Credible Hulk
Active Member
This is a rant, just to vent about all the problems and bad luck I've been experiencing with my new ebike. It's not meant as a criticism of the seller, they've actually been pretty good in helping me with some early issues.
In February I bought a Sparkbikes ebike by mail order. It's lucky I ordered early because they ran out of them a week later. They now have some newer models for sale.
When I got the bike it came in a big box with "this side up" "fragile", "do not lay box on its side", "do not place heavy items on top". The courier did the exact opposite of what the labels said, the box arrived on its side. It had a big hole on one side with the derailleur sticking out of it. The bike came with a derailleur guard which likely prevented the whole assembly from being torn off. Clearly they threw heavy objects on top of the box while it was on its side.
As a result when I assembled the bike I found the rear rack was twisted and bent down with paint flaking off all over the place. The derailleur was bent out of shape and useless. I contacted the vendor and they told me to take it to a bike shop to get the derailleur repaired, and to buy a new rack, they would reimburse me for both. I did so and the vendor was quick to reimburse me the $100 both items cost.
Another issue was that the front fender was too short and so was the front brake cable. The vendor sent me replacements by overnight courier and I had to swap those parts out.
Speaking of cables, the flimsy, thin cable for my front headlight got chopped because it was wrapped around the front post right where there's a crack where the handlebars turn. I had to patch it with electrical tape.
A couple of days later it was sunny and relatively warm (low 40's F) so I took the bike out to a quiet neighbourhood to test it. Suddenly my rear wheel went into a skid, I lost control of the bike and wiped out into a mudhole ditch. When I got up I found that the rear brake cable was so tight that whenever I turned my front wheel to the right past a certain point, the rear brake would suddenly engage. I walked the bike home, and was able to fix it by repositioning the cable along the frame (it had also been wrapped around the front post) and loosening it a bit.
Next it was the weather. We've had a lousy spring so far. Here in Toronto we're still getting intermittent single digit temperatures in late April/May. I didn't expect to ride much in February, but after I fixed the brake cable it was three weeks into March before there was one day that wasn't brutally cold, extremely windy, or snowing and/or raining. Then, more weeks when I couldn't ride. I finally got out at the end of April and had a nice ride on bike paths in a nearby park. I also bought panniers for my new rack and made one trip to run a few errands, which worked out well. I was looking forward to taking it out more often since the weather was finally warming up.
Then three days after my last ride I noticed the rear tire was completely flat. "Why me?" I thought. I put the bike up on my repair rack and reinflated the tire to see if I could find the leak. I also inspected all areas of the tire with a bright light and magnifying glass - no sign of damage, debris or punctures. I cleaned the tread with a stiff brush. The tire deflated again overnight. I didn't want the hassle of removing the rear wheel so I tried using Slime. I reinflated the tire and sure enough the next day it was flat again. No slime leaking anywhere, still no sign of damage. I took the wheel off, removed the tube, inflated it a bit and put it under water. Not a single bubble and no sign of defects or damage. I even inspected the inside of the tire for anything that could cause a leak - nothing, it's a brand new tire. I did notice there was no rim liner, and that one of the holes in the rim had a big, sharp chunk of burr sticking out of it which could cause a leak. I sanded it down. I then installed a rim liner and decided to replace the tube to be on the safe side, I chose a Slime tube. By the way, the old tube is still inflated two days later.
I'll keep it as a spare.
Now the latest hassle is getting the rear wheel axle to sit in the dropouts. I spent the better part of a day yesterday trying to fix it. I've thrown my back out in the process of hauling heavy wheel with hub motor around, along with the bike itself. The bike is still sitting upside down with the wheel resting on the dropouts and refusing to drop into the slots no matter what I do. It's been very hard not to completely lose my temper over this because it makes no sense that this thing won't go back together, even when all of the washers etc. are where they're supposed to go. I must be forgetting something (don't ask me what). Anyway, I created a separate thread in the maintenance section for help with this.
