12.9 miles and a flat battery? Ebike nonsense

It's definitely not normal, unless maybe you're 150kg.

Oddly enough I had a similar experience with my 1 month old Giant ebike, although not quite as bad as yours.

Mine was a full battery to 42% charged in 12 miles over an hour. First time I had used the power setting 3/5 and not too much climbing - about 1800 foot.

Bearing in mind the bike has a 700wh battery I was surprised it dropped so quick.

A few questions later suggested the battery and management system needs to go through about 5 charges from empty to full before sorting itself out.

I haven't yet managed to empty mine completely and yesterday did 29 miles over 3 hours in higher power modes with twice the climbing. Came back with 46% battery from full.

I guess there is something in the battery conditioning statements so I'd give yours a few more runs to make sure.

Also, if you can, record the riding in the manufactures app. This will give them something to look at should you need to raise an issue.

proper test for its third ride out, So did Garburn pass and Green quarter fell, .....17.5 Miles and 2300ft of elevation.

Erm...

Eek

I hadn't thought the battery may need some charging cycles to work properly, I assumed it would just work straight out of the box.
I will give it a few more runs out before I panic.

I admit I am not exactly a light weight XC racer, at 130Kg and 6ft3" but I'm still within the maximum weight limit for the bike

Its just a little ride out from my office, we used to do it on Thursday nights after work before Covid messed everything up

The bike has a weight limit in terms of making sure it's strong enough for the rider, but it's going to take a lot more battery power to help push a 285lb rider up hill Vs 180lb rider. Still worth getting the battery checked to see if it's faulty though.

PS. Should have said in my post, I'm 120Kg so not light either.

Has it been hooked up to Shimano diagnostics and had any updates added? The shop should have done it in the PDi but worth checking.

Don't count miles, count time. 500Wh battery is 2h at 250W (which would be flat out max power for a road-legal bike) or 5h at an average of 100W, which would be a substantial help.

Battery charging isn't really a matter of "conditioning" but the calibration may take a while to settle, so it might not have been fully charged at the start. Overcharging will cook the battery, so smart systems will try to detect a full battery and cut the charging before this happens. If they do it too soon, your battery isn't full.

Regardless, what you describe doesn't sound great.

I admit I am not exactly a light weight XC racer, at 130Kg and 6ft3″ but I’m still within the maximum weight limit for the bike

I think that’ll be the issue, I used to have a Scott e-genius and could get easily get two laps of kirroughtree out of it so 60+km but I’m only 65kg, gave it to a mate to try out on the red route and battery was down to one bar but he does weighs 21stone+ and rode in turbo, he also blew the seals in my rear shock.

Today I did 90k on the road, pretty flat,  800m climbing. I rode exclusively in Eco mode on my Bosch Gen 4 and I came back with 61% battery still available

Even my Fazua 250w battery lasts longer than that!

From my experience when I went from 100 to 86kg I noticed a big jump in battery life on my Bosch 625. No offence but at 139kg you’re a big unit and will take a lot of moving, especially on terrain like that.

A mate has a whyte e150 and was around 150kg , still getting over 20 miles out of the battery.

That’s a pretty hilly ride. I know these ebike motors are nominally 250W but they peak much higher and I suspect average as much over that as they can legally argue is ok. Most bike reviewers are about half your weight - I’m not a big person but they’re usually like than 12.5 stone me - and the range in hills is basically the inverse of the height climbed times the rider weight.

“still getting over 20 miles out of the battery”

It’s vertical ascent that mostly matters.

It’s vertical ascent that mostly matters.

True, I should have added the last ride we did was 1150m ascent.

I've just done some range tests on mine as the battery is losing capacity very quickly.

With a new battery from another bike, mine did 3190ft and 12 miles.
With a 14 month old battery, it did around 2630ft and 10 miles.

I think it's lost over 20% capacity in just over a year / 50 battery cycles.

FYI those figures were winch and plummet style riding on Turbo most of the time. I'm 96kg, Maxxis DD front and rear. Shimano e8000 with 504wh battery.

It'll also make a big difference how much pedalling uphill you're prepared to do yourself 🙂

I think it’s lost over 20% capacity in just over a year / 50 battery cycles

50 cycles? That should be a warranty job then?

50 cycles? That should be a warranty job then?

I'm going to try, but not holding out much hope after reading other peoples experiences (There's a thread on emtb forums)

3000+ft of climbing over 12 miles is a lot of steep climbs is it not?

With all these figures no-one is mentioning what gear they are climbing in and how much assistance their trail mode is giving them.

If your in the high gears and letting the bike do all the work for you then you're going to burn through a fantastic amount of battery.

I was in the lakes a few months back on my Orbea Rise with range extender. Had the bike on profile 2 which is full fat mode. Managed up and over garburn pass from troutbeck lodges, over Gatesgarth pass and round Nan Bield and back with about 15-20% left I think.

Gear selection is critical. It's not a motorbike despite what some folk say. I had a very similar experience when I first hired the MK1 Kenevo. Had been using trail mode 90% of the time and by half way round the black at Glentress the battery was gubbed. Whoever hired the bike before me had messed with the setting. At Glentress on my own Kenevo about 6 months later I did 30 miles and had 4 bars left but I worked out by that point what I was doing wrong. For reference I'm about 100kg with riding gear.

