Known Issues & Problems with Rize Bikes Products + Help, Solutions, & Fixes

[mitchhackleman]

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

 

[findzit]

Purchased a Spark RX (now Rize X) just over one year ago. Have had battery problem blowing fuse. Rize replaced battery for that problem. The other problem was the controller locking. It would stop and could not be turned off without pulling the battery. That problem never resolved but I just pop the battery and it resets. I can live with that. The latest problem seems more serious. Power to the motor just cut off. The battery is fully charged and the display works showing battery charge level, current speed etc, no indication of a problem - no error code. I tried resetting but no change. It's like one of the brake switches has been engaged. Is there an easy way of checking these switches without pulling the controller out of the motor? Any other suggestions?

 

[Ryan_Peters]

Purchased a Spark RX (now Rize X) just over one year ago. Have had battery problem blowing fuse. Rize replaced battery for that problem. The other problem was the controller locking. It would stop and could not be turned off without pulling the battery. That problem never resolved but I just pop the battery and it resets. I can live with that. The latest problem seems more serious. Power to the motor just cut off. The battery is fully charged and the display works showing battery charge level, current speed etc, no indication of a problem - no error code. I tried resetting but no change. It's like one of the brake switches has been engaged. Is there an easy way of checking these switches without pulling the controller out of the motor? Any other suggestions?

Not sure how to fix your current issue but I also had issues with the fuse blowing. They refused to replace the battery for me though and told me to buy a fuse and replace it myself. I've had to replace the fuse a few times now, each time wearing out the gaskets and screw threads on the battery.

 

[Handlebars]

Hi Mitch. If there is space, adding an "a" to "manger" will work!

 

[CraftyDog]

I've had a Rize Leisure for one week now. It's everything I hoped it would be - when it's operating normally.

However, twice now I've had Error 30 " Controller communication error " when starting up. The display comes on normally, but when I begin to pedal I get the error and no power assist.

The second time I was a long way from home and not looking forward to trying to return manually.

Both times switching on and off and trying again eventually got it working, but it is worrisome when considering long journeys.

I will call Rize once their timezone kicks in this afternoon, and will post any updates.

 

[CraftyDog]

OK. I contacted them. Seriously disappointed with their customer support. Mark insists that I have to wait for it to happen again and take a photo to prove it before they will help.

I suggested to him that that was silly because I didn't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere again before trying to remedy the matter. He told me it was their process and there was nothing he could do. I said that the only possible reason for not offering any help without a photo was because they didn't believe me. And what reason would I have to lie since I'm totally happy with the bike overall apart from this potentially serious matter.

Why have an error code at all if it can't simply be reported to them? What logic is there in making me ride it until it happens again before they offer assistance?

After a VERY long argument he said he'd get a senior tech to call me. We'll see.

 

[CraftyDog]

UPDATE: I did get a call from the tech. He told me to check all the connections, but I had to work somewhat hard to find out which ones to check, because it turns out that when I asked if I'd need to unscrew them to check he said "no, not THOSE connections". So he apparently didn't mean "all" and he says he'll send me photos to show which ones he means.

In the meantime he kept saying that if it's not showing the error now, then he was confident it wouldn't occur again. Since it's happened on 2 separate occasions in about 15 rides I questioned how he could state that. He really didn't answer that. Instead he suggested that if I was concerned then I should only take short trips on the bike. I'm not kidding!

 

[Handlebars]

I don't know if this could be connected, but I have the old display on my Sparkbike. Often when I press to turn it on, I get asst level 0 instead of asst level 1. I'm beginning to suspect it's connected to how I press the button.

 

[Handlebars]

In the meantime he kept saying that if it's not showing the error now, then he was confident it wouldn't occur again. Since it's happened on 2 separate occasions in about 15 rides I questioned how he could state that. He really didn't answer that. Instead he suggested that if I was concerned then I should only take short trips on the bike. I'm not kidding!

Yeah, I wouldn't be confident with only that for a reason. I would agree that taking short trips only is good idea though, until you find out more. Is there anything you can try, to get the error code to go away except by turning and off and on? Can you use any other buttons, for example, on your display?

