For current pricing on the Blix Packa Genie click the link below:
For a full detailed written review of the Blix Packa Genie click the link below:
In this review of the Blix Packa Genie, we answer the question: ”Can the Blix Packa Genie replace your vehicle”.
As we do with all our e-bike reviews, we put Blix’s electric cargo bike through the Electric Bike Report test gauntlet. One each test, the Packa Genie did exceptionally well – especially on the hill test, and our newly created ’Grocery Store Test’, where we go to the store, load up on groceries, and see if we can fit them all onto the bike and pedal home.
Blix upgraded several key features on the Packa Genie, including the:
-750 Watt rear hub motor, now with 90nm of hill-climbing torque
-Bengal hydraulic disc breaks for improved stopping power
-An (optional) dual-battery system that gave us almost 80 MILES on our minimum assist, real-world range test.
These three upgrades turned a good cargo e-bike into one of the best cargo e-bikes you can buy in this price range (around $2K), and has earned a spot at the top of our best electric cargo bikes list for this year.
We are big fans of the Blix Packa Genie, but watch the full video for our full take.
#blixbike #cargobike #BlixPackaGenie
0:00 Blix Packa Genie Review
0:48 Blix Packa Genie Overview
4:39 Cockpit and Handling
7:36 Brake Test
9:28 Circuit Test
11:59 Battery / Range Test
13:44 Motor / Hill Test
15:45 Cargo Capabilities
22:11 Blix Packa Genie Conclusion
Hey everybody this is Justin with Electric bike report and today we’re Going to be reviewing the Blix packagini Electric cargo bike now Blix has labeled This as a natural vehicle replacement And they made some pretty significant Upgrades from the previous version so Diving into this review our question was Were these upgrades good enough to make This to where you could actually replace Your car Follow along in this review And we’ll take you through our testing And find out [Music] Foreign [Music] [Music] So Blix dubbed the latest version of the Paca the genie and this is a reference To being a Genie in a Bottle Simply because all of their customers Were asking for three specific upgrades To the older version of the Packer Number one they were asking for Hydraulic disc brakes for better better Stopping power number two they wanted a More powerful motor for climbing steep Challenging Hills especially when you Have this thing loaded up and then Number three they wanted a longer Battery range And and really those are the three main Things that you want in a cargo e-bike
You want Power you want range and you Want safety you know these bikes really Are built to carry a lot of different Things from groceries to your precious Cargo being kids right so you really do Want all of those three things and so Before we dive into our test results to See how it did let’s first look at some Of the key specs on the packaging okay To start off the Blix packaging is a Class 2 e-bike that means pedal assist And throttle assist up to 20 miles per Hour now quick side note you can up this To class three if you would like our Strong recommendation keep it a class Too it did really well and frankly when You’re loading up cargo our again strong Recommendation just keep it a class two It does really well Moving on from that You know they labeled this the genie how Did they do in the three wishes and what Did they do to actually Grant those Right so first of all the motor they Spec it with a higher torque motor so This is a shangy motor 750 watt steel But they bumped it from 50 to 90 newton Meters of torque to make it again in Theory more powerful climb in the hill On the battery side you’ll see we have Two batteries here one very well Integrated up front and then the second Battery they kind of put underneath this Underneath the saddle here and each
Battery Is a 48 volt 12.8 amp hour battery that Gives you 614 Watt hours of capacity so Combined that’s 1228 Watt hours that’s a lot Um so yes definitely this should go Quite a long ways on the Range Onto the brakes they did upgrade to the Bengal hydraulic disc brakes these are Two dual piston disc brakes and they Also do feature the auto cut off and so What that means is as soon as you tap The brakes it cuts power to the motor Which I think is very important on a Cargo bike just because when you really Start loading this up Um it’s nice to know from a safety Standpoint that a when you when you hit The brakes it’ll stop but it will also Kick off that motor Um they have kept the throttle which I Also do like on these cargoy bikes Especially the rear hub because Otherwise you end up kind of having to Worry about shifting when you come to a Stop and start so like the throttle Speaking of Shifting they went with a Shimano Acera drivetrain so it’s a Seven-speed drivetrain the front Is a 48 tooth chain ring in the rear you Have a 14 to 34 tooth range so it’s a Good amount of range we’re going to talk About that in our testing kind of a Sneak peek I actually do think that they
