Bosch is renowned for making high-quality, reliable and powerful e-bike motors. Its Performance Line CX motor is one of the best on the e-MTB market, offering a natural ride feel and immense versatility.
The Bosch Performance Line is the company’s second most powerful motor and is very versatile, being found on e-MTBs, e-touring bikes, e-road bikes and e-cargo bikes. But how does it compare to the company’s premiere e-MTB motor and what does it offer that’s different?
We’ve taken the Bosch Performance Line to the trails and given it a good going over, to get the answers to any questions you might have!
Our Verdict
The Bosch Performance Line isn’t one of the most powerful e-bike motors out there, but it’s certainly one of the most versatile.
It offers an incredibly smooth riding experience, has an excellent display and is compatible with so many types of bikes.
It still offers a decent kick and is a great companion on many different types of rides.
Peaks:
- Versatility
- Natural ride experience
- Price
- Compact
- Quiet
- Display
Troughs:
- Weight
- Amount of torque
Bosch Performance Line
Price: $750
Power and Battery Pairings
The Bosch Performance Line is a 250Wh motor, which can kick out 65Nm of torque and produce up to 300% of assistance.
But what’s the difference between the Bosch Performance Line and the Bosch Performance Line CX? The answer is that the Performance Line CX is geared up for e-mountain biking. However, the Performance Line is more versatile and can be compatible for a variety of types of riding. It has nine types of assistance, in total: e-MTB, sport, tour, tour+, eco, race, cargo, turbo and auto.
It can also work with battery pairings up to the 1,000Wh mark (or thereabouts, at least), which means you can get out on some very long rides, indeed. The new auto-mode is particularly handy, it senses when you’re facing a headwind or beginning an incline and automatically changes the assistance level to help.
Handling and Power Delivery
The Performance Line from Bosch is renowned for being a natural-riding product, with a seamlessly smooth riding experience, one which feels very natural as you strike the pedals.
It means you feel very much in control of the bike, despite that large potential torque output, and it can take on some tricky terrain on an e-MTB.
That smooth power delivery offers confident handling – you don’t get any uncomfortable lags in the power knocking off or starting up.
Weight and Appearance
The Bosch Performance Line is nice and compact, making it very easy for bike manufacturers to slot it into a bike design. This is one of the reasons it’s so popular in the e-MTB market.
❗NB:
It weighs 3.2kg, which isn’t the lightest. Bosch do have lighter e-MTB motors, which are often fitted into the very top e-MTBs, such as the Performance Line CX.
It really is modestly sized, though, and by no means gets in the way for most e-MTBs and e-bikes. It also operates silently, which adds to that natural ride experience.
Display
The Bosch Performance Line has nine assistance modes. These can all be flicked between on the bike’s advanced, smart-system display. It’s compatible with a number of Bosch’s different motor remotes and display units, including the Kiox 300 and the Intuvia 100.
There are many customisable options within the displays, so you can look at your RPM, mapping information and climbing data, etc. It’s an advanced piece of kit, which is customisable to Bosch e-bike motor upgrades on the smart-system app.
Price
The Bosch Performance Line comes in at around $750, which is a reasonable price for what is an excellent piece of kit. It isn’t the cheapest out there, but you can’t get much better at that price. Overall, we’re impressed with how Bosch has kept the price of the Performance Line down.
How Does it Compare?
The Bosch Performance Line is an all-rounder, so it’s only fair that we compare it to another all-rounder, the Shimano E6100.
It’s another e-MTB motor which can be fitted to e-road bikes, e-city bikes and e-MTBs.
It’s a 250Wh motor, which can produce 60Nm of torque, 5Nm less than our Bosch. However, it’s lighter, at only 2.76kg.
It can be paired with batteries of up to 630Wh, which is some way off our Bosch Performance Line, which can handle up to 1,000Wh.
It also has a fairly primitive display compared to the Bosch; the Shimano E6100 comes with the company’s E-Tube Project app and display, which only offers speed, distance, battery level and support modes.
Although the Shimano offers a fairly natural ride feel, it is noisier than its Bosch counterpart. We would stick with the Performance Line.
Final Thoughts
The Bosch Performance Line is one of the most versatile e-bike motors out on the market.
It can take on the trails on an e-MTB, be a perfect companion on a long bike touring adventure and feels comfortable on inner-city streets.
It offers a natural ride experience, fits neatly into bike designs and is very quiet as it operates.
There aren’t many e-bike motors which offer so much and can be so versatile across the entire cycling spectrum.
That’s a real achievement by Bosch and the reason that the Performance Line, understandably, gains so many plaudits.
We’re big fans, now go give it a try yourselves!
