Izip E3 path plus trouble

J

Jdgolf60

New Member
[important update] The issue with this motor was discovered and has been addressed by Currie Technologies. Magnets were coming loose based on glue quality. If anyone else has the issue please see the PDF description and official response in this thread which will help you get a replacement.

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Just got the path plus today. Charged it and took it for a ride. After about 10 miles the motor started making a grinding type noise and I could not pedal the bike. I walked the bike a bit and it ran fine again.

Towards the end of my ride I used level 4 assist and tried to ride as fast as I could on level road, I was shifting gears at this point and the grinding came back. I did get up to 24mph so I thought maybe because I got over 20 mph the controller kicked in.

My dealer where I purchased the bike is forty miles away so I called Currietech. They believe it was just the way I was shifting gears. I took the bike for a ride without the battery and it seemed to shift fine.

Anyone else have an issue like this? This is not my first ebike but my other one is a Giant Esuede.
 
Interesting, that sounds very odd to me because the Path+ uses a direct drive motor. There's nothing inside to grind... just magnets. Could you shoot a short video with your phone and upload it to YouTube so we could better understand what's going on?
 
Larry will help you get it sorted out, he's the CEO of Currie and a really great guy. It sounds like the derailleur though, because as Court mentioned it's direct drive so there's no gears inside to make noise. You might want to have a local bike shop check out the derailleur if it's convenient though.
 
Court said:
Interesting, that sounds very odd to me because the Path+ uses a direct drive motor. There's nothing inside to grind... just magnets. Could you shoot a short video with your phone and upload it to YouTube so we could better understand what's going on?
Click to expand...

It has been raining/ sleeting here in central PA. I will try to get a video with noise when I can.
Up until I had this issue though it is a sweet bike. I am sure they will take care of the problem.
Thanks for all the quick responses.
 
Cool! Thanks for sharing here and I hope it all works out for you, IZIP offers great support :)
 
Larry and his team along with Martin's bike shop took care of everything.
The bike shop could not replicate my problem but Currie replaced the rear wheel anyway.
I am amazed how fast the bike gets up to speed. On level ground in assist mode four it is very easy to be going 23-25 MPH.

I went to my local pharmacy and back and the fact that I live in a city it really is as quick as driving my car, perhaps even faster.

Now to get more businesses with bike racks.
 
:eek:
Jdgolf60 said:
It has been raining/ sleeting here in central PA. I will try to get a video with noise when I can.
Up until I had this issue though it is a sweet bike. I am sure they will take care of the problem.
Thanks for all the quick responses.
Click to expand...
I have ridden the E3 Dash at my local bike shop. It is a fun, cool bike and very well valued.

However, the incicdent above reminds me of a bulletin Optibike put out in 2008. "5 things your should know before you buy an electric bike." Item #1 - Electricity, Water and You. It's a splash of fresh water in the face. Some of these bikes will run awesome if you live in California and the Southwest, with arid climates.

Riding reguarly in wet weather, something to think about.
 

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@Bike_On - Thank you for posting OB's promotional piece. While good information and valid on many fronts, it smacks of throwing everyone else under the bus from a reliability standpoint and pats themselves on the back as being the best. Perhaps at one point in the development of North American eBikes this was true, but much has changed in recent years with a number of high quality and reliable products available to the market. All of our bikes (as well as some of our top competitors) are fully tested in abusive, real world weather conditions for reliability. With that said, things do sometimes happen and when they do, there is no substitute for a strong dealer network and a strong company to support and back up the product.
 
Larry Pizzi said:
@Bike_On - Thank you for posting OB's promotional piece. While good information and valid on many fronts, it smacks of throwing everyone else under the bus from a reliability standpoint and pats themselves on the back as being the best. Perhaps at one point in the development of North American eBikes this was true, but much has changed in recent years with a number of high quality and reliable products available to the market. All of our bikes (as well as some of our top competitors) are fully tested in abusive, real world weather conditions for reliability. With that said, things do sometimes happen and when they do, there is no substitute for a strong dealer network and a strong company to support and back up the product.
Click to expand...

Larry,

I posted the Optibike piece from 2008 because they were spot on then, and way ahead of most ebike offerings when it came to real life quality. Granted, many companies have made huge steps to improve quality, with IZIP being one that needed to the most, and they appear to have done that. All the IZIP/EFlow I have seen in person and ridden have at least a good base line level on ebike componentry and engineering. Seeing that you are the president of IZIP, and an active member on a thread about your product, I'll give you a pass to any promotional defensiveness on your part.