I think if I had a nickel for every time I've asked myself "Is this thing ever going to work???" I'd be a bazillionaire by now.
In February I bought a Sparkbikes ebike by mail order. It's lucky I ordered early because they ran out of them a week later. They now have some newer models for sale.
When I got the bike it came in a big box with "this side up" "fragile", "do not lay box on its side", "do not place heavy items on top". The courier did the exact opposite of what the labels said, the box arrived on its side. It had a big hole on one side with the derailleur sticking out of it. The bike came with a derailleur guard which likely prevented the whole assembly from being torn off. Clearly they threw heavy objects on top of the box while it was on its side.
As a result when I assembled the bike I found the rear rack was twisted and bent down with paint flaking off all over the place. The derailleur was bent out of shape and useless. I contacted the vendor and they told me to take it to a bike shop to get the derailleur repaired, and to buy a new rack, they would reimburse me for both. I did so and the vendor was quick to reimburse me the $100 both items cost.
Another issue was that the front fender was too short and so was the front brake cable. The vendor sent me replacements by overnight courier and I had to swap those parts out.
Speaking of cables, the flimsy, thin cable for my front headlight got chopped because it was wrapped around the front post right where there's a crack where the handlebars turn. I had to patch it with electrical tape.
A couple of days later it was sunny and relatively warm (low 40's F) so I took the bike out to a quiet neighbourhood to test it. Suddenly my rear wheel went into a skid, I lost control of the bike and wiped out into a mudhole ditch. When I got up I found that the rear brake cable was so tight that whenever I turned my front wheel to the right past a certain point, the rear brake would suddenly engage. I walked the bike home, and was able to fix it by repositioning the cable along the frame (it had also been wrapped around the front post) and loosening it a bit.
Next it was the weather. We've had a lousy spring so far. Here in Toronto we're still getting intermittent single digit temperatures in late April/May. I didn't expect to ride much in February, but after I fixed the brake cable it was three weeks into March before there was one day that wasn't brutally cold, extremely windy, or snowing and/or raining. Then, more weeks when I couldn't ride. I finally got out at the end of April and had a nice ride on bike paths in a nearby park. I also bought panniers for my new rack and made one trip to run a few errands, which worked out well. I was looking forward to taking it out more often since the weather was finally warming up.
Then three days after my last ride I noticed the rear tire was completely flat. "Why me?" I thought. I put the bike up on my repair rack and reinflated the tire to see if I could find the leak. I also inspected all areas of the tire with a bright light and magnifying glass - no sign of damage, debris or punctures. I cleaned the tread with a stiff brush. The tire deflated again overnight. I didn't want the hassle of removing the rear wheel so I tried using Slime. I reinflated the tire and sure enough the next day it was flat again. No slime leaking anywhere, still no sign of damage. I took the wheel off, removed the tube, inflated it a bit and put it under water. Not a single bubble and no sign of defects or damage. I even inspected the inside of the tire for anything that could cause a leak - nothing, it's a brand new tire. I did notice there was no rim liner, and that one of the holes in the rim had a big, sharp chunk of burr sticking out of it which could cause a leak. I sanded it down. I then installed a rim liner and decided to replace the tube to be on the safe side, I chose a Slime tube. By the way, the old tube is still inflated two days later.
I'll keep it as a spare.Now the latest hassle is getting the rear wheel axle to sit in the dropouts. I spent the better part of a day yesterday trying to fix it. I've thrown my back out in the process of hauling heavy wheel with hub motor around, along with the bike itself. The bike is still sitting upside down with the wheel resting on the dropouts and refusing to drop into the slots no matter what I do. It's been very hard not to completely lose my temper over this because it makes no sense that this thing won't go back together, even when all of the washers etc. are where they're supposed to go. I must be forgetting something (don't ask me what). Anyway, I created a separate thread in the maintenance section for help with this.
I think if I had a nickel for every time I've asked myself "Is this thing ever going to work???" I'd be a bazillionaire by now.
