Is the Alien Aurora a beast as Jim at Alien says???

[Old Timer]

I'm not happy with the squeeks from the front disc. And no amount of adjustment of the cheap caliper can fix it. I'm currently considering two options.
- Upgrading the caliper to a more modern post mount.
- Fitting a V-Brake. My local bike shop claims that they can provide the screw in V-Brake posts for the suspension fork (10mm). Halfords should then be able to provide a cheap V-Brake set up. I'm assuming here that the levers suit V-Brakes as they're identical to levers used on Aliens and others with V-Brakes.
To my mind, brakes should be silent both when released and when being used. This is not always easy to achieve!

The rear disc seems to be less of a problem. Perhaps because the disc has less runout or perhaps simply because I can't hear it. Which is a good thing as
there's nowhere to fit a V-Brake.

Luckily my brakes are silent on the Aurora.

When I converted my disk to v brakes on another bike I had to order a couple of titanium posts from HK.

 

[Fordulike]

I'm not happy with the squeeks from the front disc. And no amount of adjustment of the cheap caliper can fix it. I'm currently considering two options.
- Upgrading the caliper to a more modern post mount.
- Fitting a V-Brake. My local bike shop claims that they can provide the screw in V-Brake posts for the suspension fork (10mm). Halfords should then be able to provide a cheap V-Brake set up. I'm assuming here that the levers suit V-Brakes as they're identical to levers used on Aliens and others with V-Brakes.
To my mind, brakes should be silent both when released and when being used. This is not always easy to achieve!

The rear disc seems to be less of a problem. Perhaps because the disc has less runout or perhaps simply because I can't hear it. Which is a good thing as
there's nowhere to fit a V-Brake.

Please excuse my ignorance on how bike disc brakes work, but if they are similar to a cars, is it possible to apply anti squeal paste on the backing plate to reduce or eliminate the noise?

 

[jbond]

Please excuse my ignorance on how bike disc brakes work, but if they are similar to a cars, is it possible to apply anti squeal paste on the backing plate to reduce or eliminate the noise?

The problem is adjusting them so the pads don't touch when they're released. Bicycle discs are quite agressively drilled so they make quite a bit of noise when they're used, but the pads should then retract on release. The problem with these is that they are a sliding pin design with a fixed pad on one side and a moving pad on the other. The caliper rides on one loose pin and one adjustable pin that has a spring with a captive washer that limits the springs travel. The spring should push the fixed pad side away from the disc. The problem is that the caliper always ends up slightly cocked and the very slightest out of round of the disc means it rubs. The most recent designs use various different ways of centering the caliper and allowing it to rock in various directions. And the most expensive hydraulic ones are going to dual opposed pistons. I suspect though that a little pad-disc rubbing is common to all of them. Off road it's not a problem as there's too much else going on but it's irritating to have this little mouse going squeek, squeek, squeek when cycling quietly down a country lane. None of this introduces any drag, it's just noise.

 

[MikeW]

I've done a couple of hundred miles on mine now (bought largely following Old Timer's recommendation). I'm very happy with it. It does my 17 mile round-trip commute without straining itself and I don't find it particularly noisy compared to other e-bikes I've tried (but, yes, the squeak is there). I laugh now in the face of hills and overtaking MAMILs on the up slopes is particularly entertaining.

However, I don't get much over 20mph on the flat in high power on the throttle. I was happy with that, but reading this thread makes me think I should be getting a bit more. I suppose it is possible that the computer's calibration is off, but is there another likely answer?

 

[fishingpaul]

I've done a couple of hundred miles on mine now (bought largely following Old Timer's recommendation). I'm very happy with it. It does my 17 mile round-trip commute without straining itself and I don't find it particularly noisy compared to other e-bikes I've tried (but, yes, the squeak is there). I laugh now in the face of hills and overtaking MAMILs on the up slopes is particularly entertaining.

However, I don't get much over 20mph on the flat in high power on the throttle. I was happy with that, but reading this thread makes me think I should be getting a bit more. I suppose it is possible that the computer's calibration is off, but is there another likely answer?

Most likely answers are weight differences of riders(i think old timer is on the lighter side),sorry if i am wrong,tyre pressures can help a bit i notice old timer runs at good pumped up pressures,then there is the perception of a flat road even a slight incline will cut speed and a slight downhill will add speed considerably,i think old timers speeds were also achieved with a resonable amount of rider effort,in other words without the same person riding both bikes on throttle only on the same road with the same wind speed,you are unlikelly to get the same speeds.

 

[Grizzly Bear]

Well guys I bought a 48 volt 500 watt Bafang BPM (that's more powerful than the Aurora), and I'm sorry to tell you that it's got nothing on the Puma motor, it is very nice quality though.

