Chinese Emtb repairs

[Trublugeoff]

Hi.
First and foremost,if I'm in the wrong section please excuse my mistake and if possible could someone direct me to the correct one..thanks.
I'm having problems with an error code message E07 on my Gunai M80 Electric bike.
I've only had the bike a couple of months so contacted the company on AliExpress . They said it was a motor problem and would send me a new one. The only problem is I'm not really happy trying to fit it myself. To say I'm pretty useless at anything DIY Orientated is an understatement....coookin, baking....no problem...but DIY is a no no.
I just wondered if anyone knows of a bike repair shop within the Lancashire/Manchester area that would have a look at it for me.
I've been in touch with 2 local bike shops...and both say they won't look at Chinese models so I'm panicking a little.
Any advice would be welcome . I'm a 69 newby who got the bike just to get me out and about but I'm feeling really frustrated at the moment.
PS: besides the DIY problem.....I can do certain things ..I have recently, 18months back, had 8 screws fitted in my spine as I suffer from something called Ankylosing Spondylitis and I find it quite difficult lifting and bending hence the other problem repairing the bike myself.
Any help or otherwise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gavin]

I've been in touch with 2 local bike shops...and both say they won't look at Chinese models so I'm panicking a little.

Posts like this surface quite regularly Geoff and it seems that a lot of bike shops are scared of trying to fix ebikes. In my opinion that's a poor business model because it's an emerging market for them. I also think there's a degree of prejudice towards Chinese products in the market.

I'm not familiar with your particular bike so I'm just going to give general advice.

Firstly, be aware that ebikes always break in some way (even if it's just a puncture). Once you accept that fact, you need to decide what you'll do every time it breaks because costs can soon mount up if you pay someone else to fix it every time.

Personally, I believe that knowledge is far more powerful than money. In this situation I'd recommend the following.

If you've got a bad back, buy a bike stand (approx 30 quid) so you're comfortable. If you haven't got tools, buy some basic ones (20-40 quid will cover everything you'll ever need for a bike). NOTE-This initial outlay shouldn't be viewed as a COST but as an INVESTMENT because it will genuinely save you money over the course of bike ownership (use that line to justify the spend to your missus!).

Finally- have faith in your skills. You say you're a good cook/ baker. In my experience, fixing a problem on a bike is a damn sight easier than cooking a roast dinner!

 

[vfr400]

Posts like this surface quite regularly Geoff and it seems that a lot of bike shops are scared of trying to fix ebikes. In my opinion that's a poor business model because it's an emerging market for them. I also think there's a degree of prejudice towards Chinese products in the market.

I'm not familiar with your particular bike so I'm just going to give general advice.

Firstly, be aware that ebikes always break in some way (even if it's just a puncture). Once you accept that fact, you need to decide what you'll do every time it breaks because costs can soon mount up if you pay someone else to fix it every time.

Personally, I believe that knowledge is far more powerful than money. In this situation I'd recommend the following.

If you've got a bad back, buy a bike stand (approx 30 quid) so you're comfortable. If you haven't got tools, buy some basic ones (20-40 quid will cover everything you'll ever need for a bike). NOTE-This initial outlay shouldn't be viewed as a COST but as an INVESTMENT because it will genuinely save you money over the course of bike ownership (use that line to justify the spend to your missus!).

Finally- have faith in your skills. You say you're a good cook/ baker. In my experience, fixing a problem on a bike is a damn sight easier than cooking a roast dinner!

Bike stands are good for adjusting gears and brakes, but worse than useless for putting a new motor in, especially a £30 one. I wouldn't be able to do it with a good back, so anyone with a bad back has got no chance. To put a motor in, you turn the bike upside down on the floor so that gravity helps you, and it puts the wheel at the right height.

 

[Nealh]

Posts like this surface quite regularly Geoff and it seems that a lot of bike shops are scared of trying to fix ebikes. In my opinion that's a poor business model because it's an emerging market for them. I also think there's a degree of prejudice towards Chinese products in the market.

Yet they are happy to sell China made crank motors and electronics on so called premium bikes !!!!

 

[Trublugeoff]

Posts like this surface quite regularly Geoff and it seems that a lot of bike shops are scared of trying to fix ebikes. In my opinion that's a poor business model because it's an emerging market for them. I also think there's a degree of prejudice towards Chinese products in the market.

I'm not familiar with your particular bike so I'm just going to give general advice.

Firstly, be aware that ebikes always break in some way (even if it's just a puncture). Once you accept that fact, you need to decide what you'll do every time it breaks because costs can soon mount up if you pay someone else to fix it every time.

Personally, I believe that knowledge is far more powerful than money. In this situation I'd recommend the following.

If you've got a bad back, buy a bike stand (approx 30 quid) so you're comfortable. If you haven't got tools, buy some basic ones (20-40 quid will cover everything you'll ever need for a bike). NOTE-This initial outlay shouldn't be viewed as a COST but as an INVESTMENT because it will genuinely save you money over the course of bike ownership (use that line to justify the spend to your missus!).

Finally- have faith in your skills. You say you're a good cook/ baker. In my experience, fixing a problem on a bike is a damn sight easier than cooking a roast dinner!

Hi ,
thank you for this advice and I will look at the items you've mentioned. I've no problem with the basics , punctures etc but I'm a little daunted about replacing a faulty motor. I don't know if I can find any advice on here so I will keep looking.
As for the Baking , it goes back to my first ever job as an apprentice......a long long time ago ...lol

 

[egroover]

from what I can see from a quick google search is that these Gunai bikes are based around rear hub motors, so if Aliexpress are sending you just the motor, you will need to undo all of the spokes and replace the wheel into the the new replacement hub...not a simple task to do well, you'll need to find someone who can respoke a wheel. Hopefully they'll send you a whole rear wheel, so that'll be simple to swap out. If they do just send the motor hub, you may be able to swap out the inside motor part of the hub, by removing from the outer hub casing....update this thread when the replacement arrives and someone will be able to advise the best way

 

[vfr400]

I've been looking at your bike's listing, and to be frank, I can't see how the motor could give you a problem. What exactly went wrong and how did it happen?

 

[Trublugeoff]

Hi.
The bike is basically the Samebike LO26 under a different guise. It had been ridden just four time what then power just cut out and the Led shows fault code E07.
Which according to everything I've seen on Google and YouTube shows up as a sensor failure in the motor. I spoke to Gunai and they said it was a motor fault and that they would send me out a new one with a video on how to replace it. It seems a straight forward job ,and at no point do any spokes have to be removed.
I'm just a little hesitant doing it myself ,hence my looking for local bike repairs, but if I have to I will.
The new motor is due this week.

 

[vfr400]

What cause the motor to cut? They don't just cut for nothing. Were you going up a step hill or what?

 

[Nealh]

For the motor one can simply swap the internal hub core drive unit over.
Once this is done if the fault is a hall sensor and not a wire fault one should be able to repair the hall to have a spare motor. In fact one could use the repaired motor to power another bike by spending £70 -£100 on a nice KT electronics kit.