Haibike sDuro HardSeven SL 2015 Yamaha (7 Month 1600 Miles)

[EddiePJ]

We met a guy on Sat who had an 10-46 10sp cassette with a 30t NW chainring/SLX+ derailleur...forget the name on the cassette, but what a great setup

For my riding terrain, I much prefer 10sp to 11sp.

I find that my SRAM set up on the hardtail, running an SRAM X1 Type 2.1 11 Speed Rear Mech, with X1 XG1150 10-42 cassette, with X1 SL trigger, causes me issues on the terrain that I ride. The narrow width between the cassette, and its profile/design, along with the jockey wheel profile, constantly clog with debris/bracken and grass, and I'm forever having to stop to clear both out.

I've yet to any issues at all with the XT set up, and Sunrace MX3 10 Speed 11/42 Cassette with 15T Connex front sprocket that I run on the FS bike. I'm now thinking of heading in that direction on the hardtail as well. The alternative is just to swap each over, as I'm using the hardtail far more.
I'm actually quite a big fan of the Sunrace cassettes, as they just seem to go on and on, without ever showing sign of wear, or ever causing issue. Mind you, I do tend to fit a new chain at anything between 300-500 mile intervals depending upon conditions.

 

[soundwave]

its why i stop after 1 min in this vid as went off line and hoovered up half the forest and had a fkn log size stick in my jokey wheels.

even if i just brush past things it just seems to eat everything it can get hold off and jam the jockey wheels solid.

i just remove them after a ride and re grease the bearings so try stop crap getting in them.

 

[soundwave]

tbh with that and braking my xd hub i think id sell it if it was new enough and go back to 10 spd. as will be cheaper for 1 and not hoover up everything in site.

even the new ex1 group set for e bikes is 8 spd its more getting the right size sprocket at the front for what you want id say.

martin has the ex1 on offer atm
https://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/Sram-EX1-Complete-eBike-Groupset

since i put the dual kit on 18t and 15t i only use the bigger one and use more of the gears at the rear.

 

[soundwave]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SRAM-EX1-8-Gear-Drivetrain-Groupset-For-E-MTBS-Kit-5-piece-/132000837112?var=&hash=item1ebbdcedf8:m:mR9OF-QL2jX-n2SaejgqYtQ

thats 110 quid cheaper and from half way around the world with free postage and in stock

 

[georgehenry]

17/03/2017

Well my sDuro is almost two years old and about to leave the comfort of the two year warranty period. As of my return trip from work on the 18th of March it has covered 6012 miles for my two years of ownership.

It would have already got there but my moon meteor front light failed on a Friday return trip from work on the third of March seven days before its own second birthday as I had bought the Moon light at the same time as the bike.

I still had five return trips to work to do and completed them on my trusty B bike Oxygen Emate City that completed the 100 miles of road riding and pannier carrying with not a murmur of protest.

Used on the road the Oxygen is really a very good commuting bike with a befang rear hub motor, simple pedal assist and a de-restricted throttle. On the flat and on gentle up hill sections it is a lot less effort to sail along at a good 18 ish mph pace than my Haibike is in eco with a torque sensor making sure I have to put in a fair bit more effort than the Oxygen to maintain the 19ish miles an hour I manage on the road.

Once the gradient increases however my quite old befang rear hub will lose momentum and I will quickly end up in its quite high first gear needing me to help the motor with a lot of strong pedalling.

In contrast on the same steep hill the crank drive Haibike noticeably climbs much better.

After that 100 miles on the Oxygen my legs were still telling me I had done a fair bit of exercise but it felt a lot easier with the motor pushing as hard as it could all the time and me adding my bit.

However I really benefit from all the exercise I get on my sduro and it is fantastic for my xc cross country route.

The moon light has been brilliant. I used it on its highest setting all the time and could not fault the clarity and spread of light it provided from such a light and portable unit.

However I thought I would try to find a light with the same convenience factor but with a longer lasting battery. The moon always lasted the 30 ish minute journey with another 10 minutes putting the bike away etc but I never felt there were many more minutes in the tank.

Anyway for richer or poorer and after a read of the various “best front light” threads I have bought a Sigma Buster 200 with the silicon handlebar attachment to allow it to be completely taken off the bike easily and used on another. I have used it twice and in light power and quality it is comparable with the moon, high praise, and I am hoping the battery range is better. It is a bit bigger and heavier than the moon but not much and still easily slips into your pocket and can be used as a handy powerful torch like the moon.

Another change I have made is to my tyres, and to be honest I am not sure whether I have done the right thing there. I had been using Schalbe Smart Sam Plus tyres and had found them really good. Fast rolling on the road and not bad off road with no punctures at all combined with slime filled tubes.

