I love my E-mate but I have had nothing but problems with spokes breaking on the rear wheel. I went as far as having the entire wheel rebuilt with the heaviest gauge of spokes but again they are breaking. The guys in Atmosphere Bristol seem to think it is me but that is nonsense. Surely the bike is not well designed and cannot cope with the torque from the motor? What can I possibly do about this? It is driving me mad. I have had the bike since 2012 so it is out of warranty.
Oxygen E-Mate rear spoke issues.
- Thread starter Simon Williams
- Start date
I weigh 15 stone. I have a mountain bike that I thrash around all the time and I do not break spokes. It is not my weight it is a design fault.
It's been such a pain. I weigh 15 stone - is that too much? Surely the bikes should be made to take it. You don;t buy a motorbike expecting the spokes to pop all the time.
apologies if this is stating the obvious - but I've found the main reason for spokes breaking (I'm also 15 stone) is loose spokes (Chinese bikes all have many loose spokes, im astonished pedelec vendors don't do customers the one little favour of truing and tightening wheels) - this is a strictly IMHO solution I found - but tightening spokes very tight (i.e. just short of stripping the nipple) has solved all my problems on a DIY hub motored bike
If it's the oxygen emate MTB (the same motor/wheel build as the Oxydrive CST HD kit?) I am surprised that you have broken spokes. I am also 15 stone and I have given the kit some serious off road abuse and have not had any issues with the spokes. I do have the kit mounted to a full suspension MTB so this may dampen the impact on the rear wheel but I think it's pretty strong.
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A classic mistake. You should have gone thinner to 14g.
Been a keen follower of this forum for about three years but this is the first time I have felt the need to post .
Simon I bought a oxygen city eMate in July 2013 had the same problems as you with spokes in the rear wheel four times in the three months I owned it .
Unfortunately got the same response as you from atmosphere (I'm in Bristol to) was told by them that it was the way I rode it where I rode it and I was hitting to many potholes! All nonsense. Got in touch with oxygen to try to get them to replace rear wheel under warranty but atmosphere had already been in conversation with them to say it was abuse on my part .
Took the bike to another shop ETS Redland Bristol had the wheel rebuilt by them and then sold bike at a big loss to a friend who as had no problems with the wheel since .
Sorry for length of post hope this helps in some way
PS I bought a KTM Nuvinci from the electric transport shop that as been superb and recently bought a haibike from Martin who regularly posts on this forum.
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Simon I bought a oxygen city eMate in July 2013 had the same problems as you with spokes in the rear wheel four times in the three months I owned it .
Unfortunately got the same response as you from atmosphere (I'm in Bristol to) was told by them that it was the way I rode it where I rode it and I was hitting to many potholes! All nonsense. Got in touch with oxygen to try to get them to replace rear wheel under warranty but atmosphere had already been in conversation with them to say it was abuse on my part .
Took the bike to another shop ETS Redland Bristol had the wheel rebuilt by them and then sold bike at a big loss to a friend who as had no problems with the wheel since .
Sorry for length of post hope this helps in some way
PS I bought a KTM Nuvinci from the electric transport shop that as been superb and recently bought a haibike from Martin who regularly posts on this forum.
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As Paul says, get the wheel rebuilt by a skilled wheel builder and your troubles will be over. Persistent spoke breakage is invariably caused by a poor wheel build and almost never by rider abuse.
Atmosphere really ought to take some advice on this subject before blaming owners and wrongly advising the bike maker that the owner is to blame.
.
Atmosphere really ought to take some advice on this subject before blaming owners and wrongly advising the bike maker that the owner is to blame.
.
i own a freego hawk electric bike and shortly after i bought it i too had about 4 spokes break in the rear motorwheel,but the engineers at freego reccomended i had stronger 12 gauge spokes fitted instead of the 13 gauge spokes which were thinner and less strong ,they also said that spokes on an electric bike motor wheel have to be tensioned a lot more than on a conventional bike wheel, to cope with the stress of the high torque motor but i have found ,since having 12 gauge spokes fitted in my motor wheel i have had no more issues.
well that is your opinion ,but ,,having thicker spokes in my bafang motor wheel which is 250w has not causes any problems whatsoever,in fact it has improved matters for me .
I have a theory as to why some bikes have problems with broken spokes while others don't. I think the problem may be in the spoke nipples.
Check the spoke nipples after about 100 miles. Some are easy to turn, some not, some even begin to rust. Don't worry if they are tight to turn or even begin to rust. It's only when they are too easy to turn, they will also be loosened easily.
Prevention is always better than having to sort them out later, so get some linseed oil or blue threadlock and lock them.
Check the spoke nipples after about 100 miles. Some are easy to turn, some not, some even begin to rust. Don't worry if they are tight to turn or even begin to rust. It's only when they are too easy to turn, they will also be loosened easily.
Prevention is always better than having to sort them out later, so get some linseed oil or blue threadlock and lock them.
I have had issues with my Oxydrive spokes since not long after purchase which I have documented in the main Oxydrive thread. All were out of tension, mostly very loose (could spin nipples with fingers ooh er). I was in a bind so tightened them up equally just to get me out of trouble but now my rim is out of true quite badly. I need the whole lot de-tensioned by someone who knows what they are doing and the wheel completely re done. Thankfully none of the spokes have broken but it is a very irritating blot on an otherwise well made kit. I just need to find someone to sort it out for good but I am not sure I have the best faith in Halfords and thats even if they were prepared to work on an ebike wheel not supplied by them which does seem to put many vendors off. If anyone has any idea on who I could take the wheel to near to East Essex I would be very grateful!
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