Should increase the size of this just a Little bit Um in addition a couple things that I Want to point out it’s a nice LCD Display it’s very basic Um which is fine for me because you can Just get on and go there really is not a Learning curve there’s not a lot that You can adjust again for me that is Great Um and then finally I did want to point Out they have integrated front lights And rear brake lights again just for That added safety Factor Okay so all of those components really Give us a very nice high quality e-cargo Bike as you can see it’s very clean all The cables are wrapped nicely they’re Routed nicely throughout the bike you Barely even notice them And it in my opinion in our team’s Opinion it just looks very sleek and Well done it’s also surprisingly lighter Weight than you think it should be no It’s not light but it is lighter than You would think it is with both Batteries it is just over 75 so 75 and a Half pounds And again that’s a little lighter than We would typically see on any cargo bike Um but if you remove both batteries what You can do it drops it down to right Around 60 pounds which The nice thing about that is it can fit
On a lot more bike racks for Transportation that way Um now from a capacity standpoint There’s four 400 total pounds of weight Capacity and that’s divided up a couple Different ways so first the writer can Be up to 250 pounds the front rack can Hold 50 pounds Max Capacity and the rear Rack can hold 150 pounds so say you’re 150 pound Rider you can have 200 pounds Of cargo if you’re a 250 pound Rider you Can have 150 pounds of cargo kind of Dispersed accordingly so nice weight Capacity to be honest I tried to load this thing up and I Didn’t even come close to the 400 pounds I I don’t know if you could do that Unless you’re actually putting multiple Riders that are fairly decent sized on The bike Um other thing that we do like about the Bike is it has a lower standover height You’ll notice they spec this with 20 Inch tires and that gives you a Standover height of 19.4 inches so as I Stand over it you’ll notice I do have to Lift my leg a little bit but it is easy To get off easy to get on And when you’re loaded up with cargo That’s actually more important than you Would normally think Finally what all that does is it Blix Has said that this will fit Riders from Five foot one to six foot three we
Actually tested that range down to five Foot one Totally fine we tested it Beyond six Foot three with our six foot five with Michael who’s six foot five and he felt Comfortable on it as well yes he did him In both him and Griffin both wanted to Adjust this stem up to be a little more Comfortable for them but really you can You can fit a lot of different writers On here for me personally I like just to Drop the seat a little bit Probably a little below what you Normally would and that’s the one I’m Riding on it I can still get my feet Down and kind of control the bike when I Come to a stop Um But again bottom line very well built Bike really good components we think Blicks did a great job with that [Music] All right now it is time to dive into Our testing and first up the brake test So the electric bike report brake test We put Griffin who’s a 230 pound Rider He gets up to 20 miles per hour and then From a seated position stops as quickly As he can again we’re trying to Replicate we’ve adjusted this lately Where we’re trying to replicate a little More natural braking so consumers who Are considering buying this bike would Know about how long it takes to break
Again if you’re going the full 20 miles Per hour So the Bengal Ares 3 hydraulic disc Brakes that are specked with this bike Stopped at 23 feet one inch that’s the Average over three stops that Griffin Did and what does that translate to Really it is pretty solid stopping power It’s about what we expected out of these Brakes and I can tell you me riding Around both with cargo without I have Never had an issue stopping I have Always felt very safe and secure Griffin’s comment from the brake test Was that it really felt like the Bengal Brakes grabbed the wheel and just helped Slowly down versus locking it up and Skidding and slightly fishtailing right If you’re very experienced you can do That and kind of control that but I Think it’s important on a cargo bike That you don’t fishtail when you when You brake you don’t want to lock them up And so that comment was actually very Assuring and I think they did a great Job specing with these Bengal brakes the Only thing that I would really mention To you do is that we have over the last Couple years found that the Bengal Breaks tend to need just a little bit More maintenance than something like a Tectro so just just plan for that be Prepared for it and pay attention to it As you start to put you know hundreds
