So far, lots of fun with my Frey Beast.

[khaoskosmos]

Hey Frey folk, I made an introduction post in the at subforum, but figured it would be create a thread here if anyone has any questions. There wasn't much material or videos available when I purchased mine.

It has been such a blast. I live in a rural area, so there are so many places to ride, including my property. I find that I rarely need much petal assist, this thing has so much torque!

I've gotten it pretty filthy a few times. I am also new to mountain biking in general. I haven't had any issues, but I'll try to add my experiences to this thread. I also plan to make a couple videos eventually since there isn't much on YouTube.

 

[DavidRvR]

I had one problem with my BEAST so far.. check the fingers on the battery receiver on the bike, the blades that stick up... Mine sank in the plastic housing and I lost all power.. when I pulled the battery I finally found the blades had been pushed down so they did not contact the battery at all... Fun part was it happened while I was riding and pulling the kids in a cart. Emergency pick up.. We still had a great ride of to that point.
The epoxy that holds the blades in had come loose under the housing.. Talked to frey and she told me to use some kind of Potting epoxy to pour over it again.. I stiffed it with hard foam for now.. The epoxy takes a few days to totally cure so I havnt done it yet but you need to keep an eye on it. Only time I remove my battery is to replace with a fully charged one so not much swapping...

I did an 18 mile ride yesterday towing the Thule cart with my grand daughter Some hills and some wind in your face... 76% battery left I havnt really tracked total Miles yet but It does well.

 

[khaoskosmos]

Looking good.
What range are you getting from the Ridiculously Fat Battery? @Stefan Mikes.
SUV?

I'll have to look at the estimate on my next ride. I'm pretty sure I've gone about 50 miles on one ride and still had range left. Zero range anxiety... But I'll check.

 

[khaoskosmos]

I was able to sneak a short ride in today. It rained recently, so I didn't venture far since I'm much too tired to scrub a mud mohawk off.

 

[greeno]

Nice lookin ride.
What does the bike weigh ready to ride?
What’s the ahr rating of your battery’s?
48 or 52v system?
And lastly can you run the bike with a single battery installed to reduce some weight?
Gracias

 

[smorgasbord]

It's great seeing more full-suspension eBikes with rear racks.
What's the rear rack weight limit, and how does loading it up affect handling?

 

[khaoskosmos]

Nice lookin ride.
What does the bike weigh ready to ride?
What’s the ahr rating of your battery’s?
48 or 52v system?
And lastly can you run the bike with a single battery installed to reduce some weight?
Gracias

60V system 24.5AH single battery. I think the max is 25 lbs on the rack, bike is like 70lbs (33.5kgs). I only have a few tools carried so far.

 

[Tom@WashDC]

Sweet, just picked up a Frey Savannah CC for my wife. They make a nice bike.

 

[RAB63]

Thank you for your posts. How’s the acceleration both while pedaling and with the throttle? That is a heavy bike with a lot of power. Do you feel like you can control the bike well? Is it jerky or smooth? Am also new to mountain biking so safety (i.e. Staying on the bike) is a top priority?

 

[Marko]

Is it possible to install longer mudguards on it

 

[Marko]

How loud is the motor?

 

[khaoskosmos]

Thank you for your posts. How’s the acceleration both while pedaling and with the throttle? That is a heavy bike with a lot of power. Do you feel like you can control the bike well? Is it jerky or smooth? Am also new to mountain biking so safety (i.e. Staying on the bike) is a top priority?

I'm almost always using pedal assist... The acceleration is fantastic to me. The power is very smooth too, matched to pedal effort. I can cruise right up steep hills on pedal assist 5 without much effort.

 

[khaoskosmos]

How loud is the motor?

How loud is the motor?

It's noticable... If I pedal gently, you can barely hear it. If I'm in pedal assist 5 and pedalling hard, it sounds just like a nice electric RC car.

I'm not sure about the mid guards... I don't see why not though. You have to figure out the mounting points.

