What's up with the steering head angle? The front tire hits the frame...

[Coast2Coast]

I bought the bike as a trainer for training low HR zones 5-10 hours a week when not practicing or racing motorcycles. I've noticed that hard braking, or hitting a bump causes the front wheel to come back and meet the frame and try to bind up, sending me over the bars. Is this normal for a cheap chinese ebike?

Check out the RX Pro page on their website. If you switch back and forth between the 3 different colors, you can see they all have different steering head angles. The grey (mine) clearly has less rake and the wheel is at least 1" closer to the frame, as compared with the red. I know it sounds a little silly, but check it out for yourself lol.

Anyway I don't know much about mountain bikes or ebikes, just have ridden them all my life as tertiary trainers. So I'm wondering if anyone has an idea of a fix for this, short of cutting the head tube of and re-welding it at the correct angle.

Cheers.

P.S. No I'm not going to call the company and whine and try to get them to fix it. I have no reason to believe that a company who buys Chinese bikes, assembles them, re-boxes them and ships them out has any capacity to fix my bike from 2000 miles away

 

[harryS]

Maybe a triple tube fork will move the wheel out far enough to not hit the frame. Doubt the Rize guys have even thought about rake/trail. They just went out and found a supplier who may know even less,

 

[bobf]

Yeah, front wheel should never touch the down tube. Something is seriously wrong. I agree the pictures on the web site are a little strange, but IMHO they all show plenty of clearance between front wheel and frame. Does your bike look much different?

For the front wheel to move closer to the frame when you brake, maybe your headset is loose? If you stand over the bike, apply the front brake, and push forward on the handlebars, you should not be able to make the steering tube wiggle with respect to the frame. If it does wiggle, check into ways to snug up the headset.

 

[pxpaulx]

I bought the bike as a trainer for training low HR zones 5-10 hours a week when not practicing or racing motorcycles. I've noticed that hard braking, or hitting a bump causes the front wheel to come back and meet the frame and try to bind up, sending me over the bars. Is this normal for a cheap chinese ebike?

Check out the RX Pro page on their website. If you switch back and forth between the 3 different colors, you can see they all have different steering head angles. The grey (mine) clearly has less rake and the wheel is at least 1" closer to the frame, as compared with the red. I know it sounds a little silly, but check it out for yourself lol.

Anyway I don't know much about mountain bikes or ebikes, just have ridden them all my life as tertiary trainers. So I'm wondering if anyone has an idea of a fix for this, short of cutting the head tube of and re-welding it at the correct angle.

Cheers.

P.S. No I'm not going to call the company and whine and try to get them to fix it. I have no reason to believe that a company who buys Chinese bikes, assembles them, re-boxes them and ships them out has any capacity to fix my bike from 2000 miles away

The photo on the website between the colors is just an angle of the bike itself, not a difference with the fork/frame.

As @bobf indicated, either your headset is setup loose, or...you might have your fork mounted backwards. Wouldn't be the first time. Perhaps a picture would provide us with some clearer insight.

 

[AHicks]

I bought the bike as a trainer for training low HR zones 5-10 hours a week when not practicing or racing motorcycles. I've noticed that hard braking, or hitting a bump causes the front wheel to come back and meet the frame and try to bind up, sending me over the bars. Is this normal for a cheap chinese ebike?

Check out the RX Pro page on their website. If you switch back and forth between the 3 different colors, you can see they all have different steering head angles. The grey (mine) clearly has less rake and the wheel is at least 1" closer to the frame, as compared with the red. I know it sounds a little silly, but check it out for yourself lol.

Anyway I don't know much about mountain bikes or ebikes, just have ridden them all my life as tertiary trainers. So I'm wondering if anyone has an idea of a fix for this, short of cutting the head tube of and re-welding it at the correct angle.

Cheers.

P.S. No I'm not going to call the company and whine and try to get them to fix it. I have no reason to believe that a company who buys Chinese bikes, assembles them, re-boxes them and ships them out has any capacity to fix my bike from 2000 miles away

At the very minimum, there SHOULD be room for the front fender to ride comfortably between the tire and the frame. So tire hitting frame is NOT normal. Something is bent, broken, or assembled improperly. If the fork has been assembled with the brake caliper and disc on the left side of the bike (as viewed from behind it), the fork is installed correctly....

