Noob looking for Pendleton Somerby advice

[Lorna]

Hi, my name is Lorna, I am new to the site. I have had my Pendleton Somerby ebike for about 5 years but am an occasional 'holiday' user. I went for a ride today and it was very different to usual. When I operated the pedals, there was no 'bite' for want of a better word. I had to rely on the battery kicking in to move me forward before I wobbled off as trying to pedal just resulted in the pedals whizzing round with no resistance at all. This meant the battery drained really quickly as it was the only power source for the bike, I was purely ornamental Very occasionally the resistance would return, but this was short lived. Eventually the battery died, after only about 20 miles of fairly flat riding. With the battery turned off the pedals had resistance so I managed to manually slog back to our campsite. Any ideas as to what has gone wrong or am i just using it wrong? I have downloaded manuals but I can't see any guidance other than the low/med/high settings. Any advice would be most gratefully received. Thank you.

 

[saneagle]

There are two different versions, and it's not clear which one you have, but that fault is very common on one of the versions, and, luckily, quite easy to fix. The problem is a little bit of rust in the freewheel gears at the back that makes the pawls in it stick. All you need to do is buy a can of 3-in-One oil, lay the bike on its side and pour the oil in sort of down the axle behind the frame in the middle of the gears. The pawls are at the back, so it takes half a minute to get the oil down there. Rotate the pedals every now and again to move the oil into place, tap the gears a few times with a lump of wood or something. After a bit, everything should come back to normal. Drop a bit of oil in there every month, and you should get no further problems.

 

[Lorna]

There are two different versions, and it's not clear which one you have, but that fault is very common on one of the versions, and, luckily, quite easy to fix. The problem is a little bit of rust in the freewheel gears at the back that makes the pawls in it stick. All you need to do is buy a can of 3-in-One oil, lay the bike on its side and pour the oil in sort of down the axle behind the frame in the middle of the gears. The pawls are at the back, so it takes half a minute to get the oil down there. Rotate the pedals every now and again to move the oil into place, tap the gears a few times with a lump of wood or something. After a bit, everything should come back to normal. Drop a bit of oil in there every month, and you should get no further problems.

Thank you so much. I will give this a try Not sure how I'd tell what type it is, says Somerby'e' on the bike.

 

[saneagle]

Thank you so much. I will give this a try Not sure how I'd tell what type it is, says Somerby'e' on the bike.

I think the difference on the freewheels is the number of teeth on the top gear (smallest cog nearest you). The troublesome ones have 11 teeth and the later ones have 14 teeth. You can still get the problem on the later ones, but not so frequent.

This is the freewheel. If you look at the hole in the centre, you can see a sort of brownish band inside. that's where the oil has to go in but the axle and frame will get in the way.

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/S384b7f326e124c04b1d08bdfff3dedbaI/7-speed-8-speed-DNP-MTB-freewheel-14-28T-13-28T-13-32T-EPOCH-Bicycle-Flywheel.jpg_.webp

 

[Bikes4two]

Thank you so much. I will give this a try Not sure how I'd tell what type it is, says Somerby'e' on the bike.

Your problem appears to be not with the electric side of the bike but the rear wheel hub part known as the 'freehub' - this is the bit the derailleur gear sprockets attach to.

Within the freehub is a system that allows you to free-wheel (not pedal) when rolling along - a sort of ratchet system (the pawls as referred to by @saneagle ) - if they get rusty, the pawls refuse to engage, something that needs to happen to enable you to pedal, hence it looks like the pawls need lubrication to free them up.

Hope that helps?

 

[Lorna]

@saneagle and @Bikes4two Thank you so much! I have applied some oil and it is like riding a new bike! You have no doubt saved me a fortune and my holiday. I cannot thank you enough for being so helpful. Lorna