Given the increasing level of posts on this forum concerning high mileage/long term reliability issues of the Impulse range of motors that Kalkhoff have 'developed' (I use the term reservedly),

 

Question.......

Is anyone going taking a PUNT on the latest (third) re-incarnation of the Impulse motor as the Impulse Evo to power Kalkhoff bikes in 2016. Hopefully, the plastic gears which seem incapable of dealing with the torque, and which many neither want or need, will have been superceded with something that doesn't copes and doesn't fail

 

Good luck to the BRAVE!! I/we avidly await first initial reports

I suppose you could say that if you don’t want the extra power which seems to be overloading the bottom end of the motor you don’t have to use it; and then I would imagine you would be problem free.

 

But I don’t think they or the other manufactures are far out in making the motors more powerful every year. Because most people do want it unfortunately. As can be seen from the many comments here from new buyers. That’s why they and the others are pushing the motors past what they were designed for. There has been much praise here for the old Panasonic motors, but I’m willing to bet that if someone still offered them in the UK they would have few takers. Because most new riders do want more power, and because the UK is a lot more hilly than Holland.

The later Panasonic motors have a lot of power.

 

My friend has a 2012 Pro Connect S which uses the 350w Panasonic motor.

 

It's lowest power setting provides more power than my 2008 Pro Connect S does in it's highest setting.

 

He's covered over 4000 fast commuting miles and the motors been faultless, with just the usual regular chain replacement issues of most high powered pedelecs.

The later Panasonic motors have a lot of power.

 

My friend has a 2012 Pro Connect S which uses the 350w Panasonic motor.

 

It's lowest power setting provides more power than my 2008 Pro Connect S does in it's highest setting.

 

He's covered over 4000 fast commuting miles and the motors been faultless, with just the usual regular chain replacement issues of most high powered pedelecs.

 

 

the pro connect S 2012 is a superb bike and tell your friend to keep hold of it,i have the bosch performance motor,the impulse 2 and the new evo and the 350 w 36v panasonic motor is faster than all of them,i did 30,000 km on mine and only had a few issues with a charger and a battery,the only downside with the panasonic motor is that chainrings,motor sprockets and chains have to be well maintained if it is used as intended.

The later Panasonic motors have a lot of power.

 

My friend has a 2012 Pro Connect S which uses the 350w Panasonic motor.

 

It's lowest power setting provides more power than my 2008 Pro Connect S does in it's highest setting.

 

He's covered over 4000 fast commuting miles and the motors been faultless, with just the usual regular chain replacement issues of most high powered pedelecs.

 

 

Not sure you can fairly compare the 350w version with a a 250w one.

I'm quite tempted and having ridden both would definitely take the evo over impulse 2.

 

You can feel the extra over over the impulse 2 and I like the look of it.

 

Both were great though.

 

Why do you think it's a bad thing for manufacturers to make them mo powerful (provided everything else is capable of dealing with it)? For me an ebike wouldn't be for exercise - it'd be an easy means of transport.

Not sure you can fairly compare the 350w version with a a 250w one.

 

Although not scientific I found the evo 250 w quicker up a hill than the impulse 2 350 w. Difficult to be sure though - tried the same hill on all the different versions but found the 350 w evo quickest with the same effort if that makes sense..

... For me an ebike wouldn't be for exercise - it'd be an easy means of transport.

no argument from me there. I even think that e-bikes should be an easy, convenient, lightweight, democratic, healthy and CHEAP transport.

Lol yeah that's the thing.. CHEAP!

 

In 10 years hopefully they will be

Define cheap.

 

I did a costing spreadsheet the other day (end of year thing...). My bike came out at 0.13€ a kilometre including amortization. In real life terms I am saving 0.18€ compared to public transport every time I go to the station.

 

Electricity is 0.11€ per 100 km - electricity plus taxes and meter rental and all the stuff that make up over 60% of the electricity bill I mean...

I bought Kalkhoff Include recently. It's a 2016 model, with Impulse Evo motor. One of Kalkhoff's press releases mentioned how this new motor had a number of mechanical improvements over Impulse 2, in terms of strength and reliability. It was a big factor in going for this model for me. At the time, I wasn't aware of reliability issues reported on Impulse 2 in this forum and elsewhere.

