Rize RX first day

[Justin Fischer]

I just unpacked my Rize RX and did my first commute

Initial impressions: The bike was well-packed, the box had no obvious damage. Looking carefully over the bike, there are less issues than my previous Juiced CCX upon delivery. No obvious defects or scratches on the bright red frame, wheels are true-enough, and the brake rotors don't rub on the pads. I couldn't say any of that was true with either of my previous Juiced bikes.

A little confused with the controls, the manual and videos I've watched both say there's an Eco and Sport mode, but there doesn't seem to be either here. I did change my PAS settings to 9 though.

I had a good experience on my commute to work, bike was responsive, though the jerk when shifting is going to take some getting used to. It wasn't as loud as I thought it would be, and the sound is generally more pleasant than my hub drive whine when it was putting out max power. I had 70% left when I got to work.

Unfortunately, my commute back was not as great. It's mostly uphill, and after powering though a pretty steep hill I was left with under 30% power with 5 miles and more hills to go. It seemed the power output really fell off here, I was down to 500 watts of output on level 9, even with the throttle. It was worse on my last hill, I was down to 20% and the bike could only maintain 4-5mph in the lowest gear, and was maybe putting out 300w. A jogger passed me. I assume this is due to the voltage, where power output = controller amps x battery voltage, but it was still disappointing because my hub drive bike was a 20Ah battery got me up it at around 13mph.

I put an order in for the secondary battery, so hopefully instead of 20% I'll have 70% on that last hill and can just kill it. More to come...

 

[AHicks]

I just unpacked my Rize RX and did my first commute

Initial impressions: The bike was well-packed, the box had no obvious damage. Looking carefully over the bike, there are less issues than my previous Juiced CCX upon delivery. No obvious defects or scratches on the bright red frame, wheels are true-enough, and the brake rotors don't rub on the pads. I couldn't say any of that was true with either of my previous Juiced bikes.

A little confused with the controls, the manual and videos I've watched both say there's an Eco and Sport mode, but there doesn't seem to be either here. I did change my PAS settings to 9 though.

I had a good experience on my commute to work, bike was responsive, though the jerk when shifting is going to take some getting used to. It wasn't as loud as I thought it would be, and the sound is generally more pleasant than my hub drive whine when it was putting out max power. I had 70% left when I got to work.

Unfortunately, my commute back was not as great. It's mostly uphill, and after powering though a pretty steep hill I was left with under 30% power with 5 miles and more hills to go. It seemed the power output really fell off here, I was down to 500 watts of output on level 9, even with the throttle. It was worse on my last hill, I was down to 20% and the bike could only maintain 4-5mph in the lowest gear, and was maybe putting out 300w. A jogger passed me. I assume this is due to the voltage, where power output = controller amps x battery voltage, but it was still disappointing because my hub drive bike was a 20Ah battery got me up it at around 13mph.

I put an order in for the secondary battery, so hopefully instead of 20% I'll have 70% on that last hill and can just kill it. More to come...

You've answered your own question here. Eco an Sport each have 5 PAS levels. Marketing gimmick anyway. Inside the controller, there are 9 speeds available. Use them as you wish. Eco mode uses 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Sport mode uses 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9 - or - use use the 9 levels like you are now. PERSONALLY, I find the difference between each PAS level not big enough when set to 9. Switching from PAS 1 to PAS 2 for instance, barely noticeable. 5 is plenty here.....

If the derailleur is set up properly (?), the shifting is most likely a timing issue on your part. Give it a hundred miles and I bet you don't notice it near as much as you might now. I will share that in low cadence, with low speed situations, you may be further ahead increasing your PAS level for some extra power rather than try to downshift, which may risk stalling the bike. Suggest you use some of that motors grunt to get you through that scenario.....

I don't know where you are at, but cooler weather is going to have a big effect on your range. Last thought. That big (gorilla) motor is going to use a LOT of power when pushed. You may find it's not NEARLY as bad when babied, using the minimum amount of watts required to get the job done. THAT'S something that's going to take a few miles to get used to as well.

 

[Justin Fischer]

You've answered your own question here. Eco an Sport each have 5 PAS levels. Marketing gimmick anyway. Inside the controller, there are 9 speeds available. Use them as you wish. Eco mode uses 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Sport mode uses 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9 - or - use use the 9 levels like you are now. PERSONALLY, I find the difference between each PAS level not big enough when set to 9. Switching from PAS 1 to PAS 2 for instance, barely noticeable. 5 is plenty here.....