 

[Marko]

Thanks for your replies. I´ve been considering getting this bike, but the possible lack of mudguard mounting points (I live in Finland where mud is constantly present) and possibly annoying motor whine have made me reconsider. I know you´ve had yours only a short while so you probably can´t comment but another thing that I wonder is how does the drivetrain take all that massive amount of torque ( was it 160 nM). I mean would I need to change the chain and the cassette every 1000 km

 

[khaoskosmos]

I did just change my chain, I have about 800 km. I really beat the crap out of my chain though, before I got the hang of what I was doing. I also crashed pretty good, no issue except bent hanger that I had to fix. The motor is almost silent depending on on PAS and gear... and I think the torque of the motor helps. When the RPMS get going on the motor, then you hear it much much more.

Frey has a couple lower power bikes, but I'm not those would cut it for me, the torque is too fun (even though I don't really rip it due to safety of others and fear of injury).

 

[khaoskosmos]

Update... After many punctured innertubes, I decided to go the tubeless route. I ordered 34mm WTB tape that I believe is just rebranded Tesa tape. After some research, I decided that 38mm would be better since there are holes near the edge of the rim, see pictures. I bought Gorilla Clear tape that I see recommended and cut it to size (see pics).

It would have been nice if I noticed that my front tire was NOT tubeless ready... so I'll have to wait a week for the Maxxis Rekon+ 29x2.8 EXO/TR that I ordered (wasted 120 ml of Orange Seal Endurance too, lame). Does anyone recommend a better tire? I went through 4 rear tubes and 1 in the front with the as equipped Rekons. I did miss a thorn that got me twice, but the life of the tires isn't impressive (to be fair, I don't have any frame of reference other than box store cheap bikes). The rear tire was beat up with quite a few tears (I do not ride on any crazy trails either, usually riding with my young daughter on her Woom Up). Speaking of the Woom Up, it has Schwalbe Rocket Rons and they have had zero issues thus far.

Edit Update:
So I did some googling and for a softer compound tire, I see that 500-1000 miles (805-1610 km) may be the life... I'm right in the middle of that on my Beast.

Deburring the outer holes, not sure why they would put holes that close to the sidewall.


Melting the tape for the schraeder valve hole.


Shraeder valves with de-coring tool cap, from Amazon (VeloTubes Premium 44mm)


Here is my death contraption to cut the tape to size. It worked great, but I also took care to not put myself in slicing danger by dragging the tape parallel to the blade. This way, if I slipped, my hands came towards me and not the blade.


One tire mounted, now to wait for the front tire to arrive. Hopefully it doesn't leak!


Edit: here are the original tires:

 

[khaoskosmos]

I use Black Gorilla tape water proof kind to seal the rims. I put Stan's race sealant, I choose Stan's for the crystal granules in the mixture on initial setup it has to be poured into the tires. I refresh it with regular Stan's sealant by injection when it needs, mostly when punctures are big enough that sealant has escape.
Cool bike.

Do you use the really thick Patch & Seal, or the All weather? I noticed that many people just say "Gorilla Tape", but there are quire a few different variants. I think most mean the black duct tape or the crystal clear:

I've also seen people using tape from Aliexpress (I will maybe try some), Kapton tape, and Tyvek tape. Of course there's using electrical tape, but there's better options. Thanks for the info on Stan's sealant... if I have issues I can give it a try. My tire is still good this morning, so there a bit of hope!

Waterproof Patch & Seal (this stuff looks VERY thick, like FlexSeal):


Black Gorilla Tape (this look like it has strands, like duct tape--I think many use this one):


Crystal Clear (I used this one, it's flexible for tensioning, not like packing tape--many also use this one):


Gorilla All Weather tape:

 

[juggernaut]

It appears your left hand brake lever activates your front brake, not your rear brake. Did you swap this over as this is different to mine?

Also your stem has 3 spacers under it, whereas mine has five. Perhaps due to a frame size difference - mine is XL.

 

[khaoskosmos]

It appears your left hand brake lever activates your front brake, not your rear brake. Did you swap this over as this is different to mine?

Also your stem has 3 spacers under it, whereas mine has five. Perhaps due to a frame size difference - mine is XL.

I do have a Large size frame. I did not swap my brake levers, it came that way... That's typically how they are in the US, right=rear brake (by law maybe).

 

[khaoskosmos]

Range Update: I forgot to share the update, but I did a 71 mile round trip on mostly PAS 1, raising the assist on some more difficult hills. This was before the flat tires, and I made it back with a tiny bit of juice left (barely).

Elevation of trip: