Known Issues & Problems with Aventon Products + Help, Solutions, & Fixes

[FuriousATG]

Hi all, I have a Pace 500 and it is a love-hate relationship. I am wondering if anyone else has some thoughts.

My problem is not the low gears but the high ones. If I am on level ground and want to maintain a 25 mph plus speed, I have to pedal like a madman. I need 2 more gears so I can pedal at a normal pace and maintain speed. Is there any way I can add a gear or change gears?

Second, my kickstand does not keep the bike anywhere near upright, and it falls over every time I try to use it. I don't see any way to adjust it. I guess I can just get a new one.

I curse the bike every time I ride it because I need a higher gear. But it looks like a lot of electric bikes have 2 speeds. What is up with that?

Hey - this is an issue I've seen in other ebikes too, notably the Lectric XP Lite and the new REI Generation e bikes. With those bikes, the madman pedaling kicks in around 12-13 mph rather than 25.

Are you able to pretty comfortably do 20 mph without pedaling like a hamster on a wheel?

 

[Jason Knight]

the madman pedaling kicks in around 12-13 mph rather than 25.

This is precisely why I switched to a 53 tooth chainring on my Aventure.
The lowest ratio (46:32) was lower than I would ever possibly need -- especially with pedal assist -- whilst the high (46:12) had me around 20mph whipping my feet around like a maniac but not feeling like I was going anywhere.

And this does seem to be pretty common across e-bikes. They gear them like they were mountain bikes instead of e-bikes. I guess that makes sense since the drivetrain on them is just off the shelf parts.

The Aventure's stock 46:12-32 just feels like a mismatch of motor to rider for me. I'm tempted to see if it will take an 11-36 cassette. At 53:12 it still feels like there's a bit more "room" there for me to hammer down, and at 53:32 I may have gone a hair too far.

As with any bike though, it's all about dialing it in to the rider. We're not all the same and as the old rule goes "one size fits all fits nobody". That's the "flaw of averages" at work folks!

 

[Snoop]

Hey - this is an issue I've seen in other ebikes too, notably the Lectric XP Lite and the new REI Generation e bikes. With those bikes, the madman pedaling kicks in around 12-13 mph rather than 25.

Are you able to pretty comfortably do 20 mph without pedaling like a hamster on a wheel?

I have an Aventon 500 Pace v2, and find that pedaling feels very natural and comfortable at PAS 3-4, while traveling at 18 mph, and the bike in its second highest gear.

That‘s my Nirvana when I’m pedaling to work each day.

 

[Jason Knight]

I have an Aventon 500 Pace v2, and find that pedaling feels very natural and comfortable at PAS 3-4, while traveling at 18 mph, and the bike in its second highest gear.

That sounds about like PAS 3 on my Aventure after I upped to the 53 tooth chainring but before the cassette swap. Having now swapped out the cassette for 11-36 I now get a comfortable 18mph in 7th (53:13) with assist three, without it feeling like the bike is trying to "race out ahead of me". Same for PAS 4 at 24mph.

Hmm... In computer programing there's something called a "race condition". It's where asynchronous code -- aka "a bunch of things happening simultaneously" -- can resolve in a different order than it is declared. It confuses programmers who don't understand event handling and there's a whole slew of 'wah wah eye dunz wunna lurns" solutions -- like promises -- to get around it happening. One of the worst of these "races" relates to user input. For example if a user clicks on a button, and does so again and again before the first click resolves, the later clicks can delay the first or in some cases even finish before the first.

I'm wondering if the motor controller reading the cadence sensor are doing something similar. The "if feels like it's trying to race ahead of me when I'm holding a comfortable cadence" so you end up with zero resistance at the pedals could be caused by this. Or user input error. It's outputting more power than your peddling warrants "to you" so you try to "catch up to the motor". In trying to catch up you input a faster cadence making the motor go faster, so you can never actually "catch up". I would think rear hubs would be more prone to that since it's a cadence sensor, not torque. Probably even more of a problem with bikes like the Aventure where it seems like the ONLY thing the PAS levels change is the top speed, not the amount of power applied. Switching to lower gears only increasing your cadence and how much it wants to "race out in front of you".