And hundreds of miles on this bike Okay on to the electric bike report Circuit test now our circuit test is a One mile Loop consisting of four Right-hand turns one thirty foot climb Griffin who’s 230 pounds is our rider For consistency purposes of this test And really the point of the test is We’re trying to see how well the motor Engages what the average speed is from Pas0 so no assistance all the way to Five And so how did the Blix packet do in General it did really well you can see From the graph at assist level zero it Went 13.2 miles that’s actually faster Than what we expected and right in line With a lot of the commuter and kind of Commuter and cruiser bikes that we test And so not what we would have expected Out of a cargo bike really well done I Think it just speaks to how well this Bike pedals as a bike it does not feel Like a cargo bike when you’re not loaded Up you’ll notice assist level 1 didn’t Improve very much and then once you Start getting assist level two three Four and five that’s where you start to See that nice steady increase that we’re Looking for in the circuit test so big Takeaways from there number one it Actually pedals fairly well without any Power assistance It’s still going to be a pain in the
Butt climbing up a hill so definitely Don’t recommend running out of battery Um but it does pedal well assist level One we do think that they could kind of Change that up a little bit to where it Does give you a little more power Engagement Griffin noticed that after About seven miles per hour it kicks out And so and I kind of found the same Thing like I actually didn’t pedal this At all in the assist level one I found Myself much more and assist level two And this is level three that’s where I Felt most comfortable especially Carrying in cargo and then if I really Wanted to open it up if I was up on a Road and needed to get up and go assist Levels four and five really do give a Nice power kick and gets me up to that 20 miles per hour fairly easy the only Last takeaway that I have on this is This test is where we started to see Um kind of a little bit of ghost Pedaling with this front chain ring so The front chain ring it’s that 48 tooth Chain ring and when you kick it into Assist level five you do it just feels a Little bit like it’s over geared or Excuse me under geared and just not Quite enough and so you end up ghost Pedaling just a little bit so if they Improved it again just a little bit There I think these test results would Even be better
Onto our range test now the electric Bike report range test consists of two Different rides one is the max assist Level so we put this at pas5 see how far It can go the next one is a minimum Assist level and to see how far it goes There now with the minimum assist we Basically are trying to get it to where It feels like any bike as in where the Motor is engaging and giving you Something you’ll notice from our circuit Test assist level one didn’t do much so We actually did this on the minimum Range test minimum power range test at Assist level two so how did it do with These you know again remember we have The Dual battery setup so that’s two Batteries that are both 48 volt 12.8 amp Hours for a total of 1228 Watt hours that’s a lot of capacity It actually showed in the range test Blix claims that you should be able to Get from 50 to 80 miles and that’s right About where we got it so on the max Assist range we got 47.4 miles and on The minimum assist we got 78.1 miles that’s a long ways on a cargo Bike and as a side note on that test our Rider Climbed to 1946 feet and so that was my son Josh he Weighs about 150 pounds and basically Just put them on the saddle for hours on End to see how far these go and as you
Can see like the bottom line I think Blix nailed it in terms of range that’s A long ways and so if you have any kind Of range anxiety definitely get the two The Dual battery mode if you only want The single battery basically just take The numbers we got and cut them in half Because they are pretty much identical Batteries between the two of them All right onto hell hole and our Hill Test so the electric bike report Hill Test is a third mile long 12 grade up The hill that is literally called hell Hole this is a hill that we do not Expect all bikes to make it up either on Throttle or even Max pedal assist but we But we put them all through it and what We’re doing here is we’re really trying To test this new motor the shangy 750 Watt 90 90 newton meters of torque that They have put in to answer the question Like I mean their consumers wanted Something that’ll climb a hill this is a Hill to test it on and to be honest the Blix packagini climbed it like a champ Um much better than what we expected for A rear hub cargo e-bike that weighed 75 Pounds on throttle only again so this is Not pedaling this is just throttle It climbed in a minute and 14 seconds at An average of 14.7 miles per hour that Is pretty fast on throttle only and Again I would have not expected this to Make it up hell hole on the throttle if
