Over 50's 2017 XDuro Trekking 4.0 Chronicles

2017 Haibike Trekking 4.0 Size for a 5'8 1/2", 29.5" inseam, 50+ year old novice bike commuter?

  • L 56 CM

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Bike is no good for commuting in any size

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    3
  • Poll closed .
I was wrong to look at the specifications and naturally I corrected the post.I should not give you problems with so few miles but if you see that pine nuts would have to change the cassette or plate for new ones, the new chain will have to adapt to the wear generated by the previous one.


For me it is the best chain and it adapts to many cassette profiles from other manufacturers.With more miles tell us how it works.

http://kmcchain.us/chain/x11ept-eco-proteq/

http://www.kmcchain.es/chain-e_bike-multispeed-10_speed
http://www.kmcchain.es/chain-e_bike-multispeed-11_speed

here is more detailed the size of pin and they are the same except the number of links and the treatment,114/118/136 links


the longest is the X10 ept of 136 links.


Buy a quick link reusable or noreusable and breakchain for that chain and your problems will be zero.


I have the x10 silver series with haibike and with 1200 kilometers, it seems recently bought
 
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My first commute (37 miles) today since the tune-up and new KMC chain. 32F on departure at 5:30 a.m. and 55 on return at 2pm. The XDuro Trekking was buttery smooth. I tripped the 1,000 mile mark (about 8 months after purchase with 2 months no riding).

Odd thing I didn't notice when I picked up the bike at the LBS after the tune-up so I didn't ask them about it. The max speed on my Intuvia display was previously around 26 mph and I did that on the down slope of a freeway overpass. The max speed after the LBS worked on the bike was over 31 mph. I always encourage the techs at my LBS to take my bikes out and ride them anytime they do work for me so I don't mind that they ride them around. But I was just wondering how the heck they could do 31 mph on a 20 mph Bosch bike when we have no hills in my neighborhood? Can you get that kind of speed reading by cycling the cranks when the bike is on a workstand?
 
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I just got my 2017 Xduro Trekking 4.0 a couple weeks ago at clearance pricing and am still making some changes and adjustments. Overall, I really like it.

My perspective is a bit different as I am 6'6" and got the 64cm bike. I have added a Suntour SP12-NCX suspension seatpost, but haven't gotten around to adjusting and testing it much. I also got a Weanas stem riser on Amazon and that has taken some weight off my wrists. The grips that came with the bike are pretty good, but I took the Ergon GP1 grips from my old bike and put them on. I had to build up the bars a little with tape to make the Ergon grips stable as the handlebar diameter is just slightly smaller on the ends than my old bike bars. I also switched out the seat for one I have been using for a while on my old bike.

After about 200 miles, I took off the Haibike rack and replaced it with the Topeak Explorer I had on my old bike. The Haibike rack didn't secure my Topeak EX trunk bag without bungee cords, which were inconvenient to deal with. Also, the lower bar for panniers put the panniers too close to my heels, causing occasional contact. The Haibike rack could support both the trunk bag and panniers, which the Topeak Explorer can't, but I ordered another pannier for when I need more space than one can handle. I'll use the panniers for commuting and just the trunk bag for shorter recreational rides.

I kept the fenders on, so, by replacing the rack, the back of the rear fender has nothing stabilizing it. It is just causing some rattling noise for now though. I'll drill a couple holes where it hits the end of the Topeak rack and secure it there. Also, I had to remove the rear light when I took off the Haibike rack, but I just use my old flashing rear light that clips on to the seat post, which works fine for me.

I also had a Topeak TourGuide DX handlebar bag that I wanted to move to the Haibike, but its mount (Fixer 8) doesn't fit with the Lupine front light and the wide mount for the Intuvia display. I tried using a bar extender, but that didn't work very well. I do see that there is a new Fixer 8E mount that is wider for Ebikes, so I'll probably try that. If the bag won't mount well due to the light, the light will win that conflict. I have been out a couple times in the dark and the Lupine light is way better than anything I have previously used.