 

[CraftyDog]

Hi Handlebars - In my case everything on the display looks normal on power up, until I try to pedal, and that's when the little engine icon starts flashing and the error code 30 appears and there is no power assist available (all this of course only on the times that it's been failing). So it sounds like slightly different diagnostics.

 

[CraftyDog]

Can you try doing someting else other than turning off?

With the info I have now I guess I can try playing with the connectors if it happens.

But given the intermittent nature of it I'm not sure how many "short trips" I would need to take to feel confident in it.

 

[Spatzi]

OK. I contacted them. Seriously disappointed with their customer support. Mark insists that I have to wait for it to happen again and take a photo to prove it before they will help.

I suggested to him that that was silly because I didn't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere again before trying to remedy the matter. He told me it was their process and there was nothing he could do. I said that the only possible reason for not offering any help without a photo was because they didn't believe me. And what reason would I have to lie since I'm totally happy with the bike overall apart from this potentially serious matter.

Why have an error code at all if it can't simply be reported to them? What logic is there in making me ride it until it happens again before they offer assistance?

After a VERY long argument he said he'd get a senior tech to call me. We'll see.

I feel for you. Mark likes to give you the run around. He tried everything in the book to deny that my brake pads were faulty, in spite of sending him videos of the noise, having confirmation from a bike shop that they were defective, and telling him that my $100 replacements did not make noise. I asked to speak to the manager and was told,”No one is a manager.” Does anyone know who owns this company?

Considering you have a potentially more serious problem, this is a scary reaction from Rize. I begin to wonder if they will provide any warranty support at all for anything. I told them the Negative publicity will eventually bite them in the ass, but they don’t seem to care. Their email response is ZERO. Wrote multiple times with issues over the last few weeks - no response. Mark doesn’t even know who sends out their bikes. I told him I had a phone call from a delivery company to deliver two bikes. He said, “We don’t use that company.” They were from rize.

 

[Brighamdoc]

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

― Maya Angelou

That is the quote above the door heading into the operating rooms where I work.
Pass it on to Rize?

 

[CraftyDog]

That's a great quote. I'll tuck that one away. And it's very apt here. When the tech eventually explained that the photo evidence was required in case of having to make a parts claim with a 3rd party I could accept that. But in reply I also made the point that it shouldn't be required in order to give basic advice on the situation, which was all I was initially asking for.

Mark's response made me unnecessarily upset as a customer, and therein lies the problem of bad customer service.

Anyway, as a further update I checked all the connectors that the tech recommended. They look okay to me. I took the bike on a reasonably long run last night and all worked fine, although I didn't risk turning the power off at any point so maybe not a really good test yet.

 

[CraftyDog]

I feel for you. Mark likes to give you the run around. He tried everything in the book to deny that my brake pads were faulty, in spite of sending him videos of the noise, having confirmation from a bike shop that they were defective, and telling him that my $100 replacements did not make noise. I asked to speak to the manager and was told,”No one is a manager.” Does anyone know who owns this company?

Considering you have a potentially more serious problem, this is a scary reaction from Rize. I begin to wonder if they will provide any warranty support at all for anything. I told them the Negative publicity will eventually bite them in the ass, but they don’t seem to care. Their email response is ZERO. Wrote multiple times with issues over the last few weeks - no response. Mark doesn’t even know who sends out their bikes. I told him I had a phone call from a delivery company to deliver two bikes. He said, “We don’t use that company.” They were from rize.

I have to very much agree with this. To some extent I think they DO care about the consequences of bad customer service based on some things they've said, but they simply don't know HOW to deliver good customer service. If someone at Rize was taking note of this I would recommend putting your people through some basic training on how to treat customers (which involves empathy). It would cost them next to nothing and could turn a mediocre business into a good one.

 

[CraftyDog]

UPDATE: I advised Rize that my connectors all appeared to be sound.

They have since offered a solution to my concern about getting stranded by asking me to take a number of short rides, but then offering to pay for a cab fee if I get into a tough spot beyond that.

This is very reasonable and gives me much more confidence in their service now (assuming that they honor it if I get stuck).

Thank you Jason @Rize for your help.

