How much of a hammering can these bikes take?

[torrent99]

Folks,

I thought I'd finished asking questions, but I have yet more!

This one's a simple one. How long do e-bikes last?

Why do I ask? Well I'm planning on using mine to commute to work, whilst at present this is 4 miles each way it's due to rise to 6 miles each way (12 miles).
At approx 250 working days a year that's a wapping (sp?) 3000 miles a year.

Now most reports & mini-reviews I read people are talking about a few hundred maybe a thousand miles under their belt. 3000/year is a different ballgame!

So the question is will an e-bike stand up to this?

I'm not worried about the bike component, this will be fine I know or will be easy to fix. The battery too is a more known quantity probably lasting 1-1.5 years I estimate at this rate of wear (for a standard LiIon), but the motor+controller is a relatively new bit of technology.

Cheers

Steve

 

[flecc]

I did almost 3500 miles in the first six months of this year on an eZee Quando II conversion as part of battery testing, and despite a marked reduction in the second half, it will be about 4000 miles this year on this bike. My T bike doesn't do high mileages as it's mainly a leisure only job.

Previously I did some 6000 miles altogether on a Lafree over four years, years varying but a couple at well over 2000 miles.

As with most items, it's not the length of usage so much as the frequency that affects things. There will be little difference in reliability between two bikes used daily, one doing 2000 miles and the other 4000 miles in a year. It's the switch on and off, the initial warming up and final cooling down that are the stress points for equipment, and steady state running in between stress points is nowhere near as damaging.

Light bulbs blowing at switch on, TVs failing at switch on and cars failing to start are far more common than failures during running, these being examples of what I mean.

Finally, hub motors and controllers, once past the first couple of hundred miles, are incredibly reliable, often running for years without attention and frequently outliving the bikes they are fitted to.
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[Mussels]

Now most reports & mini-reviews I read people are talking about a few hundred maybe a thousand miles under their belt. 3000/year is a different ballgame!

So the question is will an e-bike stand up to this?

I'm not the highest mileage rider on here and I have done about 3000 miles in the last four months, on very poor roads and off road cycle tracks. The electrical side of it has been fine, all failures have been bike related.

 

[keithhazel]

I'm not the highest mileage rider on here and I have done about 3000 miles in the last four months, on very poor roads and off road cycle tracks. The electrical side of it has been fine, all failures have been bike related.

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if you keep that up 9000 miles must put you quite near the top of milage list... wonder if thats another chart that someone should think of doing just for statistics of course...

 

[torrent99]

I'm not the highest mileage rider on here and I have done about 3000 miles in the last four months, on very poor roads and off road cycle tracks. The electrical side of it has been fine, all failures have been bike related.

That's good to know!

Finally, hub motors and controllers, once past the first couple of hundred miles, are incredibly reliable, often running for years without attention and frequently outliving the bikes they are fitted to..

That's even better! I think with my annual mileage I should be nicely out of the early death zone and into the main bathtub well within the guarantee period.

wonder if thats another chart that someone should think of doing just for statistics of course.....

Would be very helpful I think, to demonstrate the real life reliability of the machines.

I feel a challenge coming on...

Cheers
Steve

 

[nin26]

Finally, hub motors and controllers, once past the first couple of hundred miles, are incredibly reliable, often running for years without attention and frequently outliving the bikes they are fitted to.
.

The motor on my Windsor died after 1700 miles - I've just had it replaced under warranty. Apparently something inside cracked. It suddenly started making a horrible clanking and rattling noise halfway up the biggest hill on my way home from work. The first replacement wheel was duff, so the bike shop had to request another one. Hopefully the second new one is a good 'un that'll go on for years.

I haven't had any other electrical problems since my original duff bike was replaced under warranty, in fact, the bike has been incredibly low maintenance with just one service, a new full set of brake pads and a new rear tyre on the back after I ran the original until it was bald and got a puncture. I've got a Panaracer (sp?) puncture proof tyre on the back now along with an extra thick inner tube for belt & braces. Most reliable work transport I've ever had!

 

[flecc]

The motor on my Windsor died after 1700 miles - I've just had it replaced under warranty. Apparently something inside cracked. It suddenly started making a horrible clanking and rattling noise halfway up the biggest hill on my way home from work.

That's unusually late for a failure to show up, probably due to the relatively low power of the Windsor motor taking longer to expose the fault.

I had one of the powerful Torq 1 motors fail in the second week at under 200 miles, but it's replacement has carried on faultlessly for the two and half years since, just like the identical motor in my Quando over a similar period.
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[nin26]

That's unusually late for a failure to show up, probably due to the relatively low power of the Windsor motor taking longer to expose the fault.

Either that or I'm just unlucky! This new motor feels different to the old one - more solid somehow. It's difficult to explain - not more powerful as such, just more positive. I haven't had it "forget" it's electric yet either, unlike the old one, which would forget at least once on every journey. I would have to stop pedalling and open and shut the throttle a couple of times to wake it back up. I just thought that was a quirk, given the original one with the duff battery did the same thing. Maybe there's been a dodgy batch of motors at Powacycle?

 

[flecc]

There are always some early failure motors from even the best manufacturers, especially with the internally geared Hall effect motor hubs which are very dependent on good assembly quality. A single insecure rivet in the freewheel assembly or poor shimming on the internal spindle ends can soon lead to a self destruct.

Only a very few suffer these ways though, most going on for many years. Even the very cheap and nasty Chinese shopper bikes of several years ago have had their fully working motor wheels and controllers sold on ebay long after their bikes had fallen to bits.

From your impressions of the present motor you're probably ok now for a very long time, since it's true that a well set up motor gives a feeling of reassurance about the way it operates.
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