Miles now 4984

 

 

I am just about to hit 5000 miles. The rear cassette is now at 1044 miles after being replaced on the 28th of June 16. I did get a little hint of top gear wear for the first time, on my Monday night return trip from work so it may be getting close to time to change it, but it was fine last night. The tracks I use are generally very dry at the moment but as soon as some proper wet winter weather arrives I am sure the cassette and chain will need a change, although as long as they keep working glitch free I will carry on.

 

 

 

I do look after the cassette by changing gear carefully and using a lot of eco in the 12 tooth top gear and changing down to the 14 tooth gear 8 for faster but still uphill bits where I am pounding away on the pedals as hard as I can to try and maintain 20mph rather than upping the power to maintain a higher 22/23 mph.

 

 

If I used more power in the 12 tooth top gear and/or was less sympathetic when changing gear I am sure it would still start to play up quite quickly.

 

 

I am getting a little rhythmic noise that seems to be associated with my pedalling cadence although it is a classic intermittent hard to diagnose where it is coming from sort of noise. It sounds like it is coming from the motor area but it could be from the transmission rather than the motor. There is no play that I can detect in the bottom bracket area and the motor performs just as it always has. My bike shop suggested that the engine mounting bolts could be the source and need to be removed, re-greased and torqued back up, and I will get that done in due course. But it is not effecting how the bike performs and it varies from not being there at all to a quiet sound in the background to a more noticeable and always rhythmic noise in time with my pedaling. I swapped the pedals over to check it was not them. It can also be heard when pedaling with the motor off.

 

 

After going through a long phase of using eco and off on my journey to and from work I have started using standard again on the steeper hills on the way home. This is really only for one long hill and another steeper but shorter hill. The 10 mile journey now uses 35% of the battery rather than the 28%/30% using only eco, but it is nice to have the extra push on the steep hills. The battery continues to perform pretty much as it has from new prior to the colder winter months to come.

 

 

My re-chargeable Moon lights also continue to work splendidly, and I am hopeful that my new sturdier rear rack will stand the test of hard miles and time.

 

 

I have managed to compromise the attaching clips on one of my Ortleib Classic panniers that started annoyingly unlatching on the bumpy, jumpy off road sections and I have simply added a bit of boot lace to tie on each clip of this pannier on the off road route and this fantastic adaption has done the trick and I am sure would please the German engineers who designed the clips. I have had these panniers since 2011 and love them for their ease of use and complete water proof ness.

 

 

As before riding to work and back is still as brilliant now as it was when I began and the bike continues to work brilliantly and shrug off the continued and regular abuse of a 20 plus mile off/on road commute and allow me to get lots of exercise and enjoy the fantastic countryside I ride through.

Well I treated my bike to a new cassette, chain and rear mech today. The rear mech had been bent but working for a while but I thought it was time for a new one to aid crisp and reliable gear selection.

 

For the record the previous cassette and chain had lasted 1246 miles since the 28th of June 16. I will keep a record of how I get on with the new ones but they will have a hard life entering service during the mud, rain and salt of the Winter months ahead, but time will tell.

@georeghenry Very interesting reading. I also have a Haibike Hardseven Sduro and although it has only covered just over 700 miles I am having lots of trouble with the highest gear. It keeps slipping, not a problem with the indexing as I have checked that. Seems a low mileage to be worn out and the other gears have been fine but maybe it is time to change them.

 

Are the gear cassettes you are using standard or designed for ebikes? I would be interested in an overview bringing together all of your experiences with different cassettes as I have no idea what to look for and would likely buy the same again.

 

I also use my bike for commuting along a mixture of road, canal towpaths and bike path. The other problem I have at the moment is with punctures the canal towpaths appear to be carpeted with thorns at the moment I have had 4 punctures in a couple of days. I'm looking at going tubeless but hadn't considered this slime in tubes. Is that something easy enough to do?

There seems to be general problem with top gear slipping on Yamaha powered Haibikes.

 

I wonder if it's caused by the chain line.

 

Not much you can do about that, as it's governed by the frame and the relative - and fixed - position of the front and rear rings.

 

Trying to get away with a using more teeth on top gear at the back might help.

 

One way would be to fit a bigger ring at the front, you might then be able to go fast enough using the smallest but one sprocket at the back.

 

That would also improve the chain line.

Are you using maximum assistance all the time ?

 

When you do it puts a lot of strain on the gears and chain

 

Try it in ECO for a while and see if you get the same, I think that will cure it

 

I read that most Yamaha riders use the cheapest gear replacements when they do replace them

 

As the Yamaha is so powerful with great power comes great responsibility.

 

This tells you a lot

 

https://www.e-bikeshop.co.uk/blog/post/review-haibike-hardseven-sl-2015/

Forgot!

 

Punctures, get a bottle of tube sealant and squirt it in and job done. If you want to go further buy a tyre with a protection layer in.