 

[jbond]

Most likely answers are weight differences of riders(i think old timer is on the lighter side),sorry if i am wrong,tyre pressures can help a bit i notice old timer runs at good pumped up pressures,then there is the perception of a flat road even a slight incline will cut speed and a slight downhill will add speed considerably,i think old timers speeds were also achieved with a resonable amount of rider effort,in other words without the same person riding both bikes on throttle only on the same road with the same wind speed,you are unlikelly to get the same speeds.

The thing is, the Aurora has enough power to hit the motor's max speed in High mode on the flat. At that point, the motor stops helping, so even if you pedalled really, really hard and made it go faster, the motor wouldn't be providing any assist. So if this year's model is faster than last year's model, it's because the controller has been pulled back a bit and the max speed is slightly less.

I've been having a discussion on another thread about exactly what happens when you exceed the max speed for the mode you're in by adding enough pedal power or downhill gradient. The conclusion I've reached is that any assist drops to zero. There are two reasons for this. First, the gear train starts to free-wheel as the hub over-runs the motor. The second is that the controller cuts motor torque to prevent the motor exceeding it's maximum design speed. This behaviour is inherent in SB-style geared hub motors. The only ways to get more steady speed are to
- Pedal harder with no assist
- Lace on a bigger rim to reduce the motor rpm
- Use a 3rd party controller with a higher max rpm
There are obvious problems with all three of these.

 

[jbond]

Today's little jaunt. 80 psi tyres which is probably too much. Mixed country roads, bridlepaths, footpaths, canal towpaths. Almost entirely low mode and pedelec, only switching to throttle for the most nadgery bits. 3 stupidly steep off road hills that were properly sketchy; I had the front wheel bouncing off the ruts and the back wheel intermittently spinning but the bike just powered its way up. I squeezed 30 miles out of the battery although for the last 3 or so it would cut out under any serious load, but it did actually help me up the very last hill to the home garage. Overall average speed while moving, 10.5mph

Its a beast that dominated anything thrown at it. On the flat on real roads I had no problem peddling at 14-15mph but the best thing about the trip was that Low mode 10.5mph max was also a minimum. Normal road gradients didn't phase it at all, whereas on the plain old hybrid I'd be in the middle or small chainset and the largest rear and struggling.

Off road, there's so little weight on the front and with the high pressures the front was skipping all over the place, but manageable at sub 10mph speeds. I think lower pressures would help a lot but so would moving the battery into the frame triangle. The front suspension does get used but it doesn't feel like it, I think again because there's so little weight on the front.

I nearly gave up at one kissing gate that wasn't big enough to use the usual technique of putting the bike on the back wheel and walking it through. I surprised myself by doing a superman impression holding the whole 25Kg above my head! The weight is the one big downside. Lifting the bike over gates and styles is not really on.

The next test will be to do the same kind of trip but on medium mode to see what the difference is in mileage. I did something like that but not scientific on the first ride and got 22miles range.

A quick summary of tweaks. This shouldn't be read as criticism as every bike I've ever had needed the same kind of work.
- Wheels trued. They were out of line and out of round.
- Front wheel bearings freed off. They were too tight.
- Pedals thrown away and replaced with ones that had real bearings.
- Strapless toe clips added
- Rack lowered as far as it will go and as far forwards as it will go. An extra hole drilled in the adjustment straps to go 1cm lower and the front adjustment straps inverted and swapped side for side.
- Locknuts fitted to the battery support plate bolts. I'd already lost one.
- Bottom bracket bearing retaining nuts tightened down. They were loose.
- I lost 4 disk retaining bolts. Replaced, torqued and loctited.
- The standard grips are a bit hard. Replaced wiith some old M/C grips I had lying around.
- 40v is too much for the 36V rear bulb. Replaced with a tiny bit of veroboard with 6 LEDs I had lying around and a 1K 1/2W resistor from Maplin. That got a bit hot so I upped it to 2K with no obvious change in brightness. It really should come with LEDs as standard. Bulbs are archaic! The front 6 LEDs are wired in series with a fat 1k resistor.
- Opened the controller box, tidied the wiring and made use of the double sided tape already on the controller itself to stick it down to the box base. Somebody had never removed the backing tape!
- Slime added to the tyres and pumped to 80psi. As above, I'll reduce this to 70 psi tomorrow.
- Shortened the front brake cable and the rear derailleur cable so they're neater.
- Swapped the mudguard stays front for back so the front mudguard is better supported. Shortened the rear mudguard so I can stand the bike vertically on it's rear wheel without dragging the mudguard. See kissing gates above.
- Swapped the centre stand for a side stand. Just slightly more secure. Less banging and rattles over rough ground. Marginally lighter, as if that mattered.

