Another broken ebike

[Andy Bluenoes]

I've ridden my Rose/Bosch bike in heavy rain and on one occasion totally submerged the motor while pushing it through a ford.

No significant problems so far, although I've had a tiny bit of condensation in the Intuvia display, which cleared of its own accord.

I did have on error message which I cleared by wiping the connections.

Andy's unfortunate experiences reinforce my opinion that a £1,000 Chinese ebike is not up to commuting, particularly in all weathers.

My choice would be a Bosch bike with the smaller Purion display, which I believe is not detachable, so being hard-wired shouldn't suffer from connection problems.

A bit of condensation in the display, if that happened, is neither here nor there.

My ideal commuter would also have a full-length front mudguard to keep spray off the motor and the battery connection - not that I've had any bother with that.

Cyclotricity claim their bikes are british made....I imaging you mean some of the parts attached to the bike are chinese?
In anycase, arent controllers, lcd's and all the electrical gubbins pretty much the same across the board?

 

[RobF]

Cyclotricity claim their bikes are british made....I imaging you mean some of the parts attached to the bike are chinese?
In anycase, arent controllers, lcd's and all the electrical gubbins pretty much the same across the board?

Could be, but that doesn't explain why £1,000 Chinese ebikes are notorious for electrical faults.

Often just niggly faults, but still faults which put the bike off the road.

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

that is usually the case when the controller is programmed to talk to a different LCD. They don't use the same protocol. Check the batch code on the label affixed to the controller casing.
They usually follow this format: [manufacturer model] [customer] [program batch date] [serial number if any]
The solution is usually to send back both old controller and LCD to the supplier and ask them to make sure that controller and LCD are matched.

The latest development is a new LCD and the cable between the lcd and controller are being sent out as they think one or the other is at fault......

Sounds logical about the matching, but I hope you are wrong as what they are doing now wont fix the problem?.....

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi David

Long story, it goes back to may this year.

Initially, maybe I should take part of the blame for the first one, as I hadn't done enough of my own research before jumping in.

I opted to take the cycle to work scheme which gave me up to £1000 to spend on a bike, so I went to Halfords as I thought that was my only option.
The only ebike I could see was the Coyote Connect folding ebike. It seemed like the perfect option, as at that time I was going to ride 7 miles to the local tram station, and take the bike on the tram.
That 7 miles turned out to be too hard for the coyote, it's part of the trans pennine trail, and the bike wasn't up to the job I guess.
The rear drum brakes died within a few weeks, and carious parts slowly failed, including pedals dropping off. The bike spent more time in Halfords than with me. Repairs were done, only for them to be botched up.
In the end, I went back to the C2W scheme, and they advised that I return the bike, they would upgrade my voucher by another £200, (with no expense to me) and advised me to get a Greenedge CS2 from ebikes direct....a mountain bike not a folding bike.

So, that happened.

The Greenedge looked much more suitable for my commute, and at this time, I thought why not try and do the whole 14 miles into work rather than just to the tram station?
It worked well for a few weeks. The route is part road, part trail and part towpath. Nothing really what I would say is overly harsh for a mountain bike.
Within a couple of weeks, electrical problems started on the CS2. Eventually I nailed it down to the battery loose in the housing, losing connection to the terminals. One of which was jammed in the controller housing.
A week later, I had a new controller and battery from e-bikes direct.
However, in the meantime, I had been looking at spending a bit of my own money on a bike that maybe wouldn't fall apart on my journey....remember, Im getting into riding to work now, and dont want to use my car or public transport!

So, I order the stealth as it looks like it will do the job perfectly.

The mrs now has the fixed CS2, and should do fine for her shorter journeys.

The Stealth has been great until now, but I am now still waiting for cyclotricity to come back to me. The place where I bought the bike have simply advised to wait for cyclotricity.
So, at the moment, its back on public transport.

I really cant believe that my route to work is so harsh that a bike costing £1200 isnt up to the job?

Hi Andy,

You really have had problems.

There is no need for a well made Chinese bike to go wrong in the first few months and if it does it should be made perfect again in a day or two.

We sell a hell of a lot of bikes prices at £1,099 and get very few issues, if we do our local stockist or retailer will always be there to assist getting you back on the road quickly.

We are not the only brand that operates this way. Juicy, FreeGo, Oxygen, Batribike, Kudos and many others work in the same way. My advice is to choose a decent local retailer and choose a brand that has been around for a few years. You will not get the same issues.

All the best

David

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

Hi Andy,

You really have had problems.

There is no need for a well made Chinese bike to go wrong in the first few months and if it does it should be made perfect again in a day or two.

We sell a hell of a lot of bikes prices at £1,099 and get very few issues, if we do our local stockist or retailer will always be there to assist getting you back on the road quickly.

