Welcome back to another edition of Just Fun Tech, our semi-regular review column focusing on the wider world of technology and sharing which products live up to the hype and are genuinely fun to use. Today, we’re looking at another EV in the form of the PUCKIPUPPY Labrador. It’s a powerful, fat-tire ebike that comes complete with four-inch tires, full front and rear suspension, a max speed of 28 MPH, and a massive battery. It feels more like a dirt bike than an ebike, and it’s ridiculously fun to ride.
Specifications
Current Price: $1,399 (PUCKIPUPPY)
What is Just Fun Tech?
Here at MMORPG, we often get requests to review products that fall outside of our scope. Beauty products, hair dryers, couches, thermal cameras… the works. Most of the time, these are just not a good fit, but every now and again, we get a request for something that looks genuinely fun and interesting. We believe that, though PC gaming and MMOs draw us together, we’re all interested in tech that’s special, unique, and just plain fun. Rather than let those opportunities pass, we decided to share them with you as part of this special series.
With many of these products, we don’t claim to be the expert authority. Instead, we approach them from the newcomer’s perspective with two core questions: Are they fun and do they bring joy that enhances your life? Just Fun Tech is about highlighting and exploring these products, and, well, helping your friendly neighborhood Hardware Editor have a hell of a good time in the process.
The PUCKIPUPPY Labrador is the first in a series of two reviews focusing on eBikes helping you to get out and ride. And the Labrador really is something special. It’s my first experience with a fat-tire eBike and fun is an understatement. It’s a veritable blast to get out and ride. Full suspension, pedal assist and throttle control, and a max speed of 28 MPH… it’s a big investment (though not as big as some) but exactly the kind of thing that will make you happy you took the dive.
A Quick Personal Note Before Continuing On…
Before going on, I do want to add a bit of a personal note. Feel free to skip this if you want to get right to the bike (I don’t blame you, it’s pretty cool). As someone that has covered tech professionally for the better part of a decade, I’ve learned that there is joy to be found in this work. Contrary to the opinions of some, tech journalists — at least those I’ve met — don’t get paid fat checks to cover the latest gadgets. And a lot of the things we review are sent for trial runs before needing to be returned and sent on to the next outlet. There is real work to writing every day, and as someone who has explained mechanical keyboards about five million times all with different words, it’s not always fun.
But this… this is fun. This is the heart of exploration. It gets at the core of why I started writing about tech in the first place. I love it. It’s about trying new things for the joy of them and then sharing that insight with you. This review column intentionally has nothing to do with gaming. But it does have to do with you, the reader, and helping you to find things away from your PC that are neat, and novel, and might be worth investing in. Or not. Every time I say yes, it’s with the hope that I get to share something worth experiencing with you. But that’s not always the case, and I’ll tell you when that happens.
In short, this is a column I’ll be continuing and using to check out things you may not have seen here before — or maybe you have — or over at GameSpace, what was once our sister site and is now filled by a lot of the same folks you see here, like Ed Orr or our former News Editor, the one and only Suzie Ford. Coming up, I have a new drone from Ruko to check out, a robot vacuum from Narwhal to embrace our Jetsons future, another eBike from Mokwheel, and there will surely be more to come. I was pitched on a ridiculously fast electric skateboard that could potentially kill me. That might be fun, what with winter right around the corner. @Joseph, remind me to livestream it, K?
If you come for the games and PC tech, that’s great. So do I. But here, this is all about Just. Fun. Tech. It’s about one tech writer finding the joy in his work. And, you know what? By the traffic on our previous editions, I’m happy to say that we’re in good company together.
Okay, enough of that. To the Labrador!
PUCKIPUPPY Labrador - What Is It?
What exactly is a PUCKIPUPPY? If you're anything like me, that's probably the question you asked when you saw this review. PUCKIPUPPY is a relatively new brand but one of a growing crop of electric vehicle producers that sell mainly online. As of this writing, it sells a variety of ebikes and ebike accessories. Though it may at first be intimidating to consider such a large purchase from an online only retailer, I was pleased to find that the brand actually has a great reputation online. According to its website it's based out of California, has a strong warranty and return policy, and a legion of fans that sing its praises.
