Hello, I'm new to the electric bike world. I recently purchased an Orbea Rise M20. I am an admitted bike tech nerd and I dig working on bikes.
In October 2019, I had a bad crash and literally destroyed my right ankle.
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The doctors initially wanted to amputate my foot. I couldn't walk for 19 months. In October of 2020, doctors did some Six Million Dollar Man stuff and 3D computer printed a new ankle. The 3D printing was used to make a titanium ankle which they installed in November of 2020. In January of this year, I started walking again. In April, I began riding my mountain bike, a Yeti SB130. I put about 500 miles on the bike, but it's been a rough go. My ankle will never be 100% and my cardio suffered from 19 months of not walking. I finally threw in the towel and purchased the Rise M20. I tell people it's like waking up one morning and you realize you can fly. I can ride with my buddies again.
At the time of my crash, my Yeti was only ten months old. The parts from my Yeti are a direct swap cross over to the Rise, this includes the cut steerer tube length on my Yeti's front fork.
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All Rise models have the same carbon frame, motor and battery. The only difference between models is the component level. Unfortunately, Orbea does not sell a bare Rise frame. I decided upon the cheapest Rise model, the Rise M20 to swap my Yeti's parts onto.
Here are the specifications on my now custom Rise:
Weight 41 pounds
1. Handlebar: OneUp Carbon, 35mm x 800mm
2. Stem: OneUp 50mm
3. Headset: Chris King
4. Grips: Ergon GA2 grips
5. Brakes: (Front & Rear): SRAM G2
6. Rotors: (Front & Rear): SRAM Centerline, Centerlock, 200mm
7. Fork: Fox Factory FIT4 36mm, 150mm, 44mm offset, with Wolf Tooth straight axle
8. Wheelset: Ibis 935 Carbon, Sapim CX-Ray Spokes, brass nipples, Industry Nine Torch Hubs, SRAM XD driver
9. Front Tire: Maxxis 2.4, Minion DHF, Maxterra, EXO casing
10. Rear Tire: Maxxis 2.4, Dissector, Maxterra, EXO casing
11. Dropper: Orbea 150mm dropper post
12. Wolf Tooth Dropper Lever
13. Saddle: Fizik Taiga S-Alloy
14. Rear Shock: 2022 Fox Float X 210mm x 55mm
15. Shifter & Rear Derailleur: SRAM GX AXS
16. Cassette: SRAM XO1 10-52 cassette
17. Chain: SRAM XO1 Eagle
Mint Green Fox Heritage stickers match perfectly
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Gear choice explanation and technical details:
Front Fork:
I'd initially considered swapping out my FIT4 dampener for a GRIP2. I decided against this as it would add more weight to the bike. If I were Richie Rude, I'd get the GRIP2. I'm not Richie Rude.
Rear Shock:
One of the issues I had when I got back on my bike was my weight gain. At the time of my accident, I was 6'1" and weighed 172 pounds. When I got back on my bike 19 months later, I weighed 215 pounds. In order to get the correct sag at 215 pounds, plus my pack, I had to pump up the air pressure and mess with volume spacers. This made my bike ride harsh. I don't think the Fox DPX2 rear shock is ideally suited for heavy riders. It's a good shock, just not for heavy people.
Fox recently released the 2022, Fox Float X. The new Float X has a larger air volume can and larger piston. The Float X fits perfectly on the Rise. To get the correct sag, much less air is needed with the Float X due to the larger air can and piston. The Float X is much more supple and the shock lockout/firm mode is firmer than the DPX2. Big people rejoice. I could have gone with another shock, air springs, etc. They all would have worked nicely, however my goal was to keep the bike's weight down as much as possible. If I need to push the Rise up a technical section, I need the bike to be light due to my ankle.
Brake Rotors:
The Rise M20 comes with Deore two piston brake calipers and 180mm brake rotors. On a black diamond technical downhill section, them puppies turn blue. Not wanting to "break" my other ankle, see what I did there? I decided to upgrade to 200mm rotors and use my fairly new SRAM G2 calipers. My wheelset is setup for centerlock brake rotors. Refer to the picture above with green arrow.
The United States sets the maximum speed in which an eBike can provide power at 20 MPH. To accomplish this, Orbea installed a Shimano speed sensor pickup on the inside of the swingarm and a Shimano brake rotor with magnet built into the rotor arm. As the rotor spins, the magnet crosses the speed sensor pickup on the swingarm. The faster the speed, the faster the magnet will cycle over the speed sensor pickup. The sensor will trigger the motor to stop producing power at 20 mph. There's math somewhere in the calculation, my head hurts...
Not knowing jack about eBikes, I initially purchased SRAM 200mm centerlock rotors and the correct 180mm to 200mm brake caliper adapters. I turned my Rise on and it immediately red lighted and wouldn't work. It was then that I discovered the world of speed sensor pickups.
