Motobecane E-Mulekick

[johngervais]

I just purchased a Motobecane E-mulekick electric bike. With a Bafang M800 electric mid drive. Rode it for 12 miles everything worked great. Now The only thing that works is the display. I can't change the pedal assist modes from 1-5 and the pedal assist does not work. I was able to get into the codes and it does have an error code of 25 which shows to be a torque sensor. Bikes Direct and Bafang have not been real supportive other then e-mailing a manual although the manual does not tell me here the torque sensor is located. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[ElevenAD]

send it back and get a new bike! if its a new bike that worked for 12 miles return,return,return!

 

[Catalyzt]

Sorry if this is something you already tried, but is your foot on the pedal when you turn on the bike?

My Motobecane has a totally different system-- Shimano E5000-- but if I have any pressure at all on the pedal when I boot up the bike, it throws an error code, and it's basically like riding a 46-pound bike with no motor.

Freaked me right out the first time it happened. Make sure you are booting the bike without touching the pedals, or even leaning them against your leg. The torque sensor needs to initialize.

I hope that's the problem and not something more serious!

 

[WabiSabi]

Same problem with the display from the M800 series. Check my review of the bike:

Motobecane eMulekick PRO SL review

Motobecane eMulekick PRO SL This bike needs a review. When I was looking at it, I couldn’t find any online reviews. Most of what I could find about Bafang’s e-series were from European sites. There are a couple of videos on YouTube for the Bafang M800, but not many. I researched all the...

electricbikereview.com

 

[tomjasz]

send it back and get a new bike! if its a new bike that worked for 12 miles return,return,return!

BikesDirect sucks when something doesn’t work. I had a iong battle getting busted and damaged parts. I’m thinking there’s a disclaimer. I was told if shipment was refused I’d eat the shipping.

these web order companies all make you the bike shop mechanic.

 

[tomjasz]

Four posts?

 

[dariusf2]

I'm 1500 miles in on the bike and knock on wood no issues at all. Other then the battery is degrading.

17 months old, ~80 rides, ~1,500 miles, ~40 to 50 charge cycles. Range drop by 23% from 47 to 36 miles.

My rides max out at about 35 miles and I tend to turn off assist throughout the ride so not an issue yet. I used to be able to get through two average rides on one charge. If I do single track ride then its 12-16 miles so still lasts me couple rides. By the way the bike on single track is quite fun. Got to be picky with lines and careful with drops, roots and rocks but its a whole other experience comparing to a full suspension bike. .

 

[ruffruff]

I'm 1500 miles in on the bike and knock on wood no issues at all. Other then the battery is degrading.

17 months old, ~80 rides, ~1,500 miles, ~40 to 50 charge cycles. Range drop by 23% from 47 to 36 miles.

My rides max out at about 35 miles and I tend to turn off assist throughout the ride so not an issue yet. I used to be able to get through two average rides on one charge. If I do single track ride then its 12-16 miles so still lasts me couple rides. By the way the bike on single track is quite fun. Got to be picky with lines and careful with drops, roots and rocks but its a whole other experience comparing to a full suspension bike. .

Are you riding in colder weather? That's a typical drop on a Li battery in cold weather.

 

[dariusf2]

Are you riding in colder weather? That's a typical drop on a Li battery in cold weather.

I'm in Chicago area so yes it's been colder and colder the past few months. My last few rides on this bike we had between 30 to 40 degrees. Just had a bunch of rain so singletrack trails will be offline and I plan to do a couple more asphalt rides on this graval bike. Few inches of snow next week so hopefully fat bike ride soon

 

[PedalUma]

The one and only data point with Bikes Direct I have sucks. Though not statically accurate, one bad one is enough, like one bad blind date. Never again. The online only photos and specs looked good, but...Surprise it sucks! The dropouts were wrong and yellow primer was showing as the matte black paint was flaking off. The tiers smelled like ammonia, vinyl, or a cheap dime-store yellow ducky. I could cut them with a thumbnail. All crap. The shifter and derailleur were garbage as well as the housings and cables. $249 bikes at Target are better. I took the hit and moved on. Now it is an HD for a disabled person with a throttle. He upgraded everything. The wheels were iron like a train. Heavy as heck. But nice in the photos.

 

[dariusf2]

Wow that sounds like a bad experience. I purchased a total of 3 bikes from Bikes Direct over maybe a 5 year span. A $500 mountain style bike for my wife which I sold earlier this year and replaced with Specialized Sirrus 2.0 as she ended up riding mostly asphalt. That was a lower quality bike with lower end components which was expected based on the price and no real complaints there. Motobecane 2016 Sturgis Bullet fat bike with RockShox Bluto fork and Sram X5 groupset which was around $2k. The frame quality was excellent with very nice welds although I did get it refinished with custom powder coating. Not because it needed it Drivetrain except lowerend BB was what one expects from X5, fork was great as expected given the brand and model. Wheels solid Mulfuk (sp?). The other parts were marginal as expected and easy upgrades. I had zero complaints and sold the bike as I found a gread deal on a Salsa Bucksaw demo bike which I uses alot now and love it. MSRP $4k so a different class of a bike for sure, therefore different expectations. Funny enough same RockShox Bluto fork with the original damper which I did upgrade woth the new redesigned damper The Mulekick is great and had zero issues with it. I did some upgrades just because I had better parts and like to mass around with my bikes. The drive train being a lower end SRAM is nothing but great. I'm honestly surprised how well its holding up and shifting comparing SRAM GX and NX or Shimano XT on my other bikes. I did have to adjust it a bit after some time but thats expected and same goes with my other higher end bikes. The wheels are still true and I take it on gravel with rockey downs and some single track. I did upgrade the tires to Maxxis Ramer 45mm but the stock WTDs were not bad at all. Just wanted wider and more gripping thread for more offroad use.

Overall I had good experiences with all 3 Bike Direct bike purchases and can't complain at all. Over the years I had a dozen bikes and also own more expensive mountain bikes to compare to, Ibis SLR and Ibis Mojo 3 which are $5 to 6k each.