Euphree has been on my radar since their first bike. Daniel, the founder, came in with an engineering background and originally set out to build a bike specifically for women – which is not a goal many other e-bike brands had at that time. While the lineup has expanded well past that, comfort has stayed at the core of all Euphree bikes.
The Stellar Falcon 2 is the update to Euphree’s most popular model, an SUV commuter meant to get you to the office during the week and out on a dirt road on the weekend. Euphree loaded it with name-brand parts, got the geometry right, and put a $2,299 price on it.
Is it worth that? While a lot of that answer depends on your personal pocketbook, we think the name-brand parts, updated motor, and comfortable ride feel justify the price tag.
My Experience Riding the Euphree Stellar Falcon 2
Ride Quality Score: 8 / 10
The overall ride experience on the Euphree Stellar Falcon 2 is, well, stellar. It’s comfortable, powerful, pedals well, and warrants spending a few extra $$$ for those who value a quality ride.
I have to be honest, I did not expect comfort to be the story here. This bike is powerful and it looks good, and yet comfort is still its top selling point. The SR Suntour air fork up front is a step above the spring forks you usually get at this price, and the seat post suspension is a very-welcomed improvement over some of the less-expensive pogo-stick style posts I’ve seen on multiple e-bikes this year. The NCX uses a parallelogram design, so it doesn’t immediately sink when you sit down. Instead, it stays firm while you pedal, then cushions when you hit a bump or roll off a curb. Add the wider bars and ergonomic grips, and everything just feels smooth and comfortable, especially on city streets and paved trails.
Off-road (double track and loose dirt roads) the fork keeps the front wheel planted on the ground nicely. While the suspension seat post will not keep your rear wheel from bouncing around a little bit, it will keep your backside comfortable. Combine that with tires that grab well on chunky, loose stuff and you have a bike that’s also great on dirt roads, double track and multi-use paths.
Fit wise, Euphree brought the top tube down on the mid-step, so getting on and off is easier if you have hip mobility issues, and they kept the triangulated support up top so the frame still feels stiff. At right around 74 lbs it is a bit hefty, but I never felt that weight while riding. Loading it into my truck is another story; I would recommend removing the battery for transport (which is also very easy to do with how the removable battery was designed).
The stem gives you 90 degrees of adjustment, so you can run the bar forward and low or up and back. It is not a quick-adjust, you need Allen keys, and I like it that way. On a 74 lb bike at Class 3 speeds a bolted stem gives me more confidence than a lever. The frame covers 5’5″ to 6’3″, and the post drops low enough for the short end of that, so watch the insertion line.
This is pretty rare, but I don’t have many complaints or suggestions on how to improve the bike. I’m stretching pretty far here, but given the above $2,000 price point, I would expect to see a higher level Shimano drivetrain like the Shimano Cues. The current Altus derailleur doesn’t have a clutch, so the chain bounces around a bit when riding off-road, and the Cues would solve that issue.
Power (Motor)
Hill Climbing Score: 8.5 / 10
The Stellar Falcon 2 runs a Bafang H560 geared rear hub, 750W nominal and 1,200W peak, and a 48V 25A in-frame controller. Euphree picked this motor for one reason: it’s quiet. The first Stellar Falcon had plenty of power but was also louder than riders wanted. The reality is that e-bike motors have improved drastically in the past 3 years in terms of how smooth and natural they feel – and in how quiet they are. We now expect the motor noise to be lost in the background.
Euphree listened, and they nailed it. I could barely hear the motor, even when hitting Class 3 speeds. On the hill test, the only reason I knew the bike had a motor was because of how fast I was climbing – there is no way I could climb that fast on an analog bike.
The bike went up our 0.35-mile Black Hill in 93 seconds pedaling, averaging 13.4 mph, and 100 seconds flat on the throttle at 12.5 mph. That is right in line with the other 750W, 1,200W-peak SUV commuters we test, and the power felt natural but strong the whole way up.
While the motor is powerful, it’s the tuning and natural feel that I appreciate most. You pick between a torque sensor and a cadence sensor in the display, and I found that I prefer torque. Cadence is nice as well, but felt a bit too much like cheating – but I would absolutely kick it into cadence if I wanted to speed to work without breaking a sweat.
Range / Battery
Range Score: 7.5 / 10
Min Assist: 57.73 Miles
Max Assist: 39.69 Miles
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The Stellar Falcon comes stock with a 48V 15Ah battery pack with a total of 720Wh of capacity. Euphree estimates up to 70 miles of total range, and we ended up a bit short of that estimate.
In our ECO test (min assist), we got just under 58 miles. In our MAX test (Turbo/highest assist level), we got almost 40 miles. These results surprised us a little bit, as the MIN test numbers came in lower than we expected while the MAX test results came in higher than expected.
40 miles on maximum power output is impressive, especially when you consider how comfortable the bike is. In fact, it’s so impressive that we will be redoing the MIN test, as we would normally get around 70-75 miles of range in eco mode on a bike that went 40 miles on max assist.
One area I would love to see Euphree ship the bike with a 3A or 4A fast charger instead of the standard 2A the bike comes with. Charge time from 0 to 100 is around 7.5 hrs, and at this price point we think it would be fair to throw in a fast charger vs a standard one.
Components
Components Score: 8 / 10
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At $2,299 a bike has to justify itself against everything sitting under $2,000, and the parts list is how the Stellar Falcon 2 does it.