 

[Leon S. Kennedy]

What are you supposed to do with your bike when you get stranded and take a cab? What if you are riding off-road?

 

[CraftyDog]

What are you supposed to do with your bike when you get stranded and take a cab? What if you are riding off-road?

True. But it's considerably better as an option than having no option.

I'm not anticipating that I'll be so far off-road that I couldn't peddle a few miles to a road. For my riding intent the problem would be more that I get stuck with 30 miles of uphill roads to get home. At least if I can manually pedal to a road then it's a significant risk mitigation.

Overall, I don't know what better option Rize could offer, so I'm prepared to say I'm satisfied with the outcome at this point.

When I get stranded 30 miles from a road I'll post back with a different story

 

[CraftyDog]

Well it happened!

I did a number of short runs. No problem.

Then yesterday evening went with my wife out on the trails (she has Rize Step with no problems so far). We stopped by a lake in the middle of nowhere. I didn't turn the controller off out of fear it might fail, but after our 10 minute break it had turned off anyway.

And .... Error 30 "Controller communication error".

No chance to get a cab just as you said Leon, and would have been a very hard ride out manually. It took about 20 minutes and 30 restarts before eventually (to my great relief) it worked again.

Of course I had taken photo and video evidence of the error, and immediately sent to Rize when I got home.

They got back to me pretty quickly to apologize and inform that they were sending a new controller same day, together with a pre-paid return for the faulty one (assuming that it is indeed the controller at fault).

I hope 1) that the new controller fixes everything and 2) that Rize would learn from this in terms of customer service. But we shall see.

They did once again offer to pay any cab fee, but under the circumstance it would have had to have been a heli-cab to get me out from where I was, so I'm just glad it eventually got going again.

P.S. As a sidenote to @Spatzi , after I got things up and running again on the trail we took a couple of steep inclines and my rear brakes made the same "water flushing" sound as yours did. Once I was back on the road it stopped doing it, but it's the next thing I'll be keeping my eye on once this controller issue is resolved.

 

[Spatzi]

Well it happened!

I did a number of short runs. No problem.

Then yesterday evening went with my wife out on the trails (she has Rize Step with no problems so far). We stopped by a lake in the middle of nowhere. I didn't turn the controller off out of fear it might fail, but after our 10 minute break it had turned off anyway.

And .... Error 30 "Controller communication error".

No chance to get a cab just as you said Leon, and would have been a very hard ride out manually. It took about 20 minutes and 30 restarts before eventually (to my great relief) it worked again.

Of course I had taken photo and video evidence of the error, and immediately sent to Rize when I got home.

They got back to me pretty quickly to apologize and inform that they were sending a new controller same day, together with a pre-paid return for the faulty one (assuming that it is indeed the controller at fault).

I hope 1) that the new controller fixes everything and 2) that Rize would learn from this in terms of customer service. But we shall see.

They did once again offer to pay any cab fee, but under the circumstance it would have had to have been a heli-cab to get me out from where I was, so I'm just glad it eventually got going again.

P.S. As a sidenote to @Spatzi , after I got things up and running again on the trail we took a couple of steep inclines and my rear brakes made the same "water flushing" sound as yours did. Once I was back on the road it stopped doing it, but it's the next thing I'll be keeping my eye on once this controller issue is resolved.

Wow, that‘s scary. I’m glad to see that they are replacing the controller. This seems to be an exception to their warranty rules on pads. Can you install the controller yourself? If they did pay for your cab fare, where would the bike go? You would need a truck to transport this bike. You can try pad break in but it made no difference on mine. I have a feeling rotor heat increases the noise. It is less while starting a ride, worse as ride progresses. Even, steady braking will sometimes decrease the noise. (like going down a hill applying medium pressure on the back brake to come to a gradual stop.) hard pressure on brakes trying to come to a fast or quicker stop will be the worst noise. As I mentioned earlier, Tektro released a bad batch of soft pads this year that ended up on a lot of different bike brands. Rize admits knowing this but still would not refund.

rize’s advice to solve your controller problem by taking only short trips is typical Rize non advice. They also told me there was nothing wrong with my noisy brakes, as long as they work.