn’t connected – no brake lights and has to be manually turned on/off

Final thoughts

The Puckipuppy Boxer Off-Road e-bike has become our go-to “fun bike”, complementing our utility Xtracycle Swoop cargo bike very nicely. When I ask our toddler which bike he wants to ride on each day, it’s always the Boxer. I love the range, the power (even though I have it set to 15 mph and gentle acceleration settings to be more toddler friendly/safe), and the dual suspension for comfortable riding. I added a rear cargo rack and a toddler seat, and it’s a great bike to take to the park, on river trails, and even up mountain trails.

Price: $1899 ($1399 at time of review)
Where to buy: Puckipuppy and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Puckipuppy. Puckipuppy did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.