Leoguar Flippo Folding Bike review

REVIEW – Our son lives in a major city, and he’d like a bike that allows him to ride to all the places that are too far to walk yet too close to drive.  He needs one that can fold up and be stored in the trunk of his Corolla, since he lives in an apartment.  I am hoping that the Leoguar Flippo is a good bike for him.

What is it?

The Leoguar Flippo is a commuter ebike with a range of 45 miles, a top speed of 20 MPG, and a 480 Wh battery.  It folds in two places and weighs 55 lbs with the battery.  Leoguar is a new brand founded in 2023 whose name takes the “leo” from leopard with the “guar” from jaguar, thus combining the agility of the leopard with the strength of a jaguar.

What’s included?

The following items are included:

• Bike (mostly assembled)
• Bike seat with built-in battery
• Two pedals
• Charger
• Manual
• Hex wrenches and adjustable wrench
• Simple air pump

This bike includes a kickstand, a bell, and a digital display.

Tech Specs

• Colors:  Grey, red, blue, and yellow
• Frame:  6061 Aluminum Alloy
• Rider Height:  5’3” to 6’5”
• Battery:  480 Wh
• Range:  45 miles (half that if using the throttle)
• Motor:  350 W
• Top Speed:  20 MPH
• Payload:  250 lbs
• Bike Weight:  55 lbs with battery
• Gear:  7 speeds
• Tires:  20 x 2.15 inches
• Communication Protocol:  CAN

When fully extended, the bike is nearly 64 inches long and anywhere from 38 to 43 inches tall, depending upon the handle bar height.  Leoguar graciously included an extra package that adds fenders, a rear rack, and head and tail lights, all of which are welcome additions; I would prefer that the lights be part of the standard package, as they are so important riding in urban areas.

Design and features

Like all bikes in this space, the Flippo is totally a function-over-form gadget.  It’s an unattractive, squat-looking little bike with seat and head tubes that look too big and the tires too small.  All this is forgiven, however, as it’s a very practical design that folds up into a remarkably small space.  This bike was made to ride in an urban environment and store in an apartment or car.  I love the shiny red paint job on the Flippo, as it nicely complements the black tires, handle bar, and seat.

Assembly, installation, and setup

The Flippo arrived in a pair of large boxes.  The smaller one contained the seat, the pedals, the tools, the charger, and the manual, and the larger one contained the bike itself.

In the larger box the bike itself was well-protected with foam cutouts that were wrapped around its various parts, and everything was secured with cable ties.  I cut the ties with a pocket knife and pulled the bike out.

I skim read through the manual.  The first several pages were filled with common sense warnings, like “keep the battery away from fire” and “don’t bike while intoxicated,” so I skipped those pages and jumped to assembly.  Overall, the manual is fairly clear, but it does skip some steps and has a few mistakes.  As much of the bike is pre-assembled, a healthy dose of common sense (and a couple extra hex wrenches) is sufficient for most people to finish the assembly; prior experience certainly helps.

The first step in the manual is to install the handlebar.  I realized that everything would be easier if I unfolded the bike first, locked it in place, and put down the kickstand, so I did that first.

Now that the bike was resting only on its own two wheels, I used one of the included hex wrenches to lock the handlebars in place.  The brakes, throttle, display, and bell are already attached to the handlebar.  The height of the handlebars can be adjusted, so I raised it to a better height for me.  I noticed the digital display was pointed too far downward, more towards my waist than my head.  This was easy enough to fix with a hex wrench, but Leoguar did not include a wrench that fits for this.

The second step is to slip the seat and battery–they are permanently attached together–into the seat tube and lock them into place.  The seat can be raised surprisingly high, high enough that someone who is 6’2”, like me, can sit comfortably.

Though the manual forgot to mention this part, there are a couple more options for adjusting the seat.  I loosened the nut under the seat with a hex wrench, and that allowed me to tilt the seat down a bit and slide it back away from the handlebars.

Once this was done, I plugged the power cable into the back of the battery, which provides power to everything.  At this point, the manual says, “turn on the display and begin riding.”  Sigh.  The pedals haven’t been put in yet.

The final step is to screw in the pedals with the included wrench, paying attention to which one was labelled “left” and which one “right.”  The pedals are cheap and made of plastic, but this is just fine for a commuter bike.  They don’t spin easily at all, so I added some WD-40 to reduce the friction.  Now the bike is ready to ride!

Leoguar says it’s a good idea to charge the bike for twelve hours before riding the first time, and normal charges will only take three to four hours.  The bike can be charged in a garage, or the entire seat can be removed to charge the battery inside.

Before riding the bike, I turned on display.  I was amazed by how sharp it was, much sharper than my picture above shows.  Each value was crisp and easy to read.

There are three modes for riding this bike:

• In manual mode, it’s just like a normal bike.  The motor never engages, and the rider provides all the power.  As this bike is fairly light at 27 lbs, this is very manageable.  I think this will be the default mode when in a crowded downtown environment where it’s not possible to go fast.  As the gear ratio is very low, the rider will primarily use the first four gears.
• In power assist mode, the rider sets a desired speed, as represented levels one through five in the PAS, and the motor helps the rider get to that speed.  In this mode, the rider can use gears 4 to 6; will the assistance of the motor, there’s really no reason to use the lower gears.
• In full throttle mode, the rider doesn’t need to pedal at all; instead, he sets the PAS to level 6 and cranks the throttle, which is found on the right side of the handlebar.  The motor provides all the power, accelerating to the max speed.  This mode is useful when speed is of the utmost importance; it will also use up the battery far faster than power assist mode.

