Nicolas Rouquette
Member
Back in July, I wrote about the excitement about getting a 2nd ST5 after the 1st ST5 failed the day I was to take delivery at Electric Bikes ZZZ. Between July and September, I experienced a lot of weird errors, I lost track of them. I was getting annoyed that the bike seemed to have been most of the time at the shop for diagnosing errors that were difficult to track down or reproduce.
It seems that my bad experience was unique among ST3/ST5 customers. The shop agreed with me that, somehow, I had received another defective bike.
At the end of September, I take delivery of a 3rd ST5 thinking that my problems should be over with this new bike. Forward to early November when a new pattern of errors emerges beginning with a transient error, E210208, when I turned on the bike for my morning commute. The error went away after power-cycling the bike only to show up again a couple of days later.
About 10 days later, I get a new error: E250103 (Torque sensor needs calibration). In all the years that my wife and I have owned ST2 bikes, we've never had this error before! Since I'm on a tight schedule for catching my vanpool, I switch to my old ST2. That evening, I perform the torque sensor calibration procedure and take the bike for a short test around the block. Everything seems fine!
Next morning, I take my ST5 for my morning commute. As I make a right turn into the side street where the vanpool parking lot is, the bike flashes lots of messages and I loose power assistance while Omni displays a flurry of messages too small and too quickly to read safely while trying to figure out what's going on. It turned out to be E250103 but I have to postpone troubleshooting until the vanpool returns later that afternoon. After turning on the bike and performing the torque sensor calibration procedure, the bike flashes E250103 as soon as I pedal. The difference now is that the subsequent procedure fails and the bike reports a new error about that. I tried power cycling the bike twice and the procedure a few more times; nothing. I ride the bike back home loaded with my stuff. On or off, there's a lot of cogging resistance. Riding that way at 20mph, the electric horn produces an unpleasant shrieking sound once in while.
At home, I leave the bike turned off. About 30 minutes later, I turn it back on -- no E250103! It's as if nothing had happened! I'm really frustrated. For the rest of the week, I used my old ST2. Then comes Saturday -- I need fresh bread (it's a French thing...) and take my ST5 to the bakery nearby. On the way back home, I turn right on my street and bam -- power assist goes off; E250103 again. Fortunately I only have a couple of blocks to go...
Up until I experienced the torque sensor errors, I was willing to deal with errors w/ the shop. The torque sensor errors -- and the effect they have on the bike -- are a completely different category for me: basically it means that I cannot rely on the bike to function as intended when I need it. This was the last straw for me and today I returned the ST5.
I really liked Stromer's design. Omni's screen is too small to be useful while riding the bike but it is nice knowing that the bike sent all the errors back to Stromer. What is not nice is the fact that customers are in the dark w.r.t. what is the actual reliability of Stromer's ST5 design. For $10K, the last thing I need is to feel anxious regarding my bike's reliability.
- Nicolas.
It seems that my bad experience was unique among ST3/ST5 customers. The shop agreed with me that, somehow, I had received another defective bike.
At the end of September, I take delivery of a 3rd ST5 thinking that my problems should be over with this new bike. Forward to early November when a new pattern of errors emerges beginning with a transient error, E210208, when I turned on the bike for my morning commute. The error went away after power-cycling the bike only to show up again a couple of days later.
About 10 days later, I get a new error: E250103 (Torque sensor needs calibration). In all the years that my wife and I have owned ST2 bikes, we've never had this error before! Since I'm on a tight schedule for catching my vanpool, I switch to my old ST2. That evening, I perform the torque sensor calibration procedure and take the bike for a short test around the block. Everything seems fine!
Next morning, I take my ST5 for my morning commute. As I make a right turn into the side street where the vanpool parking lot is, the bike flashes lots of messages and I loose power assistance while Omni displays a flurry of messages too small and too quickly to read safely while trying to figure out what's going on. It turned out to be E250103 but I have to postpone troubleshooting until the vanpool returns later that afternoon. After turning on the bike and performing the torque sensor calibration procedure, the bike flashes E250103 as soon as I pedal. The difference now is that the subsequent procedure fails and the bike reports a new error about that. I tried power cycling the bike twice and the procedure a few more times; nothing. I ride the bike back home loaded with my stuff. On or off, there's a lot of cogging resistance. Riding that way at 20mph, the electric horn produces an unpleasant shrieking sound once in while.
At home, I leave the bike turned off. About 30 minutes later, I turn it back on -- no E250103! It's as if nothing had happened! I'm really frustrated. For the rest of the week, I used my old ST2. Then comes Saturday -- I need fresh bread (it's a French thing...) and take my ST5 to the bakery nearby. On the way back home, I turn right on my street and bam -- power assist goes off; E250103 again. Fortunately I only have a couple of blocks to go...
Up until I experienced the torque sensor errors, I was willing to deal with errors w/ the shop. The torque sensor errors -- and the effect they have on the bike -- are a completely different category for me: basically it means that I cannot rely on the bike to function as intended when I need it. This was the last straw for me and today I returned the ST5.
I really liked Stromer's design. Omni's screen is too small to be useful while riding the bike but it is nice knowing that the bike sent all the errors back to Stromer. What is not nice is the fact that customers are in the dark w.r.t. what is the actual reliability of Stromer's ST5 design. For $10K, the last thing I need is to feel anxious regarding my bike's reliability.
- Nicolas.
