Lectric XP with out-of-round wheel

[rick-n-ns]

My lectric xp arrived with a rear wheel 1/8 inch out-of-round. A pretty bad freewheel wobble too, but that's not the main concern. The out of roundness causes the bike to very noticeably hop at cruising speeds.


I jacked the bike up, and made a short video, here;

and sent it to lectric. Got a reply back from Luke 2 days later (Sept. 3). He told me that the freewheel wobble was normal "Especially with fat tire bikes". I do know that all freewheels do wobble a little, but not that much, and what's the BS about especially with fat tires ?


Anyway, he went on to say "With regards to your wheel being slightly out of true, I would bet that some of your spokes need a little bit of tightening. The shipping process can be a little rough on the bikes, and sometimes things can become a little bit loose upon arrival."

He was so kind as to provide a picture of a spoke wrench.

I don't know what Luke's background is but, 1/8" out of round is not "slight". My local bike store, Valley Stove and cycle said things can slip by QC, and that this wheel was "unacceptable".
For the record the spokes are not loose, and the bike was not damaged during shipping. I do wonder just how big a bump in the road it would take to knock that fairly stiff rim out of true by an eighth of an inch.

So that's my experience with lectric's customer service. I definitely feel like I was given the brush off. Don't expect your wheels to be round, according to Luke, and if they are you are lucky.

BTW the front wheel is very true. I wished the back one was too. I guess I'll have to get my new bike "fixed" myself.

 

[Taylor57]

That seems a bit excessive. I bet a call back to Lectric will get you remedied. They have been great so far in my experience. After you tighten the spokes, send the video again and ask for a solution.

 

[myers830]

If you believe Lectric that your problem is normal...what does that tell you? Take it to a pro bike shop ASAP or your problems will only accelerate. They will find more things out of whack that you think are OK. It will be the best $60 you can spend. Don't even mess with them anymore about it. Support your local bike shop because I guarantee you will be going their sooner or later.

 

[rick-n-ns]

@ myers830, no I don't believe that is normal. In fact I can't believe that someone would be so sloppy with an otherwise nice motor, not to take a couple extra seconds to line up the motor in the lathe or jig and cut the freewheel threads straight.

 

[rick-n-ns]

@Taylor57, thanks. I wrote back and requested Robbie look at the video, he's the engineer. Surely an engineer can't think that is OK.
My research, the videos I watched etc. also indicated a good company...maybe now they have sold enough bikes they are caring less ?

 

[PaleBlueDot]

mine had some wobble to it out of the box. for me it was worth a shot to adjust things on my own. my spokes werent loose out of the box. i watched a youtube to get some tips and got it much better using a Park spoke tool . after i get 100 or so miles im gonna take it to a shop to have the wheels trued. most shops are busy so it might be a while. let us know how things go.

 

[Darceman]

mine had some wobble to it out of the box. for me it was worth a shot to adjust things on my own. my spokes werent loose out of the box. i watched a youtube to get some tips and got it much better using a Park spoke tool . after i get 100 or so miles im gonna take it to a shop to have the wheels trued. most shops are busy so it might be a while. let us know how things go.

It's actually not that expensive to get a wheel trued at at bike shop. I paid $20
to get mine trued as I had a few spokes that seemed off slightly.

 

[Darceman]

If you believe Lectric that your problem is normal...what does that tell you? Take it to a pro bike shop ASAP or your problems will only accelerate. They will find more things out of whack that you think are OK. It will be the best $60 you can spend. Don't even mess with them anymore about it. Support your local bike shop because I guarantee you will be going their sooner or later.

You must have shares in bike stores. Not sure why you bought a bike from online as it sounds like you shoud have bought local and payed the extra money so you could support them. Cause you sure didn't when you ordered your bike online.

 

[PaleBlueDot]

for me it was worth th 9$ for the Park spoke tool and the youtube videos helped. on another note...im always hesitant in taking my vehicles to dealerships. they always find something else wrong and at times theyve caused other issues so taking an electric bike that was bought online to a local bike shop may be interesting. because of the covid virus people have emptied the stores of bikes and the need for them to be worked on has made it a wait to get service. also in my area i see only a few places that sell and service electric bikes. so for now i will follow these forums and hit up youtube...

 

[Taylor57]

A guy that can fix bikes could probably do ok opening a bike repair and assembly shop at least for awhile...

 

[Darceman]

for me it was worth th 9$ for the Park spoke tool and the youtube videos helped. on another note...im always hesitant in taking my vehicles to dealerships. they always find something else wrong and at times theyve caused other issues so taking an electric bike that was bought online to a local bike shop may be interesting. because of the covid virus people have emptied the stores of bikes and the need for them to be worked on has made it a wait to get service. also in my area i see only a few places that sell and service electric bikes. so for now i will follow these forums and hit up youtube...

Now you're talking....use the forum for the info and do yourself..
The bike shops don't like us and will tell all sorts of stories to gullible customers how our e-bikes are dangerous and their constantly fixing them..yah right..I'm at 3200 km so far on mine and gee it hadn't exploded or killed me yet

 

[Taylor57]

Now you're talking....use the forum for the info and do yourself..
The bike shops don't like us and will tell all sorts of stories to gullible customers how our e-bikes are dangerous and their constantly fixing them..yah right..I'm at 3200 km so far on mine and gee it hadn't exploded or killed me yet

My one and only trip to the LBS was interesting. I asked about electric bikes and the owner admitted there was nothing much for under 9k and that it was about a 2 week wait to fix a flat. My guess is they are either making a ton of $$ on repairs or losing their arses as repairs aren't as profitable as new bike sales of which they dont have much of....