GigalithineButhulne
New Member
Hi, newbie here, bear with the long missive:
I own an e-bike with a Shimano E6100 drive, and it was sold with the basic SCE-5000 display with no bluetooth magic or anything. It's fine and does the job more or less. eBikes, especially this set-up, are particularly popular in Sweden as commuter biking infrastructure is a LOT better than in North America. But despite its popularity, I don't see many people upgrading the display or doing particularly interesting upgrades otherwise from the basic models. (Probably a sign that eBikes have become an ordinary commodity.)
What I would like in terms of function: to have a clock on the controller (it's a nuisance to look for church steeples or mall displays to check the time when I'm in a hurry to get to a meeting), a more fine-grained power usage display (the "remaining km" estimates on the SCE-5000 are absolutely bonkers), more fine-grained usage tracking, option to connect to a smartphone app for even more tracking, DIY firmware upgrade, option to connect to a GPS, etc. Custom power modes would be nice (something between ECO and TRAIL), but I gather this is just not supported by E6100.
I noticed that it's possible to upgrade the display or controller so that you can connect a smartphone app or mounted GPS, but it turns out that it's complicated to do so and the online documentation of what you need and how to do it isn't straightforward for an ordinary user. I asked my dealer, and it turns out that they don't ordinarily do these upgrades for the E6100 and didn't have a straightforward answer -- they did show me the SCE-6100 display, but further research after hours of Googling and comparing documents suggested I also need the SCE-6100-L switch (there's no electronic gearshift on this bike). They don't sell any of this (found it costs equiv of about 250 USD which seems pricey for a monochome display with bluetooth but I guess the bike industry is expensive) -- upgrading just doesn't seem to be popular.
I feel I as a relative newbie shouldn't have to deduce this myself...but anyway.
An option is just to just get a smartphone mount and get no special bike connectivity or additional display but Sweden is overall quite rainy (requiring a waterproof mount) and my phone arrangement isn't really set up for this -- it's in a wallet case and I'd hate to have to peel it out of the case every time I want to ride. Or get a GPS unit with no connectivity, although having to remove and pocket it every time increases the "parking" time which is already considerable considering the rear lock and removing the battery.
So if you got through all that, my questions are:
I own an e-bike with a Shimano E6100 drive, and it was sold with the basic SCE-5000 display with no bluetooth magic or anything. It's fine and does the job more or less. eBikes, especially this set-up, are particularly popular in Sweden as commuter biking infrastructure is a LOT better than in North America. But despite its popularity, I don't see many people upgrading the display or doing particularly interesting upgrades otherwise from the basic models. (Probably a sign that eBikes have become an ordinary commodity.)
What I would like in terms of function: to have a clock on the controller (it's a nuisance to look for church steeples or mall displays to check the time when I'm in a hurry to get to a meeting), a more fine-grained power usage display (the "remaining km" estimates on the SCE-5000 are absolutely bonkers), more fine-grained usage tracking, option to connect to a smartphone app for even more tracking, DIY firmware upgrade, option to connect to a GPS, etc. Custom power modes would be nice (something between ECO and TRAIL), but I gather this is just not supported by E6100.
I noticed that it's possible to upgrade the display or controller so that you can connect a smartphone app or mounted GPS, but it turns out that it's complicated to do so and the online documentation of what you need and how to do it isn't straightforward for an ordinary user. I asked my dealer, and it turns out that they don't ordinarily do these upgrades for the E6100 and didn't have a straightforward answer -- they did show me the SCE-6100 display, but further research after hours of Googling and comparing documents suggested I also need the SCE-6100-L switch (there's no electronic gearshift on this bike). They don't sell any of this (found it costs equiv of about 250 USD which seems pricey for a monochome display with bluetooth but I guess the bike industry is expensive) -- upgrading just doesn't seem to be popular.
I feel I as a relative newbie shouldn't have to deduce this myself...but anyway.
An option is just to just get a smartphone mount and get no special bike connectivity or additional display but Sweden is overall quite rainy (requiring a waterproof mount) and my phone arrangement isn't really set up for this -- it's in a wallet case and I'd hate to have to peel it out of the case every time I want to ride. Or get a GPS unit with no connectivity, although having to remove and pocket it every time increases the "parking" time which is already considerable considering the rear lock and removing the battery.
So if you got through all that, my questions are:
- what setup would you recommend in my case?
- is it possible for me to completely DIY the upgrade or does the engine need special setting from the dealer?
- considering that this all seems to get expensive quickly, should I just sell the bike (it's in excellent condition with regular dealer maintenance and replaced parts) and buy a slightly more expensive bike (downside, the more expensive ones seem less comfortable for a casual non-athletic rider like me)?
