ST2 s motor cable problems

[Belgian biker]

Just had to have my motor cable replaced at 800 miles on my 6 months old bike. The motor was vibrating and giving me barely any assistance. When I called Stromer they were very quick to diagnose the problem and told me that it had happened before. Parts and labor were going to be covered . When contacting my dealer , he too mentioned that this happens often. Contrary to the Stromer information I had gotten, he charged me for labor.
My question is , how often is this cable getting damaged in this model? Anyone else encountered this?
And if this is a design fault, should there be a recall ie a better cable provided and free installation.

 

[devhead]

I had this problem as well. The tech at my shop said this was due to a bad batch of motor cables and so is a known and limited problem. I've put another 3k miles on my ST2 since the cable was replaced, no further problems with the motor cable have occurred.

As for the shop charging you for labor I'd complain and have them get their reimbursement for labor from Stromer. My shop has never charged me for warranty repairs.

 

[opimax]

If you did not buy from the repair shop there will be a labor charge most likely. I do not believe Stromer actually pays the shop labor, part of the profit of the sell. I bought mine at a great price in Wisconsin and knew I would pay when repaired locally. So far I am still way ahead on the deal. They do cover the parts and have shown great loyalty to me as I have to them. My wife's 3.5 year old bike has just received parts yesterday (torque sensor). I will pay to have these 3 parts installed.
It does not work like buying a new car and service anywhere even though it feels like it should.

 

[Bernard]

Just had to have my motor cable replaced at 800 miles on my 6 months old bike. The motor was vibrating and giving me barely any assistance. When I called Stromer they were very quick to diagnose the problem and told me that it had happened before. Parts and labor were going to be covered . When contacting my dealer , he too mentioned that this happens often. Contrary to the Stromer information I had gotten, he charged me for labor.
My question is , how often is this cable getting damaged in this model? Anyone else encountered this?
And if this is a design fault, should there be a recall ie a better cable provided and free installation.

My ST2 is just one month old, 800km...all of the sudden lots of noise and almost no power...According to the dealer, this is indeed a motor cable problem, It seems to happen a lot with all new Stromer bikes...I am already waiting almost 2 weeks now for a new cable to be delivered to the dealer...Unbelievable...

 

[Belgian biker]

If your cable goes out after your dealer's allowed warranty period, you have to pay for the installation of the new one. I complained to stromer but to no avail. They are only replacing the cable for free but, although they are knowingly shipping out faulty bikes, are not reimbursing for labor. So much for standing behind their product and customer goodwill.

 

[Just A Commuter]

I had the motor cable go out at about 500 miles, after about 2 months. Just today, at almost 1100 miles I had it go out again (only 5 months old and only 3 months after the first replacement). Are they bad cables or is there a systemic bad design that is causing the cable to wear to the point of failure at a certain point? Or am I just very unlucky... spending $10K on a bike to have it fail every 500 miles makes me very unlikely to recommend this bike to any other serious bike commuter. Luckily my shop (Longmont, Colorado) was very sympathetic and stated everything was under warranty, so I wasn't charged parts or labor.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

I think there was a bad batch of motor cables but then it was sorted out last year. It should be fairly consistent now. Also, the ST2-S comes with 3 year warranty on everything, so that's a good thing.

 

[HiKevin]

Got my ST2S in June 2017. It failed that week and was in the shop waiting for a motor cable for 3 weeks. Then in late August 2017 it failed again. Took 2 months this time to fix, because the motor cable and an ancillary controller cable had issues. Got the bike back in late Octobe 2017. Now, this morning on the way to work it started with the tell tale shudder/failure that I've come to know and hate. 3rd time in 7 months. And, in that first 7 months of owning this $10K bike it's been in the shop for nearly 3 of those months. You'd think when you bought a highly reviewed swiss bike for $10K, you wouldn't get a lemon. This company sucks. Should have bought a Stealth B-52 or bitten the bullet and gotten a motorcycle and bought a Zero for the same price. This just totally sucks.

 

[Solom01]

Sorry Kevin that really sucks. What's sad is that you probably purchased this bike from a local bike shop and paid a ton of money for quality and the personal service that this forum keeps talking about, but when you needed it, it wasn't there. Hindsight is great but you would have been better off buying two Juiced bikes or some other less expensive bike on the internet for a lot less money. If one of them had broken you could use the other and still saved a bunch of money.

 

[Leandro]

I have replaced a fair amount of motor cables, mainly on the ST2. It is a pretty straightforward, yet time consuming install.

From my experience, a lot of motor cable issues have arisen from improperly installing the motor cable interface when reinstalling the rear wheel back onto the bike, during a flat fix for example. You must ensure that the cabling is tucked away appropriately behind the protective sleeve or you risk having the brake rotor cutting into the cables.

 

[HiKevin]

Not sure how similar the ST2 and ST2S are, but on my ST2S I've only removed the rear wheel for a flat once and was careful to route the cable correctly so that it was protected from the rotor. As noted above, it seems to be a bad batch of cables working their way through Stromer's inventory. What a super flub up though - if they were at all concerned about anyone recommending their bike/purchasing one in the future they should have just reached out to every owner when they learned of the problem with a robust fix - ideally sending someone to get the bike, repair it and provide decent status reports. I like the bike, but at this point I couldn't recommend that anyone buy one.

 

[Leandro]

Not sure how similar the ST2 and ST2S are, but on my ST2S I've only removed the rear wheel for a flat once and was careful to route the cable correctly so that it was protected from the rotor. As noted above, it seems to be a bad batch of cables working their way through Stromer's inventory. What a super flub up though - if they were at all concerned about anyone recommending their bike/purchasing one in the future they should have just reached out to every owner when they learned of the problem with a robust fix - ideally sending someone to get the bike, repair it and provide decent status reports. I like the bike, but at this point I couldn't recommend that anyone buy one.

Stromer is a great brand and they do a really good job servicing their customers and dealers, though their bikes do have a few quirks and are prone to end up in the shop every now and then. When a Stromer bike is working at 100%, you'll be hard pressed to find a better rear hub e-bike on the market. Although, I have seen plenty of small issues keep owners from riding altogether much too often. The good news is that Stromer is aware of these issues and from my experience has done a great job working with our shop to provide warranty replacements even after warranty periods have ended. I have really enjoyed working with both Joel and Michael within Stromer's U.S. tech & warranty department. These guys have always been super responsive and helpful in times of need.

I do agree that there was probably a bad motor cable batch, as I have replaced maybe 1-2 cables a few months back and had to replace them again just a few weeks later.