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

[Bungee Sue]

• #1

Hi, everyone, I have had my Metro+ for 2 weeks now. I love riding it and have had hardly any difficulty adapting to it.
I don't understand why - -
1. The handlebars are designed that way. It makes it difficult to attach some of my accessories
2. The rack is so far forward and there is such a large gap where I want to put my panier. My first long ride was 25 miles. I had rigged up the bungee that came with the bike so it would cover enough of the gap so my panier wouldn't rub against the spokes. I was riding on a narrow, busy road and was just pulling to the side when the traffic was coming. I skidded to a stop (about 10'). I thought it happened because I'd gone from 6 power to 0 power by mistake, but what had stopped me was the bungee cord had wrapped around the gears and jammed my back wheel. If I'd been in front of the traffic, I would have been hit. I have managed to rig a piece of coat hanger wire across from the vertical bar of the rack to the metal bar of the fender. This seems to be enough to keep my panier from touching the spokes.
3. There is no hook for the bottom of my panier to anchor to
4. The frame of the rack is so thick, my panier can't attach to it.

That's about it. As you can see, most of my complaints are about the rack. If it can be redesigned, it will be a perfect bike.

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Bungee Sue
New Member
Dec 3, 2019

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• #3

Did you see the "coat hanger" bars I added to my bike? I posted a photo. That has worked perfectly for me.

The Volt e-bike is almost exactly the same frame, etc. Their rack sits farther back. I haven't checked if the screws would match or not.

Another possible fix could be a cargo net over the gap.

 

[Bungee Sue]

Have u contacted Magnum in SLC? Cory (technician) specifically.
They were quite helpful to me....

It probably hasn't defaulted back - that's just what displays for some odd reason.

 

[Dunk]

I expressed similar concerns to Magnum about the rack. I've tried a couple of Ortlieb's panniers on my Metro and the design of the rack has them sitting so close to the pedals that I clip them. I have size 11 feet (44 Eur) -- not abnormally large -- and my heels hit any pannier seated forward enough to attach the bottom clip to the lower support bar. Even if a pannier was able to sit further back it would need a barrier like your hanger wire. I'm also hesitant about buying new panniers just to accommodate a non-standard rack design.

This problem isn't new. My reliable old Trek was modified to accommodate a rear rack to keep the panniers out of the way of my heels.

So now I am looking at simply replacing the rack with one that can seat my panniers further to the rear. I noticed another EBR forum member who traded out the stock rack on his Metro Plus for a Topeak Super Tourist Rack, but it's unclear to me how he attached the support bars to the seat post. (I think he may have drilled a hole in the seat post ridge.) If it turns out to be feasible this makes sense since all three of my old trusty/dusty panniers will fit the Topeak rack and the overall cost will be lower than buying new panniers; the large-gauge tubing of the Metro rack certainly isn't compatible with my old bags.

 

[MikeL NY]

Hi, new member, and I got a Magnum Navigator. After 3 weeks and 300 miles, there are already 2 broken spokes. Have other people had this problem? Is there something that can be done? I understand i should avoid bumps as much as possible but it is very difficult to to avoid on occasion especially in NYC. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have gotten a different brand.

 

[Citycrosser]

Hi, new member, and I got a Magnum Navigator. After 3 weeks and 300 miles, there are already 2 broken spokes. Have other people had this problem? Is there something that can be done? I understand i should avoid bumps as much as possible but it is very difficult to to avoid on occasion especially in NYC. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have gotten a different brand.

I had the same problem with my Metro+ in the first several hundred miles. Sleek in Tarrytown replaced them under warranty and advised that I check them periodically. I purchased a park tool tension gauge (https://www.parktool.com/product/spoke-tension-meter-tm-1) and started checking them every weekend. I don't remember the exact mileage but at some point around 300 to 500 miles, I stopped finding loose spokes. Since then, I only check them once a month or so and still haven't had to tighten any since. Once I started checking tension, no more broke. I think they just need a bit of break in where they stretch so they need to be tightened. Once they are all broken in, the problem disappears. I'm at 2,500 miles now and haven't had any further issues with the bike (other than the battery mount and connection being crappy so I have to use straps to hold the battery on).

 

[David Paisley]

Hi, new member, and I got a Magnum Navigator. After 3 weeks and 300 miles, there are already 2 broken spokes. Have other people had this problem? Is there something that can be done? I understand i should avoid bumps as much as possible but it is very difficult to to avoid on occasion especially in NYC. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have gotten a different brand.

I just broke a rear spoke last week. This happened after a 24 mile ride on a smooth bike path. I have ordered extras. Cost me $35 to replace.

 

[BCBeaver]

Magnum batteries.... I've been selling Magnums for about a year and a half. I have seen a disproportionate number of them come back with battery failure. Magnum has not been very good to deal with warranty issues regarding these failures. They have denied battery claims and are very slow to provide replacements. I now consider this a known issue.

 

[David Paisley]

I just broke a rear spoke last week. This happened after a 24 mile ride on a smooth bike path. I have ordered extras. Cost me $35 to replace.

