Known Issues & Problems with Lectric eBikes Products + Help, Solutions & Fixes

[RobK]

I think they used the cheapest LG battery cells and that's why you see so much battery sag. Looking at the battery it looks like 13s4p configuration. Leaves one cell they could use . LG M26 2600mAh which is good for low amp applications , under 10A. 4 batteries in parallel will get 40A max. Controller is limited at 18A max so when you need a lot power and battery is full the bar will drop to 50% . When battery is at 75% and with full power the bar can drop even to 10%.
I would have to open the battery to confirm all of this.

 

[jsandoval68]

The things that rattle on this bike when new are the fenders and the battery, tighten all screws and I was told that if you stick a strip of duct tape on the side of the battery the rattle will stop. I have yet to try this, but it makes sense. I will try and report back.

 

[Bart-Mar]

Big problem! Now my bike won't turn on. To start, my odometer was wrong. I contacted Lectric Bikes through their web page & was simply emailed the proper settings & told to check them. Mine were all correct & the individual that sent the specs. to me didn't reply with anything when I told him they were correct. So I called their CS & a different individual said he'd do some research & get back to me. 8 days later after no return call, I called & got a different individual. I explained my problem (again) & he didn't know about any odometer problems, then mentioned that he thought he recalled reading something on their facebook page where someone changed the wheel setting from 20 to 25 to compensate for a bad odometer reading. So he suggested I check their facebook page. Great customer service!

Well, I'm not on facebook so I did a google search & found this forum. Yesterday I read most of this thread & today I changed my tire size to 25.0 & that got me pretty close to having an accurate odometer. I tried settings between 25.0 & 25.4, it looks like 25.0 or 25.1 get me the most accurate. Naturally my speedo is off now, I think it was off a bit even before changing P06 but at 25 it's way off. I thought I'd read here that changing P18 would compensate for fudging the wheel size & correct the speedo so I set it to 90 as a trial but when I turned the bike off & on then rechecked my settings, my wheel size (P06) was now something like 16.00. I tried to get it back to 25.0 but every arrow click resulted in a different setting, none close to 20.0 or 25.0. I turned the bike off thinking that it might just need rebooting but now it just comes on for a flash, then goes off - no power at all even though the battery had shown nearly a full charge when I last saw the display.

Now I'm charging the battery in the hope that it was lower than the display showed & that I can get it operational again. But it seems clear to me that changing P18 from 100 to 90 was a bad move. If charging the battery doesn't get the display back I'm going to be forced to call CS again even though they've been useless so far. Hopefully someone here has some idea!

 

[AnotherBoomer]

Big problem! Now my bike won't turn on. To start, my odometer was wrong. I contacted Lectric Bikes through their web page & was simply emailed the proper settings & told to check them. Mine were all correct & the individual that sent the specs. to me didn't reply with anything when I told him they were correct. So I called their CS & a different individual said he'd do some research & get back to me. 8 days later after no return call, I called & got a different individual. I explained my problem (again) & he didn't know about any odometer problems, then mentioned that he thought he recalled reading something on their facebook page where someone changed the wheel setting from 20 to 25 to compensate for a bad odometer reading. So he suggested I check their facebook page. Great customer service!

Well, I'm not on facebook so I did a google search & found this forum. Yesterday I read most of this thread & today I changed my tire size to 25.0 & that got me pretty close to having an accurate odometer. I tried settings between 25.0 & 25.4, it looks like 25.0 or 25.1 get me the most accurate. Naturally my speedo is off now, I think it was off a bit even before changing P06 but at 25 it's way off. I thought I'd read here that changing P18 would compensate for fudging the wheel size & correct the speedo so I set it to 90 as a trial but when I turned the bike off & on then rechecked my settings, my wheel size (P06) was now something like 16.00. I tried to get it back to 25.0 but every arrow click resulted in a different setting, none close to 20.0 or 25.0. I turned the bike off thinking that it might just need rebooting but now it just comes on for a flash, then goes off - no power at all even though the battery had shown nearly a full charge when I last saw the display.

Now I'm charging the battery in the hope that it was lower than the display showed & that I can get it operational again. But it seems clear to me that changing P18 from 100 to 90 was a bad move. If charging the battery doesn't get the display back I'm going to be forced to call CS again even though they've been useless so far. Hopefully someone here has some idea!

And this is why they locked down the settings

 

[Bart-Mar]

And this is why they locked down the settings

CS told me to investigate P06 myself. And apparently a lot of bikes are being sent out unlocked.

