Known Issues & Problems with Rattan Products + Help, Solutions & Fixes

[Admin]

No ebike is perfect, this is a thread dedicated to sharing known issues or problems with electric bikes from Rattan 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.

 

[HornSwaggled]

What retailing business wouldn't care enough about their clientele's pleasure in their product, to provide a customer service phone number; to expedite and reinsure the happiness of their customer?

I first saw the Rattan Fat Bear Plus on 10-14-19 around 11:45 a.m. Then I came across the code for the discount, the shipping time, and the warranty. Theeeeen...; I decided to call the company and order a Fat Bear Plus; but "Oooh Noo!!!!" There ain't no phone number.

That killed a quick sale, burst my dream bubble of the ebike that had everything I wanted on a foldable fat tired bike; and threw a whooole lotta doubt into their desire to altruistically care about their customers. The entire operation was focused on making money; but not providing a quick response outlet for a troubled customer; and I didn't want to see myself squirming in that frying pan!!!

 

[MesquiteTim]

Simple - get out your credit card and order it! Do you insist on calling Amazon or EBay when you buy stuff? I think not. I ordered one because it is about the same cost as a conversion kit for the WHOLE BIKE. The risk is low. I am very happy with mine.

 

[Drapers]

What retailing business wouldn't care enough about their clientele's pleasure in their product, to provide a customer service phone number; to expedite and reinsure the happiness of their customer?

I first saw the Rattan Fat Bear Plus on 10-14-19 around 11:45 a.m. Then I came across the code for the discount, the shipping time, and the warranty. Theeeeen...; I decided to call the company and order a Fat Bear Plus; but "Oooh Noo!!!!" There ain't no phone number.

That killed a quick sale, burst my dream bubble of the ebike that had everything I wanted on a foldable fat tired bike; and threw a whooole lotta doubt into their desire to altruistically care about their customers. The entire operation was focused on making money; but not providing a quick response outlet for a troubled customer; and I didn't want to see myself squirming in that frying pan!!!

did you email them? there responses were very fast for me. I ordered Saturday and received the bike tuesday pretty amazing if you ask me! Bike is excellent as well compared to the Lectric XP

 

[GrandPaw]

They are not shipping in 2 days anymore.....,I ordered Saturday 10/19. Tuesday 10/23 they replied we sold more bikes than expected, shipping tomorrow. Thursday 10/24 they say it shipped but no tracking #

 

[GrandPaw]

Simple - get out your credit card and order it! Do you insist on calling Amazon or EBay when you buy stuff? I think not. I ordered one because it is about the same cost as a conversion kit for the WHOLE BIKE. The risk is low. I am very happy with mine.

Hey Tim did you get any fed ex tracking information when you got your bike ????
I ordered on Saturday, they say they shipped it on Wednesday. Last night they said again that it shipped out but Fed Ex hasn’t given them a tracking number ? ???? That doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[GrandPaw]

Ok I received a Fed Ex tracking number tonight 10/25 and Fed Ex has the bike. Rattan has answered my emails sporadically. Sometimes they answer immediately and sometimes they don’t respond ?

Fatbear Plus shipped from California to Minnesota on a Friday and was here on Tuesday, 2 days early. Once the shipping started the Rattan updates also started. It came well packaged, no damage, everything works - brakes, shifting, motor, throttle.......I had to charge it, air the tires, and change some default settings.

First ride: 1st Ebike, 10 miles, 35 degrees F, hiking boots, wool socks , thermal underwear, jeans, fleece hoodie under biker jacket, chopper mitts, winter hat......and still passed 2 professional bikers. I don’t know why that felt good ? Got home chilly, easy ride, knees are good....I’m 64 and it felt great !
That’s limestone, not snow, yet.

 

[Tim Young]

Hello to Fat Bear owners. I got my pre-order while I was on vacation, then a snow storm here in Colorado but finally unboxed it and took it for a short ride yesterday like GrandPaw in the post above it was pretty cold yesterday. I'm looking for help with a couple things. The gears don't shift to all the sprockets. It goes from the big one to the middle one but will not shift to the three smaller ones. (sorry don't know if those are considered high or lower gears). I'm sure this is an easy adjustment but as you can tell I'm pretty new to the bikes. My second item I want to figure out is how to make the power assist "less power" at least on level one. (I confess I am a bit confused by the manual and don't want to just start pressing buttons without being sure of what I'm doing) Mine is way to easy to pedal on the first level but with no assist it is pretty hard at least for me. Other than that so far very impressed with the smooth ride and overall quality seems to be what I had hoped for. I just sent an email to Rattan to ask them how I could get some help with this and expect they will reply tomorrow this Monday. Also I hope to order and change out the display to make it a Plus model for the regen feature to work hoping that will not be hard to do. Thanks everyone, So far what I'm reading about the bike as people try it out is it seems like it was a good buy.