If the derailleur is set up properly (?), the shifting is most likely a timing issue on your part. Give it a hundred miles and I bet you don't notice it near as much as you might now. I will share that in low cadence, with low speed situations, you may be further ahead increasing your PAS level for some extra power rather than try to downshift, which may risk stalling the bike. Suggest you use some of that motors grunt to get you through that scenario.....

I don't know where you are at, but cooler weather is going to have a big effect on your range. Last thought. That big (gorilla) motor is going to use a LOT of power when pushed. You may find it's not NEARLY as bad when babied, using the minimum amount of watts required to get the job done. THAT'S something that's going to take a few miles to get used to as well.

I feel like the shifter motor cutoff definitely takes some getting used to, right now it doesn't feel fast enough and I end up still having power while the chain actually moves on the cassette. I started to ease up a bit on the pedals when shifting. It's just not something I'm used to having to deal with coming from a hub bike. I cycle a lot (Zwift and analog) and am used to using gears to keep my cadence at 90 unless I'm hill climbing, then 60, so that's another part of it.

It seems like they dropped the battery capacity too much, I hear the 2020 models had 20 instead of 15? This motor can run through that 15ah so fast. Barely 20 miles from 100% to 20% Gonna have to baby it on my way to work even more until my extended gets here.

 

[AHicks]

Give yourself a chance to get used to it - and don't try shifting if there's not plenty of time to do that without stalling the bike. Going up a couple of PAS levels can be done MUCH quicker some times (low cadence/low speed scenario). Been riding/shifting most of my life (I'm 71), and I rarely notice that switch when riding, even though I ride bikes with and without that switch. Letting up on the pedal pressure while shifting is something I don't even think about.....

Yes, the older bikes came with 19.5ah batteries. My bike is used in the hills as well, but I'm riding for pleasure. PAS 1 or 2, speeds 10-14 mph, 30 mile range is easy, 35 if I'm paying attention.....

 

[Roy814]

… and, the older RX had a 48 volt battery system, not 52, so the difference not as great you might initially believe.

 

[wanders]

If you are commuting on streets, roads or smoother bike paths, you might consider changing out tires to something that has lower rolling resistance than the knobbies on the RX. I put these tires on my RX and they work exceptionally well (plus, they are on sale). The "Sport/ECO" mode is evidently a feature of the firmware in the Bafang DC-P18 display; you can buy versions with the Sport/ECO mode on Aliexpress, but as @AHicks said, it seems to be mostly a gimmick. I run my 2022 Rize RX in PAS=1 or 2, mostly, and only use PAS=5 (i.e. max) up long, steep hills. I'm seeing a range of ~35 miles on these hilly roads. I like it a lot.

 

[Roy814]

I agree with Wanders’ comments. I actually switched out my tires for some more off-road worthy knobbies (Maxxis Minions), and I find I average 35-40 mile range with them.

 

[AHicks]

I started with an RX Pro, so it was a fatty (Hated it!). Part of the conversion to 27.5 was a tire change of course. I went with Schwalbe Super Moto X tires in the 27.5 x 2.8" size. This is a mid range balloon type tire with a street tread. 2.8" width provides an awesome ride, and the Super Moto X is a very low rolling resistance design. So, awesome ride with low rolling resistance.....best of both worlds!

 

[Justin Fischer]

I am switching over the Marathon Plus, hopefully today if I can get them on the rims. That should also help with the noise - I find the knobby tires are the loudest part of the bike when I'm taking it slow on a mixed use path.

For the dual batteries, does anyone know how they work? Are they just connected together in parallel so they drain and charge at the same time? I know some bikes have to switch over because they aren't connected together.

 

[Roy814]

Not to hijack your thread, but how did you find the Schwalbe’s for ease of mounting? I had some Big Apple’s on my old ebike, a Trek Powerfly, and Super Motos on my wife’s Ride1Up Lmtd, and as good as they were to ride, they were an absolute bear to get on and off rims.

 

[AHicks]

Not to hijack your thread, but how did you find the Schwalbe’s for ease of mounting? I had some Big Apple’s on my old ebike, a Trek Powerfly, and Super Motos on my wife’s Ride1Up Lmtd, and as good as they were to ride, they were an absolute bear to get on and off rims.

I generally do them with just my hands, really! The trick is to keep the part already on the rim in that recessed area towards the center of the rim. If they work their way out into the area where the bead sets, you aren't going anywhere with them!

 

[Justin Fischer]

Not to hijack your thread, but how did you find the Schwalbe’s for ease of mounting? I had some Big Apple’s on my old ebike, a Trek Powerfly, and Super Motos on my wife’s Ride1Up Lmtd, and as good as they were to ride, they were an absolute bear to get on and off rims.

