SteveBorough
Active Member
- Region
- USA
Greetings, I recently encountered a few issues after receiving a 550 error during a light drizzle. Firstly, I know no ebike is "waterproof" but I presume this tank of a bike can handle a light drizzle. During the incident the lights, motor and transmission were not responding to input but the screen worked. I had to walk the bike home a few miles in light rain. Once home the error continued whenever I turned on the bike for a few hours, then it went away. I hadn't ridden the bike in the rain again but did do some off-roading and splashed through a large puddle and the error returned. It resolved itself in a few minutes but once home I needed to clean the mud off the bike. Using some Mud-Off and a bucket of water and brush, I washed the bike (no pressure washer and kept the bike right-side-up) and started getting the 550 Error again. I scheduled an appointment at the bike shop I purchased the bike from and upon pickup of the bike, just received a printout of a few diagnostic errors, none of which were the 550 error and no explanation or further analysis, just that they reached out to R&M for an explanation. This was more than 2 weeks ago!
This brings me to my biggest concern with the bike, my local bike shop is as clueless as I am when it comes to troubleshooting this bike. Spending $12K USD, one expects a higher than average service level but for as long as I've owned it, any issue I've faced has been met with a best-guess approach to servicing and rarely solving my bike's issues. Young kids that may be decent regular bike "mechanics" but barely understand the complexity of my R&M, from stripping bolts, to not being able to fix my turn lock problem, to not understanding the odd ride metrics the app/kiox was reporting, to replacing a part that was being worn away by the chainring (new part is still being worn away), nothing has been straight forward with owning this vehicle. I say vehicle and not bicycle as to impart that at almost 30 mph, an extra concern, knowledge and care needs to be exercised to ensure rider safety. I'm not sure R&M thought this through in their business model OR my LBS is just that inexperienced.
Lastly, on recent rides, I noticed the bike seems to provide less and less assistance past 24/25 mph and it has become almost impossible to reach 28 on anything but slightly downhill paved roads. I borrowed a friends Garmin GPS device and mounted my phone to the handlebars to compare speed readings to the kiox display. To further complicate things, my kiox display is approximately 2.5 mph faster than both my phone and the garmin device, showing 28mph and cutting off assist while the other devices display speeds of 25-26mph. I've messed with wheel circumference settings and tried riding with a single battery to lessen weight but it still seems much slower than it used to be. Moreover, got passed by someone on a Gazelle T10 the other day, while trying my hardest to get to and maintain top speed, something is wrong.
Normally, with all the issues I'm facing, I'd be optimistic that with proper analysis and troubleshooting a solution could be discovered BUT given my experiences with my local bike shop, I doubt this will be easily remedied. We've all heard the terms "SUV, Range Rover, Mercedes Benz, even Rolls Royce" when describing the SuperDelite, just wish the accompanying support/expertise lived up to that same heritage.
I have a few other complaints like the front wheel being way to easy to turn out of alignment with the handlebars but feel like a maniac even bringing that up to my bike shop given our history. I beseech this community and fellow 2020/21 SuperDelite owners to help me troubleshoot these issues if possible and look forward to interacting.
This brings me to my biggest concern with the bike, my local bike shop is as clueless as I am when it comes to troubleshooting this bike. Spending $12K USD, one expects a higher than average service level but for as long as I've owned it, any issue I've faced has been met with a best-guess approach to servicing and rarely solving my bike's issues. Young kids that may be decent regular bike "mechanics" but barely understand the complexity of my R&M, from stripping bolts, to not being able to fix my turn lock problem, to not understanding the odd ride metrics the app/kiox was reporting, to replacing a part that was being worn away by the chainring (new part is still being worn away), nothing has been straight forward with owning this vehicle. I say vehicle and not bicycle as to impart that at almost 30 mph, an extra concern, knowledge and care needs to be exercised to ensure rider safety. I'm not sure R&M thought this through in their business model OR my LBS is just that inexperienced.
Lastly, on recent rides, I noticed the bike seems to provide less and less assistance past 24/25 mph and it has become almost impossible to reach 28 on anything but slightly downhill paved roads. I borrowed a friends Garmin GPS device and mounted my phone to the handlebars to compare speed readings to the kiox display. To further complicate things, my kiox display is approximately 2.5 mph faster than both my phone and the garmin device, showing 28mph and cutting off assist while the other devices display speeds of 25-26mph. I've messed with wheel circumference settings and tried riding with a single battery to lessen weight but it still seems much slower than it used to be. Moreover, got passed by someone on a Gazelle T10 the other day, while trying my hardest to get to and maintain top speed, something is wrong.
Normally, with all the issues I'm facing, I'd be optimistic that with proper analysis and troubleshooting a solution could be discovered BUT given my experiences with my local bike shop, I doubt this will be easily remedied. We've all heard the terms "SUV, Range Rover, Mercedes Benz, even Rolls Royce" when describing the SuperDelite, just wish the accompanying support/expertise lived up to that same heritage.
I have a few other complaints like the front wheel being way to easy to turn out of alignment with the handlebars but feel like a maniac even bringing that up to my bike shop given our history. I beseech this community and fellow 2020/21 SuperDelite owners to help me troubleshoot these issues if possible and look forward to interacting.