 

Like

https://www.schwalbe.com/gb/tour-reader/marathon-plus-mtb.html

I've ridden a Yamaha bike and reckon it has similar grunt to my Bosch bikes.

 

The claims by the makers support this view.

 

The combined power of a not particularly fit rider and the power of the motor is what the rear sprocket is being asked to handle.

 

That combined power is no more than that of a fit rider, and a lot less than that of a competitive rider.

 

None of those guys have problems with chains jumping, even when they stamp on the pedals.

 

Thus the rear sprockets on Biscitt's - or any Yamaha bike - should work without jumping.

 

They don't, so there's a problem somewhere, but it's nothing to do with the power of the motor.

 

Unless you buy what we might call the 'Kalkhoff argument', which I don't.

If you rode a Yamaha bike in Eco or Eco+ the gear change is smooth as the power is reduced it is like riding a pedal bike.

 

The Bosch bikes have all the delayed start and gear changing software built in that you pay a premium for and the Kalkhoff's too.

 

The cheaper Yamaha is just grunt, so you need to learn to ease off on the gear changes on High, if you do not then it will crash away.

 

They are cheaper bikes but you need to learn how to ride them.

 

I have done over 800 miles and to me mine feels like new, but now I use Eco all the time.

 

I started with High, then moved to Standard, now I have gone down a League. Unless I come to a steep hill or I see other cyclists then it's straight back to High!

 

You pay you money and take your choice.

 

Bosch bikes do not need chain and gears replacing ?

 

I think I have read on here that they do, and they have the software ?

If you read the first two posts of this review it tell you all you need to know.

The first two posts tell us the OP got through a cassette in 1,600 miles.

 

Very low mileage, but the use is relatively harsh.

 

Biscitt has the same problem after 700 miles of nothing harsher than cycle path use.

 

That simply should not happen.

 

Telling him the answer is to use eco is equivalent to the Kalkhoff argument - use the motor only on low power and it won't break.

 

Fine if the owner accepts it, but he shouldn't have to.

 

No problem on my Bosch derailer bike after thousands of miles, and the motor pre-dates any clever software.

 

Changing with some mechanical empathy is a reasonable expectation, but a properly set up derailer system shouldn't jump after 700 miles even with some clunky changes.

 

Biscitt has checked indexing, so something else is not right.

 

A design fault with the chain line would account for the accelerated wear/slipping on both bikes.

 

It could be something else, but I'm struggling to think what that might be.

I said to try Eco to prove the fault

We are waiting for the answer

I am on a train with 15 mins of free wi fi so will have to reply another time. I am using a 42 tooth chain ring and cheap shimano cassettes (see above) with 12 tooth top gear and 14 tooth gear 8. I use eco a lot and travel mostly in gear 8 at 19 ish mph. this set up lasted 1250 miles last time. Over half my miles are in tough off road conditions. Even so wear rate seems high, though the cassettes I buy are cheap steel ones circ £15. I am 100kg and carry pretty full panniers.

When you say the cassette wears out do you mean all cogs or just the 12 tooth cog? It is in aluminium and can be bought and changed separately as you know. I only have 1000 km or so on my cassette so far and it looks brand new. I put the 11 tooth from the previous 11-28 on the 12-32 cassette so I have a brand new 12 tooth cog to swap in if the 11 starts showing signs of wear. I can sympathise with your problems with sand but touching wood and using teflon based chain lubrication seems to stop it sticking here.

 

I am also loving the Wippermann Connex nickel plated chain which is twice the price of the cheap KMC bulk pack chains I was using before but looking like four times the quality! I went through two of those KMC chains in 3600 km with the hub motor.

The original KMC chain kept breaking and was replaced at a couple of hundred with another KMC and that has lasted another 3000 plus miles.

 

I thought at the time and still do they had a bad batch.

My 2p worth only just got a haibike Sduro sl and so far no slipping, but I did have an ex demo for a while and that did slip, it turned out the be the hanger bent forward, so looked straight, but wasn't. New hanger cured it.

 

Pete

They don't, so there's a problem somewhere, but it's nothing to do with the power of the motor.

 

My money is on an issue with the clutch on the rear mech.

 

 

 

 

.

Edited December 11, 20169 yr by EddiePJ

I am not sure if 1250 miles for a chain and cassette used a lot off road and then pounded 10 miles home mostly in eco in high gears 8/9, is bad or not. Obviously I would like it to last longer.

 

It is always the 12 tooth top gear and occasionally 14 tooth gear 8 that start to show signs of wear by jumping. None of the other lower gears with more teeth have given any issues so I am changing my cassette only because of a problem with the top gear.

 

If I wanted to go as quickly as I could all the time by using standard or high power settings I think I would then be in the 12 tooth top gear all the time and it would wear out probably very quickly.

 

IR772 said above that "The Bosch bikes have all the delayed start and gear changing software built in that you pay a premium for and the Kalkhoff's too.

