Who has had premature drivetrain failures with a Mid drive ?
- Thread starter TForan
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Chris Hammond
Well-Known Member
Quick answer is everyone, when compared to hub drives.
TForan
Well-Known Member
Quick answer is everyone, when compared to hub drives.
Examples ? The only time I've had a breakdown was when I was riding a hub up a hill. Over heated and shut down.
Nova Haibike
Well-Known Member
What is the definition of premature? The chain actually breaking? Accelerated wear of chain, chainrings, and cogs; how many miles/kilometers is too few?
TForan
Well-Known Member
Nova Haibike
Well-Known Member
I only have 250 miles on my Yamaha e-bike so far. I'm pretty good about keeping my bike clean and maintained; I do work on bicycles professionally and preach about maintenance all the time, after all. That said, I probably get a few thousand miles out of a chain on a regular bike. What I see from working on other peoples regular bikes, the vast majority of the time I see worn out drivetrains due to poor maintenance. But I do not work in a e-bike specialty store, I cannot say what those technicians see, or if their experiences are any different with mid-drives over hub-drives or even non-assisted bikes.
Reid
Well-Known Member
How much force can a bicycle chain withstand before it breaks?
I am using KMC X10.93 chain in my 10S conversion of a CCS bike. Better than that bike's standard chain in this vital respect: the rivets are rolled over and are hardened and then tempered. They cannot wander out of a link and lead to a chain failure.
For instance, when breaking the chain, great force is needed. Then a big POP as the rolled-over edge of the hardened rivet SNAPS off. It does not ooze out of the link like does the merely mushroomed head of a soft rivet inexpensive chain, such as the KMC OEM 9S chain that my bike used to run.
I do not know about any other brands of chain so this is only my limited observation. However, I personally feel confident this KMC X10.93 sort of chain would be failure proof in any mid drive, because of the curled-over, hardened rivet end. It can't drift.
I am using KMC X10.93 chain in my 10S conversion of a CCS bike. Better than that bike's standard chain in this vital respect: the rivets are rolled over and are hardened and then tempered. They cannot wander out of a link and lead to a chain failure.
For instance, when breaking the chain, great force is needed. Then a big POP as the rolled-over edge of the hardened rivet SNAPS off. It does not ooze out of the link like does the merely mushroomed head of a soft rivet inexpensive chain, such as the KMC OEM 9S chain that my bike used to run.
I do not know about any other brands of chain so this is only my limited observation. However, I personally feel confident this KMC X10.93 sort of chain would be failure proof in any mid drive, because of the curled-over, hardened rivet end. It can't drift.
I wonder if anyone can help me with this. I'm pretty sure I broke something in my mid-drive motor. I was at the bottom of a steep hill at full stop. I'd forgotten to downshift before stopping so I was still in high gear when I started up this hill. I think the combination of me being a heavy rider (235 LBS) and climbing a steep hill from a full stop in the wrong gear put too much pressure on something inside the mid-drive because I heard a loud pop, and the crankset skipped a revolution. Naturally, I quickly downshifted to a lower gear and climbed the hill, however, now the crankset will skip revolutions every so often during my commute. The chain did not stretch and cassette appears undamaged, so I'm guessing its something in the motor. For reference, my mid-drive is a TranzX speed pedelec with 70-newton meters of torque and is less than a months old.
Does anyone know what I might have broken? Is this something a bike shop can fix or will I need to send my motor back? The motor is under a two-year warranty.
Does anyone know what I might have broken? Is this something a bike shop can fix or will I need to send my motor back? The motor is under a two-year warranty.
Franklo
New Member
Brilliant! I still don't see all the hub bub about mid-drives. Every time I watch one of Court's reviews, it seems like the gears with mid drive motors are making crunching sounds. It just sounds to me like something wants to break. My hub motors are quiet and peaceful.Quick answer is everyone, when compared to hub drives.
TForan
Well-Known Member
No crunches ever with my bike. Maybe because of the shift sensor ? And mine is dead quiet. Have you ridden a Mid drive ? Which one ?
Last edited:
TForan
Well-Known Member
I think that short pause with the shift sensor helps quite a bit too. Smooth as a babies butt !
Manu
Active Member
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Emerson
is in warranty, that you look at it
What I see most is that they do not know how to change the ratio of gears and plate and some change to very low revolutions or stopped. When to change plate and gear is at least 20 or 30 rpm, when you hear, clank!, Is that you changed without revolutions.
is in warranty, that you look at it
What I see most is that they do not know how to change the ratio of gears and plate and some change to very low revolutions or stopped. When to change plate and gear is at least 20 or 30 rpm, when you hear, clank!, Is that you changed without revolutions.
Chris Hammond
Well-Known Member
My comment was an observational joke. There are plenty of crappy hub drives and mid-drives. There are great bikes of both types as well.
Fitzy
Active Member
I've had plenty of experience with skipping problems on my mid-drive. I'm pretty sure it's not your motor. You may have damaged a tooth on the cassette or your chain's stretched (7-months?). I've been pretty rough on my bike, but I've come to understand its drive-train idiosyncrasies. I'm heavier than you, so the abuse is magnified. Between tooth-wear, chain-stretch, and derailleur-bashing, there's a fine balance to be found. I'm not even going to factor in my proprietary front-cog which I'm finally getting around to changing this month after a year's riding.
This all said, I find that when I change my chain, I also need to change my cassette, or at least the highest two gears as they'll wear much faster than the rest. Provided the derailleur is tuned properly, and nothing back there is bent too askew, refreshing my chain/cassette combo every season has solved my EXTREMELY annoying skipping problems.
Nova Haibike
Well-Known Member
I take it you have a 28mph e-bike? Because on mine, I ride it at its 20mph limit and almost never touch the 11 or 13 tooth cogs; I'm usually using a 48-19 at 95 rpm. Today I did use the top gear, but only because I was going downhill and beyond motor support at 35mph.
Fitzy
Active Member
It's a HaiBike FatSix. 16T front, so I use the uppers a lot when road-riding. Unfortunately, this model's front cog is proprietary; raised to clear the fat-tire. Right out of the gate I was looking for an 18T to no avail. Kind of a PITA since I could probably get a good 25MPH cruise out of it, but I have to pedal like a maniac to go that fast.
Yea, I don't get it to be honest. I have had both mid and hub drives and neither have had issues with the drive train or the hub. The controller for the hub drive kept failing but not the hub. I now have 7000 miles on my mid drive (Felt Niner with Bosch drive system) and a LOT of that is towing relatively heavy trailed bike packing, etc. Zero issues with anything on the bike but well maintained every 700-1000 miles. Granted, I'm a lighter female and don't put out much wattage myself but I've gone up some crazy slopes without issue. Good equipment to start with and then not abusing it and I expect it to last a long time.
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