Haibike cassette replacement

[Mossie]

I have an sDuro Full Nine , which BTW is superb !

Recently however the chain has been jumping/slipping only on the top gear (smallest cog) and only when under a lot of pressure, i.e. starting off quickly or hills.

I've just replaced the cassette and chain and the bike is as good as new again. The bike has only done about 450 miles. I was wondering whether it is unusual to have to replace the cassette for only 450 miles.
I suppose most of my riding has been in top gear and the cogs are more likely to get worn quicker on an ebike are they not ?

 

[mab13]

Sounds rather quick to me.

Monitor chain stretch a little more closely this time round and you should at least manage to avoid having to replace the cassette after such a short period of time.

 

[georgehenry]

Hi Mossie, I am commuttiing on a 2015 sDuro Hard Seven Yamaha and have found that I wear out the top gear (11 tooth cog) quickly as well. I do put on cheap steel Shimano Alivio HG400 MTB Cassettes when they start to play up but it is always top gear that plays up and I need to change it when it does as this is the gear I use a lot on my way home on the road.

I am now experimenting with my gearing. Initially I put on a 40 tooth front chain ring with a 12-36t: 12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36 range cassette so that the top gear cog had an extra tooth and I still had a low enough bottom gear for off road climbing. This was noticeably more resistant to wear and lasted longer but still wore out quicker than I wanted.

I have now gone up two more teeth on my chain ring to 42 teeth so that the majority of my on road cruising speed is done now in gear 8 (14 teeth). I have only just done this but am hopeful that having 14 teeth it should last longer. Obviously the down side is that the 36 tooth bottom gear is now slightly higher for those off road hills. I have not done my cross country route to work yet to see if my bottom gear is low enough for the more challenging hills I climb.

I am a heavy but fit man carrying two panniers on a rear rack. I am a shift worker and when starting early ride on the road to work and back a round trip of 20 miles. When starting later in the day I ride a mostly off road route of about 13 miles to work and then on the road 10 miles home. The off road route is tremendous fun but inevitably gets the chain and drive train dirtier than riding on the road. I cannot clean the bike at work but can invert the bike and clean off the chain with damp paper towels and lubricate the chain. I also do quite a high mileage with the bike at around 3400 miles from new. I have a dongle fitted and try to cruise at around 20mph on the road but now spend a lot of time in eco, using standard on steeper hills. I turn the assist off on the downhills.

 

[chris_n]

Hi Mossie, I am commuttiing on a 2015 sDuro Hard Seven Yamaha and have found that I wear out the top gear (11 tooth cog) quickly as well. I do put on cheap steel Shimano Alivio HG400 MTB Cassettes when they start to play up but it is always top gear that plays up and I need to change it when it does as this is the gear I use a lot on my way home on the road.

I am now experimenting with my gearing. Initially I put on a 40 tooth front chain ring with a 12-36t: 12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36 range cassette so that the top gear cog had an extra tooth and I still had a low enough bottom gear for off road climbing. This was noticeably more resistant to wear and lasted longer but still wore out quicker than I wanted.

I have now gone up two more teeth on my chain ring to 42 teeth so that the majority of my on road cruising speed is done now in gear 8 (14 teeth). I have only just done this but am hopeful that having 14 teeth it should last longer. Obviously the down side is that the 36 tooth bottom gear is now slightly higher for those off road hills. I have not done my cross country route to work yet to see if my bottom gear is low enough for the more challenging hills I climb.

I am a heavy but fit man carrying two panniers on a rear rack. I am a shift worker and when starting early ride on the road to work and back a round trip of 20 miles. When starting later in the day I ride a mostly off road route of about 13 miles to work and then on the road 10 miles home. The off road route is tremendous fun but inevitably gets the chain and drive train dirtier than riding on the road. I cannot clean the bike at work but can invert the bike and clean off the chain with damp paper towels and lubricate the chain. I also do quite a high mileage with the bike at around 3400 miles from new. I have a dongle fitted and try to cruise at around 20mph on the road but now spend a lot of time in eco, using standard on steeper hills. I turn the assist off on the downhills.

Why not fit a double chainring with 32-44 rings then you have all of the gears you need. Just done this to my Sduro and it has transformed the bike in hilly terrain, plenty of low gears for climbing and high enough top on the flat for 35mph if you put the effort in!

 

[georgehenry]

Sounds interesting. What did you fit.

 

[chris_n]

Slx shifter, deore direct mount front mech ( should be top pull but I could only get my hands on a dual pull so had to cut a bit off the lever that is used when it is bottom pull) and a couple of FSA chainrings I had available. Outer chainring goes where the chain guard was and derailleur mounts where the chain guide was. Drilled through the plastic cable blanks and used a full length outer cable.