 

The cheaper Yamaha is just grunt, so you need to learn to ease off on the gear changes on High, if you do not then it will crash away.

 

They are cheaper bikes but you need to learn how to ride them.

 

I have done over 800 miles and to me mine feels like new, but now I use Eco all the time."

 

How much of an effect not having the gear change software has is hard to tell but could be significant.

 

My approach has been to raise my gearing, change gear carefully and use mostly eco in the two highest gears. The gearing I now use gives me low enough gears to climb the hills I need to on my off road route in eco but I would now not want to increase my gearing further.

 

If you used the bike mostly on the road or in undemanding off road environments (In my opinion a great waste of the off road fun you can have with this bike) then you could simply over gear the bike to travel fast in a sprocket with more teeth, and the more teeth you have the more resistant to wear it will be and the longer it will last. Used in this way the power of the bike might well enable a rider to maintain up to 25 mph dependent on gradients but would suck a lot of power out of the battery.

 

I regularly commute a round trip of 26 miles now with 16 of those off road in hilly, sandy muddy Surrey before a 10 mile on road blast home with a chain and cassette still dirty from the off road trip to work.

 

Although now over 55 and over weight I have always enjoyed and played sport and in my teenage years was a county sprinter so my legs may still be stronger than someone else of my age and that perhaps higher power output combined with my weight and panniers is all bad for my chain and cassette.

 

Then again I might be deluding myself about having a higher power output than another overweight 55 year old!

 

I ride my bike to maintain fitness and travel cross country to work and not to go as fast as it will go and I have been really impressed that it can do this so well. I have now covered 5344 miles and the bike will be two years old towards the end of March 2017.

 

Oh PS my rear mech does not have a clutch!

Edited December 12, 20169 yr by georgehenry

Gear train (chain , cassette ) etc will wear quicker when used off road. As stated the soil conditions will add to this wear and the fine sandy soil will act as an abrasive more so then just wet mud and likewise will have a similar effect on brake pads.

 

Last visit to the S,Downs a fortnight ago totally ended the life of my brakes pads front and rear, the chalky wet clag wore grooves in the material down to the metal backing. Like Eddie but not as thorough as often I removed and cleaned brakes and new pads also axle re grease of bearings and removed and cleaned cassette after a good bike wash and clean.

Check and adjust the "B" screw on your derailleur...it sounds like you have the top jockey wheel too far away from the cassette which will result in only a small percentage of the cassette engaging with the chain;)

Following up. I ride in Standard and Eco mostly. my commute is pretty flat and I often am riding at a speed beyond the power assist, it is not deregulated. I did think about adjusting the B setting but don't know if it would have the affected the in gear slippage just in smoother gear changes? I have learned to change gears more sympathetically than when I first had the bike and am very sensitive to it now with the problems I am having.

 

Punctures - Put slime in front and back and had two more punctures today I'm beginning to think that tube is perishing! The slime does seem to have healed it up now I have taken the tube out and swished it around a bit but not sure I can trust it on the work run again. Tube in the front seems ok and have invested in two new tubes.

 

Might be travelling on the Kalkhoff for the rest of the week now it is back on the road, puncture resist tyres, belt drive and hub gears surely I can make through the 'gauntlet' with this bike and come out of the other side incident free. Fingers crossed.

when the b screw is not set right and the top wheel is to far away it rips the chain off the rear gears and does not change gear well same with the limiting screws all 3 need to be right with the right tension on the cable as well.

when the b screw is not set right and the top wheel is to far away it rips the chain off the rear gears and does not change gear well same with the limiting screws all 3 need to be right with the right tension on the cable as well.

 

You can still have good gear changes, but when you put the power on the chain is only engaged on 30% or so of the cassette and will skip on the higher gears...please check it:)

i have to index my gears near every time i go off road esp if i get crud all over it as goes out of wack then clean and re lube it.

 

prob why its not wearing as fast as others with sram 11spd as cant afford a new one of them every 6 months

i have to index my gears near every time i go off road esp if i get crud all over it as goes out of wack then clean and re lube it.

 

prob why its not wearing as fast as others with sram 11spd as cant afford a new one of them every 6 months

 

I'm in the same boat SW...I run a 7 speed cassette (SLX 10sp with the first 3 sprockets removed) on a Hope Single-Speed hub with a Zee short-cage and I'm always fiddling with it (mainly the "B" tension screw to stop the derailleur mashing into the spokes:confused:)...and I replaced my X01 cassette with the sturdier GS (?) version at a fraction of the price on my AM Pro;)

its the xg for 90 quid i think what you mean and the xo1 i have is now £204.

 

tho there is now this.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sram-pg1130-11-speed-cassette/rp-prod150696

 

just 11-42 than my xo1 10-42

 

tho this is 9-44 but still expensive

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/e-thirteen-trs-plus/rp-prod145555