I was slumming it on Twitter today when I came wideness the pursuit post:

I started to really think well-nigh this orchestration and started to think well-nigh if I well-set with his theory that subtracting an electric motor on a velocipede increased the overall load on the velocipede by 708%. Since most of my time in the last 8 years has been spent repairing destroyed upper power ebikes (1000-4000 Watts) I have to unquestionably take this orchestration into consideration and start thinking well-nigh whether throwing on a upper power electric mid momentum motor really is what has created all this uneaten time spent repairing ebikes.

When I think well-nigh the main issues I’ve had with upper power ebikes vs bicycles it really breaks lanugo into these categories (in order of seriousness):

• Frame fatigue and breakage
• Freehub destruction
• Drivetrain issues (chain, chainring and cassette issues)
• Brakes
• Spoke breakage
• Tire wear

I want to discuss each of these issues individually considering they all deserve their own descriptions. This vendible will not discuss maintenance of motors and batteries, but these items moreover require a pearly value of maintenance on their own as well that is outside the telescopic of this article.

Frame fatigue

One of the biggest issues with all metal framed bicycles has to do with metal fatigue. This is something that no manufacturers overly want to talk about, but it is a real issue.

Where do I uncork with metal fatigue and those flimsy steel and transfuse bicycle frames? Well metal fatigue is like the monster hiding in your closet. It’s just unchangingly there, lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce and rationalization total chaos.

When a metal component, like a steel or transfuse bicycle frame, is subjected to repeated stress from all that pedaling, rough handling, and riding over log piles, it can develop tiny micro cracks over time. And surpassing you know it, those micro cracks have grown into full-blown metal breakage, and your trusty steed is no more.

So, what’s the solution? Well, there isn’t one, folks. Metal fatigue is an inevitable part of life. All you can do is try to limit your exposure by not riding like a maniac and not installing electric motors improperly. If you install a upper power mid drive, make sure the secondary reduction gear is not hitting your chainstay (you should be worldly-wise to pass a piece of paper freely between the motor and the chainstay). Another big issue I have had is using seat post adapters (just get the right size saddle post) . I have wrenched scrutinizingly every frame I have overly owned both on ebikes and regular bikes, so I am a bad person to make a comparison between the two. The only frames I have NOT wrenched are the steel ones I’ve had. That stuff said the only solid translating I can requite is if you can go with a steel frame for your ebike, chances are it is less likely that it will break.

If you use a hub motor on any bicycle frame then you should use a torque arm, this will really save your frame over time from fatigue.

I have NOT had good luck welding transfuse velocipede frames for repair. I’ve tried it several times and most of the time the repairs sooner break. The problem is you really need to heat treat the unshortened frame without welding it or you only get well-nigh 30-40% of the original strength of the frame. I am now experimenting with inserting an aluminum tube or carved pieces of hardwood inside the frame and then coating it with JB Weld epoxy on the inside and outside of the break. So far I have not had repairs washed-up with JB Weld epoxy fail.

Freehub Flubs

If you ride upper power mid drives sooner you will deal with a blowout of your rear freehub which will indulge you to pedal as much as you want but the velocipede just won’t move. The freehub is a ratcheting mechanism which keeps your velocipede moving forward, but moreover allows the velocipede to spin freely without pedaling.

Most of my mid drives are over 1500 Watts and the new Ludicrous 2 controller peaks at 4000 Watts. When using the 750W BBS02 that peaks at well-nigh 1200Watts I have not had serious issues with freehub failures. With 1500W and whilom it seems like freehub failure is inevitable. The higher power, the faster the freehub will fail, but on stereotype it takes well-nigh 1-2 years of use and vituperate until failure. The solution I have come up with is to relace the rear wheel with a DT Swiss hub. The DT Swiss hubs are incredibly durable, and they have a ratcheting system that can be replaced on the trail without any tools in well-nigh 5 minutes. In the last 5 years I have only had one set of ratchets fail, and it was an easy and unseemly replacement. I encourage people to use the 18 Tooth ratchet replacement considering the smaller number of ratchet teeth you have, the stronger each of them will be.