Easiest way to tell for sure if the head bearings are correctly installed (with no slop) is to lock up the front brake and try rocking the bike forward and backward. If there's movement/slop (loose bearings) that'll be made very clear.

 

[PedalUma]

Are the cables kind of screwy too?

 

[PedalUma]

I once had a boss who said he could assemble bikes faster than me. He didn't use assembly lube. The forks were backwards. The brakes rubbed or didn't work at all. His bikes would drop the chain and couldn't shift. Headsets would be sloppy loose. The pedals would fall out and the tires would be flat. The cardboard recycling would also be contaminated with unseparated packing trash. It took more time to try to correct his builds than to assemble a bike from scratch. His returns rate was 1 out of 3 when I couldn't catch all the screwups.

 

[Coast2Coast]

I once had a boss who said he could assemble bikes faster than me. He didn't use assembly lube. The forks were backwards. The brakes rubbed or didn't work at all. His bikes would drop the chain and couldn't shift. Headsets would be sloppy loose. The pedals would fall out and the tires would be flat. The cardboard recycling would also be contaminated with unseparated packing trash. It took more time to try to correct his builds than to assemble a bike from scratch. His returns rate was 1 out of 3 when I couldn't catch all the screwups.

Pretty much describes the bike when I got it, I quickly became a red-seal journeyman bicycle mechanic after unboxing this one (jokes). There was not a part on it that I didn't need to re-tighten, adjust, bend into place, etc. The head tube/bearings were very loose and I remedied that after noticing it on the first 30 seconds on the bike. Prior to this I've not so much as tightened or loosened a shifter cable a quarter-turn this way or that on the other 10 or so mountain bikes and ebikes I've owned lol.

The forks are not backwards, if you tried to rotate it around the other way, the front tire won't go around because it hits the frame.

It's not really that anything is flexing, it's just that the front fork compresses, naturally causing the wheel to move closer to the frame until it actually hits it. It actually hits the battery, right up near the top. It's got a good grove burned into it now from the tire hitting it. I didn't mount the fenders, don't like the look. This thing is a comical do-not-buy buyers remorse machine if I ever saw one lol. I'm like Tom Hanks in "Money Pit" meets Tour de France (minus the 'roids).

 

[Coast2Coast]

Someone mentioned a triple tree style front fork. THAT might work, thank you. I'll see if I can find one that'll fit the 4" tires.

edit: I just looked at the website pics again. I swear I see up to 5° of rake difference between the grey and black bike. No apparent difference in the suspension height, no difference in photo angle. It could just be that the fork was sitting a little higher in the stroke in the photo for the black bike for whatever reason, anyway it's irrelevant. I think it's just a janky design oversight. No doubt most pavement pounders probably wouldn't even notice, and it won't do it with the fork locked out of course.

 

[PedalUma]

I just need to ask: Is there a chance that the suspension fork is jammed into a fully compressed position? This situation is just not right.
www.cpsc.gov

 

[rich c]

If the disc brake is on the left side, then something is drastically bent.

 

[Coast2Coast]

I just need to ask: Is there a chance that the suspension fork is jammed into a fully compressed position? This situation is just not right.
www.cpsc.gov

No sir, but a good question. The fork action works as it should from what I can tell, and it even responds a little to adjustments to the preload and compression settings. But I have to run it pretty stiff, or locked out for most of the time. I'm not a particularly heavy guy at 167lbs.

If the disc brake is on the left side, then something is drastically bent.

I have to take back something I said earlier. I stated there wasn't really any flex. However during a stop tonight I held the front brake and "flexed it forward and backward", and yeah... there's actually a fair amount of flex there. It seems to be all along the length of the fork flexing, not really at the head tube or anything. No obvious movement, like a worn out fork would have play. Maybe it's in the spokes? More investigation required. I might try and post a video if there's enough interest. Recovery riding tomorrow and then Saturday morning a "track walk" or I guess you could call it a track preview now that everyone's doing it on ebikes.

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[AHicks]

I'd be interested in seeing that video.....

 

[Coast2Coast]

I didn't take a video but after my first trip to the track with this bike I realized it just wasn't the right fit for me. One weekend riding it around the pits and pre-riding about 400 feet of the track and the front fork is a write-off, the second battery pulled all the riv-nuts out of the frame and fell off, kick stand broke off, tail light disappeared somewhere, etc. I'll be putting some other fork on it and selling it. My girlfriends voltbike is far more durable and about half the price. Probably just get another one of those.

Cheers!