Known Issues & Problems with Electric Bike Company Products + Help, Solutions & Fixes

[Ann M.]

No ebike is perfect, this is a thread dedicated to sharing known issues or problems with electric bikes from Electric Bike Company as well as any help and solutions you know of. Sometimes that means a DIY fix and other times it can mean a recall, software update or part replacement by a dealer.

Please be respectful and constructive with feedback, this is not a space for hate speech. In many cases, representatives from the company will see feedback and use it to improve their product. In the end, the goal is to enjoy riding and help each other go further and be safer.

 

[roxinred]

Aaaaand notice nobody posts anything here because the bikes are so darned solid and good.
The topic was posted above on May 2018 and it is now September 2020 and look how blank this topic is.

 

[flyfish68]

How do you get a EBC bike serviced or repaired when necessary in Savannah Georgia?

 

[Funpilot]

There is a dealer in Hilton Head, SC. He rents a number of EBC bikes so he should be very familiar with them.

Hilton Head Bicycle Company | Bike Rentals on Hilton Head Island

Welcome to the Hilton Head Bicycle Company. We provide residents & visitors with rental bicycles, new bicycles, accessories, parts & services. Book online!

hiltonheadbicycle.com

I plan on using them and I am twice as far away as you are.

 

[Geraldthebiker]

My range on model C, which has 30Ah capacity, the highest a person can get, is lower than expected anyone else having this issue? I’ll only get 22mikes max throttle only when it should be closer to 50mi according to EBR’s review. In PAS 2 (about 120watts assistance) I’ll get 60 miles of range, at barely any assistance it should get me about 150mi if range or more. Anybody else experiencing this???

 

[jpmaio66]

No ebike is perfect, this is a thread dedicated to sharing known issues or problems with electric bikes from Electric Bike Company as well as any help and solutions you know of. Sometimes that means a DIY fix and other times it can mean a recall, software update or part replacement by a dealer.

Please be respectful and constructive with feedback, this is not a space for hate speech. In many cases, representatives from the company will see feedback and use it to improve their product. In the end, the goal is to enjoy riding and help each other go further and be safer.

 

[jpmaio66]

EBC's model S Dual Battery is not stable. Riders cannot stand up and pedals without the bike shaking. Too much weight for the step through frame design. EBC is no longer offering this set up. I'm trying to find out if their is a for folks who already purchased the bike

 

[jpmaio66]

No reply from EBC for several months. I called "Authorized dealers" in three states NJ, PA, DE all say they do not stock or even sell EBC anymore due to lack of CS. Scroll up in this thread, just called Hilton Head Bike Company, they too no longer carry EBC due to lack of CS. Trying to source parts specifically the same KT controller for dual battery that EBC uses. KT48VSVPRM-SX08FX Can anyone help ? Not sure what happen to EBC. they were a really a good company prior to 2024

 

[jpmaio66]

And they are now.. Out of Business. Filed Chapter 7 a few weeks ago.

 

[Mike_V]

"Can anyone help ?" If you will construct a sentence asking a direct electrical bike design question,
Maio

Consider communicating with the Team at https://www.johnnynerdout.com/ for Technical Consultation briefly or by the $s / 1/2 Hour and e-Bike Parts and Assemblies Inventory

 

[jpmaio66]

My direct question: Has anyone had success replacing any Electric Bike Company (EBC) bike part: mainly the controller and display with a generic KT (same spec 48v ~25max amp) controller/display(LCD8H) ? After months of trouble shooting, I suspect their is some type of proprietary communication protocol between devices. I just want to confirm before swaping everything out, ie. Throttle, Torque Sensor, Brake cut/offs and hopefully not motor.

 

[PCeBiker]

A KT controller and display can operate almost any hub motor.

There is nothing proprietary inside a hub motor, but there might be a proprietary motor cable connector.

The Throttle and Brake cut-offs may have different connectors as well, but the KT controller Does Not accept an input for a Torque Sensor, so you would have to install a PAS sensor, or just use the throttle.

I installed a KT controller and display on my first ebike and had to cut the motor cable input off the old controller and solder it directly inside the KT controller because it had a proprietary motor cable connector.
I didn't bother connecting the PAS sensor, because I never pedal anyway.