The title of the thread is "IZIP E3 path plus trouble". We have here, one bike that had trouble in foul weather. I pointed to a 6 year old design model that warns people about weather and electric drive. You correctly state quality has improved since 2008. The issue is a 2014 model however. The proof is in the future as these bikes get bought and tested, with reports and statistic gathered. Will you be willing to post back here and give us stats on # of bikes sold vs warranty claims due to weather?

In 2014, the OB piece is obviously dated, and I expected readers to parse that out. Their claim that a hub drive cannot be trusted is a bit overstated. Still, if riding 25-30mph and a bike hits uneven road, the "unsprung" weight issue is to be considered. Everything else in the OB piece is neutral to the Optibike model: Weather, gears more efficient on hills, need for good brakes for ebike speeds, safety with lighting, and real range stats. These attributes should be desired by all ebike riders.

Full discloure: I was an Optibike rider for 5 years. I now ride a hub design. The 5 years of commuting and 12,000 miles of real world riding does give me confidence if I post a comment and compare to an Optibike standard or product. In many ways, Optibike set a high standard, and many people on forums often compare to their offerings.

BTW, I really am impressed with the E3 Dash and hope to ride a Peak. The 48V offering is bold and advanced for OEMs. The prices points are very, very good. The speed and power make them a mid-high performance commuter/road offering in my book.

I think this web site and multi-forum is very progressive and cool. While the Endless Sphere forum seems to be the go-to for DIY designs, the EBR forums are comprehensive for OEMs. Court is doing a fantastic job and promoting the industry and science. However, I CAUTION readers to be more objective about these reviews and comparative conclusions. The video and write ups consistently show the good/bad of ebike designs in general. With almost all rating given a 4, 4.5 or 5, it is difficult to determine the value of one bike over an other. I suppose what counts is that a 4-5 means the bike is ok to buy. Whether you like it or not will be personal. Most people will adjust to the bike's negatives, unless their is poor reliability, and end up loving their purchase, sometimes more than they should.
 
Related issue:

That said, I have spoken with Court and called him out on his selection of the top 10 ebike companies. These are purely his best judgement and choice, and I respect that.

I questioned how Haibike (an IZIP affiliate, wink, wink Larry) can be selected when I do not think they have sold a single bike in the USA as of Jan 1 2014, that I know of. Everything is on back order or being shipped over to the US. While the Optibike company has existed since 2006 and survived! That is a feat in itself for an ebike industry evolving from 2000-2014. Their products are quality, expensive, and still progressing and expanding. Court is welcome to expound upon his reply, but his thoughts were that OB technology felt dated, while the big box, shorter design cycles of a big company (IZIP/Haibike) allow for quality and impovements to advance faster, and make it a better company. I get that, but the company is being promoted based more on their business model than their product, which doesn't exist yet in the USA, BTW. To me, that is absurd to say this new, big (Accell Group), German made, mid-drive ebike company (yet to sell a bike in US) is a better than a small, US company making one of the highest performance mid-drive bikes, surviving a gruelling ebike market for 8 years. My sense and fear is that EBR web site will favor and promote the big boys (BH- easy motion, IZIP) and EBR becomes a marketing site for the big box companies. While the small market companies are given equal reviews , the sheer variety of IZIP, Easy Motion, Haibike, Bionx-offerings, and Pedego appear to promote superiority from choice, rather than superiority from performance and known reliability. My 2C.

Keep the reviews coming. We all enjoy them.
 
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There is no way someone reviewing new bikes could know how the company and its products will fare in the hands of the marketplace and the consumer. Court can only judge what he's presented with, and the industry is far too young in USA and Europe to know who's really servcing the customer.

We still don't know if the powerhouses, Giant and Hero Cycles, will get serious about the EBike business.. I think they are waiting til it becomes large enough, then step in and take over.... Hero bought Ultramotor and is just selling warmed over models at this point.

Otherwise it could be the smaller companies like Trek and Specialized that might find their own space.

Once that happens Optibike and these other small companies will be completely outgunned in engineering and manufacturing..High end companies like BMC will find their Stromers no long able to compete as well.

Next 5 years should be very interesting.
 
Bike_On, thanks for the constructive dialog in both of your previous comments. You're right, not only is there a higher volume of Accell and Easy Motion bikes but they are also sponsors of this site and I am constantly trying to present balanced, objective viewpoints while dealing with exposure bias. Your feedback here is appreciated and it's neat to hear about your Optibike experience. Their track record in the space is impressive, especially considering these early days.

