Haibike Fullseven 4

[Warwick2]

These are my initial thoughts after receiving my bike and a longish ride home on it yesterday. I'll update the thread as I get more experience of it.

I paid <£2200 'almost new' from Tredz, which is at least £800 below the new price, but it really is as good as new in appearance, at least.

The Yamaha system seems to be more sensitive to pressure on the pedals from stationary than the Bosch bikes I've ridden. Also, the power feed in reacts better to pedal pressure once up and running. My involuntary ride home last night saw me push the power to the max so I could get home quicker. Generally speaking the bike performed well, even though the chunky, knobblies didn't suit the task. I'll change them for Schwalbe Land Cruiser Plusses after payday. One thing I found disconcerting was the clunky gear changes, and it made me feel that Bosch manage changes better than Yamaha. If things don't change, I'll expect to have to renew chains quite often.

I need to tweak the riding position a little. The saddle needs moving back slightly and raising, whilst the wider bars will take some getting used to after my previous commuter/trekking bikes.

Favourable so far, with the caveat of the clunky gear changes...

 

[Zlatan]

I have an Haibike hard7...Had it just over 4 years. 6k miles... 2 cassettes and 2 chains. Few sets of tyres, brake pads but nothing else.. Its been fantastic.
When I first got it I did a ride for a battery test. 28 km in high, mixed terrain, plenty of climbs, a nice 1 mile track descent, little bit of road work (3km at most) around all the Lady Bower lakes.. (3 legs of them, sort of)
Finished ride with 1 bar out of ten, showing 18% left.Average speed 17.2km/h. Repeated ride yesterday.. I was expecting poorer results, battery 6000 miles old and it was colder. But...
This time finished ride with 2 bars left (showing 22%)...and average speed 17.3 km/h.. Well impressed. Obviously not conclusive but battery appears to have shown no degradation at all.
Bike will take some beating.. Looking at a Flyon???

 

[Warwick2]

After Storm Arwen's winds, it was a lot calmer this morning and bright & sunny, so ideal for a cross country ride I'd planned. The bike performed very well and having full suspension is a pleasant luxury. The puddles were still frozen solid and the ground firm as a result. Towards the end of the ride the paths in the sunshine were getting slippier, but the tyres coped admirably. I'm glad I fitted some Mudhugger mudguards, as the tyres kicked up plenty of crud.

HS2 caused some back-pedalling where a bridleway fizzled out, but it was a really good introduction to the bike's capabilities. The riding position is a work in progress, but I've got the saddle height right at least.

Once it's warmed up later today I'll dig out the washer and spray off the unwelcome bits of Warwickshire that have stuck to the bike

I think I've worked out the gear changes and I really need to time them so that there's plenty of force going through the power train when changing up the gears; going down doesn't seem such an issue. The Bosch system never felt as fussy.

 

[deepdowndad]

I have an Haibike hard7...Had it just over 4 years. 6k miles... 2 cassettes and 2 chains. Few sets of tyres, brake pads but nothing else.. Its been fantastic.
When I first got it I did a ride for a battery test. 28 km in high, mixed terrain, plenty of climbs, a nice 1 mile track descent, little bit of road work (3km at most) around all the Lady Bower lakes.. (3 legs of them, sort of)
Finished ride with 1 bar out of ten, showing 18% left.Average speed 17.2km/h. Repeated ride yesterday.. I was expecting poorer results, battery 6000 miles old and it was colder. But...
This time finished ride with 2 bars left (showing 22%)...and average speed 17.3 km/h.. Well impressed. Obviously not conclusive but battery appears to have shown no degradation at all.
Bike will take some beating.. Looking at a Flyon???

It is good to read this. I have recently bought a hard7 and I'm loving it so far.

 

[Warwick2]

To alter the riding position I fitted a stem raiser. It puts the bars up about 100mm and it's made things a lot easier on my neck. Fortunately there was plenty of extra length in all the cabling to allow the fitting to be easy. 10 minutes is pushing it! <£7 from eBay. Bicycle Fork Stem Extender Cycling Bike Handlebar Riser Head Up Adapter Cycling | eBay

 

[Warwick2]

I've been riding to work on the bike this week. I ride the 8 miles to the nearest railway station, then hop on for one stop to avoid a horribly busy A road, then 4 miles to work. West Midlands Railways are shite, so I had the pleasure of riding all the way home yesterday, and in the sunshine it was a pleasant ride.

Unwittingly I seem to have activated an auto-power mode that changes power setting for me. I'll have to see how I deactivate that, as I prefer to control that myself, and this mode sets power to maximum too much for my liking.

The full suspension set up nicely irons out the bumps on a very poorly maintained stretch of bridleway that is almost unrideable on the Brompton. All in all, I'm very happy with the bike. If I were to be picky, the saddle height is too high for me to be able to easily plant my feet on the ground, but that's the price to pay for the elevated stance of the bike.

 

[Poolepete]

I've been riding to work on the bike this week. I ride the 8 miles to the nearest railway station, then hop on for one stop to avoid a horribly busy A road, then 4 miles to work. West Midlands Railways are shite, so I had the pleasure of riding all the way home yesterday, and in the sunshine it was a pleasant ride.