I took bike out for its first test rest, and I immediately found a problem.  Whenever the bike exceeded 8 MPH, there was a super-annoying squeaking, like the sound of angry seagulls squawking, that came from the front of the bike.  I asked my friend Chris, an avid biker who reviewed other bikes with me, to come over and help me diagnose the problem.

He suspected that there was a problem with the brake pads, and he was partially right.  Both the front and the rear brakes come poorly configured by Leoguar.  When we looked closely, we could see that they were rubbing on the rotor, which produces unnecessary drag–it’s like driving your car with the parking break engaged–and wears out the brake pads extra soon.

Thankfully there’s a way to adjust the brake pads, though this feature is not mentioned in the manual.  We inserted a hex wrench in the slot on the inner side of the breaks and rotated it one position towards out.  We then gave the brakes a squeeze to center them, and that fixed the rubbing problem.  Unfortunately, that did not stop the bike from squeaking.

By spinning the tires, we isolated the sound to the area around the axle.  As best we can tell, the metal pieces on the inside of the screw (green arrow) are rubbing against the black, rubber piece around the axle (red arrow).  There doesn’t seem to be any way to prevent this, as you should not put lubricants on rubber pieces.  I suspect that the metal will eventually rub a groove in the rubber, and the squeaking will stop.  In the meantime, it’s just going to have to be annoying.  This is a pretty bad mistake for Leoguar to make; I didn’t hear anything like this in the other bikes that I have tested.

UPDATE (Aug 26, 2024) – As I suspected, the squeaking is growing fainter over time.  It’s already a lot less loud than it was when I first got it.

I took the bike downtown one morning, just ride for a while in a commuter space.  Overall, the Flippo rides smoothly.  It’s easy to accelerate, switch gears, and adjust the PAS.  It was plenty nimble to avoid people and other obstacles while navigating the sidewalks.  I like how this bike rides.

One concern that I have is the location on the throttle on the handle.  Because it’s built into the handle bar–it’s like a motorcycle throttle–and is so close to the gear shifters, it can be way too easy to accidentally activate.  More than once I found myself shooting forward when I didn’t mean to; this can probably be minimized by building some muscle memory.

The Flippo comes locked at 20 MPH max speed.  This is a software, not a hardware, limitation.  Leoguar’s website says this can be unlocked by sending them an email asking for the password.  I sent the email, but Leoguar’s support team never replied, which is disappointing and concerning.  It seems that if you have problems with this bike, you won’t have any support to help you.

The Gadgeteer resorted to sending a request to Leoguar’s PR team, who replied with a very strange request:  Before they would send me the password, I had to sign a legal disclaimer document and return it to them.  I am not a lawyer, but it seems the gist of the disclaimer is that if I unlock the speed limitation and anything goes wrong, Leoguar is not liable for anything.  What!?  If the bike is safe to ride at the higher speeds, why do they need a disclaimer?  If it’s not safe to ride, why would they offer this as an option?  For me, this is a huge red flag concerning the quality and safety of their bike.  I refused to sign the form.  If there’s a defect in this bike that leads to a failure that causes an accident, I want all my legal options open to me.  To be clear, I don’t see any such defects, but you never know.

As it’s a commuter bike, I expect my son will typically lock it up outside while he heads inside for shopping, eating out, or whatever.  Inexplicably, this bike doesn’t have any way to lock the battery.  It only takes about two seconds for someone to pop the release, slip it out, and walk away.  This is a huge mistake on Leoguar’s part; it’s mind-boggling that they did not add this feature.  As it turns out, it is possible to lock the battery:  You just have to spend another $90 to buy a seat clamp with a lock.  That’s not cool; the ability to lock the battery should definitely be a standard feature on a commuter ebike.

Like all of these fold-up commuter bikes, it’s a bit awkward to fold the Flippo in half and stuff it in the back of our car–we have a 2016 Honda CR-V–but it can be done!  It winds up being fairly small, all things considered.

The only problem that I experienced with folding up the bike is that when I put it into my car, the switch used to change gears popped off and went missing.  It probably needs to be secured better, maybe with a small bolt or some super glue.

The Flippo has a push assist feature.  If our son every needs to push the bike for a long distance, maybe he has a flat, or it’s snowing outside, then he can hold the bottom PAS button, and the bike will slowly power itself, making it easier to walk alongside it.  The front and tail lights are activated by tapping the on/off button on the display after the display has been turned on.  They are pretty bright, though I would want to add additional light, like a headlamp, if I were riding at night.

What I like about the Leoguar Flippo

• Easy to assemble
• Smooth ride
• Crisp display
• Folds into small space

What needs to be improved

• Fix the squeaking problem
• Properly configure the brakes so they don’t rub
• Add the lights and the locking clamp as part of the standard package
• Fix the mistakes in the manual
• Monitor your support email
• Do not require a legal disclaimer

Final thoughts

The Leoguard Flippo is a portable, collapsible ebike designed for riding in urban environments.  It has a 20 MPH top speed and a range of 50 miles.  I like this bike.  It handles well, the PAS works well helping out, and the throttle provides top speed on demand.  It also folds up, has adjustable handle bar and seat heights, and is easy to recharge.

There were some problems with the bike.  There’s no way to lock the battery, making it easy to steal in public, unless you drop another $90 for a different seat clamp.  The brakes came misconfigured, rubbing against the pads.  There is a loud squeak coming from the front tires, where something else is rubbing together.  When I sent an email to Leoguar’s support asking for the unlock password, they did not respond.  When we contacted the PR team, Leoguar required me to sign a legal disclaimer absolving them of all responsibility should there be a problem.  I think these are mistakes that a bike maker should not be making, so even though I like the bike, I can’t recommend it.  I think that there are other bike options out there that would be better.

Price: $1399
Where to buy:  Leoguar
Source: The sample for this review was provided free of charge by Leoguar.  Leoguar did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.