 

[D8ve]

Just fitted a rear 8 spd hub gear and 16 tooth sprocket. So 46 front 16 rear, cruse at 20 in 7 th gear and still drive on at over 30 mph.

 

[georgehenry]

Hi D8ve, I considered going hub geared but worried how the reliability would be effected by the power of a crank powered bike and not wanting to be stranded en route to work or indeed back again late at night. When a gear on my cassette plays up I can just change down a gear to get me to work or home again. Though my worries may be unfounded.

 

[soundwave]

its 10nm less on bosch bikes with hub gears a cx will rip it to bits.

 

[D8ve]

I went for Alfine 8 spd as it is rated as more reliable than the 11 spd.
With only 200 miles since converting no reliability results yet.

 

[georgehenry]

A bit early to judge whether I now have a cassette/Chain ring combination that will allow the cassette to last longer but the gearing seems to give me the gear range I need for the hills I climb off road on the route I use and 20mph cruising on the road. I put on a 42 tooth chain ring with a Shimano Alivio HG400 MTB 12-36t: 12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36 cassette.

I have just completed five commuting return trips each of 20 miles and a 100 mile total. The first four of these were on the road where on the level and more gentle uphill sections I was in gear 8 in eco, sitting at around 20 miles an hour. On the steepest uphill sections I used standard until the gradient reduced. On some of the gently downhill sections I now have a higher top gear that can reach up to 26 miles an hour in eco. When I checked my average for the four return road trips it was 19.2 miles an hour. I used 30% of my battery over each 10 mile road journey. I am around 105 kg and carry two full panniers on a rear rack.

The last trip used my cross country route to work and reassured me that my low gears are low enough to get me up the steepest sections of the route in bottom gear using eco.

 

[doktored]

I have the Starck Bike Sand / Moustache Fat Bike and yes, I have gone through a Cassette in the same way in the same time. Was all fine, then one day rode it really hard one night when I forgot my keys, never quite was the same.

 

[georgehenry]

I have now completed six days commuting and have done 234 miles since putting the 42 teeth chain ring with the Shimano Alivio HG400 MTB 12-36t: 12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36 cassette on. My first ride to work using this gearing was on the 28th of June and it is working really well.

The gearing is low enough to climb all the hills I have encountered on my cross country route in eco, and the steepest / most technical hills require bottom gear so there is no lower gear if I were to need one!. However I only need bottom gear on the two steepest / most technical sections.

On the road I am covering 10 miles with two loaded panniers at an average speed over 19 miles an hour and on a good run approaching 20 miles an hour, 95% of the time in eco, and the motor switched off on down hills and standard used only occasionally on the steepest up hill sections.

I am using just under 30% of my battery on the 10 mile hilly B road and as little as 25% on the 12 mile cross country route.

The Yamaha system would allow me to fit a double chain ring set up to give an even wider range of gears as Chris_n describes above and I might be tempted to do that at some point in the future.

Although my average speed is just where I want it the range of speeds I do on my road commute with this new gearing is wider. A lot of the hills I climb are in eco and my speed drops to around 11/12 miles an hour. I sometimes pop onto the same hill half way down that I climb at 12 miles an hour to connect between tracks on the way to work on and coming down that same hill I can top out at 36 miles an hour with the motor off. The high top gear allows me to keep adding pedal power with the motor off should I decide to do so.

There are also a few sections where a slight downhill gradient allows me to pop into my highest 12 tooth top gear in eco and maintain 24/26 miles an hour for the odd quarter of a mile+.

As soon as I notice I am needing to add more and more effort myself to maintain the speed in this gear I change down to the 14 tooth gear 8, to maintain 19 to 22 miles an hour so that this gear gets the most wear in terms of dealing with the highest combined power output of me and the motor and I hope is more capable of coping with it having 14 teeth rather than 11 although exactly how long it will last before slipping time and miles will tell.

 

[Mossie]

Hi Mossie, I am commuttiing on a 2015 sDuro Hard Seven Yamaha and have found that I wear out the top gear (11 tooth cog) quickly as well. I do put on cheap steel Shimano Alivio HG400 MTB Cassettes when they start to play up but it is always top gear that plays up and I need to change it when it does as this is the gear I use a lot on my way home on the road.

I am now experimenting with my gearing. Initially I put on a 40 tooth front chain ring with a 12-36t: 12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36 range cassette so that the top gear cog had an extra tooth and I still had a low enough bottom gear for off road climbing. This was noticeably more resistant to wear and lasted longer but still wore out quicker than I wanted.

