speedub.nate
Member
I purchased a Raleigh Misceo with a Steps E6000 drive and about 500 miles on it from BicycleBlueBook in San Jose. I'm deciding whether to fix and keep it, or thanks to their friendly store policy, return it.
The test ride on the flat streets of the San Jose business park went well enough and the battery condition seems fine, but once I got it home and rode it on my local hills, it began throwing a W012 error code. The automatic shifting on hills basically inoperable. Turning off the battery resets the code, and doesn't show up again until the next steep hill.
I followed the dealer service manual recommendation, which only suggests removing the crank fixing bolt to assure the crank arms are aligned correctly with the index mark on the spindle.
I then called Shimano directly:
Shimano's First Question: Is the motor unit level? My model of the Misceo (2015) has the motor unit mounted at a tilt up at the front relative to horizontal. I see from Google image search and YouTube that Raleigh changed this at some point, where they reconfigured their frames so the motor unit sits "level." My calls in to Raleigh have so far gone unanswered.
The Shimano tech said "we've seen a lot of these (W012 error codes) and they're often on custom recumbent frames." The motor units are apparently sensitive to orientation. I mentioned my bike also had an aftermarket suspension fork installed which jacked up the front end a few inches, further increasing "tilt" of the motor.
So per my conversation with Shimano, first I installed a different fork to reduce the bike to a near-stock configuration, and then I removed and reinstalled the cranks forward one position on the spindle (90 degrees forward of the index), as this has apparently corrected the problem for their recumbent customers.
Neither of these resulted in any change -- I'm still getting the W012 code on hills.
I mentioned that the Di2 automatic shifting (Alfine 8 hub) is awful on hills. The system shifts to a higher gear too early, and even if I manually downshift, the system tries to upshift right away. It makes me suspect my unit has a faulty torque sensor, because I see no other online complaints of this. I'm a fairly strong rider and normally grind up these hills on my non-assisted bikes (this is my first ebike), so I've experimented with relaxing a bit and allowing the bike to do most of the work, and with selecting manual mode so I can keep the hub in a low gear, but these techniques also result in the W012 error code.
I called back Shimano and they suggested I bring it in to a shop and plug it in to do an online "Log Me In" session with them, where they can examine and reconfigure the system settings, but also said most likely there's nothing to change and I'd have to swap motor units. I called a local shop Shimano listed, that can plug in to these motors, but when I explained my situation the shop owner said simply "return it." I'll be contacting an ebike specality shop today for a more informed opinion.
BicycleBlueBook is an honest shop specializing in used bikes, with whom I've done business with previously, and they will accept returns for a full refund. I bought the bike for a fair price ($870), and I potentially have the ability to negotiate a further reduced price to offset the purchase cost of a new motor unit (~$400). The bike is reasonably well spec'd and relatively light for an ebike, not to mention I like the looks and it fits me physically and fits my needs. I'm a big fan of gear hubs so the Alfine is fine by me, and the Di2 shifting is icing on the cake.
Any thoughts? Is this motor worth replacing? Or will the Shimano E6000 in general give me more problems down the road? I'm a 200 lb, reasonably strong rider, and intend to use this bike on getting up the steeper Oakland hills but also on longer commutes on the flats. And, despite the error code and the shifting frustrations, it seems to be working well enough that the bike is still usable, as long as I'm willing to learn to work around the hill shifting issues.
Any and all opinions are welcome!
The test ride on the flat streets of the San Jose business park went well enough and the battery condition seems fine, but once I got it home and rode it on my local hills, it began throwing a W012 error code. The automatic shifting on hills basically inoperable. Turning off the battery resets the code, and doesn't show up again until the next steep hill.
I followed the dealer service manual recommendation, which only suggests removing the crank fixing bolt to assure the crank arms are aligned correctly with the index mark on the spindle.
I then called Shimano directly:
Shimano's First Question: Is the motor unit level? My model of the Misceo (2015) has the motor unit mounted at a tilt up at the front relative to horizontal. I see from Google image search and YouTube that Raleigh changed this at some point, where they reconfigured their frames so the motor unit sits "level." My calls in to Raleigh have so far gone unanswered.
The Shimano tech said "we've seen a lot of these (W012 error codes) and they're often on custom recumbent frames." The motor units are apparently sensitive to orientation. I mentioned my bike also had an aftermarket suspension fork installed which jacked up the front end a few inches, further increasing "tilt" of the motor.
So per my conversation with Shimano, first I installed a different fork to reduce the bike to a near-stock configuration, and then I removed and reinstalled the cranks forward one position on the spindle (90 degrees forward of the index), as this has apparently corrected the problem for their recumbent customers.
Neither of these resulted in any change -- I'm still getting the W012 code on hills.
I mentioned that the Di2 automatic shifting (Alfine 8 hub) is awful on hills. The system shifts to a higher gear too early, and even if I manually downshift, the system tries to upshift right away. It makes me suspect my unit has a faulty torque sensor, because I see no other online complaints of this. I'm a fairly strong rider and normally grind up these hills on my non-assisted bikes (this is my first ebike), so I've experimented with relaxing a bit and allowing the bike to do most of the work, and with selecting manual mode so I can keep the hub in a low gear, but these techniques also result in the W012 error code.
I called back Shimano and they suggested I bring it in to a shop and plug it in to do an online "Log Me In" session with them, where they can examine and reconfigure the system settings, but also said most likely there's nothing to change and I'd have to swap motor units. I called a local shop Shimano listed, that can plug in to these motors, but when I explained my situation the shop owner said simply "return it." I'll be contacting an ebike specality shop today for a more informed opinion.
BicycleBlueBook is an honest shop specializing in used bikes, with whom I've done business with previously, and they will accept returns for a full refund. I bought the bike for a fair price ($870), and I potentially have the ability to negotiate a further reduced price to offset the purchase cost of a new motor unit (~$400). The bike is reasonably well spec'd and relatively light for an ebike, not to mention I like the looks and it fits me physically and fits my needs. I'm a big fan of gear hubs so the Alfine is fine by me, and the Di2 shifting is icing on the cake.
Any thoughts? Is this motor worth replacing? Or will the Shimano E6000 in general give me more problems down the road? I'm a 200 lb, reasonably strong rider, and intend to use this bike on getting up the steeper Oakland hills but also on longer commutes on the flats. And, despite the error code and the shifting frustrations, it seems to be working well enough that the bike is still usable, as long as I'm willing to learn to work around the hill shifting issues.
Any and all opinions are welcome!
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and I'm exactly where I left off. I need to check out a couple of other shops in the area who say they can program this thing.
