2019 Motor Distance/Failure Survey

2019 carbon Levo and 450 miles and the bearings started grinding.
 
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2020 Turbo levo comp. 550 miles no pedal strikes. 70% street 30% trail. no warning and the engine makes a loud schreaching sound and no power. I was about as far away as I normally get away from home base. Man this thing has tremendous motor drag without assist. At least it will coast. 20 mph out and 5 mph back.
 
Bosch performance CX 2019, motor replaced at 2000km/10 months, warranty (many wet rides)

Shimano E8000 2020, still okay at 750km/6 weeks (no wet rides yet)
 
Timbolevo said:
2020 Turbo levo comp. 550 miles no pedal strikes. 70% street 30% trail. no warning and the engine makes a loud schreaching sound and no power. I was about as far away as I normally get away from home base. Man this thing has tremendous motor drag without assist. At least it will coast. 20 mph out and 5 mph back.
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ouch, i feel your pain, i was out the other morning and i got a flat,, no problem i thought then i looked down and no spare tube so i started to walk the 15 miles then it started to rain, perfect. Fortunately the guys at roaring mouse cycles were in early and gave me a tube as i had no money. The new levo motor is hanging in there @ 750 miles
 
Levo 19 - motor blew today after 1900km
Levo 18 - blew at 1200km a month after I'd sold it to my boss ? managed to get it warrantied sharpish . Was a bit embarrassed though ?
Levo 17 - sold it whilst still going strong on first motor at 2200km
 
Fantic integra xf 180 - Brose motor 4 months old with 650 miles, suspected water ingress and blown pcb, bike now sent off for repair - assuming it will be a warranty job but you never know - I am sure they will try everything to wriggle out of it....very quick to take your cahs but not as quick to resolve and supply new motor. Couple that with Covid 19 lockdown and I dont expect to be mobile anytime soon - :(:(
 
High Rock Ruti

Brose S mag averaged 200 mile per motor, 4 motor failures, 8 months Specialized took bike back and refunded money.
 
kntr said:
What bike you gonna try now?
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High Rock Ruti

Hello KNTR

I'm riding two ebikes (not at the same time) 2016 Pivot Shuttle, fantastic bike and really dependable Shimano drive, and a new Rail 9.8 with RC2 damper upgrade. First Bosch drive really like the motor battery, the rail handles really well, the Rockshox's I'm still trying to tune.

Warm Regards

Ruti
 
BMC speedfox AMP E8000 flawless after 2000 miles with many many days of snow, slush, water and mud this winter.
83350AF4-28C3-4E13-940C-6973B4366B59.jpeg
 
1120 kms. Levo
The only problem I've had is moisture ingress in the TCU. Several times....
Maybe my poor washing technique but why the bloody hell should you need a washing technique!
 
JohnJohn said:
1120 kms. Levo
The only problem I've had is moisture ingress in the TCU. Several times....
Maybe my poor washing technique but why the bloody hell should you need a washing technique!
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Washing with water in general just asks for trouble. Just let any mud or dirt or any other debris dry then brush off with a broom or brush. My bike gets plenty wet from stream crossings and such the last thing I wanna do is add more water to my bike from a hose.
 
Wife’s Merida E130 with Shimano E8000 motor, no problems after 7500 k’s.
My Merida E160 900e have had no motor problems after 10000 k’s. Have only had Di2 issues.
My riding mates Merida E160 800 has had no problems at all after 7000 k’s.
 
2019 RM PowerPlay, Dyname 3.0, 4700km and no motor/battery problems so far. Chews up speed sensors like nobody's business though lol.
 
Awesome idea zimmerframe. I really had no idea that ebike motors were so short lived! My plan was to do as many k's as possible because of battery deterioration. The findings are really quite poor.
 
All Mountain Coaching said:
2019 levo fsr

motor 1, 2 months, 200 miles
Motor 2, 3 months, 400 miles

2x power leads, new tsu, new speed and torque sensors, rear RockShox shock broke after 6 months.
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Sheesh, seriously, if I had known these things have such a short life (short being anything < 10,000km) I would not have bought an ebike. I think it's sad that after all my research, this is the first mention I've seen of this. Thank you again zimmerframe for bringing some reality into view.
 
kntr said:
What bike you gonna try now?
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Sheesh. If that was me I'd be back to acoustic - I will if that happens. The bike I have was a big expense. Compared to a motorbike these are looking very poor value. The least the industry could do is make replacement motors very cheap.
 
urastus said:
Sheesh. If that was me I'd be back to acoustic - I will if that happens. The bike I have was a big expense. Compared to a motorbike these are looking very poor value. The least the industry could do is make replacement motors very cheap.
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I stopped updating the main spreadsheet about 8 months ago :-)

The problem was with getting correct information.

Specialized owners for instance, are much more likely to say if they've had a broken motor. Possibly, that's because they feel they've purchased a premium product, so it should be perfect. At the same time, Specialized are also the most pro-active on trying to rectify problems. They even have a representative on the forum who is always there to help. Once out of Warranty, Specialized subsidise the cost of replacement parts for the next 5 years.

Anyway .. :-) rather than grabbing data from the general forums, I waited for people to post it here - otherwise you run the risk of being accused of cherry picking to make the data say what you want.

But to give an example, in one week, there were three people with Brose failures and at the same time they all mentioned them in this thread. But there were also three people with Giant/Yamaha failures and no one mentioned them in here. So it doesn't really give the spread of data I was hoping it would.

I wouldn't be too put off. EMTB's are incredible fun and incredibly hardy machines. You have to keep in mind that there's an enormous number of them out there, so as with anything, there will be failures.

Some people also seem to be incredibly unlucky with multiple failures, in some instances this just might be the way they ride - some riders put huge loadings through the cranks for instances on jumps and drops and massive torsional strain. Sometimes it will be problems miss diagnosed and a motor is swapped, when it's actually an intermittent wiring harness fault or controller fault.

Many more do thousands of miles in crap conditions and have no problems at all.

So ultimately .. whilst the thread is interesting to read, it never really provided the concise information I was hoping for.
 
The vast majority of people have no issues, and you have to remember a lot of people only become members of the forum when they they have a motor issues and want help.

A lot of motor failures are also due to bad maintenance, e.g people jet washing bikes and getting water into places it shouldn't be.

You need to apply the semi logic to Ebikes systems that you would to another motorised vehicle, and take care of them - they are not fit and forget. Drive trains in particular need more general maintenance and regular cleaning and lubricating due to the added forces going through them.

Also like any motor there area always going to be a few duff ones in a batch. What you see on the Forum is a magnified view of the general situation.
 
Yeah, sure. I think your spreadsheet is still a great idea. I was thinking I'd get 20,000km or something like that :D. It also puts the battery life into perspective - not really the issue. And knowing what you've told me about specialized is a big thing too. Affordable cycling for 7 years is more in the ball park of what I was hoping. This would make specialized more affordable.
 
urastus said:
Affordable cycling for 7 years is more in the ball park of what I was hoping. This would make specialized more affordable.
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You’re kidding, right?
 
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