For now, I'm using a cheap velcro strap mounted bag that isn't holding up well to the weight of the spare tube, tools and other things I keep there. It's also a bit cramped since it holds significantly less. It's workable for the short term, but I'd like to find something different.

I'm mostly using my bike for a 40 mile per day bike/bus commute and it is great for that. The weight of the the bike does cause some concern on the King County (WA) Metro bus bike racks though. After my first ride I added two 24 inch bungee cords to help secure the bike to the rack as all that weight isn't easily secured by one front wheel brace.

I ride mostly in Eco to conserve battery life and I have found a balance of the right gear to be able to pedal consistently after the first few days. At first, I was in too low a gear and the cadence was hard to maintain, though I was able go a bit faster that way. I got the Ebike to take the strain off my knees, mostly in climbing situations, but want to get as much exercise value out of riding as I can while avoiding strain.

I spent a bunch of time looking around at different models and the Xduro Trekking 4.0 checked all the boxes for me. I really wanted to get the Super Moto X tires on whatever bike I got. They have a great combination of performance and protection and I wanted a wide tire. The only thing that didn't work so well for me was the rack. I am still working out seat comfort tissues, but that should just need some more tweaking.
 
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I forgot to mention that I also changed the pedals. The stock ones were a little too small for me. I also started riding with the front suspension disabled, but have turned it back on and still have no problem being able to do the 40 mile commute on one battery charge.
 
... still have no problem being able to do the 40 mile commute on one battery charge.

Interesting ... how much charge or estimated range do you have left after the 40?

On last week's commute (posted about above), I had 32F, a very light headwind and a full battery on departure. My charge indicator slipped from 5 ticks to 4 at about the 8.5 mile mark riding maybe 50/50 Eco to Tour. At that point I drew the conservative estimate of 40 miles of range under those conditions. I always give the battery a boost just to insure against return headwinds or end of work day fatigue so I've never tested a full commute without additional charge on this bike.

By contrast to that estimate of 40 miles, I commuted yesterday and had 42F on departure, a light cross wind and a full charge. I was 13+ miles into the trip before it slipped from 5 ticks to 4 and I was riding more in Eco. Thus I estimated 65 miles of range under those conditions. I had similar results on the remainder of the commute. It was a surprisingly big difference with given only a 10F temperature difference, slightly more favorable winds and a bit more rider effort.

As i am getting back into shape I am able to do more of the ride in Eco. I would estimate that with yesterday's commute I did 60/40 Eco to Tour. Eco mode with that CX motor is still quite powerful IMO.
 
I think it was down to 3 or 4 miles last night. I am probably at a bit of an battery efficiency disadvantage with my size. Being tall and riding pretty upright I likely catch more resistance. With a bigger, heavier bike (I'm not even sure how much the bike weighs, but it is heavy), plus a fair load of other things, then me, I am probably pulling 320 lbs. The weather was cold yesterday morning. I was regretting not bringing full fingered gloves. It was pretty nice on the way home though...probably 60s or so. I was catching some wind both ways also.

<edit: used a bad low end weight number the first time> I just checked the Bosch range calculator and with all other factors the same, it showed a 235 lb total load getting 14.5% more mileage than a 320 lb total load. So, some of the difference can be accounted for by the weight difference.

https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/service/range-assistant
 
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Some days my commutes are flawless and uneventful. Some days weird stuff just happens:

On my commute to work at about 6:15 a.m. I was almost mowed down by a police officer. And yes, I will call out the department: I was in a bike lane riding about 15 mph, still dark, no traffic and I, as always, had multiple lights on the bike and on my body. A Wayne State University police SUV was coming head on, no emergency lights and used no turn signal as it crossed the empty car lane to my left and entered the bike lane heading right for me head on. He was angling for a service entrance between two university buildings. I locked up the brakes to avoid the collision and I had a pretty wicked back tire slide that reminded me of my BMX days. He seemed to be looking at me but looked like he just didn't care. I didn't have a camera running today.

