Hi Deere John,
I bought this bike in March 2015, specifically to ride to work and back using some nice off road routes, and that it what it has done. The off road routes vary from gentle tracks to some more challenging bits that I love, but all in beautiful countryside away from cars. Usually the route to work is 12 to 14 miles. I ride back 10 miles on the road.
I was lucky to get a new motor free of charge under warranty right on the two year end of warranty point. The replacement motor is within a 1000 miles of when the first was replaced. I am now however much more careful cleaning the bike to avoid getting water near the bearings having discovered that they are far from indestructible.
I have also destroyed two rear wheels and am on my third. The second one did last 10,000 miles, so not too bad.
I had to replace the connectors to my battery and charger myself as dealers will not repair them and do not supply the Yamaha connector for you to repair.
Dealers are graciously happy to sell you a new charger and 400Wh battery for £800 though. If you cannot fix it yourself this is your only option whether it happens inside or outside the warranty.
Anyway I did fix it myself with the help of a very capable friend.
This involved overcoming the security defeat bolts to open the battery case to carefully solder the wires inside the battery case and then seal with silicone sealant where they exited the battery case and add new connectors bought from ebay for less than £10 to the charger and battery leads.
Fortunately that all worked and my original battery is now over a year older and has powered the bike another 2000 miles plus since.
Other than that it has been general wear and tear, chains, cassettes, chain rings, brake pads, tyres etc.
I am very impressed with the toughness of the tyres I am using at the moment as they have reached 5436 miles since I put them on in January 2017. At this rate they will last longer than the first motor!
I have to say though that the general quality of the Haibike is very good and I like the Yamaha system.
Where I start work could be moving in about six months time, not dramatically, but it could effect the logistics of riding to work. We will see. I cannot imagine not riding to work now so I will hope I can find a way to still do it.
I had a dramatic change of career path after being made redundant in the credit crunch of 2008 when I was approaching 50 that could have been a real disaster but the new Job in a completely different field I got as a result has proved to be fantastic in all sorts of ways, not least of which is being able to ride to work cross country a lot of the time.
One door closes and another opens as they say. Though it helps to knock loudly on the door.
