Any opinions on Trek ebikes?

[Colin Tate]

I've been looking at various ebikes. I saw a nice Trek in a local bikeshop but can't find much in the way of opinion on them. For instance, are they well finished? The paintwork on Kalkhoff and Gazelle seems really good compared to a Raleigh I once had. What's it like on a Trek?

I saw one Trek ebike, the um1+ (2018), which comes with roller brakes and a chain guard. That really appealed to me, even though I live in hilly Edinburgh. I liked the idea of low maintenance brakes and a cover to protect the chain too. The downside was no suspension. Not sure if that is going to make much difference in the city?

If anyone has any experience on these bikes and especially this model please let me know! Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Roller brakes and low maintenance are not normally seen in the same sentence. Roller brakes along with words like crappy, impossible to get right and need replacing as a complete assembly are more common.

If you want low maintenance brakes that will give consistent performance, look for a bike with hydraulic disc brakes.

 

[Woosh]

I concur with d8veh.
Roller brakes don't have much stopping power in comparison to V-brakes or hydraulic brakes.
I had to replace a couple of times the whole brakes when the customers contaminated them with one or two drops of oil and it's a lot messier to do than changing brake pads.
go for hydraulic brakes if you can.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Hydraulics for SA drum brakes drool...

 

[Colin Tate]

Roller brakes and low maintenance are not normally seen in the same sentence. Roller brakes along with words like crappy, impossible to get right and need replacing as a complete assembly are more common.

If you want low maintenance brakes that will give consistent performance, look for a bike with hydraulic disc brakes.

I was surprised to hear your negative take on roller brakes. I understood that nearly all dutch bikes have them because of their low maintenance. As we all know there are a lot of dutch bikes! Even the great Sheldon Brown on his website said they require 'little maintenance'. I think I've only ever once ridden a bike with them so I personally know next to nothing of them. I do get the impression that people (men really) ride very differently here in the UK. Speed seems to be of the essence whereas in the Netherlands people saunter along at a leisurely pace so perhaps 'emergency stops' etc aren't as necessary and would roller brakes suffice. In any case, at least they won't wear your rims!?

 

[Trevormonty]

There are no hills in Netherlands so brakes are only used for stop start riding, not long descents which will cook them.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I was surprised to hear your negative take on roller brakes. I understood that nearly all dutch bikes have them because of their low maintenance. As we all know there are a lot of dutch bikes! Even the great Sheldon Brown on his website said they require 'little maintenance'. I think I've only ever once ridden a bike with them so I personally know next to nothing of them. I do get the impression that people (men really) ride very differently here in the UK. Speed seems to be of the essence whereas in the Netherlands people saunter along at a leisurely pace so perhaps 'emergency stops' etc aren't as necessary and would roller brakes suffice. In any case, at least they won't wear your rims!?

If roller brakes were any good, people would have them on their front wheel, which is the one that does most of your braking. How many bikes have you seen with a front roller brake?

I'm the sort of pragmatic guy that will have anything cheap on my bike as long as it works. Brakes are different. You need ones that work well, consistently and reliably, and, as you mentioned it, maintenance free is very desirable. Roller brakes wiĺl not give you that, but hydraulic discs will. Cable disc brakes are often fitted to cheap bikes, but they can easily and cheaply upgraded to hydraulic.

 

[flecc]

How many bikes have you seen with a front roller brake?

I've only seen two pedelecs in modern times with them at both ends, the Comfort and ST models of the Giant Lafree. They of course were low powered and mainly aimed at the Dutch market where it's very flat.

The original eZee Torque that I owned had a roller rear brake which was as useless as ever. Fortunately the frame had V brake mounts on the lower stays so I converted it to a V brake, using a front brake there to get the cable out opposite the chain ring:

 

[Nealh]

HDB are simple they are pretty well fit and forget, the only maintenance required is new pads depending on the bikes usage with no adjustment of cables needed. Occasionally when the pads get a little low an adjustment to the lever pull via a an adjuster or allen key.
No cables to stretch or replace and no bleeding required.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I forgot to mention that electric bikes are generally a lot heavier than non-electric ones and so are their riders. The extra weight makes roller brakes very unsuitable.

 

[Colin Tate]

Thanks for your comments guys. Sounds like roller brakes aren't flavour of the month! I'm actually quite keen on disc brakes though it seems quite hard to get a bike that comes with disc brakes and hub gears. For some reason disc brakes seem to go hand in hand with derailleurs. Please don't tell me you don't like hub gears either?!

 

[Woosh]

Please don't tell me you don't like hub gears either?!

nothing wrong with hub gears. Kalkhoff do a lot of bikes with hub gears but they fit Magura brakes. Pretty good combination.

 

[Gringo]

Hub gears are good, bike manufactures tend not to fit them on the higher torque motors, keeping the motor output down to 60 nm or less.
My last cube came with 9 speed derailleur gears, after a thousand miles or so I changed to a shimano alfine 8 disc brake rear wheel and covered over 2,000 without issue.
The conversion cost just over £200 and as long as you accept that it's a little bit more fiddly when fixing a flat and rember to realy tighten the wheel axle nuts and check them every now and again, it's a worthwhile job.

 

[Nealh]

I have bitsa Kona Blast frame which I built up.
Small 17" frame but rides treat, front 26 wheel with bpm hub in a 700c fork with strong D/O's. 2 x front chain rings with Alfine 8 which I snagged brand new for £99 off ebay from Germany.
I broke two derailleurs off roading so decided to give the hub gears a go and I like them a lot.

 

[Dewey]

The Dutch Workcycles FR8 V8 is a mid-tail cargo bike converted with a Tongsheng TSDZ-2 mid-drive motor, 8-speed IGH, front dynamo hub, and roller brakes front and rear. They offer an upgrade to Magura hydraulic rim brakes as they are supposed to be able to carry >200kg loads. All Japanese Bridgestone Mama-Chari child carrying ebikes have a front rim brake rear drum brake in an IGH which surprised me considering how hilly Japan is, but I read most people ride them on the pavement due to lack of bicycle infrastructure so maybe speed isn’t an issue. An American cruiser with roller brakes front and rear is the Electra Townie Go! The Taiwanese BESV CF1 Lena model has front V-brake rear roller brake.

I converted a Dawes hybrid with a BBS01 motor, it has linear pull rim brakes, it’s in the shop being converted from a 7-speed derailleur to an 8-speed Nexus IGH.

 

[Trevormonty]

nothing wrong with hub gears. Kalkhoff do a lot of bikes with hub gears but they fit Magura brakes. Pretty good combination.

My wife's bike has nexus 8spd hub and Magura rim brakes, excellent combination. Still think disc are better option for fast steep descents, but Magura rim brakes are very good second choice.

 

[RobF]

The levers on some Magura hydraulic brakes are known in the trade to be very plasticky.

It's very easy to round out the bleed screw on top of the reservoir.