However the rear one failed where the side wall meets the rim allowing the tube to push out and result in a pretty spectacular blow out puncture. I had done a huge milage on that tyre (3800 miles) when it failed and thought, fair enough, I should have changed it sooner.

I replaced like with like and carried on but one day when washing the bike noticed that the new tyre was failing in the same way where the tyre meets the rim. It had’nt quite split through to the tube but was well on the way. That tyre had covered 1700 miles at the point that I noticed the problem.

The issue I have is not how many miles these tyres do before the problem arises but that the way the tyre fails is really quite hard to spot and the blow out puncture you get as a result could be pretty dangerous if you were unlucky enough for it to happen at the wrong time. One of the hills I descend I usually hit 35mph+ and at that speed a blow-out rear puncture would be no fun at all.

Anyway I decided to change brands. I needed a 650b size off/on road performance and top draw puncture protection. To be honest for a commuter not getting a puncture is the most important factor and may have had too great a bearing in my choice.

I ordered a pair of Specialized Crossroads Armadillo 650B 27.6” Wired Clincher Tyres in 1.9” width. I got these as I had a pair of wired specialised armadillo tyres on my 26” Oxygen Emate city that had proved very effective both on and off road.

Anyway the new ones arrived and after I had put them on they looked immediately less substantial, narrower and with a compromise biased to the road and very different to the specialised armadillo ones on my Oxygen. They may have just discontinued the ones fitted to my Oxygen.

On the plus side they are very good on the road. They are not as good off road as I really want but they are better than I thought they would be when I first saw them. However if your off road routes involve a lot of slippery mud I would look elsewhere. My 16 mile off road route does have some slippery sections and they are getting me through those sections. I am getting more used to them as the miles mount up and I think they will make a superb summer tyre. I have covered 484 miles on them so far and they are showing very little wear and most importantly for me, no punctures.

Anyone who wants to recommend a more off road biased 650b tyre with high level puncture protection for my winter commute feel free to make a suggestion.

The Yamaha system continues to work as it did from new. The battery showing a slight decline but only using a few percent more battery over the journey than when it was new.

I forgot my charger yesterday and did a most enjoyable 18 miles off road to work before finding out I had left it at home. That still left the 10 mile home journey and I was not overconfident about making it. It was pretty windy that night. Well as luck would have it the wind was mostly a tail wind which is unusual and I got home with 30% of my battery remaining. I found myself holding speeds in excess of 24mph in eco on the flatter road sections. That tail wind made quite a difference. That would give me a theoretical range of 40 miles on my 6000 mile two year old battery.

It made me realize how lucky I am to be able to charge my bike at work as I usually always have in excess of 60% of my battery left at the end of each leg of my journey to work and back before I top it up at work and then at home before I set off for work the next day.

It might allow me to use a declining battery longer before I have to replace it as I only have to go so far before I have a plug available to charge it up again.

One of the struts on my new rack fitted in early November 2016 unattached from where it was spot welded to the other supporting strut, but I have effected a repair that is working and I will carry on until a more important break forces me to replace it. Carrying heavy panniers off road will put any rack to a vigorous test.

The remote lock out cable for the front fork broke and I have removed it but not replaced it. The fork is now not locked out but still works well and I am not missing being able to lock it out although I have kept the bits should I change my mind.

My cassette, chain and chain ring have covered 724 miles since I replaced them and I am using a 42 tooth front chain ring combined with a 12-36 geared cassette.

Wheels are true and the frame has a few scratches/marks now but still looks high quality.

It has been interesting to keep a record of how I have got on with the bike and I will continue to make the occasional posts as the bike ages and the miles increase.

I get a considerable health benefit by making the effort to cycle to work rather than use the car.

There is a dark cloud hovering over my ebike commute as the room I have been able to make use of and store and charge my bike in securely may be made unavailable to me in the near future.

I commute to a Railway Station and these are notoriously high risk places to leave a bike and as a shift worker when working a late shift the bike will be at the station during the evening often to beyond midnight.

I would still be able to remove the battery and charge that in a secure location and obviously take off the lcd display. My saddle and seat post are held on with an allen bolt rather than a quick release one. I could but bolts on my wheels and use a good lock but I still feel uneasy about it. Any other security suggestions please post your replies.

I am not sure why the typing size changed halfway through as it was the same on the document I copied it from.

 

[Retyred1]

Great hearing that your Yamaha Sduro is still going strong after so many miles. Certainly gives me confidence in my purchase a couple of months back.
Mine is the Sduro Hardnine 4 which is Haibike's budget model.