SRAM does not make a rotor with magnet. I looked for centerlock rotor magnet adapters that would allow me to convert my SRAM rotors to magnet. While there are six bolt rotor magnet adapters, there isn't much out there for centerlock rotors. Specialized does make a centerlock locking ring with built in magnet. I bought one, tried it, it didn't work. The thing to note here is that the magnet must pass across the center of the speed sensor pickup. Not to one side or the other, but the center. Magnet location on the rotor is critical.
I gave up and purchased a Shimano 203mm ice tech rotor for the rear with built in magnet. The Shimano rotor did work with my SRAM G2 calipers, however the holes in Shimano rotors are much bigger than SRAM centerline rotor holes. I found that after three rides, my new rear brake pads were almost down to the metal. I think this is because the large holes in the Shimano rotor tended to shave off the SRAM pad material.
So now I'm back to using my SRAM rotors. I came across a thread in which people discussed placing a small Neodymium rare earth magnet on their brake rotor. I purchased a 3mm thick x 8mm round neodymium magnet set on Amazon. These are very powerful magnets. I placed the neodymium magnet on the SRAM rotor in the same spot where the Shimano magnet was located. As an added precaution, I added 3M superglue around the magnet to insure it didn't fly off. It works like a charm. I have about ten rides on the rotor, much of it on black diamond trails. I do carry several extra magnets in my pack just in case.
Note: The Rise rear triangle brake caliper post mount is setup for 180mm rotors. if you increase your rotor size to SRAM 200mm rotor or Shimano 203mm rotor, you must use the correct spacer adapter. As an example, to use a SRAM 200mm rotor you must use a 180MM to 200mm adapter and a 180mm to 203mm adapter for Shimano. Why the two companies didn't agree upon one size I don't know. If you're finding this all fascinating lets talk about Fox fork caliper adapters. The FOX 34mm Performance fork on my Rise was setup for 160mm post mount. If you want to go with a SRAM 200mm rotor, then you must use a 160mm to 200mm adapter and 160mm to 203mm adapter for Shimano rotors. The Fox 36mm fork, like my 2019 Fox Factory 36mm, is setup for 180mm post mount. You can use the same adapter as on the rear, i.e. 180mm to 200mm and 180mm to 203mm for Shimano.
Brake Lines: SRAM uses brake fluid and Shimano uses mineral oil. The two systems are not compatible, this includes brake lines. Orbea uses Shimano components, this means if you want to go with SRAM Code or Guide brakes, you'll have to swap out the brake lines. I've heard of people using Shimano for SRAM and vice versa, but I say why? With my luck, the line would blow about halfway down a rock face and I'd break my other ankle.
To change out the brake lines, shift housing, or dropper housing on an Orbea Rise isn't easy. There's a battery in the downtube and a motor where the bottom bracket would normally be. There isn't much room to make the sharp bend from downtube, across and over the top of the motor and out the top of the bottom bracket housing or up the seat tube. Orbea didn't add an inspection hole to help feed housing through. Furthermore, Orbea does not use a built in frame tube to run shift cable housing or brake cable through the downtube. Do not pull the old housing out.
Park Tool and several other companies sell tools which allow you to attach a new housing to the old housing. You them pull the old housing out which feeds the new housing into the frame and into position. I tried this and my old housing and new housing separated. I made the Scooby Doo sound.
For me personally, I found it much much easier just to remove and drop the motor several inches. This allowed my to reach into the frame and guide the housing. To drop the motor, I placed a padded stand several inches underneath the motor. I loosened the six motor mount bolts and gently lowered the motor. I made sure no electrical wires were stretched.
Note: The drive side chain ring spider will bock access to several of the motor mount bolts on the frame. You will need to remove the crank arm and then the chain ring spider to access the bolts. The chain ring spider is held on with a castellated type of nut. A special tool is required to remove the nut. I purchased a Park Tool "LRT-2" socket on Amazon. It worked perfectly. The castellated nut is reverse thread. To loosen the nut, leave you bike chain on the chain ring. Remove the crank arm. Have a partner squeeze the rear brake lever tight. Put the socket on the nut and unscrew the nut in a clockwise direction. Remove the spider and then access the motor mount bolts.
As a side note, I love Shimano stuff, but for me, I like SRAM better. Neither is bad. If you remember the days of keeping your fingers cross nobody would break down on a ride, you know we've come a long way with our bikes. They are so good, both Shimano and SRAM. I'm sure somebody on this forum will have a better suggestion or a comment on why didn't I do this or that. That's because I'm me and this is my bike. If you'd been in the garage with me, then I'm sure we would have had a laugh and a beer trying to figure it all out. My hand is cramping, I'm going on a ride.
If you have any questions or would like help with your Rise, send me a message.
Be safe
Rod
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