 

[Tim Young]

Hello to Fat Bear owners. I got my pre-order while I was on vacation, then a snow storm here in Colorado but finally unboxed it and took it for a short ride yesterday like GrandPaw in the post above it was pretty cold yesterday. I'm looking for help with a couple things. The gears don't shift to all the sprockets. It goes from the big one to the middle one but will not shift to the three smaller ones. (sorry don't know if those are considered high or lower gears). I'm sure this is an easy adjustment but as you can tell I'm pretty new to the bikes. My second item I want to figure out is how to make the power assist "less power" at least on level one. (I confess I am a bit confused by the manual and don't want to just start pressing buttons without being sure of what I'm doing) Mine is way to easy to pedal on the first level but with no assist it is pretty hard at least for me. Other than that so far very impressed with the smooth ride and overall quality seems to be what I had hoped for. I just sent an email to Rattan to ask them how I could get some help with this and expect they will reply tomorrow this Monday. Also I hope to order and change out the display to make it a Plus model for the regen feature to work hoping that will not be hard to do. Thanks everyone, So far what I'm reading about the bike as people try it out is it seems like it was a good buy.

Update, I did figure out how to get into the parameter settings but was unable to really change the power to the drive. I have not got any reply yet from Rattan Service via email so thought I would try the phone number they provide in the manual "service hotline" 1-626-803-7678 I got a message that says "the person you are calling cannot accept any calls at this time". I guess I'm going to get on the web and find directions on how to adjust the gears. Does anyone have the pro model of the Fat Bear and if so would you reply with the settings you have on P1 - P20? That would be a good start for me.

 

[barry1685]

I have the fat bear plus version - I will take screenshots of the P1- P20 settings when I get a chance. None of my settings have been adjusted yet and should be at factory state.

 

[Tim Young]

Update, I did figure out how to get into the parameter settings but was unable to really change the power to the drive. I have not got any reply yet from Rattan Service via email so thought I would try the phone number they provide in the manual "service hotline" 1-626-803-7678 I got a message that says "the person you are calling cannot accept any calls at this time". I guess I'm going to get on the web and find directions on how to adjust the gears. Does anyone have the pro model of the Fat Bear and if so would you reply with the settings you have on P1 - P20? That would be a good start for me.

I got the bike upside down without resting the weight on the display and spun the pedals by hand as I shifted. Found the problem with the gears. I must have had some shipping damage to the derailleur guard as I think it is bent in towards the gears and as the derailleur moves out to bring the chain out to the outside gears it hits the guard and will not move past that point. I guess this makes sense now because if it was just an adjustment it would have been a minor amount not 4 entire sprockets. I tried to bend it back out by hand and no luck. I'll see if Rattan will send me a new one. They did reply on how to adjust the shifter but show a picture of a tourney model with adjusting screws in a different location from the model on the fat bear. They said "adjust these two screws". They did not reply to my request for the parameters of P01 - P20. It will be interesting to see how they reply to the shipping damage. It was not obvious to me what was wrong so I missed the cut off time to claim shipping damage.

 

[barry1685]

I’ve had some shipping damage to the crank. It’s very minor and doesn’t affect the shifting. I did notice yesterday that my brake disc is warped causing some slight grinding. I didn’t have this issue when I first got the bike, so I hope I didn’t bend the back wheel. I tested this bike on an expert MTB trail so maybe this bike isn’t built for something like this??

 

[barry1685]

Here are my setting for the fat bear plus - I noticed the screen settings are different from the Standard Fat Bear settings. I think the settings are generally the same for both bikes.

Quick notes - I changed my max speed to 31 in the settings and this doesn't seem to adjust max speed. The tire size is incorrect @ 26" but that seems to be the factory settings, any adjustment to this screws up your speedometer. The voltage settings are strangely set to 36V, while the bike is clearly 48V....

The power set (0-3) has an additional settings, which factory setting for this additional setting is 60, 75, 95 - I think this equates to PAS levels 0-3 with corresponding percentage assistance values.

Hope this helps someone!