About an hour after arriving to work, I went outside to check on the bike and found two building maintenance guys power-washing the brick paver sidewalk around the bike racks. They didn't care that bikes were already there. They were soaking all the bikes. I stopped them and said "hey, can I at least move my bike..." to which they replied "oh don't bother, we're almost done". First my battery cradle was open because I had removed my battery and no rain was in the forecast so I had only covered the controller mount. After the power-wash, the bike was completely covered in dirt, debris and a lot of salt that washed up out of the cracks of the brick pavers. Everything was coated from the drive train to the frame, saddle and electronics. it looked like I had just been mountain biking in wet, muddy terrain. I went out later and cleaned out the battery cradle, cleaned off my brake rotors and motor housing. I was pleasantly surprised that everything booted up and the bike ran fine. But i have a big clean-up job for the weekend just a few weeks after I paid my LBS for the tune-up and drive train cleaning. I'm hoping the Bosch motor is well protected from water intrusion. These guys were reckless and if not directly power washing the bikes they were power washing so close that the spray off of the pavers was almost as intense as a direct soaking. I went and filed a complaint with the building owner but I'm sure they could give a rat's ass.

Leaving downtown after work I was on a sidewalk with a couple of pedestrians waiting to cross a street. Light turns and we get the walk signal and step into the crosswalk. A young guy in a big SUV gunned his engine to make a left turn against oncoming traffic - he wanted to steal the right of way of the oncoming cars. He thought he could beat them and had never looked for pedestrians or thought he could beat the pedestrians too. But we were in the crosswalk. He locked up his brakes, the oncoming cars locked up theirs and laid on their horns, the pedestrians froze, I had eyes the size of saucers and visions of Toronto or NYC and vehicles intentionally mowing down pedestrians. It was a darn close call. The driver squealed his tires as he sped off. Not a policeman in sight.

I made it home. Alive and feeling lucky. And I find a thread here about a big increase in hit and runs and pedestrian/cyclist fatalities. A day to contemplate this risky business of commuting by bike.
 
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Hopefully, incidents like that are rare. That's crazy to have two that bad in one day.

That handlebar bag I thought would be ok in the short term didn't last more than a mile on the next ride. It was pretty full including holding my wallet, keys and phone...probably not the best idea. Anyways, I got 3.5 miles in and stopped to adjust my grips before merging on to a trail and saw my bag was gone. I had to backtrack a bit over two miles and luckily found it in the bike lane right next to the curb undamaged and with nothing missing.

I almost went over the bars coming back to look for it when crossing a busy road. I started ride through crosswalk when the light and walk signal turned and was on the left side of the road since I was looking for the bag. The first driver waiting to turn right pulled out, but stopped short of blocking the whole cross walk. I had to keep my eyes on him to make sure I could keep going with out getting hit and when I looked back at the road, I saw he had cut off the sidewalk access and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the curb, but my bike flipped anyway. I just noticed today, when I was doing some work on the bike, that my front light got scratched up a bit from that. Fortunately I was hurt at all, just pissed off.

Anyways, to follow up on the bike setup experience, I got the Topeak Fixer 8E and got it setup on the bars so I could mount my good handlebar bag. I had to mount it angled down significantly to not interfere with the front light. It's a little funky, but it's worth the compromise to have both a good bar bag and the light.

I also drilled two small holes in the the rear fender and use a long twist tie to fasten the fender to the back of the Topeak Explorer rack. I may tweak that a bit , but it looks like it should work ok.