When the company reached out to see if you'd be interested in taking a look at its new Labrador off-road ebike, I began my research but it didn't take long for me to accept. In fact seeing the positive reputation online, and its powerful rear motor and extended battery, I'm not ashamed to say that I actually began pursuing them as an inadvertent spam filter severed our connection for a time.
The reason for my excitement is simple: this is a fat tire ebike designed for on road and off-road use that includes a front and rear suspension system for a smooth ride that's capable of taking on trails.. The motor peaks at 960-watts, so it has torque to make it through rough terrain and up fairly decent hills, especially if you paddle alongside it. It offers a mix of throttle control and pedal assist, so can adapt to whatever your mood is at the time. It also has a max top speed of 28 MPH and a max range of 80 miles.
Now, like all ebikes, you should take these range ratings with a grain of salt. They are dependent on your weight, speed, intensity settings, and the terrain you are riding on. Still, that's a great place to start, so even if it goes down from there, you're still looking at an impressive range between recharges.
The bike also seems designed for comfort and ease. That suspension system might be good for trails, but it also means any kind of road or sidewalk riding is going to be exceptionally smooth. In fact, this is where I do most of my riding given that I live in the suburbs. A smooth ride bouncing between the sidewalk in the road and occasionally cutting across parking lots in fields is naturally appealing.
The fat tires also assist with this. They are four inches and honestly reminded me very much of the tires on my dad's old dirtbike. Despite their large size, there actually only recommended to be inflated to around 15 PSI (be sure to check the manual). That with an softness allows some of the impact to be absorbed by the tire itself before it travels into the fork and is doubled up on with the back wheel and its spring shock system.
The seat is also very well cushioned and has its own pair of springs to give your backside its own little bit of shock absorption. Call me an old man, but I've really grown to appreciate cushioned bicycle seats like this. The small, narrow, hard variety just winds up leaving me sore whereas this one hasn't yet done that even once.
The bike uses a seven gear cassette that is controlled with the thumb shifter on the right handlebar. This was very well tuned out of the box and I didn't have any chain rubbing whatsoever. It uses hydraulic disc brakes and smartly includes a small tab to prevent you from inadvertently triggering the brake before it's mounted on the disc. It also includes a convenient thumb control to adjust the amount of pedal assist, turn on the headlight, and access the settings menu.
That menu, as well as your current speed, battery level, average speed, total travel distance, and more are all displayed on a large LCD screen. You don't need any special app to control it or access information, which I appreciate, because sometimes the pairing process on those apps is prone to headaches. This is very straightforward and ready to go from the minute you power it on. It's also great if you need to make changes to anything while you're actually riding. Instead of having to futz about with the phone, you can make those adjustments with one hand and the shortcut keys.
Taken as a whole, the bike is very well-made and is designed. There's a great attention to detail across the board that makes the Labrador feel like a particularly high-end option at a mid-level price. That value only becomes more so when you consider that it comes with a pretty extensive accessory pack also. My sample came with everything included on the site, including a free cable lock, phone mount, bike cover, rear rack, and fender kit. It also included a remote alarm, which isn't pictured there but I really like for piece of mind. It looks like a small black box and doesn't give away that it's actually a motion sensitive, extremely loud alarm. It even comes with a little key fob seek and lock and unlock it just like you would a car. Or, if you would like to forgo all of this, you can instead opt for a second, slightly smaller, 15Ah battery.
Like most (if not all) online ebike's, it does take some assembly out of the box thankfully, it's not very difficult so you don't need to be particularly handy to get it done all by yourself.
PUCKIPUPPY Labrador - Putting it Together
Assembling the PUCKIPUPPY isn’t hard but you should plan on at least an hour to get it assembled. I’ve only ever built one ebike in the past, and I finished in about that time, taking pictures as I went. The bike comes largely assembled. The back wheel is already in place, all of the electronics are connected (except for the headlight), the crankset, shifter, gear stack (cassette), and chain are installed and ready to go. The only things left to do are the front tire, handlebars, pedals, seat, headlight, fenders, and any accessories you might want to use.
The company provides a detailed instruction manual that guides you through this process, as well as helpful tutorial videos on its YouTube channel. It also provides you with the tools you’ll need to put it together, though bringing your own can speed the job up some.
Overall, it’s not difficult and takes time mainly through ensuring everything is properly positioned. If you’ve built a bike before, you’ll likely be able to complete the job in less than the hour I recommended.