One warranty claim I should mention. There was a loose connection that appeared early inside the battery. Probably (according to Alien) the keylock switch or its connectors. The symptoms were a drop from 40v to 24v (or 0v) which killed the bike after 30 seconds of riding or so. Switch off, wait 3 minutes, fiddle with the switch and it would start again only to fail again 30 secs of riding later. Alien replaced the battery with no questions asked. This one appears ok, so far. They said they would fix my one, but the replacement has a different case, so maybe not. It sounded like this was not the first and there may have been a bad batch of keylocks. Like all warranty claims, they're annoying when they happen in the first week. But that's better than 1 week after the warranty period expires!

 

[jbond]

That last post may have sounded a bit negative and that wasn't meant. This thing is a beast and hilarious. Highly recommended! If you were considering one, go ahead. Just be prepared to personalise it a bit and sort out the few small problems. You'll love it.

 

[Pieman]

I decided to replace my old £200 clunker that have been using for a 12 mile commute for the last 3 years and decided to try an ebike.

After searching around the web and reading this thread I went with the Aurora, it has just turned up today so I will let you know how it goes.

 

[jbond]

A few more people and perhaps we should have an Alien section in the FAQs.

 

[weirdfish]

Absolutely

I think this is a bike that is going to have many different guises depending on personal taste and use.

 

[Old Timer]

I looked in the bike shed and found that the Aurora had taken itself off to the seaside Out for a day at the seaside photo - david chilvers photos at pbase.com

Seriously, it`s around 11 miles each way to that location, on the way the wind was behind me and I sailed along in med power just like sitting on my indoor cycle trainer. Had a walk around and had my sandwiches on the pier before heading home against quite a brisk headwind, climbing away from Cromer up a steep hill saw my left knee starting to act up so I engaged high power and again sailed along with no effort.

Just before home the supplied default battery started to slow ( that`s 11 miles on medium and 11 miles on high power) which to be honest if you witnessed the speed with which I was eating up the miles I think that most people would be quite happy (so I suppose that on medium power somewhere around 25 miles might be in order) Anyway, no problems as I reached down and switched in the spare.

I own 3 MTB E bikes and a E folder and since getting the Aurora sorted (as you do) That is the bike I tend to reach for most times.

I must look into the clicking that I get from the rear wheel( maybe a loose spoke)
I`m certainly glad I put my tools in the front panniers and the spare battery midway because even like that, climbing away from the lifeboat ramp from the beach( maybe a 1 in 3) I could feel the front becoming light and might do as others on here and maybe try to lower and bring the rear rack forward. Other than that I find the bike a treat to ride.

 

[Pieman]

Quick update.

On the very first run I decide just to take the bike around the block to get a feel for it, had so much fun I ended up doing almost the full commute to work on the weekend .

This thing really ate up the hills but It did have one big problem, the noise from the battery rack sounded as if it was going to fall apart over any small bump.

When I got back I strapped the battery down with a bungie cord and that seemed to help things.

On Monday I took it to work and it performed brilliantly with only some light pedal work needed to clear the largest hill.

Fortunately I work for an engineering firm so I took the opportunity to do some tweaking at lunch time. It was at this point I notice the rear derailer cable had come loose and that I had done the whole journey including the hill climbs in the highest gear set!

After fixing the cable, I lowered the rack and applied some tape and foam strips to various points and that seems to have fixed nearly all the noise from the rack.

The journey home proved to be a much quieter affair with only a small squeak from the front to track down.

On thing I did notice is that the battery locking pin does rattle when extended, not sure if this is normal or just a problem on my battery, I found putting a thin foam strip over the locating hole on the rack provided enough upward pressure to stop the rattle whilst still allowing the battery to lock in place easily.

So far I mainly using the pedalec function but I do swop to free mode when I want some fine control as even in the highest gear (on medium) this thing accelerates almost to fast

 

[Old Timer]

Glad you like the bike Pieman.

I found wrapping a bungie at the rear of the battery to pull the battery UP really tight got rid of most rattles.

I went around my rear spokes with a spoke key and couldn`t believe how many were loose now all you can hear is the motor whine and no clicking

You might remember that I removed the suspension seat post and have been riding with a solid post, well my old back has taken a few knocks from pot holes so I dug out a good quality suspension post, adjusted the tension as far as it would go( making it firmer) and on todays ride it has done the job, the original was too weak and more or less dropped right down when I sat on the bike whereas the new one doesn`t actually move with my weight but nicely absorbs the serious pot holes sorted.
Now all I`m waiting for are my Marathon Plus Tour tyres.