A hub motor has three fat phase wires, (usually blue, yellow, and green) that are paired with three thin hal sensor wires of matching color.
Then there is the +5 Vdc wire, (usually red) the ground wire (usually black) and the speed sensor wire (usually white).

Some very rare hub motors have a tenth wire for a temperature sensor.

If your motor plug looks like the standard motor plug in the pictures posted for the KT controller that you're interested in, then it should plug right into the KT controller.

You can also get a KT controller with a waterproof motor connector with the rest of the connectors being SM plugs, or even a controller with no motor connector and bullet plugs instead (along with the Hal sensor connector).

 

[PCeBiker]

Trying to source parts specifically the same KT controller for dual battery that EBC uses.

You may need to reuse or delete the dual battery components of your ebike.

You could disconnect one of the batteries and just swap the batteries when the first one runs down.

Battery blenders have been known to burst into flames.
It's safer to just swap batteries.

 

[jpmaio66]

A KT controller and display can operate almost any hub motor.

There is nothing proprietary inside a hub motor, but there might be a proprietary motor cable connector.

The Throttle and Brake cut-offs may have different connectors as well, but the KT controller Does Not accept an input for a Torque Sensor, so you would have to install a PAS sensor, or just use the throttle.

I installed a KT controller and display on my first ebike and had to cut the motor cable input off the old controller and solder it directly inside the KT controller because it had a proprietary motor cable connector.
I didn't bother connecting the PAS sensor, because I never pedal anyway.

A hub motor has three fat phase wires, (usually blue, yellow, and green) that are paired with three thin hal sensor wires of matching color.
Then there is the +5 Vdc wire, (usually red) the ground wire (usually black) and the speed sensor wire (usually white).

Some very rare hub motors have a tenth wire for a temperature sensor.

If your motor plug looks like the standard motor plug in the pictures posted for the KT controller that you're interested in, then it should plug right into the KT controller.

You can also get a KT controller with a waterproof motor connector with the rest of the connectors being SM plugs, or even a controller with no motor connector and bullet plugs instead (along with the Hal sensor connector).

My direct question: Has anyone had success replacing any Electric Bike Company (EBC) bike part: mainly the controller and display with a generic KT (same spec 48v ~25max amp) controller/display(LCD8H) ? After months of trouble shooting, I suspect their is some type of proprietary communication protocol between devices. I just want to confirm before swaping everything out, ie. Throttle, Torque Sensor, Brake cut/offs and hopefully not motor.

Thank you both for the replys. After several hours (months) of trouble shooting (And shorting 2 controllers disconnecting and reconnecting a hundred times while troubleshooting) I figured it out. EBC goes the extra step to assure you will need to visit them for future parts. And now they are out of business. The KT Controller they use (Sinewave) has proprietary firmware installed with their own KT Display. Therefore, you will not be successful in connecting a generic display or controller to either part. You must replace both at the same time. But thats the easy part. Their 9pin (Controller-motor) cable ... the pinout is custom to them. You will need to swap hall sensors Yellow and Blue wires .. connect blue to yellow and vice versa. I purchased an extension cable spliced It and reconnted wires swaping what needs to be swapped. It will not look great but it's easier than going into the motor or controller. Additional notes. EBC also uses mini-XT30 connectors. Replacement Controllers are all XT-60. You can find adapters or get out the soldering gun. If a dual battery configuration. the battery balancing module is in the basket compartment, not the controller area.

 

[jpmaio66]

A KT controller and display can operate almost any hub motor.

There is nothing proprietary inside a hub motor, but there might be a proprietary motor cable connector.

The Throttle and Brake cut-offs may have different connectors as well, but the KT controller Does Not accept an input for a Torque Sensor, so you would have to install a PAS sensor, or just use the throttle.

I installed a KT controller and display on my first ebike and had to cut the motor cable input off the old controller and solder it directly inside the KT controller because it had a proprietary motor cable connector.
I didn't bother connecting the PAS sensor, because I never pedal anyway.

A hub motor has three fat phase wires, (usually blue, yellow, and green) that are paired with three thin hal sensor wires of matching color.
Then there is the +5 Vdc wire, (usually red) the ground wire (usually black) and the speed sensor wire (usually white).

Some very rare hub motors have a tenth wire for a temperature sensor.

