Known Issues & Problems with Riese & Müller Products + Help, Solutions & Fixes

[Chris Nolte]

I guess I was just thinking almost bike shops would have these tools. Sorry if my response wasn’t clear. Thanks for adding the info as I’m sure many also might want to know.

 

[GregTR]

I guess I was just thinking almost bike shops would have these tools. Sorry if my response wasn’t clear. Thanks for adding the info as I’m sure many also might want to know.

I'm no bike shop so I had to get these tools . My chain driven bikes with FSA cranks required none of these tools in the past. But I certainly have everything else including torque wrenches and bike stand.

 

[Moesi]

There was specifically a recall on this rack on earlier versions. I would agree with Steve, it might make sense to contact R&M directly as it should not take that long for a rack replacement. They have them in stock for sure.

When?? I got my SC in June 2018 and still have the very first version of the rack. I asked several times for a newer version because after all I read in that German Forum I did not want to risk a 300+ miles tour through the Swiss Alps (I bought my dual Batteries / Rohloff bike mainly for this tour!!)
What made me even more angry is that they not even informed the dealers to check at least the critical weldings during the normal maintenance!
And this with a rack which is still advertised to be "Childseat compatible"!


See under "Frame geometries" https://www.r-m.de/en-us/models/supercharger/supercharger-gx-rohloff-hs-us/#F00184_040206

You can try yourself: Call any R&M dealer in Germany oder Switzerland or anywhere else and ask him you need a bike which is safe for a childseat and you are interested in the Supercharger... I tried several calls and it made me speachless. I do not understand German Engineering anymore!

 

[Moesi]

I felt the same way as you at first .They sent me a whole new rack , updated plate and bungee. Now I am very satisfied. They will take care of you too . If you are having problems it might be that your dealer has not made proper contact with the R +M service . Try contacting R+M directly on their website to see if your dealer has contacted them yet.

In the German Forum "pedelecforum.de" are only a few dozens Supercharger drivers and they reported around 17 cases (Luggage Rack in German is "Gepäckträger"). Most of the racks collapsed in less than 6 months. Some owners said, they never put heavy loads on that racks... some collapsed after only a few weeks!
But there was never a recall! They replace the rack when its broken.
I am an engineer. I can calculate. In my opinion the risk that the rack will collapse on my 300+miles trip with bagagge over very high mountains was around 50%. In their idea I can then search there in the high mountains an R&M contract dealer ... and wait there days or more likely weeks for a new rack.... which may hopefully be better.
And when the rack collapses with load (max. 20kg allowed): Dont you see a risk for an accident? I do! This is why I cancelled the trip last year. The trip which was the main reason why I bought such an expensive bike!

I tried to contact the "Customer Support" only once. Because the Torx screws near the rear axle were lose after a few weeks and I wanted to tighten them with the correct torque. But in the operating manual you don't find that important torque numbers(!). My dealer's shop was closed, so I tried to write an email to the "Customer Care" in the headquarter. After a few days I got an answer that they only can help me when I write them the Serial Number of the Bike. I understood and wrote them the number and after a few more days I got a Telephone Call from Germany(!). An extremely arrogant person told me that they never give the torques to an end customer. I need to go to the dealer to tighten any screws! I tried to explain that I am an engineer an I even have to train our mechanics using torque wrenches when there are quality issues with loosen screws on our products... no sense. They did not give me the number. In his mind I am not even allowed to remove the rear wheel myself. Everything has to be done from the contract dealer! (The same dealer who wanted 50$ to update the engine software to the actual version at my only 6 weeks old bike...!)

You may understand that I am not very pleasured to try to contact the R&M customer "care" again.
As I said before. I was a big Fan from R&M. And I still love my Supercharger GX HS Rohloff. This is is such a fantastic bike! But with this kind of "Customer Support" I dont want to deal anymore. This destroys even the best product!

 

[pedelecsva]

I've been riding the Delite Mountain and Charger GX Rohloff now for a few months (video reviews are available on our website.) I've only encountered one problem so far

Problem: I end up riding 100+ km and being gone all day when I'm supposed to be working.
Solution: remove the second battery and install the rubber plug that Bosch provides to cover the electrical contacts in case of rain so that I avoid the temptation of exploring new places and riding all day (although a single 500wH battery still allows me to ride for at least half the day!)