I hired an ebike at Cairns to ride Smithfield trails (former World Cup dh track) where there’s plenty of elevation. The shop owner was personally on his seventh ebike then. He reckoned ebikes were ready to retire from hire after 1000km.

I got 24km / 1000m at 100kg and there was a bit left in the battery at the end.

At 100kg I'll get around 20miles with 3200ft elevation in trail mode.
Doesn't sound too far off if you are 130kg.
A 500wh battery is pretty small these days. Ideal for bikepark laps though.

It’s vertical ascent that mostly matters.

This x lots. I can ride to my mam's (52km) on 'tour' and usually not drop a bar cos it's (on average) downhill from where we live but coming home I'll drop a bar or two. Wind speed and direction plays a part too. I've had return trips where I've dropped three or four bars because of a headwind so I try to plan my journeys around that.

Weight makes a massive difference. I did some testing on the Orbea Rise and +20kg means -20% range. We calculated range on the height gained since there is nothing flat here. Going from Eco to Trail changes range by 22% so for me at 90kg to ride with my friend at 70kg I need to ride in Eco and him in Trail. Assuming we are going to use the whole battery.

That was just empirical testing with a few different riders. No theory to back it up.

If you are riding steep trails, at 130kg, I guess you are going to find a massive difference in range vs the expected range. Options are flatter routes or maybe a range extender. Hopefully there is a battery conditioning effect too and you get a bit more range out of it but you will always get a lot less than the lighter guys.

Thought this guide was useful - Ribble's guide to looking after their ebike batteries. Admittedly they use Mahle hub motors but some bits should be fairly universal?

https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/blog/caring-for-your-electric-bike-a-ribble-cycles-guide/

Interesting to note they reckon the batteries should be good for 500 charge cycles!

if you have the shimano etube app you can also change the level of assistance offered in eco/trail/boost.

i run mine in the lowest assistance settings i can. i find as stock the bike was well overpowered so you might have just eaten battery in a high use setting (trail mode) when you didnt really need to. if i could reduce the trail mode level more i would. i rarely use boost - its just pointlessly powerful even in the lowest assistance. fun for challenges or when you are not feeling it/only have a hour to smash as many laps as you can!.

the idea is the motor gives assistance and not a motorbike remember. you should still have to put some effort in!

Eeeee I'm really glad I'm the size I am with the legs I have if 12.9 and a flat battery is normal!!

31 miles, 4670ft climbing and 57% battery left, I've had better but was feeling pretty tired so used boost on some dull road sections.

Spesh Turbo Levo and like VanHalen, I dialled the support on the first power to 15%, second is 45% and third is 100%. I usually go with first level of support as much as possible...

Low cadence, high power and climbing really canes the battery. As well as putting a heap of strain through the drivetrain.

Low cadence, high power and climbing really canes the battery. As well as putting a heap of strain through the drivetrain.

Yup, my mate regularly rides with a group of e-only bikers. The times I’ve went with them I’ve got back with 40% left where at least one of them has ran out.

Can see it at trail centres, riders flying up hills in the smaller sprockets, where I ride it more like a normal mtb in lower gears but with the motor there to assist me.

Boost setting on Emtbs is a vanity setting to sell the bikes on test rides.

I've just come back from a test ride of my sister's e-bike to diagnose why 'the (11 speed XT) gears are jumping.' Short ride, easy answer - just one 'gear' is jumping, the tenth sprocket, because she's basically sat on that one cog, mashing it and dialling up the e-assist as required, rather than utilising the range of the cassette. Grrr. Component manufacturers must be rubbing their hands over the people buying these.

The advantage of Shimano is you can replace the individual cogs for not much money.
That's why I moved from SRAM to Shimano on my eeb as I only ever wear out the 13t.

If you are only wearing out a 13T you are definitely using the power/gears wrong. That's a sprocket that never wears out on a 'normal bike'. Use the gears as you would a normal bike, but dial in the assistance when needed, but keep it spinning, not grinding.

It depends on your useage doesn't it.
I only ride at bike parks, so 13t down off the start ramp and 46t to the top again. The 46 is never going to slip due the the amount of engagement, but the 13 skips when a new chain is fitted at .5 stretch.
Waiting for the ebike specific linkglide to become readily available.

I will have a look at the assistance settings, Maybe dial them back a bit.

I am definitely still riding it like my "Normal" bike, stick it in lowest gear and spin away, I may swap the wheels and drive train off my Hardtail and see if it helps ( Not sure how long 12 speed eagle will last on a e-bike though)

Hopefully the weight issue will improve over time, that was the whole point of buying the bike

I admit I am not exactly a light weight XC racer, at 130Kg and 6ft3″ but I’m still within the maximum weight limit for the bike

I've tried a few ebikes and as a big powerful bloke using trail mode uphill to ride faster than usual, even when spinning, hammers the battery as it's using the motor at maximum power. Boost makes no difference. Sticking to eco and riding at a similar speed to unassisted riding it's still easy but seems to give reasonable battery life.