I just got the front one on, I didn't find it too difficult to do by hand. I did use tire levers to get the old one off, but didn't need them to get the new one on. Just worked one side on, most of the other side, then rolled the last bit.

 

[wanders]

The two batteries are plugged into a "battery balancer", which is literally a black box below the socket in the downtube. If it is a lot more than diodes in a Y-connector, I would be a little surprised, but who knows.
Regarding mounting tires, when I first put on the Goodyear Transit Tours, they did not seat correctly. For the first time, I tried the "very soapy water" method to seat the tires, and it worked perfectly. My tires are perfectly seated and true. You can search YouTube for the method if is isn't obvious.

 

[Justin Fischer]

I'm about 200 miles in now, and can't use 9th gear at all due to skipping. I'm afraid I just shredded the teeth, but also have problems shifting in the low end...bike stand on the way so I can try to adjust the rear derailleur

 

[wanders]

The HG CS-HG400-9 cogs are steel. You might be able to wear them out in 200 miles, but it seems unlikely. Have you lubed your chain? If you are having problems shifting up and down the cassette, it could be that your shifter cable needs a bit of adjustment, though skipping in high gear would typically mean some derailleur stop adjustment as well.

 

[Bon1010]

I just unpacked my Rize RX and did my first commute

Initial impressions: The bike was well-packed, the box had no obvious damage. Looking carefully over the bike, there are less issues than my previous Juiced CCX upon delivery. No obvious defects or scratches on the bright red frame, wheels are true-enough, and the brake rotors don't rub on the pads. I couldn't say any of that was true with either of my previous Juiced bikes.

A little confused with the controls, the manual and videos I've watched both say there's an Eco and Sport mode, but there doesn't seem to be either here. I did change my PAS settings to 9 though.

I had a good experience on my commute to work, bike was responsive, though the jerk when shifting is going to take some getting used to. It wasn't as loud as I thought it would be, and the sound is generally more pleasant than my hub drive whine when it was putting out max power. I had 70% left when I got to work.

Unfortunately, my commute back was not as great. It's mostly uphill, and after powering though a pretty steep hill I was left with under 30% power with 5 miles and more hills to go. It seemed the power output really fell off here, I was down to 500 watts of output on level 9, even with the throttle. It was worse on my last hill, I was down to 20% and the bike could only maintain 4-5mph in the lowest gear, and was maybe putting out 300w. A jogger passed me. I assume this is due to the voltage, where power output = controller amps x battery voltage, but it was still disappointing because my hub drive bike was a 20Ah battery got me up it at around 13mph.

I put an order in for the secondary battery, so hopefully instead of 20% I'll have 70% on that last hill and can just kill it. More to come...

Hi,

Does the weight is a concern. 70 pounds is high compare to many other mtb

Thankd

 

[AHicks]

Hi,

Does the weight is a concern. 70 pounds is high compare to many other mtb

Thankd

How about when compared to others with anything close to similar power and battery capacity?

The Ultra motor IS heavy, but it's a giant torque monster, especially when compared to about ANYTHING else on the market. The Bafang BBSHD is just about the only other motor in this class.....

 

[BlackFlash]

The dual battery setup with eventual kill your motor, Rize does not equip its bikes with Dual battery balancers.

 

[wanders]

@BlackFlash, I am unaware of your Rize model. However, I can assure you that my 2022 Rize RX has a battery balancer located just below the auxiliary battery plug in the downtube, hidden by the battery connector. I have held it in my hand. One needs to be careful with generalizations.

 

[Justin Fischer]

I'm 500 miles in and have already replaced my cassette. I think I solved the issue though. This bike has a 44T front and 9/11-32 rear. The Juiced bikes, and I suspect other ebikes, have a 54T front. This anemic front sprocket means only the 9th gear, and it's like 5 teeth, take all the power if you want to go 28mph. Only going ham with the cadence, or 9th gear, can get you to 28mph. I just bought a new front sprocket that will arrive soon to expand that top end. I'll report back once installed. You can see in this top graph, at 90rpm and 8th gear with a 44T, the max speed is 26. A 54T greatly increases which rear gears give you that range. (Bottom graph)

I know for a fact I shredded the rear gears. I was doing fine after the cassette replacement for miles 200-450. At around 450, in 9th gear I decided to get out of the saddle for a hill climb instead of downshifting. It was my mistake, I was putting like 2000 watts (I know my sprints are 1000 watts because of Zwifting with power meter pedals) into those few teeth, it skipped hard and I've been skipping on 9th since.

Edit: 58T was juuuust too large to fit. Trying again with a 54T.