I am really happy with the way it performs and so glad that it's a hardtail- most of the tracks I ride are very steep mountains and comparing my bike with my mates XDuro FS on these steep uphill slopes really shows the difference - although some of this may be due to the Yamaha 'zero cadence' allowing quicker pickup around rocks and obstacles. We have swapped bikes and he also prefers the Yamaha for climbing, - downhill may be a little different though!.

No trouble yet with my cassette but I don't ride hard so hopefully it'll be ok although only done 600 kms.

I will replace the front forks with Rock shoxs as soon as my local bike shop has a spare set from a new bike. The derailleur (Acera) seems ok along with the wheels, and no need to replace. Even being an entry model the bones and motor certainly seem very good and a little upgrading in the coming months will get it where I want it.

 

[georgehenry]

Bike bought 20th March

Haibike sDuro HardSeven SL 2015 Yamaha,


27/04/17 Important follow up review for Yamaha owners.

I rode my Haibike to work and back for four return trips from the 15th to the 18th of March and could hear a rhythmic noise that was louder when under load climbing, though performance of the motor was unaffected.

I have learnt that rhythmic noises on bikes can appear and disappear and be symptoms of quite a few different maladies, many of which are minor.

I almost emailed Martin at e-bikeshop in Farnham to mention the noise and get the bike checked over before the guarantee ran out on what I thought was the 20th of March but didn’t bother in the end.

For various reasons, I then did not use the bike until a trip to work on the 10th of April, and the noise was still there. I rode to work the next day and by chance met Martin at Farnham Railway Station and had a chat.

On the way home the noise was becoming distracting. When I got home I checked for play in what on a normal bike would be the bottom bracket and could tell that there was a good couple of millimetres. By laterally pushing and pulling the crank arm opposite the chainring I could see that the chainring moved more than it should do.

At this point I panicked a bit as the bike was strictly just beyond its two-year guarantee and I was sure, that at the least a pretty big bearing needed replacing.

I rang e-bikeshop and dropped the bike in to them to be checked over on the 12th of April. The mechanic who I gave the bike to checked for the play I had found and told me that it would need a new bearing.

He said that he had changed this main bearing on Bosch motors but not the Yamaha. I had the dubious distinction of being the first of their customers to have worn out this bearing on a Yamaha motor. Perhaps the first in the UK!

I was contacted later in the day to say that I actually needed a new motor! I was asked to provide a copy of my original invoice, but was told that they were already in the process of getting a new motor for me.

I sent them my invoice that was dated the 19th of March 2015, and although e-bikeshop did mention that this meant it was just beyond the two year guarantee they also said they would get on with the repair.

I was contacted by e-bikeshop on the 17th of April to say that a new motor had been fitted and the bike was ready for collection. I picked the bike up from them and they made no charge.

Although the problem had certainly happened before the guarantee had run out, I did not contact e-bikeshop until about 13 days after my two-year guarantee had run out.

That e-bikeshop sorted out a pretty major problem so quickly for me and made no charge for the work is I think exceptional customer service from them and I emailed them to thank Martin and asked him to thank all his team for sorting the bike out so quickly.

Although I cannot be certain I believe that Yamaha rather than repairing a motor take the view that replacing a motor is easier within the guarantee period. This might mean that when this play develops in a Yamaha motor that is out of guarantee you will need to buy a new motor rather than be able to affect a repair.

All of that may not mean that a repair cannot be carried out but might mean that the parts you require to do the repair are not available.

The old motor had lasted 6068 miles when it was replaced. The ODO on my head unit has reset to zero with a new motor fitted so I now have a very low milage ebike!

I think that this situation illustrates the benefit of buying a bike from a good shop, preferably local to you, that gives you a professional service to rely on when things go wrong and you need to call on their good will to sort you out. That e-bikeshop were so good with me is only to their credit.

 

[RobF]

Bike bought 20th March

Haibike sDuro HardSeven SL 2015 Yamaha,


27/04/17 Important follow up review for Yamaha owners.

I rode my Haibike to work and back for four return trips from the 15th to the 18th of March and could hear a rhythmic noise that was louder when under load climbing, though performance of the motor was unaffected.

I have learnt that rhythmic noises on bikes can appear and disappear and be symptoms of quite a few different maladies, many of which are minor.

I almost emailed Martin at e-bikeshop in Farnham to mention the noise and get the bike checked over before the guarantee ran out on what I thought was the 20th of March but didn’t bother in the end.

For various reasons, I then did not use the bike until a trip to work on the 10th of April, and the noise was still there. I rode to work the next day and by chance met Martin at Farnham Railway Station and had a chat.

On the way home the noise was becoming distracting. When I got home I checked for play in what on a normal bike would be the bottom bracket and could tell that there was a good couple of millimetres. By laterally pushing and pulling the crank arm opposite the chainring I could see that the chainring moved more than it should do.