Also, my battery got topped off & I was able to turn it back on. P18 was reset to 100 & somehow P20 had switched to 1. After changing P20 to back to 0 & P06 to 25.0 everything looks OK with the exception of the speedo being off. Unless CS gets their stuff together I'll probably just get a bike computer.

 

[AnotherBoomer]

CS told me to investigate P06 myself. And apparently a lot of bikes are being sent out unlocked.

Also, my battery got topped off & I was able to turn it back on. P18 was reset to 100 & somehow P20 had switched to 1. After changing P20 to back to 0 & P06 to 25.0 everything looks OK with the exception of the speedo being off. Unless CS gets their stuff together I'll probably just get a bike computer.

Weird. Thank you for sharing your experience. When did you get your bike? I thought there was a date after which all bikes were locked except for four settings

 

[Bart-Mar]

Weird. Thank you for sharing your experience. When did you get your bike? I thought there was a date after which all bikes were locked except for four settings

It was supposed to be delivered on 8/21/19 but I was out of town & had FedEx hold it for a week. The enclosed manual was out of date & I think there was a note to download the latest which discussed accessing the settings to increase the max. speed. There may have been other user modifiable settings, I don't remember off the top of my head. I'd never heard anything about locked models until I started reading these posts yesterday so the notion that there are locked ones surprised me. Some of the 20 settings are probably locked but I have no intention of screwing with any that aren't discussed here or mentioned by CS (maybe not even if discussed here).

BTW, I'm serious about looking into getting a GPS bike computer if I can find one that real people recommend, not Amazon reviews.

 

[AnotherBoomer]

It was supposed to be delivered on 8/21/19 but I was out of town & had FedEx hold it for a week. The enclosed manual was out of date & I think there was a note to download the latest which discussed accessing the settings to increase the max. speed. There may have been other user modifiable settings, I don't remember off the top of my head. I'd never heard anything about locked models until I started reading these posts yesterday so the notion that there are locked ones surprised me. Some of the 20 settings are probably locked but I have no intention of screwing with any that aren't discussed here or mentioned by CS (maybe not even if discussed here).

BTW, I'm serious about looking into getting a GPS bike computer if I can find one that real people recommend, not Amazon reviews.

Yeah, there has been a real s***storm because Lectric locked down all but 4 ( I think) parameters about a month (?) ago

 

[Darceman]

Yeah, there has been a real s***storm because Lectric locked down all but 4 ( I think) parameters about a month (?) ago

There's a great example of why they are locked down and should be locked down now.

 

[Bart-Mar]

There should also be customer support solutions so users have no need to touch those settings. And maybe they shouldn't be shipping products they can't support. The odometer problem appears not to be rare & they aren't prepared to offer corrective solutions. I completely agree that unlocking those settings is potentially a huge hazard & locking makes troubleshooting users' electronics issues easier but that still leaves the issue of bad odometer & speedometer reading with no answer in sight.

 

[Doomsday]

There's a great example of why they are locked down and should be locked down now.

Are you kidding me?? The 2 he changed would not do that. Tire size and speedo ratio is not going to make his computer freak out.

Man you got to love the ones with non locked bikes keeps coming on here and talking about how great the locked settings are. So here is what you guys should do. Contact Lectric. Tell them you want to send in your controller and display on your dime and get all your settings locked down to default. That way you can truely bask in the glory of the locked bike.

 

[Darceman]

There should also be customer support solutions so users have no need to touch those settings. And maybe they shouldn't be shipping products they can't support. The odometer problem appears not to be rare & they aren't prepared to offer corrective solutions. I completely agree that unlocking those settings is potentially a huge hazard & locking makes troubleshooting users' electronics issues easier but that still leaves the issue of bad odometer & speedometer reading with no answer in sight.

Then you would hate motorcycles. I have owned motorcycles all my life and have never owned one that had an accurate speedo. Must be something to do with two wheels.

 

[Darceman]

Are you kidding me?? The 2 he changed would not do that. Tire size and speedo ratio is not going to make his computer freak out.

Man you got to love the ones with non locked bikes keeps coming on here and talking about how great the locked settings are. So here is what you guys should do. Contact Lectric. Tell them you want to send in your controller and display on your dime and get all your settings locked down to default. That way you can truely bask in the glory of the locked bike.

I have never said how great locked settings were, nor as far as I know has anyone else.
It's already been proven people have fiddled with these settings and caused problems with their bikes and had to contact lectric. All unnecessary. Any of the other manufacturers for pretty much most of them anyways don't have unlocked settings. And no I haven't dicked with the settings other than changing them to class 3. Also Lectric had too replace one off our controllers and it's a locked version and I'm not pouting about it. I get it.. It's not the end of the world. We love our Lectrics locked or unlocked. Ride your bike smell the roses.