I have noticed since I did the cassette swap that up at assist 5's newly available 36mph I have a comfortable medium cadence on the flat, but if I try to pedal faster or when going downhill it's almost like the motor acts as a brake forcing me to slow down. Back-charge on the motor akin to how regen works, just without the regen maybe? (or worse, perhaps with it pushing voltage a bad direction?!?) Up at 38mph downhill (I am in New Hampshire after all) you can really feel the motor pushing back against the speed, as if the rear brake is engaged when it clearly is not.

NOT that one should go that fast on what is still just a bicycle, but they said it was powerful. I wanted to see what it had.

 

[Snoop]

That sounds about like PAS 3 on my Aventure after I upped to the 53 tooth chainring but before the cassette swap. Having now swapped out the cassette for 11-36 I now get a comfortable 18mph in 7th (53:13) with assist three, without it feeling like the bike is trying to "race out ahead of me". Same for PAS 4 at 24mph.

Hmm... In computer programing there's something called a "race condition". It's where asynchronous code -- aka "a bunch of things happening simultaneously" -- can resolve in a different order than it is declared. It confuses programmers who don't understand event handling and there's a whole slew of 'wah wah eye dunz wunna lurns" solutions -- like promises -- to get around it happening. One of the worst of these "races" relates to user input. For example if a user clicks on a button, and does so again and again before the first click resolves, the later clicks can delay the first or in some cases even finish before the first.

I'm wondering if the motor controller reading the cadence sensor are doing something similar. The "if feels like it's trying to race ahead of me when I'm holding a comfortable cadence" so you end up with zero resistance at the pedals could be caused by this. Or user input error. It's outputting more power than your peddling warrants "to you" so you try to "catch up to the motor". In trying to catch up you input a faster cadence making the motor go faster, so you can never actually "catch up". I would think rear hubs would be more prone to that since it's a cadence sensor, not torque. Probably even more of a problem with bikes like the Aventure where it seems like the ONLY thing the PAS levels change is the top speed, not the amount of power applied. Switching to lower gears only increasing your cadence and how much it wants to "race out in front of you".

I have noticed since I did the cassette swap that up at assist 5's newly available 36mph I have a comfortable medium cadence on the flat, but if I try to pedal faster or when going downhill it's almost like the motor acts as a brake forcing me to slow down. Back-charge on the motor akin to how regen works, just without the regen maybe? (or worse, perhaps with it pushing voltage a bad direction?!?) Up at 38mph downhill (I am in New Hampshire after all) you can really feel the motor pushing back against the speed, as if the rear brake is engaged when it clearly is not.

NOT that one should go that fast on what is still just a bicycle, but they said it was powerful. I wanted to see what it had.

Odd thing…..I just got my Pace 500 back from the bike shop where they were working on the brake pads and rotors

Since getting it back, I notice that I am over pedaling the motor a bit. In other words, I usually ride on PAS 4 with the gear on the second highest setting. This usually gives me a natural comfortable pedaling experience. Since getting it back, with the bike on the same settings, it feels like the bike is a little too easy to pedal and I feel like my feet are trying to “catch up” with the bike a bit.

Is there anything you think they might have done which could cause that? Anything related to chain tension, etc?

 

[Jason Knight]

Is there anything you think they might have done which could cause that? Anything related to chain tension, etc?

Big one that comes to mind is maybe your derailleur was out of whack, so "you keep on using that gear. I dunno think it means what gear you think it means.". If the index adjustment were off an entire gear width (or enough to force the shift), that could mess you up a bit. Does the highest gear now feel like what the second-to used to?

