Evelo Orion Comments

[Tom R]

I found this Evelo site lacking in information about their bikes provided by current owners. Thought I would offer my comments as I learn more about my Orion bike. So far about 160 miles logged. No real problems to note other than a couple of minor issues. Here are a couple of my first observations.

1. Evelo suggests having your new bike checked out by a local dealer. Good idea as I found that the front wheel bearing needed grease and several spokes were lose.
2. The Orion has a large frame and I found that at 5'-8" tall, I was leaning over way too far. Modified the raiser, stem and seat attachment to shorten the reach to the handlebars. Works fine now but would be marginal for someone shorter than 5'-8". I understand that a smaller frame model will be available sometime next year which should help shorter riders.
3. The Velo seat that comes with the bike is very comfortable.
4. The battery must be unplugged from the bike for charging.
5. I got 45 mileson a single charge using almost exclusively PAS 1. That level gives me about 10-11 mph.
6. Compared to my Trex 7100, the bike rides a little hard. Might consider a spring loaded seat support.
7. The wheel diameter should be set to 28" on the display unit rather than the 700 which is the actual tire size. The manufacturer of the display confirms this setting.

Will see how I do with using only PAS for the next charge.

 

[Gerund Gee]

I have been having so many issues with this bike since trying to use it as a commuter a few months ago. First, the rear rack that held the battery started to fall apart and break at the welds and needed a jury-rigged set up by the bike mechanic to hold it together. Then, the rear wheel started popping spokes, like 2-3 spokes every ride or two, and required a full rebuild of that wheel with a different rim (the bike mechanic was perplexed that such an expensive bike didn't have hand-laced spokes). Circa this morning, after sinking even more money in, the pedal broke clean off, on the first day of spring weather. The company was responsive to e-mail but would not cover any repair or replacement of what to me seems like an obvious manufacturing flaw.

 

[Al P]

Gerund, I am surprised that you are experiencing so many problems, and that the company is not responding positively. Is your bike still under warranty? Evelo just announced that they are offering a limited four year/20,000 mile frame, battery(pro-rated), motor, controller, and display warranty on all bikes purchased since January of this year. They would have to be pretty well-built to make that offer.