(Jan 2021 update: I am attaching the following link to my posting(s) located over at the BikTrix ebike companys' EBReview forum site:
https://electricbikereview.com/foru...-sensor-bottom-bracket-price-is-200-00.40097/
As of today, Jan 5th, it is a work-in-progress. It should make current M2S ebike owners really appreciate their very correct ebike purchase. I also realize that many potential ebike buyers cruise these forums as an aid in their search for the ideal ebike at the most practical price. They also need to be made aware of “brand service after the sale”, or lack/deception thereof. After all, an ebike purchase of $1,500+ is no small investment. You be the judge.)
on Jan 10, 2020: Since I now have numerous threads posted (sorry about that), I want to let viewers know their chronological sequence, thus every thread title will begin with (# ).
2018 KUSH at day 365 and mileage 6,328:
Well, on April 30, 2018, I took delivery of my Kush. Today is April 30, 2019. Wow!! At mile# 6,328 it is still a magnificent beast!! I am totally smitten with this wonderful toy. My goal is always to do a 50 mile ride every day. Some days I go 60 miles. Some days I go 0 miles (super bummer).
I am continuously amazed by how maintenance-free (overall) this ebike is. That is not to say that a few situations have arisen.
At mile 5,000 I went ahead and swapped out the brake pads. Much easier to perform than you might think. Just remember to NOT squeeze the brake lever, as it will move the piston in the disc housing. Not a good thing. And, to my amazement, the original pads still had more than 50% pad remaining. By the way, here is the Tektro website information for this hydraulic brake system: tektro.com/products.php?p=242
Also, at 5,000 miles, I had to re-grease the front wheel hub bearings (loose bearings.. 18 in total-- 9 per side). Really an easy operation to complete. The secret is to only remove the 2 nuts on the NON-DISC side. The axle/bearings will fall out, you can clean, re-grease, install the loose bearings, insert the axle, and you will automatically have proper distance for the front fork droputs. Piece of cake, fer sure.
As for the rear wheel: I'm not sure how that will play out. I think it uses a sealed bearing system. It's kind of difficult to find any info on the rear hub wheel system upkeep/maintenance
stuff. M2S has an excellent video about replacing the rear hub motor, but a more complete dissertation involving the entire rear wheel system would have been a nice thing, too. Can you oil/grease the rear hub/axle assembly? Who knows? Onward and upward
The first week of February, I did a 57 mile ride. The following 8 rides were limited to 40 miles duration due to the biting cold temperatures (13 degrees when I departed.. 26 degrees when I arrived back at the condo). It was during that cold weather timeframe that I also noticed the battery power-remaning indicator was running down much quicker than on previous rides. I had always been able to do 60 mile rides and just be reduced down to “one bar” remaining. Now, I was getting “one bar” at 35 miles. This was occurring on a constant ride basis. So, I perused the internet. Sure enough, cold weather is NOT a friend to batterys. But damn, a 50% decrease sure seemed excessive.
Also, at this same general timeframe, I busted my butt exiting the parking lot of my condo complex while riding one of my grocery-getter ebikes. I either bruised or fractured my ribcage. Hurt like heck, too. So, off to WalMart for a compression wrap. Low and behold, while looking in the sporting goods section, I discovered the following: 8” wide Waist Trimmer (43” long), 10” wide Waist Trimmer (49” long), and numerous knee support braces. The good things about all of these items is that they are neoprene (a great insulater) AND they are very inexpensive (less that $10 for any of them). However, they are rather thin. But, that only requires the doubling over of the waist trimmer OR using 2 of them. They will easily wrap around the battery pack on the downtube AND the downtube itself. My 16ah battery measures 18” in length.So, I bought a couple of each of the 2 sizes of waist trimmer (I already had numerous knee support wraps). They work like a friggin' champ, too. As to their actually keeping the battery pack at a “proper” temperature is anybodies guess. I even inserted a long stemmed meat thermometer on a few rides so I could moniter battery pack/outside air temperatures. Nothing of substance to report. Maybe a hot/cold pack would help. I guess the neoprene “diapers” are more psychological than anything else. But, I thought I'd throw that info out there for you cold weather ebikers
As for the battery thing, I corresponded with M2S about same. They were always SUPER QUICK to respond to my emails-- usually on the very same day and never more than one day later. It was quickly determined that a warranty replacement battery would be the correct remedy. They could then test the original battery for whatever. So, it was done. As an aside; I never have had a need/reason to remove the battery pack since puchasing the KUSH on April 30, 2018. The bike is always parked in my living room and battery pack removal was never needed.