We are not the only brand that operates this way. Juicy, FreeGo, Oxygen, Batribike, Kudos and many others work in the same way. My advice is to choose a decent local retailer and choose a brand that has been around for a few years. You will not get the same issues.

All the best

David

Thanks David.

To be honest i ordered the bike through ebike factory who are based in stoke i believe...so my thinking was if anything major did go wrong at least it's only about an hour away from me.

What i wasn't expecting was them to take a complete back step...so now all dealings are from the other end of the country.

To be fair cyclotricity have been very helpful so far but the way its going I'll be waiting for a new part every other day until its solved.
Very frustrating as the bike is basically my work car.

Too late now i guess.

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Reading through the thread I noticed that you wash your bike down with a hose. E bikes really don't like high pressure hoses, even strong jets get water into areas that riding in heavy rain wouldn't. When you hose your bike down keep the jet to low pressure.

We recently had a case of a Bosch motor and display on a Riese and Muller bike having water ingress, we were dumfounded having never seen the problem before. We were informed that the owner had driven his motor home back from Spain over three days in torrential rain with the bike on the back. We spoke to Bosch, they said that this is a problem that comes up time and again. They explained that the vortex created behind a motor home driven at 140km/h can pull the fine spray back into the bike at nearly 200km/h getting water into everything including the motor. A power washer will do the same. A powerful hose though not as bad could well have a similar effect.

I hope this may help.

All the best, David

 

[RobF]

There is no need for a well made Chinese bike to go wrong in the first few months

Emphasis on the 'well made'.

You will know better than I that a book could be written about the pitfalls of Chinese manufacture.

Shadow shifts, third shifts, gullible British businessmen not getting the quality they paid for after the first consignment, etc, etc.

Your two £1,099 bikes look to be better than some at that price.

Assuming the same level of service as you've been known to give other customers, the bikes look like an excellent buy for the money.

I'd recommend anyone to have a 20" ebike in their collection.

They are good fun and a lot handier than big wheel ebikes.

https://amps.bike/product/wisper-806se/

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Thanks David.

To be honest i ordered the bike through ebike factory who are based in stoke i believe...so my thinking was if anything major did go wrong at least it's only about an hour away from me.

What i wasn't expecting was them to take a complete back step...so now all dealings are from the other end of the country.

To be fair cyclotricity have been very helpful so far but the way its going I'll be waiting for a new part every other day until its solved.
Very frustrating as the bike is basically my work car.

Too late now i guess.

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

The lads at Cyclotricity are great, they will look after you and get your bike working perfectly as soon as they can.

Really don't worry!

All the best, David

 

[trex]

The latest development is a new LCD and the cable between the lcd and controller are being sent out as they think one or the other is at fault......

Sounds logical about the matching, but I hope you are wrong as what they are doing now wont fix the problem?.....

that can be the cable but it's unlikely. You do need a matching LCD, so they are doing the right thing sending you both.

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

that can be the cable but it's unlikely. You do need a matching LCD, so they are doing the right thing sending you both.

But ive already had the controller this morning...so will it match the next lcd....

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

[trex]

yes, connect the new LCD first, if it works, problem over. If not, replace the trunk cable. In any case, you should be back on the road tomorrow.

 

[HelenJ]

Bit of a clean up with this thread, would appreciate new posts being kept on topic with helping the OP please.

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

Doomed!

The delivery appears to have vanished in DPD's system half way up the country.
Another day wasted sat at home....

 

[trex]

you should try ringing the local DPD depot, tell them to leave the parcel with a friendly neighbour.

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

you should try ringing the local DPD depot, tell them to leave the parcel with a friendly neighbour.

Once I know where it is, I'll do that...the problem is trying to actually locate it....had the same problem with them with a mobile phone that vanished....it never arrived at all....i guess the sender wont send out a replacement until a few days after to confirm its either lost or not....

 

[trex]

Ask Cyclotricity. They call their depot, asking for the number for your local depot and whom to talk to.

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

Ask Cyclotricity. They call their depot, asking for the number for your local depot and whom to talk to.

I did.
All I got was DPD will notify me when they have a delivery slot.
In other words when they have found it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[trex]

troubles come in threes. It will probably turn up tomorrow.

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

troubles come in threes. It will probably turn up tomorrow.

Well I'm hoping it will...so I've changed it to deliver to a pick up shop...my thinking is they might drop off tomorrow rather than Monday when they're busier....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

Finally.
Picked my delivery up from a pickup point this evening as DPD did their usual trick and failed miserably.

Swapped the LCD's over, still not working properly.
Swapped the cable over, all back up and running.

Thanks to Cyclotricity for sorting it out, cant blame them for useless parcel carriers I guess.

Back to work on the bike tomorrow, could be a wet one......especially as my Amazon Prime delivery of new waterproof boots still hasnt turned up 2 days after it should have done! Another story! When so much business these days is done online, surely carriers need to match the demand....