I have now gone up two more teeth on my chain ring to 42 teeth so that the majority of my on road cruising speed is done now in gear 8 (14 teeth). I have only just done this but am hopeful that having 14 teeth it should last longer. Obviously the down side is that the 36 tooth bottom gear is now slightly higher for those off road hills. I have not done my cross country route to work yet to see if my bottom gear is low enough for the more challenging hills I climb.

I am a heavy but fit man carrying two panniers on a rear rack. I am a shift worker and when starting early ride on the road to work and back a round trip of 20 miles. When starting later in the day I ride a mostly off road route of about 13 miles to work and then on the road 10 miles home. The off road route is tremendous fun but inevitably gets the chain and drive train dirtier than riding on the road. I cannot clean the bike at work but can invert the bike and clean off the chain with damp paper towels and lubricate the chain. I also do quite a high mileage with the bike at around 3400 miles from new. I have a dongle fitted and try to cruise at around 20mph on the road but now spend a lot of time in eco, using standard on steeper hills. I turn the assist off on the downhills.

Hi there
Sorry, only just seen your post. I have the same as you but 2016 Hard Seven. This jumping in top gear is really pissing me off and I think I might fit your combination. So you've gone from 10 gears to 9. How does that affect the gear selector or am I being thick ! Is it easy enough to fit the 42 tooth chain ring ?

 

[BootsDave]

Hi guys, are you sure it doesn't just need adjusting? I've done around 4000km on my Haibike xduro RC29 with the original cassette. Both mine and my wife's bike have had the jumping in top gear. I found that I had to adjust the derailleur to allow it to move out (away from the bike) when in top gear.

 

[georgehenry]

Hi there
Sorry, only just seen your post. I have the same as you but 2016 Hard Seven. This jumping in top gear is really pissing me off and I think I might fit your combination. So you've gone from 10 gears to 9. How does that affect the gear selector or am I being thick ! Is it easy enough to fit the 42 tooth chain ring ?

Hi Mossie, my 2015 bike was a 9 speed to start with, but the principal I used might work for you. I bought a larger front chain ring to up gear the bike, in my case a 42 tooth front chain ring worked best and I combined this with a Shimano Alivio HG400 MTB 12-36t:12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32-36 9 speed cassette on the back. this means that on the road I use eco for most of my journey and all the faster sections on the road maintaining around 20mph in gear 8 and sometimes 22mph ish in gear 9 where a slight downhill gradient allows. if I need more power on a steep uphill section I use standard and drop down a few gears. With a 36 tooth bottom gear I can still climb steep hills off road.

So what you need to do to follow the same principal is find a rear cassette with as many teeth as possible top gear and a similarly as many as possible bottom gear combined with an up geared (more teeth) front chain ring. It might be easier with a 10 speed system. Although it seems a bit expensive to me EddiePJ recommends the Sunrace MX3 10 speed cassette with a 42 tooth bottom gear. This low bottom gear would allow you to over gear your bike with a large front chain ring but still have a low enough gear to climb very steep hills off road.

 

[chris_n]

Or convert it to 20 speed if you need the low gears. I have a 2016 which I have fitted with a 34/44 front sprocket combo and have done a couple of thousand km with no problems in the Alps. I rarely use top gear with this setup so wear on the 11t sprocket is not an issue.

 

[Mossie]

Thanks for the replies guys, I might just go for the cassette replacement.

Or convert it to 20 speed if you need the low gears. I have a 2016 which I have fitted with a 34/44 front sprocket combo and have done a couple of thousand km with no problems in the Alps. I rarely use top gear with this setup so wear on the 11t sprocket is not an issue.

How much did it cost for the conversion? I'm not that handy so I might buy the parts and get the local bike shop to fit it.

 

[chris_n]

It depends on the quality of the parts used, I had some parts so didn't need to buy everything. You need a direct mount front derailleur a left hand gear changer (these 2 parts can be found second hand on ebay) a cable and 2 9 or 10 speed chainrings.

 

[Emo Rider]

Hi guys, are you sure it doesn't just need adjusting? I've done around 4000km on my Haibike xduro RC29 with the original cassette. Both mine and my wife's bike have had the jumping in top gear. I found that I had to adjust the derailleur to allow it to move out (away from the bike) when in top gear.

You have an excellent point. I presently have 1,500 miles on my Haibike and there is absolutely no sign or symptom of wear. Yes the chain is wearing as one does but I have no skipping, jumping, or poor gears changes. On my old bike, I replaced the chain and cassette every 2500 miles (8 spd Shimano Altus). I have a customer with a Haibike Fullseven RC that made it to 4,500 miles before he changed the chain and cassette (10 spd Shimano Deore XLT). However, that was commuting on roads and pavements, no off road.