Unwittingly I seem to have activated an auto-power mode that changes power setting for me. I'll have to see how I deactivate that, as I prefer to control that myself, and this mode sets power to maximum too much for my liking.

Just press and hold the plus button.

 

[Warwick2]

I've been using the bike more lately as the weather's improved. The gear change is still heavy, but I'm compensating for that by timing my changes better.

Not the bike's fault, but I had annoying tyre and tube issues last week. I'd noticed a split in the sidewall of one of the Schwalbe Hurricanes I'd fitted. I replaced it, but then noticed that the tube wasn't holding any pressure. It hadn't been punctured before, but the leak was from the valve. It was a Decathlon Slime-equivalent job. I had a normal tube handy, so fitted that and went on a route with a cross-country bridleway. All seemed well until the next day, when I had another flat. I got online and ordered a slime tube from Halfords. On arrival at the store (Leamington) they were out of stock, so I had to settle for a Bike Hut equivalent. Fitted that. - another puncture! WTF. I fixed it then looked doubly carefully for anything intruding into the tyre carcass. Nothing. The tube must have been punctured at sale, gits. Anyhoo, all seems fine now.

It's very capable and I can fly over rutted or potholed surfaces that would castrate me on the Brompton. The brakes are excellent and need to be, as the whole set up with me onboard is c.120Kg.

It's a big beast that struggled to fit in the Keter store I bought, so I've swapped what's in the shed into the Keter and I'll put the Haibike into the shed. Easier all round, but I'll need to beef up security.

 

[georgehenry]

Like Zlatan I have a Haibike Hard Seven Yamaha, mine of 2015 vintage. Although I have had a couple of more serious issues, one with a motor replaced under warranty, and another with my battery and charger when the connections broke and needed renewing, that I had to do myself as there was no support to do that, the bike is still working very well and my total mileage has just exceeded 16,000 miles, 10,000 of those on the replacement motor. So the basic bike, motor and battery are tough and well made and can last quite a while and in my case achieve a high mileage. The problem is that out of warranty, and sometimes within it depending on the problem, there is every chance of having a problem that is hard/impossible to fix. In my case this is not about the bike shop I bought mine from who have been very good indeed with excellent customer service. They recently fixed a problem I had with an after market mudguard free of charge.

 

[lightning]

Gear changes will be clunky if you change under full power, particularly in the highest power mode.

I have the same issue on my Kona (Shimano E8000)

Unfortunately it's difficult to avoid as it takes a second for the power to cut off after you stop pedalling, presumably to make the bike smoother.

l have noticed it only happens in "Turbo" or full power, which l rarely use, the lower power levels are fine because the torque is more progressive.

ln "Turbo" maximum torque appears pretty much as soon as you start pedalling, whereas in "Trail" it's much more progressive

 

[georgehenry]

Some systems (The much maligned Bosch for example) have a power cut out system that cuts the power when you change gear. I think this can be added to the generic Chinese crank drive systems. I have never ridden a bike with this system, and now backing off my pedaling intensity as I change gear is second nature.

The Yamaha crank drive motor can eat chains and cassettes if you are unsympathetic when you change gear.

I ride mine about 70% off road and changing gear with care means I can get around 2000 miles out of a cassette, sometimes less and very occasionally a bit more. This means changing the first chain at the wear limit.

 

[Warwick2]

Thanks for the comments. I've adapted the way I change gear too. It's almost like riding a hub-geared bike, where I lay off pedalling for a very short moment as the derailleur mechanism does its job then I pedal again. The Bosch system I've had on two previous bikes was much more forgiving with gear changes. However, the Yamaha system is much more attuned to the level of power required at any given moment.

 

[Warwick2]

A couple of updates: the 780mm handlebars were too wide for me, so I've swapped them for some 720mm ones. I can get it through doors easier now.

The other thing is that the hinge on the display has broken. It's being held on with tape at the moment. I've written to Tredz and they've asked for photos, which I'll send off once I'm back off me hols this weekend. I'm fairly sure I've done nothing to cause the problem and it was an issue for several weeks before I realised what the problem was. I'm just glad I caught it before it dropped off on a ride.

 

[PaulM]

I believe Bosch has a software algorithm which can sense gear changes and drop the power, presumably by detecting changes in chain tension as the RD starts to do its job.

 

[Warwick2]

A while ago I upped the gearing on my Haibike by fitting a 42t front chainring. It's a partial success, but I'm going to revert back to standard, I'm afraid.

There's a chain guide on the 38t set up that was in the way on the new 'ring, so it had to go. However, it obviously served a purpose, as I'm getting frequent chain offs.

Shame really, as there torque a-plenty to power the larger ring.

 

[georgehenry]

I ran a 42 tooth chain ring when I was commuting on mine to be able to go faster on the road journey home and kept the fairly rudimentary Haibike chain guide that came with my Haibike Yamaha hard tail 2015. I may have had to put a spacer in I think.

The best way I found, and by best I mean it completely stopped my chain being dropped by my chain ring, was by putting a narrow wide chain ring on.