 

[Tim Young]

I got the bike upside down without resting the weight on the display and spun the pedals by hand as I shifted. Found the problem with the gears. I must have had some shipping damage to the derailleur guard as I think it is bent in towards the gears and as the derailleur moves out to bring the chain out to the outside gears it hits the guard and will not move past that point. I guess this makes sense now because if it was just an adjustment it would have been a minor amount not 4 entire sprockets. I tried to bend it back out by hand and no luck. I'll see if Rattan will send me a new one. They did reply on how to adjust the shifter but show a picture of a tourney model with adjusting screws in a different location from the model on the fat bear. They said "adjust these two screws". They did not reply to my request for the parameters of P01 - P20. It will be interesting to see how they reply to the shipping damage. It was not obvious to me what was wrong so I missed the cut off time to claim shipping damage.

Rattan replied they are sending me a new derailleur guard and recommend I just take the bent one off for now. I guess I'll order the color display since Barry kindly sent screen shots of the advanced setup. It is very different from the pro model and maybe the voltage percents will let me tune the power assist to my liking.

 

[Tomg]

I have had my Fat Bear (B&W display version) since mid October...it arrived fully assembled in good shape. I did make sure all the fittings were tight and adjust the seat and handle bars. I also have a Lectric XP bike that I got in September. Except for the upgrades and the front and rear suspension, I have found the two bikes almost identical. However, the post sale customer service for the Rattan Fat Bear has been non-existent!

I too have a problem with the electronic controller. In throttle mode (no peddling), it works just fine. However, the PAS mode only seems to have one power level, regardless of the PAS setting; about 18MPH on a flat street. For instance, when going up a steep grade street, the Fat Bear e-bike will just make it with the throttle controlling the power. If I try to use the peddle to assist the motor in throttle mode, on the same hill, the motor will almost shut down (I can still hear it running) no matter what PS mode I am in (1-3). In comparison, my Lectric XP PAS modes work as they should and will allow me to use either PAS or throttle (or both) to get up the hill.

One other issue is the battery key on the Bear...it does not turn the power off (unless you remove the battery); it is always “on” regardless of the position. I guess I’m lucky it’s always on and not always off!

I have tried to contact Rattan many times over the past few weeks (via their email addresses as listed in the manual) with no reply. They have no phone support that I can find...just email addresses that they never reply. By contrast I have contacted Lectric (about getting a replacement inner tube) by email, with fast and excellent after-the-sales support! I did get an email from Rattan asking me to write a review for their WEB site! If I ever hear from their “service dept”, I’ll let you know....tomg

I have both an Rattan Fat Bear (B&W display) and the Lectric XP. Here are the setup settings which I haven’t changed except for playing with setting #1 (brightness of backscreen).

ID-Bear-XP
1-1-1 (backscreen brightness)
2-1-1
3-48-48
4-10-10
5-0-1
6-24-20
7-1-1
8-40-32
9- 0-0
10-2- 2
11-3- 3
12-3-3
13-12-12
14-18-18
15-39-39
16-3-50 (current Odometer setting)
17-0-0
18-100-100
19- 0-0
20-1-0

The big change seems to be #20. Hope this helps...reply if your settings are different....Tomg

 

[GrandPaw]

Here are my setting for the fat bear plus - I noticed the screen settings are different from the Standard Fat Bear settings. I think the settings are generally the same for both bikes.

Quick notes - I changed my max speed to 31 in the settings and this doesn't seem to adjust max speed. The tire size is incorrect @ 26" but that seems to be the factory settings, any adjustment to this screws up your speedometer. The voltage settings are strangely set to 36V, while the bike is clearly 48V....

The power set (0-3) has an additional settings, which factory setting for this additional setting is 60, 75, 95 - I think this equates to PAS levels 0-3 with corresponding percentage assistance values.

Hope this helps someone!

I have the plus version as well. I changed some settings: wheel size 26 to 20, voltage 36 to 48, selected the PAS option of 0-5. So now I have PAS 1-5 settings / output voltage. PAS 1 is now set at 50%. Originally it was like yours with the PAS 1-3 settings. PAS 1 at 60% was too fast. At 50% it cruises about 10 mph now. My speed in mph is spot on to my gps. So changing the wheel size did not mess up the speed. My bike came in a box labeled “Discovery”....one of Rattans other 26 “ bikes. I think they just used a Discovery box and controller, but didn’t change the settings for the Fatbear.
There won’t be much difference in top speed or feel between the default voltage settings that are so close together when the total speed range is only from 0-25 mph.
Mine came with out any damage, everything works well, love the bike !!!

