Chain jumping on Orbea Gain F40

[Lukejolyon]

Hi fellow Orbea-users/watchers.

I bought one of these great bikes in the UK in July this year and it has transformed my commute. However, after 4-5 months of use 5 days a week (over 1,000 miles) the chain has started to jump off the front chainset, specifically when I slow down in gear 9, usually when having ridden quite ‘hard’ on that gear, with a relatively rapid slowdown. This is all on the flat, during central London commuter journeys.

Advice so far is leaning towards a 'sticky' freehub and I am about to take it into my LBS for them to check this out. Worst case is I need a new rear motor (though the original suppliers has been v helpful and says if this is the case, warranty should not be a problem).

Anyway I wanted to ask this forum if anyone had heard of, or experienced, a similar problem, with this particular bike?

Thanks for any help,
Luke

 

[rich c]

How many times did you clean and lube the chain in the 1,000 miles? Same for the freewheel? Both need cleaning and lube. One the freewheel it's the internal bearing and ratchet pawls. If it's been jumping a lot, you might need a new freewheel/cassette and chainring. But not likely at 1,000 miles unless it's really been abused. You won't need a new motor, the freewheel threads onto the motor.

 

[Lukejolyon]

Thanks Rincon and Rich c. It's with LBS now. Chain is OK, apparently and they're looking at the freehub. I've lubed the chain and cassette with teflon a couple of times but not cleaned anything, but would have behaved the same way to all my previous (non electric) bikes - so am wondering if ebikes do need a bit more TLC than a normal bike?

That said, the LBS guy pointed out everything is running pretty smoothly (apart from the chain issue) and also - it definitely only has this problem in gear 9. That's why he thinks it's a freehub issue. He also pointed out something I had forgotten, which is that the bearings are now making a slightly 'gritty' noise when freewheeling - something they did not do before and which may have coincided with the chain issue starting.

Of course - it's all rather erratic. I rode it to the LBS at work from home this morning without the chain coming off once - but I was avoiding gear 9 more than I would have normally.

 

[Lukejolyon]

update for anyone interested...

Freehub has now been identified as the culprit. LBS are sending the whole wheel back to the retailer who holds the warranty, who will then potentially order a new freehub from Orbea.

All fine, except the whole thing is gonna take weeks, which is a bit frustrating as the owner of a 5-month old bike.....