At this point I panicked a bit as the bike was strictly just beyond its two-year guarantee and I was sure, that at the least a pretty big bearing needed replacing.

I rang e-bikeshop and dropped the bike in to them to be checked over on the 12th of April. The mechanic who I gave the bike to checked for the play I had found and told me that it would need a new bearing.

He said that he had changed this main bearing on Bosch motors but not the Yamaha. I had the dubious distinction of being the first of their customers to have worn out this bearing on a Yamaha motor. Perhaps the first in the UK!

I was contacted later in the day to say that I actually needed a new motor! I was asked to provide a copy of my original invoice, but was told that they were already in the process of getting a new motor for me.

I sent them my invoice that was dated the 19th of March 2015, and although e-bikeshop did mention that this meant it was just beyond the two year guarantee they also said they would get on with the repair.

I was contacted by e-bikeshop on the 17th of April to say that a new motor had been fitted and the bike was ready for collection. I picked the bike up from them and they made no charge.

Although the problem had certainly happened before the guarantee had run out, I did not contact e-bikeshop until about 13 days after my two-year guarantee had run out.

That e-bikeshop sorted out a pretty major problem so quickly for me and made no charge for the work is I think exceptional customer service from them and I emailed them to thank Martin and asked him to thank all his team for sorting the bike out so quickly.

Although I cannot be certain I believe that Yamaha rather than repairing a motor take the view that replacing a motor is easier within the guarantee period. This might mean that when this play develops in a Yamaha motor that is out of guarantee you will need to buy a new motor rather than be able to affect a repair.

All of that may not mean that a repair cannot be carried out but might mean that the parts you require to do the repair are not available.

The old motor had lasted 6068 miles when it was replaced. The ODO on my head unit has reset to zero with a new motor fitted so I now have a very low milage ebike!

I think that this situation illustrates the benefit of buying a bike from a good shop, preferably local to you, that gives you a professional service to rely on when things go wrong and you need to call on their good will to sort you out. That e-bikeshop were so good with me is only to their credit.

Your story also illustrates the benefit of buying a quality product from a reputable maker.

Yamaha won't get many broken motors, so when they do get one they can 'afford' to replace it without quibbling.

 

[tisme]

The motor stores the milage that's why your head unit reads 0 miles. I have two and if I switch the clocks over they read what the motors has done. Great news yamaha swapped it foc for you, but I'm sure it is possible to strip and replace a bearing just not easy enough for the average shop to do and a pain for yamaha to have to do. Much easier for them to ship a motor.

 

[georgehenry]

Bike bought 20th March (Update 01/08/2017)

Haibike sDuro HardSeven SL 2015 Yamaha,

My milage is up to 6730 with 700 odd miles on the new motor as of the 27th July 2017.

My current cassette, chain ring and chain have been together for 1520 miles so far. I now do not use higher than eco assistance in my top gear (9) with only occasional use of standard power in gear (8) to get me over the top of a hill to prolong the life of my rear cassette. With the higher gearing I use, gear 8 will still pull 18/20 miles an hour or so.

Even only using eco in top gear I am still covering the ground fast enough for me with the ten mile road journey home taking less than 30 minutes. The 16 mile mainly off road journey to work is in a sandy area that can be abrasive for the transmission so I am pleased to find my rear cassette holding up so well now.

When previously I used more power to make quicker progress on the road and inevitably found myself mostly in top gear, I found I wore out top gear on my rear cassette quite quickly.

After buying the hardseven I used it exclusively for my commute to work but my early shifts were too early to contemplate the off road route and I just blasted the 10 miles to work and home again on the road.

I also had my old electric bike, an Oxygen emate city rear hub bike with a throttle and have now started using this for the early shifts that just involve riding on the road to work and back, and the hardseven for the afternoon shifts or any other shift start time that allows me to take my longer 16 mile mainly off road route to work before the road trip home.

The crank drive hard seven really comes into its own off road and the old Oxygen that I bought in 2011 is a great bike for commuting on the road and very relaxed to ride when I am still waking up. The best average speed I managed on the Oxygen was 18.3 when I was more interested and had a cycle computer fitted.

I had a spoke brake in the rear wheel of my haibike and had it replaced and the wheel re-trued at ebike shop in Farnham and they did a great job in double quick time. I know that Martin and ebike shop get a bit of flak on the forum but I have had nothing but good advice, fair treatment (a new motor fitted free of charge just after two years), and very quick service to get things mended when I have required it.

The fuse on my Yamaha charger blew in spectacular style when I plugged it in at work, and typically on a day that I had set off to work with about an 80% charge rather than full. This left me with 52% for the 10 mile journey home.