What did surprise me from new was just how sweet the gear change is being probably due to the close ratio.

I`ll be fitting a mudflap to the bottom of the original flap to aim the crud well away from the crank and chainwheel.

 

[jbond]

On the gear-change. With a 3 speed front sprocket, it really doesn't need the megarange rear cassette. I'm also finding the 7th gear 13 tooth sprocket a bit notchy and not as smooth running as I'd like. It's not the adjustment on the mech that's doing this so I think it must be the 13 tooth sprocket not being a perfect match for the chain. My other bike has the same megarange cassette but 7th is 14t.

Alien say that the Hub, Controller, EBus wiring concentrator, throttle, brakes, display, etc all come from SB. So does anyone know anything about the controller? I can't see any makers mark on the label. It says 36v, 18A max, 9A rated, LVC and a few other parameters but not who it's made by. Could this be a Shengzen and so could it amenable to tweaking? I can see that at some stage I'm going to have to get in there and have a look at the circuit board.

I've been looking on ES for information about tweaking the BPM motor, over-driving it or using alternate controllers but there's precious little info that I can find. I really don't need it, but I'm still curious to know if there's more than 22mph in there either with the stock 36v battery or by going up to a 48v battery.

 

[Old Timer]

On the gear-change. With a 3 speed front sprocket, it really doesn't need the megarange rear cassette. I'm also finding the 7th gear 13 tooth sprocket a bit notchy and not as smooth running as I'd like. It's not the adjustment on the mech that's doing this so I think it must be the 13 tooth sprocket not being a perfect match for the chain. My other bike has the same megarange cassette but 7th is 14t.

Alien say that the Hub, Controller, EBus wiring concentrator, throttle, brakes, display, etc all come from SB. So does anyone know anything about the controller? I can't see any makers mark on the label. It says 36v, 18A max, 9A rated, LVC and a few other parameters but not who it's made by. Could this be a Shengzen and so could it amenable to tweaking? I can see that at some stage I'm going to have to get in there and have a look at the circuit board.

I've been looking on ES for information about tweaking the BPM motor, over-driving it or using alternate controllers but there's precious little info that I can find. I really don't need it, but I'm still curious to know if there's more than 22mph in there either with the stock 36v battery or by going up to a 48v battery.

You are saying you are getting 22mph on throttle on the flat?

I`ll test mine out again to see what it does now it`s run in and I know it will do at least that and I do sit bolt upright. Out of interest my 2009 Alien front hub conversion does something similar on the flat on throttle but this Evans coverted bike is much lighter and is slower to get to the max.

Re 7th gear. There is a slight rumble in 7th being a 13T but to be quite honest I`ve always found anything below about 14T always seems to be a bit rumbly on any bike. That`s one of the benefits of running a 55T front ring in as much as in general 7th is just held in reserve (mind you I got caught in front of a car in a very narrow section of country lane yesterday without anywhere for me to pull over so I just selected 7th and high power and took off at town limit speed

 

[jbond]

You are saying you are getting 22mph on throttle on the flat?

Hard to say exactly as it depends so much on the exact gradient or lack of it and wind or lack of it. On a fresh battery, top speed is somewhere between 19.5 and 21.5. I'm sure I've seen 22 once.

Curiously it seems to be just slightly faster in pedelec mode (but no real pressure on the pedals) than on full throttle. I guess this because the throttle is just slightly out of adjustment. Whatever. Ride on full throttle with the cranks turning, switch to pedelec and you can just feel a slight acceleration. So really on pedelec, putting a bit of effort into the pedals, you can hold it just on the point of freewheeling past the motor and that seems to be 21.5 to 22mph.

Couple of days ago, I was holding up a bus. Luckily there was a downhill and twiddling like mad I got 30mph out of it. All my own work as the motor had long since gone into freewheel. I guess with more gear, I could probably have got more out of it.

 

[weirdfish]

I'm getting similar speeds on each setting as jbond on mine. About 20-21mph seems the norm with throttle only on the flat. Mind you, I'm only going on the wireless speedo I have and I dont know how accurate it is.

On the way to work there is hardly anything on the roads and flat out in high is no problem, but on the way home there is so much traffic that I tend to leave it on medium as it feels too dangerous in high mode.

 

[jbond]

Mind you, I'm only going on the wireless speedo I have and I dont know how accurate it is.

I'm only using a cheap Halfords speedo. But I did calibrate it against a GPS. The actual apparent circumference was very close to the one in the manual.