The unluckiest wisper....

[wonderpup]

I read on the forums about people doing 3,000 miles with nary a worry, and I think that's probably the majority of people's experiences with their wisper. Me? I attract problems it seems. On Saturday I took my wisper out, fully charged, for whizz down to the local farmer's market. I turned her on, and then as I biked out of the driveway, there was a huge graunching sound from the back end, and then nothing. The lights are all on, and rebooting the bike doesn't seem to help.

I immediately peddled it down to Sarge at Shoosh, and hopefully he can sort it.

I'm posting to vent mostly: but does anyone have any ideas? In her 3 month life with me Betty has already had 6 weeks off the road. I'm beginning to think she doesn't like me. I honestly don't think there is a better ebike out there for me or my situation, but a Kona Ute is looking quite attractive.

 

[Mussels]

I've had 1000s of miles service from my first Wisper but I suspect I had more downtime than you with a few walks to the train station, very frustrating to start with. Fortunately by the time the dealer had given up hope Wisper took over and everything did get fixed, it worked well as those fixes found their way into later models.
I've had little trouble with the electrics, all I've done is replaced worn out orbital gears in the motor. There's hardly anything to go wrong in the motor and all I can think of is:
1. A sensor fault or broken cable means the electrics are firing in the wrong places, this makes a variety of noises.
2. The gears have shredded, these are quite easy to replace and made of nylon so shouldn't have caused any other damage.
3. A hall sensor has come loose and fallen into the motor stator, I'm not so sure about this one.

Easiest thing to check is the connecting plug for the sensor wires, it may be as simple as a bad connection. This applies more so if the back wheel has been removed for your other repairs.

 

[flecc]

As Mussels says, of the eight wires in the cable to the motor, check all, but it's the five thinner ones that are the most likely to have a poor connection somewhere. These carry the signals that time the power pulses of the motor and even just one bad connection can cause some truly horrible noises that sound terminal but don't harm anything.

Just once is a while but rarely, the nylon gears inside the Suzhou Bafang hub motor can fail when fairly new, I once had that happen to me, but they are easily replaceable and that would be under the Wisper warranty.

Don't lose heart though, it's in the nature of these things that any trouble tends to occur early, but once fixed all can be well long term. My motor failure was at only 200 miles, but once sorted the bike ran perfectly for the next three years and thousands of miles.

P.S. The Kona Ute uses the same type of Suzou Bafang motor as the Wisper, together with a similar controller, so they are no more likely to be reliable or unreliable. These hub motors are the most commonly used by e-bike manufacturers and highly regarded.
.

 

[wonderpup]

Thanks chaps. A mislaid wire seems to have been the problem, and by the time I got down to the shop with a printout of your suggestions, Sarge had it sussed. Next time I'll get to it with my newly acquired multimeter.

Again, thanks for you help: feedback from people with your experience is really appreciated.

 

[RobinOZ]

Rare Wisper faults

I have ridden over 4,000 kms on my Wisper 905 SE and the only problem has been one puncture. Until last week, when the motor stopped working. The problem turned out to be that a capacitor had fallen off the controller circuit board and was rattling around in the housing box. As my bike is out of warranty I cleaned up the leads and soldered it in back in place, and hey presto, all is well again. The capacitor in question is the largest and heaviest on the board (1000 microfarads) and has apparently vibrated loose and/or was not soldered securely during manufacture. While the capacitor was in place but loose, the bad connection did cause the motor to "chatter" on occasions, making noises that sounded like possible gear strippiing, but returning to smooth running when the connection was good. I doubt this will ever be a common fault, but it was mystifying at the time and seems worth contributing to the pool of knowledge. I would add that I really love this bike, it has given me a great deal of good exercise and pure enjoyment.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Thanks chaps. A mislaid wire seems to have been the problem, and by the time I got down to the shop with a printout of your suggestions, Sarge had it sussed. Next time I'll get to it with my newly acquired multimeter.

Again, thanks for you help: feedback from people with your experience is really appreciated.

Sorry to read of the problem WP, I trust you have better luck in future!

All the best

David

 

[wonderpup]

Hi David,

Once again, really comforting to you y'all in the forums!

Betty gave up the ghost again on Friday, and I had her down to the shop on Monday. Sarge said he'd get a sparkie in to have a look at it - and hopefully that will sort this problem out once and for all. Its snowing a bit here, so she isn't as missed as she might be in better weather.

aa

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi AA

I am delighted to be of assistance but am also unhappy to hear of your further difficulties. Has Sarge contacted Anthony? I am certain this can be sorted out quickly even if it means swapping put the electrical components.

If there is anything I can do to be of assistance please let me know.

Best regards

David

 

[wonderpup]

Gidday David,

A phone call today (a week after I took it in) and I've found out it is catagorised as my favourite problem, an Intermittent Electrical Fault. I love them. Apparently it fires if you backpedal a bit, but only once. Weirdness.

Sounds like Sarge has it in hand, and may be sending the entire unit away for a look-see. Snow is forecast, but I'll start getting irritated when the weather clears

BTW: great write up in the Grauniad!

Anton

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi Anton

I will ask Anthony to speak to Sarge. We will get this sorted for you before the snow melts in sunny New Zealand!

Grauniad?

All the best

David

 

[CeeGee]

Grauniad?

Guardian - fondly known as the Grauniad because of their many typographical errors in days gone by.

Colin

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Thanks

Thanks Anton, I don't think I have seen it, do you have a link?

I have just got off the phone with Anthony who has sorted things with Sarge, please keep me informed as to the outcome.

All the best

David

 

[wonderpup]

Its probably hit the forum somewhere else, but here it is:

Pedal or throttle? The lure of the electric bike | Peter Walker | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Thanks for helping out with the problem with the Wisper.