However once at home I would have no means of charging the battery straight away and did not want to have to leave the battery too depleted so that it might be damaged if not charged again quickly.

Using d8veh many procrastinations about the range of a battery as inspiration I decided that I wanted to get home with about 42% of the battery remaining so as not to leave it too empty before I could charge it again and by carefully managing the way I rode the bike (turned the power off a lot) did just that using 10% of the battery for 10 miles. It was really not as bad as I thought it might be and once moving I found the bike rolled along quite well. Used in this way your electric bike range is pretty much infinite as d8veh has pointed out to us before.

I charge my bike at work and the charger comes to work with me and then home again in my panniers and this use continually wrapping and unwrapping the wires may have led to them chaffing. When I looked the next day the wires were exposed in an awkward place right where they enter the charger. I carefully used insulating tape to separate them and then tape them up and after putting a new fuse in the plug I was able to charge the battery without any issues.

One of my Ortleib back roller classic panniers split open when I rode the bike through a gap that was too small, pulling the panniers through after me. These panniers were bought in around 2010 and have been used constantly since then and led a very hard life bounced around off road and overfilled with shopping and remained water proof throughout. To start with I was amazed that I could get caught in torrential rain and get to work and find that my work clothes inside the panniers were bone dry. I have been very impressed by them and decided to buy another pair.

I looked on evans web site and saw they were asking £109 but were out of stock. I looked on Amazon and they were available at about the same price. I looked on ebay and was taken aback by how much people were paying for second hand ones, (£90 ish when I looked) and that one guy was selling his panniers in two separate lots so if you wanted the pair you needed to win both auctions and that one pannier was over £45 and the other £35 with a couple of days to go.

I then discovered Spa cycles in Harrogate who were selling them brand new for £95 with free postage. I rang them, ordered a pair, paid by credit card and they arrived a couple of days later. Fantastic.

I decided on a rather fetching yellow colour for the new pair but had not thought through that I still had a usable black one so now I am not as colour coordinated as I was before.

My specialized crossroads armadillo 650b wired clincher tyres that I used to replace my schwalbe smart sam plus tyres are up to 1200 miles and proving to be a great summer tyre with most importantly no punctures.

They do not have the grip of a proper mountain bike tyre off road and I may put on different tyres for the winter. I have discovered that I can special order the specialized fast track mountain bike tyre with armadillo protection and might be tempted to do that for the winter. There does not seem to be a massive choice of 650b sized mountain bike tyres combined with high level puncture protection.

I still have a part worn pair of Schwalbe smart sam plus tyres that I could put back on for winter and risk that the rear one does not have a blow out puncture where the tyre meets the rim of the wheel as I had before and as Andy Bluenoes had on his Oxygen.

As before my battery continues to hold up very well with little sign of any degradation after nearly two and a half years and 6730 miles which is just as well judging by the price of a genuine replacement.

However at least the battery lasted longer than the first motor.

It may be that the replacement motor will last longer than the first one but by sharing the commuter duties with the Oxygen the haibike will now do about 1500 miles a year rather than 3000 it has done for the last two years and last longer as a result.

I am 56 in October and intend to retire when I am 60. We will have to see if it lasts that long. However having one child at university and another one probably going and all governments happy to move the pension goalposts at will any thoughts of retiring are probably a pipe dream anyway.

I might be tempted to see if Jimmy can re cell it in due course when the time to replace it arrives. I might also be tempted to buy a pattern one from allbatteries in the west midlands for £329 for a 13ah (468wh). Hopefully lzzyekerslike will keep us informed how he is getting on with his.

But as it still works like new I do not have to worry about that just yet.

When I retire I might treat myself to a top of the range double battery Riese and Muller delite rohloff and tour around Europe in my dotage like croxden. We can but dream.

 

[georgehenry]

Bike bought 20th March Update 15/11/17

Haibike sDuro HardSeven SL 2015 Yamaha

My mileage has crept up to 7470 with 1470 miles on the new motor.

My Specialised Crossroads Armadillo 650B 27.6” Wired Clincher tyres in 1.9” are now up to 1940 miles with no punctures and little wear showing providing a great road biased off road tyre. They offer a great puncture resistant tough tyre alternative to the ubiquitous offerings from Schwalbe. I started with the Schwalbe smart sam plus puncture resistant tyres and would have probably stayed with them if I had not had a nasty rear wheel side wall failure blow out puncture. A bit like a restaurant where you get one bad meal this precipitated the change to Specialised. If I had started with marathon plus I might never have changed as from seeing the reviews by other members they are very tough and not prone to the failure I experienced with the smart sam plus tyres.

My battery still continues to show little sign of degradation after 2 years and 7 months and 7470 miles.