Anyway, during the course of my interaction with the M2S squad of hooligans, I actually formed a thought: Why don't I just go ahead and purchase another ebike and use that bikes battery as the “warranty replacement” battery on my Kush. I decided upon the All-Terrain 750W rear hub step-thru model. My goal was to have 100% interchangability of parts between the 2 bikes. After all, who knows how much longer the 6,328 mile rear hub motor is going to continue performing satisfactorily. Plus, I just wanted yet another toy. So, the deal was agreed to. M2S sent me 2 e-mails. The 1st one was verification of the deal. The 2nd one was the Order Form sealing the deal. For some reason, although I had looked through the M2S allTerrain website numerous times during the prior 18 months, I decided to once again look at the information/spec sheet for the newest bike. To my horror, I noticed that the step-thru model uses 24” fat tire wheels instead of 26” wheels. Deal breaker. There is one sentence, and only one sentence, mentioning the 24” wheel size on both the 750w step-thru AND at the 500w step-thru page. I think M2S needs to re-format their website to show the 2 Step-Thru bikes as a seperate entity with 24” wheels and the choice of colors and either 750w or 500w option. Easy as pie and certainly a more noticable difference. If I hadn't noticed the size difference and made the actual purchase, upon discovering the difference after opening the box, I would have packed eveything back up and shipped it back to M2S. The fact that I was out over $400 (total) for shipping was beside the point. I have 10 pair of 26” fat bike tires. No way in heck was I gonna go about purchasing 24” tires, too. So, I avoided a mine field, but only due to dumb luck.
So, I just recieved the warranty replacement battery 5 days ago and now I'm searching the world over for another BaFang rear hub wheelset with orange rims (I'm tired of black black black). Just goes to show you that it's always gonna be something. Duh.
Another item concerning battery packs: It does not know how fast your ebike can go. Nor how far per charge. It only knows that it is good for only so many re-charges before you need to buy a new ($500+) battery pack. So, if your ebike gets 30 miles per charge and my ebike get 60 miles per charge, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only who is coming out ahead-- way ahead.
Back to the Kush. So, at 6,328 miles, this dang bike is pretty much bullet proof. It just keeps on keeping on. The rear hub motor is as quiet and as efficient as it was back on mile 1. How much longer will my good fortune last? Only time will tell. But, I can tell you that this beast of an ebike was money very well spent. The fact that I can do, and want to do, a 50+ mile bike ride every day means that I will be out and about playing for 4-5 hours at a time. Life is good
As for my 3-tire combo recipe: I stumbled upon it at mile 2,500. I carried (in my CameBak) a spare fat tire inner tube, a patch kit, tire levers, four 16oz threaded CO2 cartridges, and an inflater nozzle head until mile 3,200 (700 miles later). At that time, I stopped carrying all those items because the chance of getting a flat seemed to be pretty much nil. Now, at 6,328 miles (a total of 3,828 miles later), still no flats/ loss of air pressure (25psi is my norm). I'd say my recipe is pretty much bulletproof. Try it, You'll like it.. YaHoo!
I cannot imagine another ebike (fat tire or otherwise) that is a better deal than the M2S models. I subscribe to Electric Bike Action magazine, as well as constantly peruse the internet checking out all the different ebike relasted stuff. It seems like my M2S Kush is always the best deal. And, if you don't want a dual-suspension setup, the 750W hard tail is the way to go ($200 cheaper, too)
On another note: Don't think of any fat tire ebike as a “heavy bicycle”-- think of it as a “lightweight motorcycle”. As for transporting one, you are NOT gonna be able to just throw these 60+ pound bikes into the back seat of the sedan. Or into the car trunk. Or up onto a roof rack. They are large. They are bulky. They are heavy. Even depositing one into a pickup truck bed is going to be a chore. Your best bet is to either own a van or use a rear hitch motorcycle rack: https://www.discountramps.com/folding-motorcycle-carrier/.