 

[barry1685]

I have the plus version as well. I changed some settings: wheel size 26 to 20, voltage 36 to 48, selected the PAS option of 0-5. So now I have PAS 1-5 settings / output voltage. PAS 1 is now set at 50%. Originally it was like yours with the PAS 1-3 settings. PAS 1 at 60% was too fast. At 50% it cruises about 10 mph now. My speed in mph is spot on to my gps. So changing the wheel size did not mess up the speed. My bike came in a box labeled “Discovery”....one of Rattans other 26 “ bikes. I think they just used a Discovery box and controller, but didn’t change the settings for the Fatbear.
There won’t be much difference in top speed or feel between the default voltage settings that are so close together when the total speed range is only from 0-25 mph.
Mine came with out any damage, everything works well, love the bike !!!

Thank you for correcting me. I found out today that the default tire size of 26” is INCORRECT and changed mine to 20” as well. I didn’t notice a difference from 36v to 48v. I’d like to see if it’s possible to increase the torque power because i find if I’m trying to use the throttle to ascend it poops out.

 

[GrandPaw]

The change in 36 to 48 volts just fixed my display voltage. When I charged the battery fully the first time it only said 36 volts, 79 % charged. What ??? I had to change the voltage to the 48 volt scale. Then it said 48 volts 100%.
When you are looking at the advanced settings screen the one called “current limit” says “normal” If you enter that you can change it to eco, normal, and I think the other it is called sport mode. Might help on hills ? Mine came and is in normal.
I need to pedal up hills, not really hard, but I need to gear down based on the hill. Bike does slow down depending on the grade. It is not as fast using the throttle only, especially on hills. And on some big hills throttle only is not enough This my first ebike....I thinks that’s normal

 

[GrandPaw]

I have had my Fat Bear (B&W display version) since mid October...it arrived fully assembled in good shape. I did make sure all the fittings were tight and adjust the seat and handle bars. I also have a Lectric XP bike that I got in September. Except for the upgrades and the front and rear suspension, I have found the two bikes almost identical. However, the post sale customer service for the Rattan Fat Bear has been non-existent!

I too have a problem with the electronic controller. In throttle mode (no peddling), it works just fine. However, the PAS mode only seems to have one power level, regardless of the PAS setting; about 18MPH on a flat street. For instance, when going up a steep grade street, the Fat Bear e-bike will just make it with the throttle controlling the power. If I try to use the peddle to assist the motor in throttle mode, on the same hill, the motor will almost shut down (I can still hear it running) no matter what PS mode I am in (1-3). In comparison, my Lectric XP PAS modes work as they should and will allow me to use either PAS or throttle (or both) to get up the hill.

One other issue is the battery key on the Bear...it does not turn the power off (unless you remove the battery); it is always “on” regardless of the position. I guess I’m lucky it’s always on and not always off!

I have tried to contact Rattan many times over the past few weeks (via their email addresses as listed in the manual) with no reply. They have no phone support that I can find...just email addresses that they never reply. By contrast I have contacted Lectric (about getting a replacement inner tube) by email, with fast and excellent after-the-sales support! I did get an email from Rattan asking me to write a review for their WEB site! If I ever hear from their “service dept”, I’ll let you know....tomg

I have both an Rattan Fat Bear (B&W display) and the Lectric XP. Here are the setup settings which I haven’t changed except for playing with setting #1 (brightness of backscreen).

ID-Bear-XP
1-1-1 (backscreen brightness)
2-1-1
3-48-48
4-10-10
5-0-1
6-24-20
7-1-1
8-40-32
9- 0-0
10-2- 2
11-3- 3
12-3-3
13-12-12
14-18-18
15-39-39
16-3-50 (current Odometer setting)
17-0-0
18-100-100
19- 0-0
20-1-0

The big change seems to be #20. Hope this helps...reply if your settings are different....Tomg

I have the FB Plus. Doesn’t need the key either. Does it just locks the battery in ?

 

[barry1685]

I have the FB Plus. Doesn’t need the key either. Does it just locks the battery in ?

pretty much. You can lock the keys in the bike with the “Lock” turned fully. Who wants to do that though? My has a Saunders bike and he is always pulling ahead on just throttle while I’m trying to catch up and have to use pas because the throttle isn’t strong. I find the whole plus model bogus because the mph with throttle only doesn’t get to 27 as they exclaim.