The Sigma Buster 200 front light that I replaced the moon meteor with works well however the battery indicator is turning red after as little as 5 miles of my 10 mile road commute which is disappointing after 7 months ownership. In fairness the light keeps shining brightly with no diminution to journeys end so the battery indicator might be on the conservative side.

The top gear on my 12-36 shimanao alvio cassette combined with 42tooth chainring started to jump on my return from work on Monday.

This cassette has lasted longer than others covering 2220 miles. However I think the longevity of this cassette has been achieved by not using more than eco power in top gear. I ride the bike to work to get a work out and the combination of eco and my effort in top gear allows me to maintain 20/21 miles an hour plus on level tarmac. I have also mostly used eco in the 14tooth gear 8 but will use the next power level up for short bursts to crest a couple of steeper gradients. On steeper gradients I use standard power and any appropriate gear from 7 down.

Recently the chain has started coming off the front chainring in quite specific circumstances when I have stopped pedaling travelling at speed down a steeper hill. It means stopping at the bottom and putting it back on again. It never happens when under load pedaling. It could easily be related to the whole drive train having covered over 2000 miles.

However this has led to some more pondering on my part on how to prevent this. During on line research I came across narrow wide front chain rings that are designed to keep the chain on in all circumstances and seem to be well reviewed. Great I thought but they are generally not made in sizes above 38teeth in the 4 bolt 104 BCD format I require to fit my bike.

Anyway this led to more online research and I have found a company that can supply me with one and I have ordered it to see what difference it makes.

This then led me to see whether there were any widely available 9 speed cassettes with a wider ratios than the current 12/36 I use with my 42 tooth chainring. I found a sunrace 9 speed cassette with a 11/40 spread.

This might lead to a further experimentation in gearing allowing me to use an even bigger 44 or 46 tooth front chainring and still have a low enough bottom gear (4 extra teeth) for my off road routes steepest hills.

The thinking behind this is that the 15 tooth gear 7 of the sunrace cassette would become my effective top speed commuting road gear and the benefit would be having 15 teeth this gear would be much more resistant to the wear that constant high speed commuting on a crank powered bike inflicts, allowing me to maintain higher road speeds, up to 25 miles an hour, but still have a low enough bottom gear for my xc routes steepest hills. Gears 8 and 9 would become overdrive gears but might still be fun for the occasional blast using the highest power assist level.

The trouble with experimenting with gearing is that it can be quite expensive as the only way to really find out how suitable the change in gearing is for your circumstances is to buy a larger chainring you think will work and ride it to see how well it works but potentially have to buy another one if it is not quite right.

That is how I arrived at my current 12/36 cassette 42 tooth chainring combination.

Not to mention that a longer cage rear mech might at some point in the experiment be required. Fun though!



The above picture shows the great benefit of getting out of your car on your journey to work.

 

[Izzyekerslike]

Bike bought 20th March (Update 01/08/2017)

Haibike sDuro HardSeven SL 2015 Yamaha,

My milage is up to 6730 with 700 odd miles on the new motor as of the 27th July 2017.

My current cassette, chain ring and chain have been together for 1520 miles so far. I now do not use higher than eco assistance in my top gear (9) with only occasional use of standard power in gear (8) to get me over the top of a hill to prolong the life of my rear cassette. With the higher gearing I use, gear 8 will still pull 18/20 miles an hour or so.

Even only using eco in top gear I am still covering the ground fast enough for me with the ten mile road journey home taking less than 30 minutes. The 16 mile mainly off road journey to work is in a sandy area that can be abrasive for the transmission so I am pleased to find my rear cassette holding up so well now.

When previously I used more power to make quicker progress on the road and inevitably found myself mostly in top gear, I found I wore out top gear on my rear cassette quite quickly.

After buying the hardseven I used it exclusively for my commute to work but my early shifts were too early to contemplate the off road route and I just blasted the 10 miles to work and home again on the road.

I also had my old electric bike, an Oxygen emate city rear hub bike with a throttle and have now started using this for the early shifts that just involve riding on the road to work and back, and the hardseven for the afternoon shifts or any other shift start time that allows me to take my longer 16 mile mainly off road route to work before the road trip home.

The crank drive hard seven really comes into its own off road and the old Oxygen that I bought in 2011 is a great bike for commuting on the road and very relaxed to ride when I am still waking up. The best average speed I managed on the Oxygen was 18.3 when I was more interested and had a cycle computer fitted.

I had a spoke brake in the rear wheel of my haibike and had it replaced and the wheel re-trued at ebike shop in Farnham and they did a great job in double quick time. I know that Martin and ebike shop get a bit of flak on the forum but I have had nothing but good advice, fair treatment (a new motor fitted free of charge just after two years), and very quick service to get things mended when I have required it.