PUCKIPUPPY Labrador - A Bike Designed to Thrill
With a 960-watt motor, the PUCKIPUPPY Labrador is easily the most powerful ebike that I’ve had the chance to ride. It can speed up to 20 MPH quite quickly and, initially, that rush of speed is quite thrilling. Coupled with its heavier weight and those big tires, it definitely feels like more than your average bike. In fact, I find that it actually seems much more like a dirtbike and how it feels and handles. Obviously, there are major differences and this is not remotely a dirtbike, but it certainly feels every bit the “extra” it is.
The suspension system is great. For the price you get front shocks that can be preloaded for different levels of resistance and a rear spring shock to absorb impact from the back tire.The front shock can be somewhat tricky to adjust, however, it’s not very difficult once you come to terms with how much pressure you need to apply to turn its knob. Setting it very loose does impact the top speed, but it also provides the softest ride. Conversely, tightening it all the way down gives you a much firmer ride but you’re not losing speed.
The impact on speed isn't very much, however and the impact on the ride is quite big. Having only ridden bikes with entry-level front suspension before, the three different elements on the Labrador (front fork, rear bar, seat) completely transformed my ride. I found myself intentionally going over bumps just to see how much it could absorb. After a while, the suspension really encouraged me to do things I wouldn't otherwise. Shoot down that drive drainage ditch and up the other side? All the time, just for the fun of it. Do my best to try to catch some air coming off of a particularly big obstacle? You bet.
For the first time in most of my adult life, I found myself contemplating going to the local park purely to explore the trails on the bike. Sure, I've gone on bike trails many times. But as I've gotten older and had kids, and have become much more busy with my dueling careers, this has been an aspect that has faded in the last decade (and wasn't some core hobby even before that).
The thing is, the PUCKIPUPPY Labrador is made for this kind of off-road use. Between the large, soft tires and the suspension, it begs to be written off of the road. It's the kind of bike that's made to get dirty, that's made to try to pop the front wheel up with, that's made to find your own adventure through. Its very design is motivating toward its Intended purpose.
The one thing that works against it, though, is its weight. At 75 pounds, actually catching air is much more difficult than it would be on a manual mountain bike. That's to be expected from an EV with a 48V 20Ah battery. It's heavy. The frame is heavy. The wheels are heavy. If you plan to take this out over some big jumps, you should be prepared to do a lot of heavy lifting.
On that front, it really is good that it has such a powerful motor. With even very minor pedaling, it's Not difficult to make it up moderate inclines. Very steep hills will still take a bit of work, but the vast majority of the time even a middling effort will get you where you want to go.
On its default Intensity Setting, the pedal assist has a tendency to overwhelm the actual gear system. I lack the proper words to describe this, but what I mean is that the second it kicks in the pedals go slack because of the sudden jolt of speed. I found myself writing mostly in the highest gear to minimize the effect. Anything less, most of the time peddling is actually just a means to keep the motor active if you don't want to use the throttle. Thankfully, you can change this by going into the settings menu and manually lowering the intensity setting. Dropping below this impacts the initial burst of speed in a helpful way for the feel of the pedals but since I also enjoyed that burst of speed most other times, I found myself adjusting the intensity up and down. It can also be dialed up to levels from where it begins if you really want that fast burst of speed.
And yes, you can use it as a normal bike if you would rather not take advantage of its motor or if it should run dry in the middle of your ride. Given its weight, it's not exactly easy but it is doable if you need to.
Having ridden this bike around for about a month now, I have to say that I have just been delighted with just about every aspect of it. Everything from the fit and finish, insert after ride, to the quality of the ride, to the extended battery life is just exceptional. At $1400, it's certainly not cheap. But, for what you're getting here including a fairly rich accessory pack thrown in at no additional charge, it does feel like an exceptionally great value if you are in the market for a fat tire ebike.
Final Thoughts
The PUCKIPUPPY Labrador is the definition of fun tech. It's well-made and justifies this cost very well. Though it shares some features with competing models, that takes nothing away from the experience of writing it every day. Its very design is motivating to want to get on the bike and ride. When you factor in its great battery life, customization potential, and high quality suspension for the price, you have a recipe for a very fun, life-enhancing piece of tech. I love it and highly recommend it.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