Even then, you need to pay 110% attention to the task at hand or you will end up with a 60+ pound ebike plopped on top of you. Ouch. Even my 2018 Xtreme(brand) Sedona (model) ebike https://journeybikes.com/products/x-treme-sedona-48-volt-electric-step-through-e-bike weighs in at 60 pounds. By the way, it has 2,803 miles on it since my Dec. 2017 purchase. However, it is so “lacking” (20mph top speed in throttle-only mode and a battery range only good for 25 miles per charge) that it has been relegated to “grocery getter” status. No fun, no fun at all. Again, you, the reader, can learn from MY mistakes when it comes to wading thru the ebike world.
https://electricbikereview.com/foru...-sensor-bottom-bracket-price-is-200-00.40097/
As of today, Jan 5th, it is a work-in-progress. It should make current M2S ebike owners really appreciate their very correct ebike purchase. I also realize that many potential ebike buyers cruise these forums as an aid in their search for the ideal ebike at the most practical price. They also need to be made aware of “brand service after the sale”, or lack/deception thereof. After all, an ebike purchase of $1,500+ is no small investment. You be the judge.)
on Jan 10, 2020: Since I now have numerous threads posted (sorry about that), I want to let viewers know their chronological sequence, thus every thread title will begin with (# ).
2018 KUSH at day 365 and mileage 6,328:
Well, on April 30, 2018, I took delivery of my Kush. Today is April 30, 2019. Wow!! At mile# 6,328 it is still a magnificent beast!! I am totally smitten with this wonderful toy. My goal is always to do a 50 mile ride every day. Some days I go 60 miles. Some days I go 0 miles (super bummer).
I am continuously amazed by how maintenance-free (overall) this ebike is. That is not to say that a few situations have arisen.
At mile 5,000 I went ahead and swapped out the brake pads. Much easier to perform than you might think. Just remember to NOT squeeze the brake lever, as it will move the piston in the disc housing. Not a good thing. And, to my amazement, the original pads still had more than 50% pad remaining. By the way, here is the Tektro website information for this hydraulic brake system: tektro.com/products.php?p=242
Also, at 5,000 miles, I had to re-grease the front wheel hub bearings (loose bearings.. 18 in total-- 9 per side). Really an easy operation to complete. The secret is to only remove the 2 nuts on the NON-DISC side. The axle/bearings will fall out, you can clean, re-grease, install the loose bearings, insert the axle, and you will automatically have proper distance for the front fork droputs. Piece of cake, fer sure.
As for the rear wheel: I'm not sure how that will play out. I think it uses a sealed bearing system. It's kind of difficult to find any info on the rear hub wheel system upkeep/maintenance
stuff. M2S has an excellent video about replacing the rear hub motor, but a more complete dissertation involving the entire rear wheel system would have been a nice thing, too. Can you oil/grease the rear hub/axle assembly? Who knows? Onward and upward
The first week of February, I did a 57 mile ride. The following 8 rides were limited to 40 miles duration due to the biting cold temperatures (13 degrees when I departed.. 26 degrees when I arrived back at the condo). It was during that cold weather timeframe that I also noticed the battery power-remaning indicator was running down much quicker than on previous rides. I had always been able to do 60 mile rides and just be reduced down to “one bar” remaining. Now, I was getting “one bar” at 35 miles. This was occurring on a constant ride basis. So, I perused the internet. Sure enough, cold weather is NOT a friend to batterys. But damn, a 50% decrease sure seemed excessive.
Also, at this same general timeframe, I busted my butt exiting the parking lot of my condo complex while riding one of my grocery-getter ebikes. I either bruised or fractured my ribcage. Hurt like heck, too. So, off to WalMart for a compression wrap. Low and behold, while looking in the sporting goods section, I discovered the following: 8” wide Waist Trimmer (43” long), 10” wide Waist Trimmer (49” long), and numerous knee support braces. The good things about all of these items is that they are neoprene (a great insulater) AND they are very inexpensive (less that $10 for any of them). However, they are rather thin. But, that only requires the doubling over of the waist trimmer OR using 2 of them. They will easily wrap around the battery pack on the downtube AND the downtube itself. My 16ah battery measures 18” in length.So, I bought a couple of each of the 2 sizes of waist trimmer (I already had numerous knee support wraps). They work like a friggin' champ, too. As to their actually keeping the battery pack at a “proper” temperature is anybodies guess. I even inserted a long stemmed meat thermometer on a few rides so I could moniter battery pack/outside air temperatures. Nothing of substance to report. Maybe a hot/cold pack would help. I guess the neoprene “diapers” are more psychological than anything else. But, I thought I'd throw that info out there for you cold weather ebikers
As for the battery thing, I corresponded with M2S about same. They were always SUPER QUICK to respond to my emails-- usually on the very same day and never more than one day later. It was quickly determined that a warranty replacement battery would be the correct remedy. They could then test the original battery for whatever. So, it was done. As an aside; I never have had a need/reason to remove the battery pack since puchasing the KUSH on April 30, 2018. The bike is always parked in my living room and battery pack removal was never needed.