You make a good point regarding the number of highly rated bikes here. The technology is improving and I try to factor in the time a bike is released as well as how it performs. It's also wonderful to have real world feedback in comments and the forums. I love that Larry chimes in as well. I thought you made a good point when you said "Most people will adjust to the bike's negatives, unless their is poor reliability, and end up loving their purchase, sometimes more than they should."
 
Court,

I appreciate your full disclosure that Accell and Easy Motion are sponsors of this site. If so, they do in fact deserve a full review of their models.

Exposure bias can be a challenge, but I will say that you do give a fair review on all models that you report on. I think your challenge, Court, is that your're a nice guy, and you like almost everything as an ebike enthusiast, or at least you find some good in the bikes. That's a compliment.

When it comes to promotion, perhaps the paradigm should be, "This is what this bike can do" rather than "this bike is better than X, Y, Z". If one is comparing specific applications, like hard mountain riding, than you can respectfully say Bike X will have better performance than Bike Y. I am ok with that, but the use must be specific. By reporting, "What the bike can do": It can go 25 miles on hills, top speed is 30mph with hard effort, the bike's throttle is touchy, smooth, etc., the reader gets a good sense of how it will perform for their application. Secondly, since many of your test rides are short and you may not have real world data on range, speed, etc, the need to give some granularity to the quality of workmanship and components is important so the reader can assess a cost/value judgement. Just some thoughts.

It is a lot of work, and we all appreciate your efforts!

Bike On
 
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I like to know Court's thoughts on the bike and how it compares to others. Otherwise he can just list the specs in print and be done. I think Court's videos are great and will get better. After Court, there is huge drop off in quality video and written reviews on ebikes.

I've never done these types of reviews but I'm all over them when researching. They look very time consuming. One of the best reviewers of anything is Alex on Autos. That's a guy I'd model if I were to become a reviewer.

Here is a review on a Lexus for example:

 
JoePah said:
There is no way someone reviewing new bikes could know how the company and its products will fare in the hands of the marketplace and the consumer. Court can only judge what he's presented with, and the industry is far too young in USA and Europe to know who's really servcing the customer.

We still don't know if the powerhouses, Giant and Hero Cycles, will get serious about the EBike business.. I think they are waiting til it becomes large enough, then step in and take over.... Hero bought Ultramotor and is just selling warmed over models at this point.

Otherwise it could be the smaller companies like Trek and Specialized that might find their own space.

Once that happens Optibike and these other small companies will be completely outgunned in engineering and manufacturing..High end companies like BMC will find their Stromers no long able to compete as well.

Next 5 years should be very interesting.
Click to expand...

Joe,

You have a sad, but interesting thesis, that the big guys will out perform and out sell the little upstarts and put them under. Very possible...it happens in other markets too.

The next 5 years will bring change. Technology is making the electric drive chaeper, lighter and perfrom better. Larry Pizzi from Currie was interviewed by Pete Prebus, and he gave a good forward look at how the business is changing. The other wild card is Oil and Transportation. Will they move to support infrastructure and use of the personal electric vehicle?

My previous posts toward "rating ebike companies" was about who exists now, and are doing a good service and offering a good product(s) to the market. I think the Haibike is going to make an impact and looks very cool, they are just not in the US yet and don't deserve a ranking. These kind of things influence people in their shopping decisions, no? While I don't know the volume Optibike sells, or the criteria needed to be considered a viable top 10 company, my take is that any ebike company that has existed since 2004 and is still doing good business, must be doing something right and should be supported.

Look at all the ones who folded or not been overly successful: Schwinn - tailwind, Currie - got re-invested and revamped, Wavecrest, Emotion Systems - E+, Giant - older models, Charger, Ultra, Rayos, RMartin, Prima, Urban, multiple lead acid offering companies and battery affiliates. I think most of these failed because they were: too slow (under powered), and too cheap and unreliable, and too heavy. The market too, is/was still immature. Optibike, then Stealth, now Currie have ridden thru that timeline.
 
I always appreciate your thorough and insightful posts Bike_On and I'll keep the tips on reviewing in mind. The site is growing and many companies are now receptive to working with me and providing more time and background for reviews. When I started out I would visit shops and sometimes even go on Craigslist and pay people who were selling their ebikes used to let me test them. Today I'm driving around the country (sleeping in my car or with friends) to get a hands on perspective of each bike. I don't always get the details right but the encouragement and tips here go a long way to motivate me. Also, you guys are great at digging in and sharing the bits I miss which is great :)
 
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