The fuse on my Yamaha charger blew in spectacular style when I plugged it in at work, and typically on a day that I had set off to work with about an 80% charge rather than full. This left me with 52% for the 10 mile journey home.

However once at home I would have no means of charging the battery straight away and did not want to have to leave the battery too depleted so that it might be damaged if not charged again quickly.

Using d8veh many procrastinations about the range of a battery as inspiration I decided that I wanted to get home with about 42% of the battery remaining so as not to leave it too empty before I could charge it again and by carefully managing the way I rode the bike (turned the power off a lot) did just that using 10% of the battery for 10 miles. It was really not as bad as I thought it might be and once moving I found the bike rolled along quite well. Used in this way your electric bike range is pretty much infinite as d8veh has pointed out to us before.

I charge my bike at work and the charger comes to work with me and then home again in my panniers and this use continually wrapping and unwrapping the wires may have led to them chaffing. When I looked the next day the wires were exposed in an awkward place right where they enter the charger. I carefully used insulating tape to separate them and then tape them up and after putting a new fuse in the plug I was able to charge the battery without any issues.

One of my Ortleib back roller classic panniers split open when I rode the bike through a gap that was too small, pulling the panniers through after me. These panniers were bought in around 2010 and have been used constantly since then and led a very hard life bounced around off road and overfilled with shopping and remained water proof throughout. To start with I was amazed that I could get caught in torrential rain and get to work and find that my work clothes inside the panniers were bone dry. I have been very impressed by them and decided to buy another pair.

I looked on evans web site and saw they were asking £109 but were out of stock. I looked on Amazon and they were available at about the same price. I looked on ebay and was taken aback by how much people were paying for second hand ones, (£90 ish when I looked) and that one guy was selling his panniers in two separate lots so if you wanted the pair you needed to win both auctions and that one pannier was over £45 and the other £35 with a couple of days to go.

I then discovered Spa cycles in Harrogate who were selling them brand new for £95 with free postage. I rang them, ordered a pair, paid by credit card and they arrived a couple of days later. Fantastic.

I decided on a rather fetching yellow colour for the new pair but had not thought through that I still had a usable black one so now I am not as colour coordinated as I was before.

My specialized crossroads armadillo 650b wired clincher tyres that I used to replace my schwalbe smart sam plus tyres are up to 1200 miles and proving to be a great summer tyre with most importantly no punctures.

They do not have the grip of a proper mountain bike tyre off road and I may put on different tyres for the winter. I have discovered that I can special order the specialized fast track mountain bike tyre with armadillo protection and might be tempted to do that for the winter. There does not seem to be a massive choice of 650b sized mountain bike tyres combined with high level puncture protection.

I still have a part worn pair of Schwalbe smart sam plus tyres that I could put back on for winter and risk that the rear one does not have a blow out puncture where the tyre meets the rim of the wheel as I had before and as Andy Bluenoes had on his Oxygen.

As before my battery continues to hold up very well with little sign of any degradation after nearly two and a half years and 6730 miles which is just as well judging by the price of a genuine replacement.

However at least the battery lasted longer than the first motor.

It may be that the replacement motor will last longer than the first one but by sharing the commuter duties with the Oxygen the haibike will now do about 1500 miles a year rather than 3000 it has done for the last two years and last longer as a result.

I am 56 in October and intend to retire when I am 60. We will have to see if it lasts that long. However having one child at university and another one probably going and all governments happy to move the pension goalposts at will any thoughts of retiring are probably a pipe dream anyway.

I might be tempted to see if Jimmy can re cell it in due course when the time to replace it arrives. I might also be tempted to buy a pattern one from allbatteries in the west midlands for £329 for a 13ah (468wh). Hopefully lzzyekerslike will keep us informed how he is getting on with his.

But as it still works like new I do not have to worry about that just yet.

When I retire I might treat myself to a top of the range double battery Riese and Muller delite rohloff and tour around Europe in my dotage like croxden. We can but dream.

Good luck with the retirement plans, I hope it works out. FYI Pattern Yamaha replacement battery working great, no problems at all.

 

[georgehenry]

Good luck with the retirement plans, I hope it works out. FYI Pattern Yamaha replacement battery working great, no problems at all.

Sourcing a pattern replacement Yamaha battery was a good find lzzekerslike.

I am really impressed with the way my original battery is holding up, but know that it cannot last for ever so having another choice rather than just the expensive Yamaha replacement is a good thing.

 

[Izzyekerslike]

Sourcing a pattern replacement Yamaha battery was a good find lzzekerslike.

I am really impressed with the way my original battery is holding up, but know that it cannot last for ever so having another choice rather than just the expensive Yamaha replacement is a good thing.

Sourcing a pattern replacement Yamaha battery was a good find lzzekerslike.