 

[Doomsday]

Mine originally said 38.5 and I put it up to 41.5 when they sent me the standard numbers...

"Regardless if it doesn't work correctly?"
That's so ridiculous. The setting is where it should be you don't need to change it. That's why it's locked to protect the battery it's fine where it is.

I have never said how great locked settings were, nor as far as I know has anyone else.
It's already been proven people have fiddled with these settings and caused problems with their bikes and had to contact lectric. All unnecessary. Any of the other manufacturers for pretty much most of them anyways don't have unlocked settings. And no I haven't dicked with the settings other than changing them to class 3. Also Lectric had too replace one off our controllers and it's a locked version and I'm not pouting about it. I get it.. It's not the end of the world. We love our Lectrics locked or unlocked. Ride your bike smell the roses.

Yes, I have stated on multiple occasions how easy it is to accidentally change a setting on not realize it. That is NOT grounds to lock the bike. Again, If you have a sheet of paper with the defaults, you can easily see if you changed something. That corrects 99% of the issues right there and you can still adjust your settings of your bike for how you want it to ride. Yet you and a few others keep harping on this is why the settings should be locked. Why is that? Why should the settings be locked? Why would any company in their right mind lock settings like tire size and cruise control and speedo adjust? That's exactly what a bicycle computer is for. The only setting in there that could possibly cause any harm is the low voltage cutoff. which btw, Yours being at 38.5 could have actually damaged the battery. It's a darn good thing you had the ability to change that. Frankly even at 40v its questionable as to it could slowly cause damage and thats where they are locked right now with no chance of changing it. Interesting a company locks the low voltage just on the edge. Guess what will probably happen. Lots of folks will ride it to cut off, cause let's face it, most dont care. They will do it over and over again, the battery slowly gets less and less miles, Oh a new battery from us fixes that. The company makes even more money.
Conspiracy theory? Absolutely, but there is truth in that statement as well. Companies do it all the time. But according to you, we should all be riding locked bikes so the company doesn't get bothered with customer questions or god forbid someone comes to a forum and asks for help.

 

[Darceman]

Yes, I have stated on multiple occasions how easy it is to accidentally change a setting on not realize it. That is NOT grounds to lock the bike. Again, If you have a sheet of paper with the defaults, you can easily see if you changed something. That corrects 99% of the issues right there and you can still adjust your settings of your bike for how you want it to ride. Yet you and a few others keep harping on this is why the settings should be locked. Why is that? Why should the settings be locked? Why would any company in their right mind lock settings like tire size and cruise control and speedo adjust? That's exactly what a bicycle computer is for. The only setting in there that could possibly cause any harm is the low voltage cutoff. which btw, Yours being at 38.5 could have actually damaged the battery. It's a darn good thing you had the ability to change that. Frankly even at 40v its questionable as to it could slowly cause damage and thats where they are locked right now with no chance of changing it. Interesting a company locks the low voltage just on the edge. Guess what will probably happen. Lots of folks will ride it to cut off, cause let's face it, most dont care. They will do it over and over again, the battery slowly gets less and less miles, Oh a new battery from us fixes that. The company makes even more money.
Conspiracy theory? Absolutely, but there is truth in that statement as well. Companies do it all the time. But according to you, we should all be riding locked bikes so the company doesn't get bothered with customer questions or god forbid someone comes to a forum and asks for help.

I'm not wasting my time arguing with you. You can be the 1%er that's gonna find something to get upset about. You are already saying Lectric is trying to wreck our batteries by setting the cut off too low and yet the new controllers are set higher than one of my earlier one was. And there's no lack of help here but there's no answer for whining.

 

[martinctv]

My email to Lectric:

Hey Lauren,

No worries at all. As far as the battery fluctuation. Just to try and build a picture for you. Battery fully charged gear 5 PAS 3 level paved ground 200 pounds 2.1 miles at around the 18 MPH mark the battery goes from full to about a 1/3rd full. That is how drastic the fluctuation is. At the end of a 2 mile journey on level paved ground the energy bar reads 8 bars this means to me that I just used about 20% of my battery to travel 2.1 miles. I have noticed that it is inconsistent. I just use the bike for commuting to work and home 4.2 miles round trip. I have noticed that a round trip and this is just guessing since the display does not show percentage of battery, I can use 25-30% drain. It is quite possible that my battery has bad cells. I checked every wire that I can access I do not see anything wrong there. There is one item. Where the wires enter the frame near the key there are wires that appear to be coming out of the bundle not the large harness but one of the smaller diameter wires that has multi colored wires inside. They seem to be fine I just put some electrical tape around them and stuffed them back in the hole in the frame. It seems when these things are mass produced, sometimes quality control goes out the window. Not blaming you it’s just the nature of mass production. Ie my light burning out, not wrapping wires and stowing them properly, things like that. Maybe if I were able to change PO15 back to 41.5v it could possibly correct the drastic battery drain. People are also saying the the odometer and the MPH are drastically inaccurate. I have not tested that yet. I am happy to help in anyway that I can if needed.

