Warning; ebike batteries have short lives!

[PJ53YYY]

I bought an Orbea Gain with the ebikemotion X35 system. I didn't consider at that time that I would need to replace the battery at some point. The batteries last for 10 years+, yes? No!
3 years on and the battery is kaput! I've seen recently on a forum that the life of an ebike battery is expected to be only 3 to 5 years. So I was unlucky mine only lasting 3 years but it seems I should not have been so shocked when it failed. However, a bigger shock was the price of a fitted replacement £800! I do not want to spend out £800 every 3 to 5 years. In fact, I do not want to spend that now and currently have what was a very expensive bike sitting in the garage going nowhere.

 

[Az.]

Sorry everyone.
I'm new to the forum and it seems I posted inappropriately :-(

Oh no... that is not what I meant. There are many like you who might make the same mistake. You have learned your lesson hard and might reach those who we can't.
Many people buy bikes only to find later they can't buy a spare battery later on, or it costs a fortune. Individual can't buy Bosch motor to replace broken one. Authorized mechanic must apply to Bosch for replacement. Apply! This is ridiculous.

 

[soundwave]

can bus = tip a 20ah batt from a uk supplier is around 400 quid a bosch 12ah batt is 650 quid.

all electric cars use can bus coms to talk to all the parts if one fails like the wing mirror with a cam in it gets snapped of even if you buy a direct replacement it wont work unless you pair that part to the computer like i phones.

my bike is 10 years old and can keep it going for now but if you offered me a new bosch 10k bike for it id keep it.

 

[saneagle]

Sorry everyone.
I'm new to the forum and it seems I posted inappropriately :-(

You haven't done anything wrong.

The problem is that it is what it is. We can't change it. You have to decide what to do. Nothing you decide to do will be comfortable.

We have a lot of discussion about these sort of things on this forum. Basically, we can't help with anything that has CANbus, and it's also difficult on other bikes if the electronics use any sort of comms. Unfortunately, nearly all the expensive bikes use such systems. We're all locked out of them. We try to advise people if they haven't already bought a bike. The cheap Chinese stuff works OK, and you can normally get what you want, as long as you're not buying to impress your friends at the cycle club, though choices are declining all the time.

If you want to buy an expensive bike, it's going to be expensive to run. That's it!

 

[Nealh]

Sadly many see a nice bike or are partly brained washed by reviews (very biased) , dealers (also biased) and online influencers who promote expensive looking EAPC's with mid drive or even hub drives which have no need for fancy locked in electrics
Unfortunately those not in the know or know very little about EAPC's can easily be swayed by all of the above, what all of the above don't throw into the conversations is that all of the EAPC's promoted are non user freindly when it comes to repairs and spares are very expensive.
The expensive spares if needed occurs after the two year warranty runs out and one is left with an expensive garden ornament thats doesn't work.
Most mid drives have to be exchanged via a dealer or repaired (if poss )by a trained specalist.
Batteries have to come via said dealer as no locked in system is universal.
Displays or controllers are the same.

One reason why those of us in the know use generic hub drives and batteries with a chosen controller type of known reliability that can be sourced almost anywhere on the open market , all needing no specialist dealer to buy from or needing to exchange thru a franchise.
These simple electronics can simply be swapped between nearly any bike /brand with generic electric components parts.