After the first spoke broke, another broke at around 700 miles. I do check for looseness. I ordered four extras in case I had another problem, and when I went to replace the second broken spoke, I found they had sent me 4 spokes that were a cm too short. I bt frustrating. I informed them of the error and they sent me 5 more of the correct size FEDEX.

 

[MikeL NY]

less than one week after the 2 were replaced (after being out of service for almost 2 weeks, a 3rd broke. The LBS ended up replaced all the rear spokes and so far no further broken spokes (have gone over 300 miles so far).

 

[MikeL NY]

Now i have a 4th broken spoke - almost 500 miles after the rear was re-spoked ... other than the spoke issue, it has been fine but i am really questioning whether or not i should sell this and go with another brand - in my 3 months of ownership, it has been out of service for almost 1 month due to this issue (although I have travelled 900 miles so far).

 

[BikeyMcBike]

I bought a Magnum ui6+ in August. In the 4 months since then it has been in the shop for 6 weeks. The spokes on the back wheel keep breaking and the customer service is horrible. I understand eBikes are prone to break spokes on the rear hub motor. But the ui6+ is a BIG bike. I'm over 5'10" and barely fit. At 200 pounds I'm carrying a few extra but the bike is rated for 265. Apparently that's just a number and not indicative of performance. The thing is, for a large bike that like, what is the target audience? You have to design the thing to support the people big enough to ride it. Magnum did not.

Which brings me to the bigger problem, customer service. The first time I brought it in I let the shop owner order the spokes. It's not convenient for me to go there but I like the guy and wanted to give him some business. Apparently he's old buddies with the local rep. It still took over two weeks for the spokes to be hand delivered. When another spoke broke 6 weeks later I called immediately to have more sent. This time I had to go to a local shop because I knew I would be doing this often. Despite being told I would get a call back on the same day I had to call back the next day to make a simple request.

The spokes arrived 10 days later. I ship things for a living and know that USPS had very cheap rates for packages under a pound with 2 to 5 day shipping. Apparently this is not the service they use. I take it to my local shop and the next day the guy tells me they are the wrong spokes. They aren't even close to the right size really. Like half the size they should be. So I call back and a different rep does the blame the new guy thing. They expedite the new spokes 2 day mail. I bring them to my shop and the guy tells me it will be ready the next day, yesterday. I call yesterday and they tell me it will be today. Ok. I call today and the guy tells THEY SENT THE WRONG SPOKES AGAIN. I call Magnum back and they confirm they did in fact send the wrong spokes. TWICE.

Magnum is making bad bikes and providing bad customer service. I absolutely regret my purchase and seeing as I need it to commute it's a constant source of stress. DO NOT BUY A MAGNUM eBIKE.

 

[David Paisley]

I have had a problem with them sending the wrong spokes, too. They sent me a couple of extras. They got it right the second time and expedited shipping. I ordered extras from an online company the can make custom spokes. https://www.wheelbuildingparts.com/spokes/.. I have learned to change them out myself ( I have a Navigator). I have broken 3, but none lately. Once I raised the tire pressure to around 42, they stopped braking. I am 250lbs, bty. I now have extras just in case. Otherwise I like the bike, but the next bike will be something different now that I know more about e-bikes.

 

[BikeyMcBike]

They did not get it right the second time for me. Third times a charm? I'm in an apartment and barely have room to store the thing much less work on it. Thanks for the link to the custom spoke company. It may come to that but I sure hope not. I saw your post on the facebook group and plenty of others about broken spokes. The company rep mentioned higher gauge spokes and replacement wheels however I was not offered either one due to "supply issues."

 

[Fred]

I don't have the Magnum bike, but have one that is essentially the same (Amego Infinite Plus) I also had problems with spokes breaking frequently (4 in 2 mos). I also am a big guy at 250lbs. Here's the actions I have taken and so far so good:

• I purchased a spoke tension meter to periodically check that tensions are correct and adjust as needed.
• I inflated the rear tire to 60psi - closer to the max recommended of 70psi and check it frequently
• I took some of the extra weight off the rear wheels (i.e. out of my saddlebags) and moved it to a small fron mounted rack
• Other than that, I purchased some extra spokes to have on hand in case

As an aside, the original spokes are 13 gauge straight. Some of my replacements are 13g/14g butted spokes. I'm not sure this is ideal, but so far no problems.

 

[Number126]

My wife and I each bought a Magnum Classic II. She had problems within a few days. The throttle wouldn’t respond at the start of a ride. I turned the key off then back on and everything worked as expected. Into the ride we stopped at a street crossing and the bike took off on its own. Then the throttle wouldn’t work at all. I ended up walking/riding it back to the dealer. Long story short Magnum replaced the bike. The new bike has worked flawlessly although she hasn’t had the time to ride it much. My bike had the no power issue once. I turned the key off/on and it started right up and no problems since. What I don’t understand is why the PAS defaults to 1 when you turn the bike on. When you turn the bike on you have to be careful not to touch either the pedals or the throttle until you’re ready to go or it will take off...quickly. It should default to 0 and let the rider decide when to turn on PAS. The first thing we do after turning the bike on is turn the PAS to 0. I spoke with Magnum about this and they said there’s no way to default to 0. Other than those few things we love our Classic II.