Euphree chose name-brand parts for everything: Shimano drivetrain, Tektro brakes, SR Suntour fork and Bafang motor. That matters not just from a performance standpoint, but also from a maintenance and servicing standpoint. If a name brand part breaks, it is much more likely that your local shop knows these parts, stocks them, and can turn a repair around without ordering a proprietary piece.
- Drivetrain: Shimano Altus 8-speed with a rapid-fire trigger shifter, a 50T double-sided chainring and a 10-32T freewheel. The most impressive feature on the drivetrain isn’t the Shimano name (although we do like that). Instead, it’s the fact that Euphree specc’d the bike with a smaller-than-average 10t cog vs an 11t or 12t. By having a 10T cog, I found that the Stellar Falcon 2 didn’t ghost pedal at all, and felt very natural throughout each gear.
- Brakes: Tektro E350 hydraulic discs, 203mm rotors front and rear at 1.85mm thick. While I’d love to see 2.3mm thick rotors on a bike that’s over 70 lbs (which is every e-bike in this SUV category), the brakes on the Stellar Falcon 2 performed very well in our testing and haven’t needed a tune-up in over 250 miles.
- Suspension: SR Suntour XCM Air fork, 90mm of travel on 32mm stanchions, with adjustable air pressure and rebound. Set it for your weight; it changes how the bike rides. In the rear, the SR Suntour NCX parallelogram post, 50mm of travel, adjustable from the post.
- Tires and wheels: Schwalbe Johnny Watts 27.5 x 2.8 with a thru-axle front hub. The tires are better than average not just in looks but performance as well.
- Cockpit: 720mm bars with minimal rise, ergonomic rubber lock-on grips, an adjustable stem, a left thumb throttle, a brass bell with a nice tone, and an SP Connect mount built into the stem. Run an SP Connect case and your phone locks right in.
- Accessories: full-coverage aluminum fenders, a MIK-compatible aluminum rear rack rated at 55 lbs, a 200-lumen dual-beam headlight that is brighter than most, a rear brake light with 220 degrees of visibility, and an aluminum kickstand. A front rack is optional.
Two notes from the mechanic’s chair:
- Rear hub motors are a pain when you pull the rear wheel, and Euphree included a quick-disconnect for the motor cable. Thank you Euphree for that.
- The cables route through the headset, which looks fantastic but is a headache to work on; I would rather see them run along the down tube.
As a package, this component list earns its price. Nothing here is a placeholder part.
Screen / User Interface
Screen / App Score: 7 / 10
The display is a basic full-color unit on the left side with a control pod for plus, minus and power, and a USB-C port underneath for charging a phone. The main screen shows speed, assist level, battery charge as both a bar and a percentage, odometer, trip and average speed. The battery readout is the part I care about, because a real percentage instead of five bars lets me plan the back half of a ride.
The depth is in the settings. Hold plus and minus to get in. Display settings is where you switch between the torque sensor and the cadence sensor, which is something I like to see on all e-bikes at this point.
I also like how you adjust power outputs for each assist level and also set throttle responsiveness by mode so you can fully customize the motor output for how you want the bike to feel.
Two critiques. The menus take some hunting, and knowing to go to display settings first is half the battle; plainer labeling would help.
The bigger critique is the class setting options. You can run Class 1, Class 2 or Class 3, and there is also an unlimited setting that takes the speed limit to roughly 32 mph. I would rather Euphree take that off. It puts the bike outside the three-class system and creates potential problems for riders and for the rest of the industry.
Bike Model Options
The Stellar Falcon 2 comes in two frame styles, each in just one size:
- The mid-step I tested fits riders from 5’5″ to 6’3″, with a 23.5″ standover height and mostly flat 720mm handlebars for a slightly more aggressive riding position (not as aggressive as a mountain or road bike).
- The step-through fits riders between 5’2″ to 6’0″, and drops the standover to 19″ with a dutch-style swept back handlebar for a more upright riding position.
My recommendation: if you are 5’5″ or taller and want the stiffer frame for Class 3 speeds, get the mid-step. If you are shorter, have mobility limitations, or want to sit upright, the step-through with the swept bar is the better buy.
Both frames come in Moonstone Grey, Black Cherry and Metallic Blue. Ours is Moonstone Grey, and the fleck in that paint looks better in person than in photos.
Is the Euphree Stellar Falcon 2 Worth Buying?
If you want a comfortable, do-everything SUV commuter, to cruise around town, commute to and from work, and take to the dirt on the weekends, this bike belongs on your list.
The Stellar Falcon 2 is the kind of e-bike that at first glance you may look at the brand, Euphree, and then move on because of unfamiliarity. However, if you take the bike for a spin without seeing the brand, you start to think that Specialized made a rear-hub SUV and the price is a bargain.
Branding is a funny thing, and as an e-bike reviewer I have to both ignore branding when analyzing performance, but then consider branding in terms of longevity and customer support.
Performance-wise, I think a lot of people are going to be entering a bike shop thinking they want one brand and end up walking out with the Stellar Falcon 2. It’s just a very comfortable bike that once you ride, you love.
Longevity and customer-service wise, I think Euphree is a brand that you can trust to be around for a while. I’ve seen my fair share of both new and established e-bike brands come and go, and Euphree has impressed me from day one, and continues to impress me more with each new model they release.
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