Actually no, that would mean you'd have one less gear at the top now if it was that far off... I now (didn't used to) whenever I take the rear wheel off do a derailleur alignment, so that's the first thing I think of.

Hmm, proper alignment / lubrication wouldn't have that big an impact on delivered power I wouldn't think... If you needed brake work maybe the rear brake was dragging and somehow sucking down more motor power? That's a wild guess and likely not it.

In the highest gear / smallest cog is the bike now faster or slower? Were you running it unlocked / speed adjusted before? No, you said same settings so I assume that's what you mean. I wonder if they screwed up your derailleur like my LBS would? I'd elevate the bike and test to see if it's delivering the full range of cogs across all gears. Maybe instead of adjusting it, they messed it up -- which can happen inadvertently. As I've said there's a reason normal people don't trust derailleurs and end up "afraid" to even shift. You do ANYTHING to the back-end you make sure it's still adjusted right.

Hell, given my distrust for derailleurs I'd suggest double checking it at least every 200 miles. Again, cannot sing the praises of Park Tools instructional videos for stuff like that.
I'm not too familiar with the Pace, I've seen one in person and... that's about it. This is my third e-bike (after two returns of another brand) and I'm playing catchup on bike tech after a two decade hiatus.

But with my Aventure bone stock assist 4 and 5 did race out from under me easily, and why I fast-tracked the planned chainring and crankset swap. I almost pulled the ones off my old cruiser out of impatience with the shipping. PAS 4 and 5 delivered a max of 20mph and 32mph "unlocked" and with the chainring and cassette swap they're now giving me 22 and 35 respectively with no more of it "applying more power than I'm pedaling" since my cadence is lowered in the same gears. Thus assist 2 in 5th gives me a "Safe" 10mph for more crowded routes at a very leisurely pace at the pedals. It also seems to have given me about 10% more range on the battery since I'm now able to apply more muscle across the entire power and gear range.

Flat out stock in assist 5 zipping up/down route 12 here from Keene NH to Troy and back (11 miles) left me with 5% power round trip. After the swap I'm not just going 3mph faster, I'm also ending up with around 12% battery left. Up a "rail trail" that in assist 3 left me at 50% power remaining (at 18mph), I'm now seeing around 60% (at 20mph).

It's all about "wattage" and if the motor is "racing ahead of you", you're using all the motor's wattage and none of your own. And it's why turning down the motor just means not using the bike to its full potential. If it has more power available, use it instead of neutering it.

Really though that's the only two things I can think of that would/should change that without changing out the cogs. The derailleur being set different -- be it properly set now or out of whack by accident -- or they mucked with the controller settings. That said it was my experience that with the Aventure PAS3 and up tended to race out in front of me even in the highest gear, so if your Pace wasn't I'd assume something was actually wrong with it.

But again, I'm no expert on the motor controller side -- even if things like the lack of strain reliefs on cables and exposed wiring on the belly are leaving me unimpressed. -- and playing catchup on the mechanicals. Still learning. Even though it would crush me financially, I've been thinking on picking up a mid-drive just to learn the differences.

Might do it as a DIY. Probably throw my video card fund at that since it sounds like nVidia are going to be dirtbags and delay the 4000 series launch to milk post-crypto crash overstock, Intel's ARC sounds dead in the water, and AMD's stock for anything better than what I have is a joke.

I dunno, it's that or fast-track my plan to build a camper trailer for the bike.

 

[Snoop]

Big one that comes to mind is maybe your derailleur was out of whack, so "you keep on using that gear. I dunno think it means what gear you think it means.". If the index adjustment were off an entire gear width (or enough to force the shift), that could mess you up a bit. Does the highest gear now feel like what the second-to used to?

Actually no, that would mean you'd have one less gear at the top now if it was that far off... I now (didn't used to) whenever I take the rear wheel off do a derailleur alignment, so that's the first thing I think of.