 

After just a few kms, riding from the shop to home, I've noticed a clacking noise around pedals. There was some initial click when starting or stopping pedaling, which I thought must be some kind of a mechanical clutch engaging/disengaging, so I wasn't alarmed, but then click-clacking went on continuously even while doing uniform, uninterrupted pedaling.

 

When I found out about experiences of others, and especially after seeing a few YouTube posts on this, where the clacking sound was disturbingly similar to the one I had, it got me really alarmed. I took the bicycle back to the shop where I bought it from to be checked.

 

The dealer was honest, upfront and transparent. He showed me the video of what they found out. It was a factory fault. The bearing between the main motor shaft and the casing had too much space around it, towards the casing. Once they put glue between the outer side of the bearing and the motor casing, the noise and mechanical play was gone. This sort of confirmed that this was the source of the noise.

 

I love the bike, but I don't want to keep an inferior specimen. I paid top dollar for the top brand, and not something kept together with the help of glue. The manufacturing process failed and the quality control in Germany also failed. I feel uncomfortable thinking about what else may have been missed. I'm in the process of resolving it with the seller on how to go from here.

if the dealer glued a bearing in side the motor take it back and get ur money back.

 

no dealer can even open a motor let alone fix it under warranty

This is not just a sales establishment, but also a bicycle workshop. They did this with the approval of Derby Cycles distributor and after a consultation with them. I think it's OK if they wanted to establish if this was just some loose cable or screw and nothing too serious. It turned out to be serious, so now it needs proper resolution. Glue is not that.

Jeez, that would worry me too. The main point of concern for me is how much gap did they fill. Is the shaft now slightly out of line, which could maybe cause long-term gear wear or something like that. Without seeing the details, it's difficult to say.

 

I'd be happy with a repair like that if it was only to keep my bike going while they sought a more permanent solution.

That's exactly the argument I made when seeking redress. Also, glue is an additional risk factor - its mechanical strength, resistance to temperature, vibration, moisture.

given the amount of problems with them and all they did is glue the bearing back on is an unacceptable fix to a well known problem.

 

if the motor jammed up and sent you over the handlebars in to traffic would they pay up as its there fault end of the day.

I bought Kalkhoff Include recently. It's a 2016 model, with Impulse Evo motor. One of Kalkhoff's press releases mentioned how this new motor had a number of mechanical improvements over Impulse 2, in terms of strength and reliability. It was a big factor in going for this model for me. At the time, I wasn't aware of reliability issues reported on Impulse 2 in this forum and elsewhere.

 

After just a few kms, riding from the shop to home, I've noticed a clacking noise around pedals. There was some initial click when starting or stopping pedaling, which I thought must be some kind of a mechanical clutch engaging/disengaging, so I wasn't alarmed, but then click-clacking went on continuously even while doing uniform, uninterrupted pedaling.

 

When I found out about experiences of others, and especially after seeing a few YouTube posts on this, where the clacking sound was disturbingly similar to the one I had, it got me really alarmed. I took the bicycle back to the shop where I bought it from to be checked.

 

The dealer was honest, upfront and transparent. He showed me the video of what they found out. It was a factory fault. The bearing between the main motor shaft and the casing had too much space around it, towards the casing. Once they put glue between the outer side of the bearing and the motor casing, the noise and mechanical play was gone. This sort of confirmed that this was the source of the noise.

 

I love the bike, but I don't want to keep an inferior specimen. I paid top dollar for the top brand, and not something kept together with the help of glue. The manufacturing process failed and the quality control in Germany also failed. I feel uncomfortable thinking about what else may have been missed. I'm in the process of resolving it with the seller on how to go from here.

I wish I'd read this post before my purchase last week. Is this a factory fault on all Evo motors ? Do you have a link to the you tube videos? The bikes have a 2 year warranty though.

put the miles in and find out if it starts clanking then its knackered.

 

they will replace it under warranty tho.

There would be far more complaints if this problem was present on ALL bikes. I was probably just unlucky. The worrying bit is that this is not just an isolated case, and symptoms reported are very similar.

 

If you go to YouTube and search for "Kalkhoff motor noise", you'll get a few links. Mine is titled "

".

