eMTB owners photo and ride thread.

[Zlatan]

Crossing the Threshold.....

13,000 Miles

I have just ridden to five late duties using my Haibike to travel cross country 14 miles to work and then 10 miles home covering 120 miles, and I breached the 13,000 mile barrier when I got home on Sunday and finished last night with 13,076 miles covered.

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These rides have been interesting as my first ride in on Saturday the 13th of February was when the ground was frozen solid. Despite low temperatures the amount of battery I used on the way to work was as low as in the summer as the solid ground removed a lot of drag and allowed me to fly along with less effort.

In contrast on the way home it was cold and windy and I used more higher assist than normal to maintain my speed and my battery consumption hit a high of 52% used.

That first ride to work was really treacherous and I nearly came a cropper on more than one occasion before I took more care of the frozen ridges of mud!

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Also on one small connecting country lane I came across a domed section of the road where water had frozen solid over the full width for about 40 meters. I went across very carefully without touching the brakes, knowing that I could be dumped on the deck at any moment.

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Then the next day as things started to warm up there was in places a thin layer of cold slippery thawing mud on top of frozen ground underneath. Very slippery.

On one evening it absolutely cained it down for the whole ride home.

And each day it got muddier and muddier as the temperatures increased and the ground thawed out.

The last ride yesterday was in thick sticky mud and waterlogged ground in many sections.

I was very glad of the 2.35 mud tyre that I am running tubeless on the back, put on in October 2020, despite the extra drag it gives on the road going home and the fact that it looks like it will wear out quite fast.

I may take it off in the Spring and keep it for next Winter or just wear it out and replace. We will see. Having not run a tubeless set up before I will need to remember to put some more sealant in.

I had thought I might retire this April, but with a secure well paid job and Covid meaning I could not travel or indeed do that much if I stopped working I will wait until I have been jabbed and then review.

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Just before it gets washed, the drive train de-greased, and the chain checked for wear before oiling.

My warranty replaced motor, changed when the bike was two years old is now nearly 4 years old and has covered just over 7,000 miles.

The battery is the original one and also still working really well.

Thought my battery was doing well at 4.5 k miles.. (4 years)
Was expecting drop off by now but none that I can notice. (apart from in very cold weather, range drops 10% or so??)
Great write up. Thanks. (I have Haibike hard seven/400wh battery.. Get about 30 miles off road, always in highest setting. Can't see point in taking charged battery home?)

 

[georgehenry]

Zlatan I think if you look after them the batteries can be very long lived, which is a good thing as Yamaha batteries are very expensive to replace.

I started on electric bikes using a ride to work scheme to buy my first one at the end of 2010. The ride to work scheme dictated that I had to buy through Evans bike shop and at that time there was hardly anything to choose from and I bought a Trek with a Bionx direct rear wheel drive with the battery incorporated in the rear rack.

It was actually quite a nice bike to ride with regenerative brakes but with all that weight over a not very substantial rear wheel it broke spokes and the shop could not get it to stop, so I was lucky to get all the money from the ride to work scheme back in a big cash lump and I was still allowed to pay it off over a year with salary sacrifice.

My next purchase using that money was much more successful, a 2011 Oxygen Emate City with a geared rear hub motor, simple cadence system and unrestricted throttle.

A Very well designed Chinese derived bike that I still have and still works really well. Being Chinese you can fix it cheaply with bits of ebay and it is closing in on its 10 year birthday.

But I always liked mountain biking and when Haibike included the Yamaha crank drive system that allowed them to offer their entry level hard tail electric bike at only a little more than the re packaged Chinese bikes being sold I wanted one and bought my Haibike sDuro in 2015.

Initially it was a learning curve of discovering that they ate rear cassettes if you changed gear unsympathetically under high power, but off road it was just great. I was lucky to get a new motor under warranty when the bearings developed play and was very careful when washing the bike after that to keep water away from the bearings of the second motor. I think over keen washing was what caused the problem with my first motor.

I am probably living on borrowed time now that the battery is about to enter its seventh year and the motor is over 7,000 miles, but I will keep riding it and see how I go. It really has proved to be a very good purchase as I am heavy and carry two full panniers and half of the 13,000 miles have been proper off road ones.

 

[georgehenry]

Getting more miles out of my cassette.....

My Haibike does 14 miles to work cross country getting my transmission dirty, and then I ride 10 miles home on the road.

My faster ride home using higher assist levels with a dirty chain and cassette a lot of the time in my highest gear 9 that has 12 teeth can mean that I wear this gear out quite quickly.

I had previously looked on ebay to try and buy just this top gear cog but not been able to.

I had a look again recently and bingo, someone is now selling them, so I ordered one.

It took a week or two to come and almost as soon as it had arrived my chain reached its wear limit and my top gear 12 tooth cog started to show the first signs of jumping.

So today with my new replacement top gear cog, rather than changing the chain and the cassette I have changed the chain, cleaned the cassette and replaced just the 12 tooth top gear cog.

I have only given it the briefest of test rides but it seems fine. The replacement seemed to have a slightly different pattern to the teeth.

With that new 2.35 rear tyre of mine adding drag I have been turning the power up more than usual to maintain speed in top gear on my ride home.

The chain was at the wear limit in 700 miles.

A replacement top gear 12 tooth cost £3.43 delivered. Knowing that I can change it means that I do not need to nurse it quite so much.

We will have to see how long this replacement lasts.

It is still a bit of work as you have to take off the cassette.

 

[georgehenry]

The Haibikes 6th Birthday imminently approaches.......

I rode The Haibike to work today and that will probably be my last ride before I head into the beginning of my 7th year of ownership.

A very nice blustery windy mostly sunny ride.