Hmm, proper alignment / lubrication wouldn't have that big an impact on delivered power I wouldn't think... If you needed brake work maybe the rear brake was dragging and somehow sucking down more motor power? That's a wild guess and likely not it.

In the highest gear / smallest cog is the bike now faster or slower? Were you running it unlocked / speed adjusted before? No, you said same settings so I assume that's what you mean. I wonder if they screwed up your derailleur like my LBS would? I'd elevate the bike and test to see if it's delivering the full range of cogs across all gears. Maybe instead of adjusting it, they messed it up -- which can happen inadvertently. As I've said there's a reason normal people don't trust derailleurs and end up "afraid" to even shift. You do ANYTHING to the back-end you make sure it's still adjusted right.

Hell, given my distrust for derailleurs I'd suggest double checking it at least every 200 miles. Again, cannot sing the praises of Park Tools instructional videos for stuff like that.
I'm not too familiar with the Pace, I've seen one in person and... that's about it. This is my third e-bike (after two returns of another brand) and I'm playing catchup on bike tech after a two decade hiatus.

But with my Aventure bone stock assist 4 and 5 did race out from under me easily, and why I fast-tracked the planned chainring and crankset swap. I almost pulled the ones off my old cruiser out of impatience with the shipping. PAS 4 and 5 delivered a max of 20mph and 32mph "unlocked" and with the chainring and cassette swap they're now giving me 22 and 35 respectively with no more of it "applying more power than I'm pedaling" since my cadence is lowered in the same gears. Thus assist 2 in 5th gives me a "Safe" 10mph for more crowded routes at a very leisurely pace at the pedals. It also seems to have given me about 10% more range on the battery since I'm now able to apply more muscle across the entire power and gear range.

Flat out stock in assist 5 zipping up/down route 12 here from Keene NH to Troy and back (11 miles) left me with 5% power round trip. After the swap I'm not just going 3mph faster, I'm also ending up with around 12% battery left. Up a "rail trail" that in assist 3 left me at 50% power remaining (at 18mph), I'm now seeing around 60% (at 20mph).

It's all about "wattage" and if the motor is "racing ahead of you", you're using all the motor's wattage and none of your own. And it's why turning down the motor just means not using the bike to its full potential. If it has more power available, use it instead of neutering it.

Really though that's the only two things I can think of that would/should change that without changing out the cogs. The derailleur being set different -- be it properly set now or out of whack by accident -- or they mucked with the controller settings. That said it was my experience that with the Aventure PAS3 and up tended to race out in front of me even in the highest gear, so if your Pace wasn't I'd assume something was actually wrong with it.

But again, I'm no expert on the motor controller side -- even if things like the lack of strain reliefs on cables and exposed wiring on the belly are leaving me unimpressed. -- and playing catchup on the mechanicals. Still learning. Even though it would crush me financially, I've been thinking on picking up a mid-drive just to learn the differences.

Might do it as a DIY. Probably throw my video card fund at that since it sounds like nVidia are going to be dirtbags and delay the 4000 series launch to milk post-crypto crash overstock, Intel's ARC sounds dead in the water, and AMD's stock for anything better than what I have is a joke.

I dunno, it's that or fast-track my plan to build a camper trailer for the bike.

Thanks for all of your thoughts, Jason! I appreciate it.

Right now, riding in the highest gear feels more like riding in the second highest used to feel like. Even that feels like it’s trying to get ahead of me just a smidge.

I’ll check out the derailleur and make sure the chain is hopping onto the proper cogs. I did mention to them that I was getting a squeak from the derailleur when I pedaled, so maybe they did tinker with it (it still squeaks …..*eyeroll*)

 

[nwwoods]

When did you test ride it?

Aventon posted some change to their software/controller for this over a year ago that might address your concern.

