2023 Trek Fx+ and Dual Sport+

[kaldri01]

I purchased a 2023 Dual Sport 2+ Stagger in August. Was hoping it would be the answer to my e-bike search as I've been very happy with my DS 3 purchased in 2021. I mostly riding rail-trials with a variety of surfaces and greenways some of which have short portions of single track on them. Ended up sadly after much thought returning the bike for a full refund after having it for 28 days.

Problems that concerned me were:
1). The controller started flashing alternate red and green lights. At that point I realized that I'd lost my pedal assist leaving me with a bike that weighs 10 lbs more than my DS 3. Luckily we were at the end of our vacation and I was able to continue to ride it on mostly flat surfaces. I tried to solve the problem through Hyena but was unsuccessful. Ended up bringing it to our local Trek dealer who had to "rewrite the software" and told me that my controller just "wastn't set up properly from the get - go." Well, you sold me the bike, so whose problem was that? They also told me to never update Hyena myself but to always bring it into the shop and let them do any updates when I bring it in for service. Why buy a bike that I'm not able to update on my own?
2) The brakes made a horrible grinding noise sometimes when I wasn't even using them.
3) The shifter was tempermental which I realize is a problem with the lower end Shimanos.

I haven't given up on purchasing another Trek particularly if they make some upgrades; also looking at Specialized, Marin and perhaps Cannondale. Weight (or lack of it) is a priority for me as I am a 70 year old woman often loading my bike myself while my husband is off on his mountain bike.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Try a Specialized Vado SL. You would be surprised how nice and trouble free this e-bike is

 

[TrevorB]

If weight is issue loading on bike rack, consider upgrading to platform rack. We bought Thule XT EasyFolder 2 bike rack few years ago. Very expensive but worth every penny, makes transporting bikes a breeze. Fitting and loading is a quick as shown, being folding easy to store. I don't use ramp but always option assuming they still sell them for my model. I don't trust locks for overnite, add cable or remove bikes but great for travel stops eg lunch.

See video

 

[Windhoos]

I made my purchase of an FX2+ at the end of July and have covered 2500km so far. I had been doing conversions of friends and my own bikes using either Tongsheng mid drives or Bafang 310/311 250 watt hub motors. My 2 favourite bikes were, and still are, hub motor driven using Grins Cycle Analysts and 24 pole cadence sensors.
I made the mistake of looking at bikes in a Trek store, and saw this gorgeous viper red e-bike with torque sensing bottom bracket and almost no visible cables. A quick ride around the block and that was that! After all it was my birthday.
I soon came to realize that things were not what I had expected. A lag of almost a complete revolution of the pedals before anything happened and then power came on in a big rush, far more than I needed in level one assist. Using the Hyena app I reduced assist to 5% (no difference) and subsequently to 1% (no difference). Discussed with dealer who used the Hyena diagnostic tool and decided along with Trek that the torque sensor should be replaced. This was done and guess what - it behaves exactly the same! By the way, in mid and high level assist I can ghost pedal from 10 to 30km/hr. Obviously cadence only.
I give up. Most of my riding on the level I can handle without assist. I just switch it on as required. The way that I ride allows me to easily achieve 100km range.
It’s disappointing, but it’s a lovely looking bike. By the way, if you have this bike or the dual sport, mark the motor cable connector pair with a spot of white paint to make reconnection easier.

So small update, in various ways. In shop here in Belgium there are now two versions on sale:
Fx2+ 2023
Fx2+ 2025
Price is identical and about 200 euro's lower than last season. Main difference seems to be that the 2025 version is now equipped with
an 8 (!) speed Acera.....
After quite some tampering Trek finally replaced the whole rear wheel motor unit of my wife's bike. Problems were sometimes not charging and unpredictable pedal support, indeed often combined with alternate flashing of the leds on the controller. Works flawlessly now, but they predicted the charging issues would be over as well, which is not the case.
After about half a year one of the led's in my controller failed, they replaced the unit under warranty.
Still happy with the bike, especially since you can ride it so easily without support. But it seems clear, also reading the reactions on the web, that Hyena has a long way to go to produce a reliable machine or has at least QC issues.....