Novelty note: I used turbo for the first time going up a steep, 15% max hill that I go up coming home. Normally I shift into sport for that one, but this was when I was rushing back to try to find my bag. I try to go with minimal assist, but it's nice to know more is there when/if needed
 
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I had about ideal conditions for a commute today. 52F on departure, light tail wind and 75F on return light cross wind. I rode maybe 70/30 Eco/Tour. I decided to not charge at work (usually I give it maybe 30-60 minutes of boost) because I wanted an accurate estimate of my range now that I've had the bike about 9 months. I ended with 33.6 miles and I had 3 ticks remaining on the indicator (so let's say 2.5 ticks or 1/2 capacity). Estimated remaining range in Eco was 29 miles (14 Tour). So yes, with ideal conditions and that same ratio of Eco/Tour looks like 55 miles is a reasonable estimate. If I managed maybe 90/10 Eco/Tour then it looks like over 60 miles is still possible for my 1 year old battery. Too bad there aren't many days like this where the winds and traffic are so light.

In 2018, I'm 8 days commuting on the class 1 Haibike and 5 on the class 3 R&M (and 1 on the class 1 Vektron). I only have about a minute difference in average time between the Haibike and R&M (R&M slightly faster). I'd still love for the class 1 bike to be a bit faster but its still a highly efficient and enjoyable commute when I'm on the slower bike.
 
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Over50, thanks for sharing your experience with the Haibike via this thread. I recently picked up the same bike (thanks in part to your review) and am very happy overall with its refinement and engineering. It really does feel like a tank (in a good way).

Like you, I also find it difficult to maintain a speed much above 20-21 on flat terrain (which is all we have in central Fla) but I believe it's a combination of both the motor cutoff and the 1x11 gearing that contributes. I would love to see Bosch support dual chainrings (like Brose, Yamaha, etc.) on future generations of the Performance CX motor so that manufacturers could supplement the great climbing gears with more higher speed gears. Or maybe someday, we'll see a high-end Haibike with a Rohloff hub.

But I'm sure I'll adjust to cruising in the 18-19mph range and just enjoy the ride. I plan to use the bike for fitness and brewery hopping (carb replenishment) so top speed is really not critical for me. I just also found it funny that I can much more easily ride my existing non-powered bike (a 3x7 setup) at a sustained 25mph while the 75nm torque e-bike pretty much tops out at 21mph (and at that speed it's real work and a clown cadence).

Also, just to add my 2 cents to the sizing discussion. I'm 5'10" (on the nose) and 30" inseam and I also bought the 48cm/XS. I think I would find the 52cm/S size uncomfortable in terms of the standover height and the seatpost height. On the 48cm, I also find the reach a hair shorter than what I am used to but after a few rides, I am starting to really like the more upright riding position.
 
...Also, just to add my 2 cents to the sizing discussion. I'm 5'10" (on the nose) and 30" inseam and I also bought the 48cm/XS. I think I would find the 52cm/S size uncomfortable in terms of the standover height and the seatpost height. On the 48cm, I also find the reach a hair shorter than what I am used to but after a few rides, I am starting to really like the more upright riding position.

Good to get confirmation on the sizing. Yes, the next larger size probably wouldn't work for me in terms of stand over. I feel perfectly comfortable on the bike now. No neck or hand pain after the commute. I have good visibility in the ride position and feel like I have a lot of control over the bike.
 
With the mornings starting to get warmer, I am seeing a bit better mileage now. This week was the first time leaving around 5:50 and not having my hands be really cold, even with full finger gloves. I got ~47 miles on a charge on the last battery. I use two batteries so I can get a full run out of each battery, then swap in a fully charged battery when the other one taps out.

The 64cm bike is a good fit for me. The larger sizes was a big draw for me to Haibike models since I have seen a fair number of ebike lines that don't go over 19 or 20 inches and those are a no go for me.

Over50: You had made mention of flat terrain in one of your posts. Is your commute generally flat?
 
...Over50: You had made mention of flat terrain in one of your posts. Is your commute generally flat?...

Yes pretty much flat - just a very slight grade change (descending) headed towards the Detroit River (on the way to work).
 