 

There are other worrying issues. See this thread

Reliabilty of the impulse motor :

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=80115

I wish I'd read this post before my purchase last week. Is this a factory fault on all Evo motors ? Do you have a link to the you tube videos? The bikes have a 2 year warranty though.

 

I spoke with 50 cycles about this issue and they came back to me immediately via e mail - and gave me permission to quote the content here. Its given me some reassurance and good customer service. As said on the forum putting on the miles is the test so either way I'll put an update here in months ahead. I've read up on the comments re bearings and don't know enough about mechanics as to whether a 'software update' as quoted would resolve it. The bottom line is - at the moment the bike is going like a dream and very pleased with it.

 

Quote:

"The Impulse Evo & Evo RS motors have been very trouble free for us - I think I've seen one back in for repair in the Bristol store since their release in August. The "clacking" issue that is mentioned on Pedelecs on occasion is pretty much solely with the Impulse 2.0 motors, which has been rectified with a software update. With regards to that user's comments - it seems like he is based in Australia. At 50cycles, we would never open up a motor whilst it is in it's warranty period. Even if we know what is causing the issue - we will not open up the motor, it will go through our warranty procedure and sent back to Germany. This is the quickest and most effective way with dealing with any issues with motors - and current turn-around from initial contact for the Bristol store is less than 24 hours to get you back on the road should anything happen".

 

"Just to put your mind at ease, to keep your warranty valid, we require no proof of servicing especially not every 1000km. As long as your are still in your 2 year period (10 years for the frame) we will be able to process a warranty request. However, I still recommend at least annual servicing of your bike. Run the bike through winter, let the crud build up then bring it in to us in February / March to strip everything down and make sure it runs like new again." Unquote

It's nice of 50 cycles not to require servicing every 1000km. This is something the dealer offers, it's still not manufacturer's warranty. 50 cycles may be large enough to offer it. My dealer in Australia is of no such size. If servicing requirements were:

• once a year by an authorized dealer (proof required, including stamping).
  
• every 1000km recommended, can be carried out by the owner.
  

why wouldn't Kalkhoff put that in the booklet? I would prefer to have manufacturer's warranty, so that I can take my bike to ANY authorized dealer to fix it if anything goes wrong within the warranty period and then bill Kalkhoff for the repair cost, not me.

I received a reply from Kalkhoff's customer service. The key sentence says:

 

"The service intervals are not so prescribed by us, only recommended."

 

So, I guess, that means that the warranty requirement about regular maintenance can now be interpreted in a more loosely way.

 

The dealer also agreed to take the bicycle back, after some disagreement about what is a reasonable expectation when a fault happens. In my view:

• if the motor fails on my way out of the shop, on my first day of ownership, the proper action is to replace the whole bicycle. Justification: a major failure of the quality control increases the risk that there may be other issues with the bicycle.
  
• if the motor fails within the warranty period, then replacing the whole motor is a proper action. Justification: it represents a significant portion of the bike's value and obviously had a fault that made it not reach the normal service life expectancy.
  
• if the motor fails outside of the warranty period, then fixing it with glue is fine.
  

 

Quote:

"The Impulse Evo & Evo RS motors have been very trouble free for us - I think I've seen one back in for repair in the Bristol store since their release in August.

 

Thanks for quoting what they said. Arguably, they did post on this site initially that they had no issues with Impulse 2 motors either, just to correct their statement a few months later admitting there was a fault, after Kalkhoff did the same...

 

current turn-around from initial contact for the Bristol store is less than 24 hours to get you back on the road should anything happen".

 

Glad to see this has improved. When I had a fault on my Impulse 2 motor, it took 2 weeks to get the bike back with a new motor, and another 2 visits to the shop to get other issues resolved. It was not the Bristol shop though.

 

The Impulse motors are supposed to be non-serviceable items, so as 50 Cycles indicates, a reseller should just get a full replacement motor installed in case of issues.

 

It's a shame to see that Impulse Evo motors may also have issues...

Edited May 11, 20169 yr by Tomtomato

I have a 3 month old Kalkhoff Premium Include, which I believe has a 3.0 motor. I have loved it until it developed a fault, where the drive fails and I get error message, 'wait for drive'. The bike also occasionally makes banging noises when putting effort into pedalling.

 

My dealer tells me Kalkhoff say it needs a software update, which will hopefully happen next week. I'll keep you posted.