If your motor plug looks like the standard motor plug in the pictures posted for the KT controller that you're interested in, then it should plug right into the KT controller.

You can also get a KT controller with a waterproof motor connector with the rest of the connectors being SM plugs, or even a controller with no motor connector and bullet plugs instead (along with the Hal sensor connector).

EBC uses a different pinout from controller to motor. Also, custom firmware from Controller to display. EBC is a classic example of why bike shops don't want to work on ebikes they don't sell.

 

[jpmaio66]

Aaaaand notice nobody posts anything here because the bikes are so darned solid and good.
The topic was posted above on May 2018 and it is now September 2020 and look how blank this topic is.

They are so darn good they are out of business. bankrupt

 

[jpmaio66]

"Can anyone help ?" If you will construct a sentence asking a direct electrical bike design question,
Maio

Consider communicating with the Team at https://www.johnnynerdout.com/ for Technical Consultation briefly or by the $s / 1/2 Hour and e-Bike Parts and Assemblies Inventory

Even Johnnynerdout would have challenges troubleshooting and repairing EBC bikes. They got to great lenghts to make you go to them for parts.. and now they are out of business. Bankrupt.

 

[PCeBiker]

Their 9pin (Controller-motor) cable ... the pinout is custom to them. You will need to swap hall sensors Yellow and Blue wires .. connect blue to yellow and vice versa.

Was it just the Yellow and Blue hall sensor wires?
Did you have to swap the Fat Yellow and Blue Phase wires (power wires) as well?

They are usually paired together.

If they aren't paired by color, then they really did go a long way to make it proprietary !!

EBC uses a different pinout from controller to motor. Also, custom firmware from Controller to display. EBC is a classic example of why bike shops don't want to work on ebikes they don't sell.

My ebike had reverse firing order as well, probably because the motor cable comes out on the left side of the motor (brake rotor side) instead of like the normal Bafang motors with the cable coming out the freewheel side.
But the firing order was changed inside the controller, so the motor cable pinout wasn't affected and I could match all the wire colors exactly.



And just an FYI for anyone trying to install a controller,..
When you're ready for the test after you connect all the wires in the motor cable, just use a Tiny Bit of throttle to see if the wheel spins.
If you're wires aren't hooked up correctly, you can burn out your hal sensors using full throttle.

I initially had my firing order wrong and the the motor just kinda klunked and banged and didn't spin up.

It was a very mechanical sound, like hitting the motor casing with a hammer?
I would have thought having the magnetic fields mixed up would be more of a hum or buzzing sound.

 

[CanNik]

Well, MY bike IS perfect, why, self built NOT an off the shelf so it is 100% what I want/need, and I have 2 bikes, off road and trail, BOTH use the same battery so swappable or take 2 on long run, yes there is/are the perfect bike/s

 

[jpmaio66]

Was it just the Yellow and Blue hall sensor wires?
Did you have to swap the Fat Yellow and Blue Phase wires (power wires) as well?

They are usually paired together.

If they aren't paired by color, then they really did go a long way to make it proprietary !!



My ebike had reverse firing order as well, probably because the motor cable comes out on the left side of the motor (brake rotor side) instead of like the normal Bafang motors with the cable coming out the freewheel side.
But the firing order was changed inside the controller, so the motor cable pinout wasn't affected and I could match all the wire colors exactly.



And just an FYI for anyone trying to install a controller,..
When you're ready for the test after you connect all the wires in the motor cable, just use a Tiny Bit of throttle to see if the wheel spins.
If you're wires aren't hooked up correctly, you can burn out your hal sensors using full throttle.

I initially had my firing order wrong and the the motor just kinda klunked and banged and didn't spin up.

It was a very mechanical sound, like hitting the motor casing with a hammer?
I would have thought having the magnetic fields mixed up would be more of a hum or buzzing sound.

The phase wires are ok. Interesting on the no "hum or buzzing." I thought the same. On some of my several swaps outs/test (I have other EBC bikes) sometimes I would get the hum while most times, nothing. Specific to the leads being changed inside the controller.. I agree but the only way to correct is to either get inside the controller or the motor end, or switch the leads in-line .. correct? I going to fix these two EBC bikes and sell. Then I am doing the same as you.. building my own.