You’d asked me beforehand on the max Pedal assist so this I put in pas5 I Pedaled and I’m not pedaling as hard as I can I’m basically trying to climb the Hill without breaking a sweat something That I can maintain for a while I Climbed it in one minute flat and it Flew up the hill at 18.1 miles per hour And so you know you notice how before I Talked about how that front chain ring Just felt like I needed a little bit Bigger actually on the hill I think it Did great Um And the power from that rear hub motor Just did an exceptional job so if if you Are someone that has a lot of hills on a Commute or where you’re going to be Using this bike you’re not going to have Any problem you can absolutely climb Those Hills without breaking a sweat Without getting off the saddle it did a Fantastic job All right we’ve taken the Blix packagini Through all of our testing but how does It perform as a cargo bike what can you Put on here what are the different Accessories because that’s really what You’re looking for when you’re buying a Cargo bike you want to carry stuff and You want to carry people so we have a Handful accessories from Blicks that They sent us and then I’m going to walk You through how I would actually
Personally set it up for my scenario but Keep in mind number one there’s more Accessories on blix’s website than what I’m going to show you here number two There’s over 200 different accessory Combos that you can mix and match and Play the Legos with so there’s a lot you Can do with the packagini Um So first up we have the front basket 50 Pound weight capacity has this little Bottle holder personally I would remove The bottle holder because I would prefer A you know to put in a bottle cage here But nice and sturdy definitely holds a Lot there Moving back they sent us four different Bags so we have the the top rack bag Which has a little kind of insulated Cooler inside a couple different zippers I actually find that it sits up front Very well And I really like the shape of that Um As far as bags go we have the city tote And the everyday bag both of these Connect to the side railing using these Clips they’re very easy to get on off They have this the side shoulder strap So if you want to put your laptop in it They have a laptop sleeve very good for Commuting to and from the office and Then going home with some groceries Inside both of those bags
Then we have They’re smart paneer bags Here they hold more than than the other Ones and are great options if you really Want to fit in a lot of stuff Now The rear section you’ll see I have the Running boards down below that’s great If you have kids or other people in the Back they need a place to put their feet You want to keep the feet out of the Spokes obviously and that’s where this Mesh guard comes into play I actually Really like the mesh card I like the Looks it’s pretty easy to install the Only downside to it is I would install That last after I got all the other Cushions on because otherwise you have To kind of reach your hand underneath Etc so it makes a little bit challenging But once it’s there it’s fantastic Mentioned the cushion I have two of the Rear seat cushions and they are Surprisingly comfortable Um And then you have the VIP section so This is for your very important Little People passengers But it actually works really well with Cargo as well and I’ll show that with my Setup so when I you know we don’t have a Test for cargo bikes yet electric bike Report so I kind of created one don’t Know if it’s going to stick or not
Um but I called the grocery store test Right I’m on a cargo bike Is this really a vehicle replacement It’s not going to be if I can’t go to The grocery store load it up and get Home so I made a grocery list it was Fairly comprehensive like of a basic Grocery run I ended up buying about 150 Of groceries ranging from you know Soda Cereal eggs milk Etc to be honest I was a little bit Worried at the start that I wouldn’t be Able to quite fit it all in Um And so I loaded it up with the smart Paneer bags I kept this frame on because I wanted to actually use some egg or Some some milk crates I ran just a Walmart grabbed a milk crate I couldn’t Quite fit two but I found another little Basket here which I ended up not using But you could put those kind of side by Side if you wanted to Um so you’ll notice with the with a Crate nice thing about it is you can Just bungee it to this VIP section and It stayed Rock Solid so I got back from I went to the grocery store bought Everything loaded everything up you know I loaded the produce I loaded the bag of Rice I loaded the cereal I reloaded the Milk just all those things and I stepped Back and I still had space so I ended up Grabbing a inflatable stand-up paddle