Anyway, during the course of my interaction with the M2S squad of hooligans, I actually formed a thought: Why don't I just go ahead and purchase another ebike and use that bikes battery as the “warranty replacement” battery on my Kush. I decided upon the All-Terrain 750W rear hub step-thru model. My goal was to have 100% interchangability of parts between the 2 bikes. After all, who knows how much longer the 6,328 mile rear hub motor is going to continue performing satisfactorily. Plus, I just wanted yet another toy. So, the deal was agreed to. M2S sent me 2 e-mails. The 1st one was verification of the deal. The 2nd one was the Order Form sealing the deal. For some reason, although I had looked through the M2S allTerrain website numerous times during the prior 18 months, I decided to once again look at the information/spec sheet for the newest bike. To my horror, I noticed that the step-thru model uses 24” fat tire wheels instead of 26” wheels. Deal breaker. There is one sentence, and only one sentence, mentioning the 24” wheel size on both the 750w step-thru AND at the 500w step-thru page. I think M2S needs to re-format their website to show the 2 Step-Thru bikes as a seperate entity with 24” wheels and the choice of colors and either 750w or 500w option. Easy as pie and certainly a more noticable difference. If I hadn't noticed the size difference and made the actual purchase, upon discovering the difference after opening the box, I would have packed eveything back up and shipped it back to M2S. The fact that I was out over $400 (total) for shipping was beside the point. I have 10 pair of 26” fat bike tires. No way in heck was I gonna go about purchasing 24” tires, too. So, I avoided a mine field, but only due to dumb luck.
So, I just recieved the warranty replacement battery 5 days ago and now I'm searching the world over for another BaFang rear hub wheelset with orange rims (I'm tired of black black black). Just goes to show you that it's always gonna be something. Duh.
Another item concerning battery packs: It does not know how fast your ebike can go. Nor how far per charge. It only knows that it is good for only so many re-charges before you need to buy a new ($500+) battery pack. So, if your ebike gets 30 miles per charge and my ebike get 60 miles per charge, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only who is coming out ahead-- way ahead.
Back to the Kush. So, at 6,328 miles, this dang bike is pretty much bullet proof. It just keeps on keeping on. The rear hub motor is as quiet and as efficient as it was back on mile 1. How much longer will my good fortune last? Only time will tell. But, I can tell you that this beast of an ebike was money very well spent. The fact that I can do, and want to do, a 50+ mile bike ride every day means that I will be out and about playing for 4-5 hours at a time. Life is good
As for my 3-tire combo recipe: I stumbled upon it at mile 2,500. I carried (in my CameBak) a spare fat tire inner tube, a patch kit, tire levers, four 16oz threaded CO2 cartridges, and an inflater nozzle head until mile 3,200 (700 miles later). At that time, I stopped carrying all those items because the chance of getting a flat seemed to be pretty much nil. Now, at 6,328 miles (a total of 3,828 miles later), still no flats/ loss of air pressure (25psi is my norm). I'd say my recipe is pretty much bulletproof. Try it, You'll like it.. YaHoo!
I cannot imagine another ebike (fat tire or otherwise) that is a better deal than the M2S models. I subscribe to Electric Bike Action magazine, as well as constantly peruse the internet checking out all the different ebike relasted stuff. It seems like my M2S Kush is always the best deal. And, if you don't want a dual-suspension setup, the 750W hard tail is the way to go ($200 cheaper, too)
On another note: Don't think of any fat tire ebike as a “heavy bicycle”-- think of it as a “lightweight motorcycle”. As for transporting one, you are NOT gonna be able to just throw these 60+ pound bikes into the back seat of the sedan. Or into the car trunk. Or up onto a roof rack. They are large. They are bulky. They are heavy. Even depositing one into a pickup truck bed is going to be a chore. Your best bet is to either own a van or use a rear hitch motorcycle rack: https://www.discountramps.com/folding-motorcycle-carrier/.
Even then, you need to pay 110% attention to the task at hand or you will end up with a 60+ pound ebike plopped on top of you. Ouch. Even my 2018 Xtreme(brand) Sedona (model) ebike https://journeybikes.com/products/x-treme-sedona-48-volt-electric-step-through-e-bike weighs in at 60 pounds. By the way, it has 2,803 miles on it since my Dec. 2017 purchase. However, it is so “lacking” (20mph top speed in throttle-only mode and a battery range only good for 25 miles per charge) that it has been relegated to “grocery getter” status. No fun, no fun at all. Again, you, the reader, can learn from MY mistakes when it comes to wading thru the ebike world.
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