I am really impressed with the way my original battery is holding up, but know that it cannot last for ever so having another choice rather than just the expensive Yamaha replacement is a good thing.

I have the Haibike / Yamaha service manual and it shows you how to check the battery condition. If I get time I'll post it up tonight. But if I forget please feel free to give me a nudge.

 

[Izzyekerslike]

Sourcing a pattern replacement Yamaha battery was a good find lzzekerslike.

I am really impressed with the way my original battery is holding up, but know that it cannot last for ever so having another choice rather than just the expensive Yamaha replacement is a good thing.

Photo of the web address for the Yamaha Workshop manual.

Sourcing a pattern replacement Yamaha battery was a good find lzzekerslike.

 

[georgehenry]

Photo of the web address for the Yamaha Workshop manual.

Although knowledge is power!

Perhaps ignorance is bliss, as using the online Yamaha manual my battery shows 700 charging cycles or more!

Thanks for the link.

Maybe I need to put pattern Yamaha battery on my Christmas list!

 

[georgehenry]

Stand down on that panic.

The next page of the manual allowed me to check the absolute battery capacity and my battery is still showing the highest battery capacity that can be indicated by this test ie 75% to a %100.

Slightly blunt tool.

However I can now delude myself that it is still %100 until proved otherwise.

Nothing quite so powerful as the power of self denial

Who is that incredibly handsome man in the mirror.

 

[John G]

Good to hear your Haibike Sduros are still performing well. I bought my Haibike Sduro Hardseven 4.0 from Evans at the end of May 2017. I've been very happy with the bike, doing over 1300 miles on local lanes and various forest tracks and bridleways in North Wales.

I've been less happy with the the number of components I've had to replace on the bike at my own cost, and with hindsight I do think Haibike have used some components which were unsuitable for an e mountain bike.

Had to replace the chain and rear cassette after 600 miles, because gears started to slip when climbing. I checked chain with a measuring tool and it was past the acceptable wear limit. The chain provided was a KMC X9 chain. I replaced it with a KMC X9e chain which as the e suggests, is a stronger chain for ebike use. The basic SRAM cassette was fairly worn as well, so I replaced it with a better Shimano XT cassette. I didn't ask Evans to replace these, but 5 months usage on a new bike is pretty shocking.

The Suntour SR forks provided weren't very nice on bumpy forest roads, so I replaced them with some Manitou Marvel air forks which vastly improved the ride.

Just before Christmas I noticed a wobble in the rear wheel. The LBS has a look and said the rear hub had failed, letting in water and allowing the bearings and axle to rust. He cleaned and regreased them but basically it was knackered. I took it to Evans and asked for a warranty repair. Haibike, who I learned are owned by Raleigh, did not accept it as a warranty repair.

They are probably correct under the terms of the warranty, but I do question if the components they have used are fit for purpose if they are failing so quickly. The electric motor puts a very high torque through the drivetrain, so it seems fairly obvious that cheap bottom end normal bike components won't last. I've researched bike hubs on the internet and the XLC rear hub is a really cheap as chips item, with no waterproof seal. So are we supposed to avoid using bikes in wet conditions? Before you ask, I did not pressure wash the bike.

I've now invested in a better set of wheels (from Just Riding Along in York) as I dont want to be replacing cheap hubs every 6 months.

I can't be bothered writing to Raleigh or Haibike, but I'll say in public that after spending around £2000 on a bike I don't expect it to start wearing out and falling apart after 6 months.

I'll look elsewhere next time.

 

[Trevormonty]

To be fair on Haibike you did buy a lower spec build, which is not really built for serious MTBing. The higher spec builds give better quality components, would've probably worked out cheaper in long run.

 

[John G]

To be fair on Haibike you did buy a lower spec build, which is not really built for serious MTBing. The higher spec builds give better quality components, would've probably worked out cheaper in long run.

With 100mm of travel, this hard tail electric bike for 2017 is the entry level model within the Haibike sDuro range. The HardSeven 4.0 2017 eBike is built on cost effective components without compromising quality. It is designed for the eMTB'er who wishes to take on some of the local trails. It is suitable for XC / Trail use. This eBike also be used as a clutter free commuting electric bike.

The above is from Haibike's own advertising. 80% of my mileage was on tarmac roads with the rest on gravel roads and tracks around reservoirs, with a handful of trips on bridlepaths in the hills. Not serious mountain biking by any stretch. I didn' abuse the bike and it was cleaned and the chain decreased and oiled on a very regular basis. Haibike do say it is suitable for some XC/Trail use.

I agree I could have spent £2k more on a proper trail bike, but at the age of 64 I don't plan on doing any serious riding on red or black mtb trails.