Perhaps others will have more serious problems

Based on your YouTube reviews I dished out the cash for the delite gx Rohloff hs. I’ve had it 4 days and have completed 250km so far. Everything you’ve pointed out that makes this bike so special, I’ve come to appreciate. From the suspension to the gimmicky bottleholders, but everything is thought out, and it is the attention to detail that makes it great.

One thing that annoys me, is the when I got the bike the speedo was about 2km/h off. When I was going 43 on the speedo, my Garmin gps would say 41. The distance was not the same either after completion of a trip.

I noticed that my tire circumference did not match schwalbes specs, so I changed it to the correct 2240mm and now the speedo was even more off. 45 when gps said only 50.

I then set the circumference to the minimal possible, and now the gps and the speedo match in speed, but not at all in distance.

And the worst part of it all, regardless of what I set, the Bosch motor does not assist up to the 45km/h but only 42,5. It is quite noticeable how it stops to assist.

How can I fix the above mentioned issues?
I want the motor to assist to 45, and I want the speedo, odometer to be exact.

 

[lerxst]

You will never get the speedo & odometer to be exact as each device is not capable of being exact. Even measuring speed via GPS isn't truly exact. Each method has inaccuracies. Even the speedometer and odometer in my BMW SUV does not always exactly match what GPS says. I'd give up on that as being a thing you care about, personally. Ask yourself, why does it matter if the speed is off by a few MPH, or distance is off by a few feet?

Regarding raising the speed limit - this device will help you there. https://www.bikespeed.de/RS_en.html

 

[steve mercier]

In the German Forum "pedelecforum.de" are only a few dozens Supercharger drivers and they reported around 17 cases (Luggage Rack in German is "Gepäckträger"). Most of the racks collapsed in less than 6 months. Some owners said, they never put heavy loads on that racks... some collapsed after only a few weeks!
But there was never a recall! They replace the rack when its broken.
I am an engineer. I can calculate. In my opinion the risk that the rack will collapse on my 300+miles trip with bagagge over very high mountains was around 50%. In their idea I can then search there in the high mountains an R&M contract dealer ... and wait there days or more likely weeks for a new rack.... which may hopefully be better.
And when the rack collapses with load (max. 20kg allowed): Dont you see a risk for an accident? I do! This is why I cancelled the trip last year. The trip which was the main reason why I bought such an expensive bike!

I tried to contact the "Customer Support" only once. Because the Torx screws near the rear axle were lose after a few weeks and I wanted to tighten them with the correct torque. But in the operating manual you don't find that important torque numbers(!). My dealer's shop was closed, so I tried to write an email to the "Customer Care" in the headquarter. After a few days I got an answer that they only can help me when I write them the Serial Number of the Bike. I understood and wrote them the number and after a few more days I got a Telephone Call from Germany(!). An extremely arrogant person told me that they never give the torques to an end customer. I need to go to the dealer to tighten any screws! I tried to explain that I am an engineer an I even have to train our mechanics using torque wrenches when there are quality issues with loosen screws on our products... no sense. They did not give me the number. In his mind I am not even allowed to remove the rear wheel myself. Everything has to be done from the contract dealer! (The same dealer who wanted 50$ to update the engine software to the actual version at my only 6 weeks old bike...!)

You may understand that I am not very pleasured to try to contact the R&M customer "care" again.
As I said before. I was a big Fan from R&M. And I still love my Supercharger GX HS Rohloff. This is is such a fantastic bike! But with this kind of "Customer Support" I dont want to deal anymore. This destroys even the best product!

The dealer who wanted the $50 is a ripoff artist for sure! It should be free for 2 years and no more than $20 after that. But I am happy with my new bridge plate and the original Racktime rack ( is fine after 7000km) now even has a spare backup hanging in my garage in case it cracks. I am staying with the racktime system and I really like the Klickfix setup. I use the Alingo shopping basket for groceries and have a waterproof locking Citybox for sundries as well as a spare Klickfix which I can customize for use with any container I choose. Switching from bag to box takes 10 seconds.