Aventon Upgrades: Controller Programming & Throttle on Demand

Aventon has released two major modifications to all of our electric bike product line. Learn more and how you can modify your existing Aventon ebike with the new features.

www.aventon.com

Before, the throttle wouldn't work unless you started pedaling, now it does.

And the assist at PAS 1 or 2 is not as abrupt as it used to be.

I just got a Soltera but haven't ridden it enough to see if there was a delay... I'll check later this week.

Note that the throttle on the Soltera only works if you are NOT in PAS 0 **and** you are NOT pedaling. As soon as you start pedaling, the throttle cuts out. Assist seems consistent with other e-bikes to me.

 

[scottsdalecommuter]

Note that the throttle on the Soltera only works if you are NOT in PAS 0 **and** you are NOT pedaling. As soon as you start pedaling, the throttle cuts out. Assist seems consistent with other e-bikes to me.

I'd be curious to test ride a Soltera single speed to see how it feels. I've been really happy with my other e-bike which is the Rad Mission single speed, I find it very relaxing to ride and the shorter chain length feels really nice. It also coasts a lot nicer than my Aventon Pace 500. I can't think of many times I've used the throttle while pedaling except for when I'm messing around and want to zip to a higher speed quickly. During a normal ride, the only time I use the throttle is at stop lights to start because it's much safer and more controlled than pedaling to start and then it jumping forward when assist kicks on. The Rad Mission is on sale for $900 right now and Soltera is $1300 so I'd be curious why I'd spend the extra $400 for very comparable bike.

 

[BigNerd]

If you don't mind the single-speed, non-integrated battery and heavier weight, the RadMission is a bargain at $900 vs $1300 because it has a more powerful motor and disc brakes.

I prefer a 7-speed and if Rad made a light multi-speed, I might consider that instead.

 

[scottsdalecommuter]

If you don't mind the single-speed, non-integrated battery and heavier weight, the RadMission is a bargain at $900 vs $1300 because it has a more powerful motor and disc brakes.

I prefer a 7-speed and if Rad made a light multi-speed, I might consider that instead.

RIP Rad Mission now that it's discontinued, great simple bike and hope they are just updating it. I will often take my wife's for my morning commute because I love the natural feel of pedaling it so much and absolutely love that it has no display and allows me just to enjoy the scenery.

 

[dougo13]

More continuing woes with my Level v1. Yesterday, one of the support bars on the saddle snapped! Never had that happen on a bike before. I dont weight alot, at 160 pounds so it was a surprise. Going to have to check out a new one unless this can also be replaced under warranty. The metal on the seat seems flimsy, like a cheap Walmart bike, not something that set me back almost 4 Grand CAD. I dunno. Can the bar be replaced? I looked at the seat with a magnifier and it looks like the bars are screwed in, so maybe. Still, the seat is uncomfortable on long rides.

Still waiting for the bike shop to get in my replacement instrument panel and HD brake shoes. Its been several weeks now.

Wondering what else is going to go wrong with this bike and if I should be looking at a replacement after only a year of use...

 

[JuicePower]

More continuing woes with my Level v1. Yesterday, one of the support bars on the saddle snapped! Never had that happen on a bike before. I dont weight alot, at 160 pounds so it was a surprise. Going to have to check out a new one unless this can also be replaced under warranty. The metal on the seat seems flimsy, like a cheap Walmart bike, not something that set me back almost 4 Grand CAD. I dunno. Can the bar be replaced? I looked at the seat with a magnifier and it looks like the bars are screwed in, so maybe. Still, the seat is uncomfortable on long rides.

Still waiting for the bike shop to get in my replacement instrument panel and HD brake shoes. Its been several weeks now.

Wondering what else is going to go wrong with this bike and if I should be looking at a replacement after only a year of use...

I am heavier and after enough bumps, 2 weeks ago a saddle bar bent. Shortly after the Level was new, the "weld' on the seat post and the bracket above it failed and the seat could rotate and the saddle could be lifted up. They do not stock parts very well at all.