 

[David Paisley]

I don't have the Magnum bike, but have one that is essentially the same (Amego Infinite Plus) I also had problems with spokes breaking frequently (4 in 2 mos). I also am a big guy at 250lbs. Here's the actions I have taken and so far so good:

• I purchased a spoke tension meter to periodically check that tensions are correct and adjust as needed.
• I inflated the rear tire to 60psi - closer to the max recommended of 70psi and check it frequently
• I took some of the extra weight off the rear wheels (i.e. out of my saddlebags) and moved it to a small fron mounted rack
• Other than that, I purchased some extra spokes to have on hand in case

As an aside, the original spokes are 13 gauge straight. Some of my replacements are 13g/14g butted spokes. I'm not sure this is ideal, but so far no problems.

I found that increasing the tire pressure was a solution for me.

 

[bob99]

Now i have a 4th broken spoke - almost 500 miles after the rear was re-spoked ... other than the spoke issue, it has been fine but i am really questioning whether or not i should sell this and go with another brand - in my 3 months of ownership, it has been out of service for almost 1 month due to this issue (although I have travelled 900 miles so far).

How much do you weigh and what kind of terrain are you riding on?

 

[MikeL NY]

How much do you weigh and what kind of terrain are you riding on?

240. I bike only in the city never on trails. The key was for me was to switch to better suspension seat post. have ridden nearly 2000 miles since then and no further broken spokes (although i have spokes on hand in case they break)

 

[Fred]

I ended up taking a more drastic approach to fixing the broken spoke issue - hopefully once and for all!
If anyone is interested, here's my:
"Treatise on Spokes"

 

[tarhead]

We ordered two bikes in late summer 2021 from Epic Cycles; a Metro and a Navigator. Both arrived with problems out of the box.

The Metro:

• There was a slight rubbing noise on the front wheel.
• I removed the fender and confirmed that the brake pads were rubbing.
• I slightly loosened, but did not remove the brake bolts, squeezed and released the brake lever five times and re-tightened the bolts while squeezing the brake lever.
• The rubbing was now a slight metallic pinging.
• I repeated the procedure about three times with the same result; there was always the slight pinging when the wheel was spun.
• I carefully inspected the disc area and found that the head of the lower brake mounting bolt was lightly rubbing on the disc.
• I loosened the bolts again and tried manually moving the brake away from the disc. I also checked that the wheel was firmly seated in the dropouts, which it was.
• I squeezed the brake lever and re-tightened the bolts but the bolt head kept rubbing.
• Finally, I completely removed the bolt to confirm that it was not bent. It did not appear to be.
• I re-installed the bolt and repeated the brake alignment procedure a couple more times and the rubbing serendipitously stopped with no change in procedure.
• The lower bolt head had very little clearance to the disc; much less than the bolt on the Navigator. It appeared to me that the mounting post on the fork may have been drilled and tapped slightly off kilter. I should not need to go through so many repeated steps when re-aligning the brakes to prevent the bolt head from rubbing and finally have it just stop by chance. If the fork was properly drilled and tapped, I don’t understand why the bolt would rub in the first place.
• My wife sent photos to Epic and the response was that I must have used the wrong tool and stripped the bolt. I used a 5mm Allen key from my set and they have a sharp tool face. I have an essential tremor which means that my hands shake slightly at the best of times and get worse when stressed. The photo of the brake bolt showed paint chipping due to my hands shaking as I had to repeatedly loosen and tighten the bolts (while becoming increasing frustrated) until the bolt head finally stopped rubbing on the rotor.
• Gave up on the bike and sold it.

The Navigator:

• After a couple of initial rides, the front brake was leaking oil at the coupling to the brake lever. Checked it; it was tight.
• Epic sent a new brake assembly; unfortunately, the hydraulic line was too short.
• Epic sent the correct brake assembly; installed and now working fine.
• Defective and too short brake assemblies returned to Epic.
• We noticed a consistent issue where the display on the bike shows the battery to be full but the indicator on the battery shows it as depleted; the bike actually ran out of power at one point while the display still showed full. We checked the settings and the factory had set the voltage of the battery at 36 volts. Even after setting to 48 V, the issue re the display not showing the correct battery status is still there.
• Other than the display issue, it ran OK until a recent spoke break, so we kept it.
• My wife, who is of normal height and weight, just experienced a broken spoke (back wheel, derailleur side) on her Magnum Navigator while riding on a smooth bicycle path. The bike is roughly two years old and has had only moderate use (too cold to ride in Calgary for about half the year!) mostly on paved roads and smooth bicycle pathways. I saw on this forum that it appears spoke issues are not uncommon with Magnum bicycles. Our family owns three other brands of ebikes and have ridden non-powered bikes for years with zero spoke issues, so I suspect that this is a manufacturing issue.
• Contacted Epic and they said bike was out of warranty so tough luck. But they did offer to sell me new spokes.
• I will purchase a new spoke locally. No more business for Epic/Magnum.