 

[steve mercier]

Based on your YouTube reviews I dished out the cash for the delite gx Rohloff hs. I’ve had it 4 days and have completed 250km so far. Everything you’ve pointed out that makes this bike so special, I’ve come to appreciate. From the suspension to the gimmicky bottleholders, but everything is thought out, and it is the attention to detail that makes it great.

One thing that annoys me, is the when I got the bike the speedo was about 2km/h off. When I was going 43 on the speedo, my Garmin gps would say 41. The distance was not the same either after completion of a trip.

I noticed that my tire circumference did not match schwalbes specs, so I changed it to the correct 2240mm and now the speedo was even more off. 45 when gps said only 50.

I then set the circumference to the minimal possible, and now the gps and the speedo match in speed, but not at all in distance.

And the worst part of it all, regardless of what I set, the Bosch motor does not assist up to the 45km/h but only 42,5. It is quite noticeable how it stops to assist.

How can I fix the above mentioned issues?
I want the motor to assist to 45, and I want the speedo, odometer to be exact.

I have a Bikespeed RS delimiter . This will fix your assist problem. Order it online.

 

[Moesi]

I'm still waiting for the new rack!
Wonderfull weather since weeks and I still cant go on tour since end of may.
All my dealer knows is "they confirmed they will send a new one".

I would brake all the roules of this forum if I would write my real thoughts about R&M.

 

[lerxst]

I'm still waiting for the new rack!
Wonderfull weather since weeks and I still cant go on tour since end of may.
All my dealer knows is "they confirmed they will send a new one".

I would brake all the roules of this forum if I would write my real thoughts about R&M.

I totally share your sentiment! I think it's going to get even worse though: as time goes on, expect more and more businesses to create inexplicable grief like this for their customers, as the global trend of prioritizing customer service below everything else continues. Not just in the bike industry.

Businesses seek as many customers as possible in order to fuel growth, but their methods for facilitating customer support do not scale at the same rate their customer acquisition methods do. (Google is probably the most famous example of this trend). This creates a huge mismatch in terms of how many problem-free customers a business can serve vs how many customers with problems a business can serve. This goes doubly for businesses that have roots in pre-Internet manufacturing when the number of customers they had access to was much smaller: those same business managers from that era are running R&M today.

I’ve read a few posts here where someone had a problem with their R&M bike that required shipping the bike away for repair. They cited the fact that R&M facilitated the shipping as “great customer service”. No. Not true. At all. Great customer service starts with delivering a product without glaring design flaws. As soon as a company fails that test, they have given up all claims to having great customer service. The best they can do at that point is strive to be less horrible. Which they're clearly not doing for you.

Not being able to rapidly ship a part (your rack) that in all likelihood is already manufactured and sitting on a shelf is negligent customer service. A lot of people here cut R&M a lot of slack because of how wonderful it feels to ride their bikes. Don't be one of those people. There are no legitimate excuses for negligence. No matter how good it feels to ride that bike, R&M made a huge mistake, and you, the paying customer, is suffering because you do not matter enough to them, despite having given them thousands of dollars. So I encourage you to please share your thoughts in greater detail. If you try you can probably do it without violating rules here.

 

[GregGritton]

You will never get the speedo & odometer to be exact as each device is not capable of being exact. Even measuring speed via GPS isn't truly exact. Each method has inaccuracies. Even the speedometer and odometer in my BMW SUV does not always exactly match what GPS says.

European vehicles tend to over-report speeds due to the fact that they could get into trouble if they under-report the speed. Thus, your BMW, my Mini, and E-bikes with European motors (Bosch in particular) have all reported to have the same issue. The issue with Bosch motors has come up in a number of different threads.

 

[steve mercier]

I'm still waiting for the new rack!
Wonderfull weather since weeks and I still cant go on tour since end of may.
All my dealer knows is "they confirmed they will send a new one".

I would brake all the roules of this forum if I would write my real thoughts about R&M.

Let us know when it gets resolved.

 

[Moesi]

My shop got the parts last thursday, so I can bring them my bike next monday. Hopefully they can fix it then.

Not realy fun to drive such an expensive bike since end of may with a broken rack.