If that was my last ride, I have ridden 1,326 miles to work and back since March last year, and the bike has reached a total mileage of 13,144 miles.

 

[soundwave]

7 years old and still going with original 400w batt

 

[georgehenry]

Same as my 2015 Haibike with original battery. When I bought it I was worried about the replacement cost. I should have worried more about the motor.

 

[soundwave]

it still has the original motor with dongle so much for blowing up me motor

 

[georgehenry]

I am pretty sure that a dongle has very little effect on the longevity of your battery or motor.

It could definitely effect your range.

However the main thing is that it is against the law with potentially serious legal consequences.

However at this point in time the police do not seem interested at all in bikes that can go faster than the legal cut off point, and perhaps as a consequence there are an awful lot of bikes being ridden that can go faster.

That does not mean that the attitude of the police might not change in the future.

The arguments when they appear on the site go round and round.

I would personally prefer a higher cut of point of 20 mph.

 

[soundwave]

the cid bloke who raided my house was more interested in my bike and where to get the dongle from lmfao.

 

[georgehenry]

Its a nice bike.

 

[Charliefox]

View attachment 41928
View attachment 41929

7 years old and still going with original 400w batt

I like that stand and the fact it works with wider tyres. Where did you get it from?

 

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[peter.c]

Took the dumper truck out for a ride ,the farmer has replaced all the styles and the 5 bar gates are now chest height had forgotten you have to pedal with the tsdz2, but a gentle slower ride means i saw more

 

[Dom T]

Not been by for ages, hubby got covid real bad and is now "long Covid".
My day today was just a pootle really only 16 miles, but the voodoo is doing good. I year old and 3000 miles
Finally got us a new bike shed built. He's able to do stuff, but with help from me too.
Lots of other work going on too, but he's done a good job.
Now gotta get his stamina up to get back into longer rides.

 

[georgehenry]

Good to see you back Dom T.

I haven't posted as much on this thread myself. I figure there are only so many pictures of my off road ride to work that people can stand!

I'm gutted, you ended up doing a higher mileage for the year on your voodoo than I did commuting to work.



I ended up doing 2,500 miles between the two bikes I ride to work. I check my annual mileage in March around the adversary of my purchase of the Haibike.

Though I also do many shorter trips to the shops and other errands on another bike with each trip about 4 miles and unrecorded, so who knows what my electric bike total mileage is. I just know it is lots of fun and great to be out in the fresh air.



With covid when I am working as cover I now more often stay at home, when I would have previously ridden in to work and been cover there instead of at home, so right there is probably 500 miles over a year. Not that I am complaining about sitting at home being paid!

Case in point this week as I rode to three of my four late shifts but not the one for which I was cover. I did actually have to work but often have no time to ride but need to take the car.

The three I did ride to were really good fun. I rode a longer off road ride in of 14 to 16 miles (using my summer route now which with the lack of rain in the south has dried out enough to use), and my usual 10 miles home late at night after my shift. 74 miles in total for the three days and my abused Haibike is up to 13,382 miles How far can it go before I wear it out!

I am sorry to here about your husband. Knowing you both work in the NHS I wonder did your husband catch covid after being vaccinated. I have had my first Oxford jab, and had a really bad reaction and was ill for several days, and am due to have my second one in four weeks time.

As I have said I am a key worker and have a few of the risk factors that might mean I would struggle with a covid infection so would be interested to know if your husband had his bad covid after vaccination.

I am now pretty certain I am going to retire when I am 60 in October this year, so the Haibike has every chance of making it to when I retire which I never thought would be the case when I bought it in March 2015.

Back then I thought it was quite an expensive treat for myself when I bought it (£1750), but it has now paid for itself in petrol and wear and tear on my car. Not that I bought it to save money, but for the sheer fun of riding to work off road and the exercise, but the bike has proved to be pretty robust.

The risk of covid can somehow seem remote even working as a key worker as I do, however a good friend of mine at work doing the same job caught covid at Christmas, probably foolishly tried to come back to work thinking he was over it, went sick again because he wasn't and then deteriorated quickly and tragically died at 52. All of us at work were extremely shocked and upset.

 

[Charliefox]

it still has the original motor with dongle so much for blowing up me motor

I guess with all those miles done we don't have to worry about the effect those fags on your health!

 

[Shurm]

New bike first ride today on it, loving it

 

[georgehenry]

they are kind of fun!

 

[georgehenry]

Leisure/Fitness/Fun

I usually just ride my hard tail Haibike to work and back, 12 to 16 miles cross country there, and 10 miles back home on the road, but had not been at work for quite a few days and just wanted a cross country blast.



I did not want to think too hard planning a route and just used a variation of my ride to work routes that I know so well, just with almost no road riding apart from the least possible to get me to the start of my tracks and very short stretches of tarmac to connect the end of one track and the start of the next.

Mostly my rides off road to work and 10 miles back on the road have added up to a 24 mile round trip and spookily this completely, or as much as possible completely off road ride was, you've guessed it, 24 miles.



I started with a full 400Wh battery and had 52% left when I got home. This equates to a total range of 50 miles. That sounds very good, as my battery is the original one in its seventh year and has already propelled me 13,382 miles.

However as this was a fitness ride I was using low assist and off where gradients allowed, and working hard myself, so the figures I achieved were a bit flattering to the batteries range used in different circumstances.



I think the battery is remarkably good for its age, but I have also found that these batteries work better in the first half of their capacity rather than the bottom half and I would have found that the battery percentage left gauge would have fallen away much quicker in the second half of its capacity if I had kept riding.

I found that 24 miles ridden in one go off road is definitely a good work out.

 

[soundwave]

all i got from my 6 year old 500w batt was less than 15miles