Lectric reply:

Hey Carl,
Thanks for your feedback! We are currently in the process of upgrading our battery reading programming, and to be quite honest I would agree that it is not super accurate right now. I talked it over with one of our bike technicians and he agrees that losing 20% of battery over 2 miles does not sound right! We'd love to see how your battery varies over a few different rides/charging times. Has the quick decline of your battery level been consistent over a few different rides? Or has it been inconsistent in terms of draining over time?
We really appreciate your feedback, as it helps us improve our systems every day!

Here is your tracking number for your headlight! Should arrive by Saturday.
I have also heard those critiques for our odometer readings- definitely another thing our engineers are working on currently!
Obviously various terrains and weight on the bike influence the amount of mileage available in one charge, but it doesn't sound like you're using the bike in crazy terrains or using it as a pack mule. I'm going to chat with a few more bike technicians here and see if they have any more solutions- in the meantime, please let us know if your battery gets worse, I'd be happy to look into getting you a new battery if you notice further deterioration!

Lauren

 

[Reformvette]

I received my bike and the rear Derailluer is touching the side of my rim. How much do I bend and how do I go about bending the Derailluer Guard? Thanks for all input.

 

[Doomsday]

I'm not wasting my time arguing with you. You can be the 1%er that's gonna find something to get upset about. You are already saying Lectric is trying to wreck our batteries by setting the cut off too low and yet the new controllers are set higher than one of my earlier one was. And there's no lack of help here but there's no answer for whining.

You do understand just how good the bike is right? As I see it, there is only really 3 hot topic pieces to complain about with this bike. Locked settings, Why the change to must have the key in the bike and battery readings fluctuating greatly for some. I think if that's really the only hot topic complaints about a bike then they are doing pretty good.

Lectric is on this forum and yet they have said nothing to address these 3 major concerns officially. It is obvious to anyone reading these forums that they don't necessarily understand the product they are selling. Even their own customer support seems to keep telling people to change settings that their own company locked down in order to try and fix something. Do you know how you build a loyal group of customers? You sell a good product and back it with great customer support. That earns you respect and loyalty from the people that buy products from you. Not screwing them over by locking settings that should never ever be locked in the first place then not taking responsibility for it by making it right for their customers. Out of those thousands of bikes that got locked down, there is probably only a small percentage of those folks that are upset about it. What does great customer support do in those situations? They own up to their screw-ups, They make it right for those people. They engage with their customers to make an even better bike. I see none of that on here. What I do so is a select few that want to defend their bad behavior then blame the paying customer. Seriously?

And No I didn't say they are trying to wreck our bikes. Even at 40 any person with half a brain that understands batteries is going to know that it is still too low of a cutoff. So again, they either don't understand their own product or like lots of companies out there, set things to make them degrade a little faster and get that repeat battery money. Personally I figure its that they don't understand their own product but we will probably never really know.

 

[Doomsday]

I received my bike and the rear Derailluer is touching the side of my rim. How much do I bend and how do I go about bending the Derailluer Guard? Thanks for all input.

Just pull it out by hand. Maybe half an inch to an inch away from the derailer. Its just there as a protecting barrier in case you wreck or drop the bike.

 

[Snokid]

Doomsday.
The problem is some of the people buying these bikes aren't gearheads, or techies.... Take the seventy some year old granny that wants to get out and ride. she's a leadfoot that wants to go faster while leaving the vcr blinking 12:00 whiles she out ripping the trails up... Granny reads the manual and wants to make the bike faster... first she try's to get into programming mode and the bike goes in walk mode by mistake crashing into her wall. that over she manages to get into programming mode now shes flipping thru the p setting and gets it set up for speed! but changes some random other setting in the process and the bike doesn't do what its supposed to do. frustrated she calls and Lectric tries to walk her thru the settings. Now take that same granny and only let her change unharmful settings she will be happy flying down the trails at 28mph even if the odometer is off...look back thru the posts plenty of people aren't bike mechanics!