 

[Rubyrider]

My main complaint is that my R&M Charger is pushing me into addiction. I started with the best of intentions: to do most of my commuting in Eco mode relying less so on Tour mode. Maximizing my exercise while optimizing my battery use. But after the latest commute where I had very little traffic and some open roads with good pavement (changed my route a bit), I made a round-trip commute mainly in Tour and Sport modes and shaved about 10 minutes off of my previous best 2 way time. The effortless, fast ride is addicting and when I revert to Eco I feel the contrast. So I guess there goes my exercise plan.

But aside from my addiction issues, one real issue I have with the bike is a persistent rubbing sound coming from the front which I assume is brake related. I tried to adjust on my own and made it worse so I've had 3 different mechanics from 2 different LBSs make some adjustments. It always seems to go away for a brief period but then returns after a ride or two and can vary in intensity. Could there be a wheel truing issue? I've watched plenty of Youtube videos on adjusting disc brakes but if the mechanics at my LBSs couldn't solve it I doubt I have the ability to do so. Any suggestions for a persistent brake alignment issue (assuming that is the problem)?

Kelly - I really appreciate the videos. Very informative and detailed. Nice work indeed and looks like you have some great places to test out your bikes.

 

[Rubyrider]

Hi, I just joined this forum. I saw your post . I have a Specialized Como 3.0 electric bike and have had it for 1 yr. it has about 500 miles on it and I also have had a rubbing and squeaking noise develop. I am on my
3 rd Mechanic and he thought he fixed it but after test ride , the noise is still there! Did you ever find out what was causing your problem?

 

[Over50]

My LBS finally did a complete brake bleed with new pads. Brakes were solid after that. I don't have that bike anymore but whatever they did in that servicing solved the persistent rubbing.

 

[steve mercier]

Hi, I just joined this forum. I saw your post . I have a Specialized Como 3.0 electric bike and have had it for 1 yr. it has about 500 miles on it and I also have had a rubbing and squeaking noise develop. I am on my
3 rd Mechanic and he thought he fixed it but after test ride , the noise is still there! Did you ever find out what was causing your problem?

Disc brake rub is a common problem. Annoying but not lethal.

 

[steve mercier]

My shop got the parts last thursday, so I can bring them my bike next monday. Hopefully they can fix it then.

Not realy fun to drive such an expensive bike since end of may with a broken rack.

All will be well again soon Moesi (-:

 

[romanstrobl]

Hi, I am new to this forum, apologies if this topic was already discussed in some other thread.

I lost the little chain support wheel on my R&M Delite while transporting it to the service shop (it was already damaged due to falling chain, so not a big surprise). I had to bring the bike to Germany for service, there is no specialized shop for repairing R&M bikes in Czech republic yet, so that was a full day trip and one more coming after the bike gets fixed.

I was wondering if anyone had luck with ordering this part online? I am sure I'm not the first person to have an accident like this, the little wheel is asking for it I was really looking for the part in online shops, but couldn't find it, so I wonder if R&M manufacture this part themselves. See attached picture and thanks for any ideas.

Side note: if you had any issues with grip on the default Schwalbe Rock Razor tyres in mud or snow, I recommend trying the Schwalbe Magic Mary, the resistence is definitely higher, however the grip is amazing in any fall/winter conditions!

 

[steve mercier]

Hi, I am new to this forum, apologies if this topic was already discussed in some other thread.

I lost the little chain support wheel on my R&M Delite while transporting it to the service shop (it was already damaged due to falling chain, so not a big surprise). I had to bring the bike to Germany for service, there is no specialized shop for repairing R&M bikes in Czech republic yet, so that was a full day trip and one more coming after the bike gets fixed.

I was wondering if anyone had luck with ordering this part online? I am sure I'm not the first person to have an accident like this, the little wheel is asking for it I was really looking for the part in online shops, but couldn't find it, so I wonder if R&M manufacture this part themselves. See attached picture and thanks for any ideas.

Side note: if you had any issues with grip on the default Schwalbe Rock Razor tyres in mud or snow, I recommend trying the Schwalbe Magic Mary, the resistence is definitely higher, however the grip is amazing in any fall/winter conditions!

R+M will insist your get the part installed by a dealer. They will threaten to void the warranty if you do it yourself. I have a Magic Mary on the the front only now and a Smart Sam on the back which gives a little better battery range. Mary is cleary the most sure footed tire I have tried ( excepting Ice Spikers ) and she inspires confidence in any conditions.