Board and stuck that right here in the Rear Um That added 35 pounds and I was I think That answers the question of can this be Used as a car replacement because I fit 150-ish dollars of groceries in Including an inflatable stand-up paddle Board riding it around it rode really Well the one thing I will note As you shift weight to the very tail Which is what I did with the stand-up Paddle board probably didn’t pack it Right it was at the very end it weighs About 30 to 35 pounds total It did make riding a little bit more Challenging I didn’t have much of a Problem but if you were a beginner Writer you’d probably feel a little bit Unstable and so you really do want to Pack it with as much weight to the Center of the bike as possible when I Remove the stand-up paddle board I had No problem riding rode all the way home Didn’t crack any eggs didn’t smash any Bread Didn’t spill any milk Um and I actually had a lot of fun got a Lot of looks from ongoers who I think Are going to turn around and try to Figure out what the heck I was doing Um And kind of to answer the question can This be a vehicle replacement I would
Say yes absolutely I don’t think it Could do a Costco run for my family We’ve got six but for your average Grocery store run commuting to and from The office it would work fantastic and How I would set that up is I wouldn’t Actually use the smart paneer bags I Would use probably the everyday bag and Just get two of them to where I could Essentially ride to work like this and Then clip Two of these onto the side if I wanted To carry groceries then when I get home I just take those off and if my son Wants to go for a ride I can just put Them in the back so I don’t actually Have to change any of the setup And I can just ride it with kids without Kids with groceries without groceries Use it as a commuter uses it as a cargo Bike which again just shows how Utilities and valuable this bike can be Okay so overall I think you can tell That we really do like this bike and it Performs very well in fact we would say That it’s one of the best electric cargo Bikes in this price range hands down and You know we asked the question at the Beginning is this the genie in the Bottle and I would say yes Blix nailed What they were trying to do they Increased the safety of the bike by Adding hydraulic disc brakes they Increased the range of this bike I mean
50 to 80 miles is a very long way on on A cargo bike and then they also increase The power this the packagingy climbs Hills Like A Champion and kind of bottom Line for me This is going to be one of the bikes That I’m going to try to sneak it out of Here without Griffin noticing because I Know we’re going to fight over this bike You know he’s got a couple small kids I’ve got a couple small kids we love to Run to the grocery store with our Families buy some groceries right around Town and this bike for me passed what I Again personally is my most important Test that’s what I call the AJ test so AJ is my five-year-old he is a ton of Fun cutest kid in the world he’s also The youngest kid and is very picky my Wife’s always wanting to get him out Riding around on bikes because she Really loves these things AJ tends to push back they’re just not Very comfortable he kind of complains About the bumps and so it’s kind of like Twisting his arm he likes it when we get Out there Um so I brought him in I rode around for Several miles and just asked him hey KJ You’re working with Daddy tell me what You think and you’ll notice in the B-roll every single time I asked him hey What do you think he gave me two thumbs Up he said it was comfortable there’s
Just there was something about the Runner boards the cushion seat the VIP Section that just made him feel very Comfortable and he had a blast and he Keeps asking me hey Dad when are you Going to bring home that bike because I Want to go on a bike ride and that’s What it’s all about for me right I can Not just go get groceries but I can Actually put my kids in here and have a Ton of fun with them and that’s again For me that’s what it’s all about so I’m Also going to give two big thumbs up to Blicks with the packaging With all that being said I hope you Found this review helpful and if you did Please give us a like And subscribe to Our Channel you can also follow the Links below that will take you to the Full in-depth review of the Blix packet Genie and if you have any questions or Comments please leave those in the Comments section below For electric bike report I’m Justin Taylor thank you for watching and I hope To see you out on the trail soon Right [Music] Foreign [Music]