I don't have a ton of climbing. Most of the ride each way is pretty flat, but there are a number of short climbs that add up to about 800-850 ft of elevation gain. When I hit some of those, my battery usage goes from 1 or 2 bars to 100% when I move into tour or sport.

There's also two trail exit points that are steep and I have to start with very little momentum. I have been going full turbo to get up those.
 
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Another day of very favorable weather and again had stellar range from the Powerpack 500. Did not recharge at work. Rode 35 miles maybe 65/35 Eco/Tour and used about 1/2 of the battery. Estimated remaining range in Eco was 35 miles.
 
Another little range experiment today. I have wanted to do a full commute in 100% Eco (which I haven't done on any of my bikes since I started this commuting in 2017). Today started as a good day to try it out. 55F and slight tailwind on the trip in. I managed the 16 miles to work still showing 5 bars but I knew it was about to drop to 4. The prior commute described above with maybe 30% Tour mode gave me about 13 miles on that 1st bar. Coming home though I had a headwind of maybe 8 mph which I did not have on the prior commute. 20 miles on the commute home. Finished with 36 miles complete and estimated remaining range of 29 miles and showing 3 bars. On track again for 60 miles of range with some headwind and riding pure Eco.

I worked hard on this commute. Attempting to keep a speed on the stretches of around 18-19 mph in Eco does require a good amount of rider effort. On the return, riding in headwind and keeping speeds of 16-17 the same. And a few stretches where I hit Tour or Sport to beat some traffic really got my heart rate going relying only on Eco.
 
I also am a recent purchaser of the Haibike trekking 4.0 - having traded to it from the Haibike urban plus (plus a large wadge of cash!).
So far so very happy. Regarding the speed limitations, I understood from my dealer that it's possible to have the motor "chipped" and that it would then run as a speed pedelec. But that this would invalidate the warranty. I wonder if anyone else has considered this option?
 
I also am a recent purchaser of the Haibike trekking 4.0 - having traded to it from the Haibike urban plus (plus a large wadge of cash!).
So far so very happy. Regarding the speed limitations, I understood from my dealer that it's possible to have the motor "chipped" and that it would then run as a speed pedelec. But that this would invalidate the warranty. I wonder if anyone else has considered this option?

I own a 2016 Trekking RX and I did not just consider the option but went straight for the chip. As Over50 put it, zooming up to the cutoff speed around 19mph and then being slowed down is so frustrating.
I installed the Peartune MSO chip and it works flawlessly. Comes with instructions and the hardest part about the install is having to remove the left crank arm, for which you will need the right tool. The chip does exactly what it promises, it completely removes the upper speed limit while leaving everything else as is. You can turn it on and off by pressing the walk button.
I took my bike to the LBS last week for a firmware update and was a little nervous if they would find out the chip was installed. But none of the printouts showed anything out of the ordinary and to Bosch it looks like my bike is completely stock. The chip costs $150 but it is totally worth it, especially considering how much more Bosch charges for a 28mph bike.
 
I installed the Peartune MSO chip and it works flawlessly.

This has been my experience as well.

Comes with instructions and the hardest part about the install is having to remove the left crank arm, for which you will need the right tool.

That only applies to Bosch motors. If it is a Yamaha Trekking 4.0, the motor merely needs to be dropped from the frame with 3mm and 6mm hex keys.
 
I also am a recent purchaser of the Haibike trekking 4.0 - having traded to it from the Haibike urban plus (plus a large wadge of cash!).
So far so very happy. Regarding the speed limitations, I understood from my dealer that it's possible to have the motor "chipped" and that it would then run as a speed pedelec. But that this would invalidate the warranty. I wonder if anyone else has considered this option?

I've been mulling it over now for awhile but just been too busy to pull the trigger and decide on a chip/solution. Bike would go from good to great with ability to maintain speeds in the 20s.
 
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