906 Alpino reliability

[Graeme S]

Hi

I ride a top spec 906 Alpino which I bought from electric transport shop 13 months ago

It's a monster of a bike that I love riding and my thoughts were invest in something that's not bottom of the range and should be durable enough to cope with the 150 miles a week for 3-4 years then replace

The dealer has been great but I've had my fair share of problems, including;-

Crank falling off
Bottom bracket failure (not warranty covered)
Multiple spoke failures necessitating front wheel rebuild
Seizing lock in battery
Second Chain and needing another one soon
Motor bearing failure (started with loads of vibration after only a few weeks)
And more recently a wiring fault caused the motor to stop responding.
I've had a few bits work loose and fall off but can't really include that

At the moment this is a bit of an annoyance to get frequent problems but the majority was repaired under warranty.

Ebikes are a great idea - but if this pattern repeats after the warranty period I may as well go back to the car!

But I'm concerned about the longevity of ebikes and whether I'm being reasonable to expect one to be reliable for 3-4 years barring consumables for my sort of use?

My commute is 99% cycle path and road.

Does this reflect other peoples experience or am I just unlucky?

 

[Riverboots]

Hi Graeme.
I've been riding my 906 since spring 2012. Here in Trondheim, Norway, the front hub motor is invaluable for giving 2WD on my 40km round trip commute in our long icy winters.

Unfortunately i can rapport a similar hitstory of faults and design flaws of which to date here are some:

PCU shorted and died needing new one. Repaired under warranty but took 2 months!

Battery case very brittle and cracks. Currently held together with glue & cable ties (Wisper acknowledge a bad batch to blame but I'm not keen to send away to dealer again after downtime with PCU experience).

Front light snapped off when placing bike in public bike stand (my mistake but design probably didn't help).

Cable terminal in front of handlebars broke away from bracket (more cable ties!) Wisper acknowledge poor design and say it is improved on later models.

Bottom bracket premature failure. Replaced myself after a bit of research and a week or two of downtime. Diagnosed sensor friction as probable cause of BB loosening with help from this forum.

Spoke snapped. 2 weeks to repair in local bike shop.

LCD controller broke away from handlebars. (Velcro repair this time!)

Metal mounting slide for battery snapped in the middle. (More velcro to the rescue!)

In balance I should say that a friend nearby also has a 906 (2011) but has experienced very little problems with his despite similar total km (just a spoke failure and creaky cranks).

So maybe we are just unlucky or maybe this is the stage of development that the industry had reached when the 906 was conceived. A bit like motoring reliability in 1920's i imagine!

I do feel the 906 has some design elements which are rather at the prototype stage. I am starting to see a lot of other ebikes in town, some of which look to have a better build quality and design. Until they can offer the same range, power and 2WD as my 906 i will probably persevere until i run out of velcro and cable ties!

James