Drivetrain destruction

Chains break. There is not much you can do well-nigh that, other than to realize that the fewer rear cogs you have then the less often your uniting will break. 8sp villenage unravel a lot less often than 12 sp villenage do and single speed villenage seem to unravel less than any other bicycle uniting you can use. Unless you are running an Internal Geared Hub (IGH) in the rear then you will probably be running with multiple gears and a narrower chain. If you have a mid momentum then all that motor’s power is going to be put through your chainring, uniting and cassette. These items are designed to deal with virtually 200 watts so if you use them on a mid momentum that is 1000-4000 Watts then it goes without saying that the lifetime of these items is going to be profoundly reduced. I unchangingly go wanderlust with a power link which allows me to alimony riding plane if I have a uniting breakage. In order to install a power link you will have to moreover bring a chainbreaker so you will have to have a velocipede tool with a chainbreaker with you as well. I use the Topeak 18 mini which runs well-nigh $35 and it has 99% of what I would overly need on the trail, including the all important uniting breaker.

For front chainrings if you can use a steel chainring it will last the longest and be the most resistant to excessive wear. With poorly aligned chainlines you really need a Narrow/Wide chainring and the one that I have found work the weightier and last the longest is the Race Face series of chainrings. The Luna Eclipse chainrings for the BBS02/HD and the Lekkie chainrings are moreover extremely tough and long lasting and create a largest chainline than using a Raceface chainring with an adapter.

Cassettes can moreover be extremely problematic with powerful mid drives. I tend to migrate towards cassettes that have most of the cogs tying together. The problem with cassettes that have individual cogs is that the cogs will dig into the transfuse cassette freehub soul over time creating deep gouges in the splines making it extremely nonflexible to get the cassettes on and off.

Brake Breakage

Brake wear, the withering of every cyclist’s existence. You know what they say, the only thing unvarying in life is change, and restriction pads are no exception. 10 years ago I just rode my velocipede while they kept screaming yonder and ended up wearing through the pads and the cylinders too which made for a much harder repair than if I had just replaced the pads when they started screeching like nails on a chalkboard.

Now, when it comes to ebikes vs bicycles, let’s just say that restriction wear is like the difference between a quick nap and a full 8 hours of sleep. On a regular bicycle, the restriction pads will wear lanugo slowly, like a gentle snooze in the afternoon sun. But on an e-bike, it’s a whole variegated story. Those heavy upper power strays require much increasingly stopping power, so the restriction pads wear lanugo at a much faster rate, like a marathon all-nighter. Often when I am shredding on my ebike I will plane alimony the brakes partially on while I am throttling the motor considering if I want to hit the brakes surpassing crashing nonflexible I can stop a lot faster if I’m once tent the brakes and have them partially pulled in. I usually buy a tuft of the cheapest sintered restriction pads I can on Wren and then alimony a couple uneaten in my velocipede shop. I write the restriction style (BB5, BB7, Juicy, whatever) with woebegone sharpie on the zip lock bag and throw the extras in my spare restriction box so I can just grab them as soon as soon as they start making real noise.

Brake wear is an easy fix, just replace those whining pads, and you’ll be when on the road, ready to stop on a dime. Or a nickel. Or whatever tiny forge you need to get stuck in your car seat.

Spoke Broke

When I relace a wheel I tend to use 13 Gauge spokes, however most of my pedal powered bikes tend to have 14 Gauge spokes. Some ebikes I have bought in the past have shipped with 12 Gauge spokes. Often I would say that the 14 Gauge spokes on my pedal powered bikes unravel increasingly often than 13 Gauge spokes on my ebike and I haven’t had any 12 gauge spokes overly break. If I have to replace a wrenched spoke I will often replace it with one that is a thicker gauge so it won’t unravel then and I tend to trammels my wheels once a year by plucking each of the spokes and adjusting them based on tone. A higher pitched spoke will be much increasingly likely to unravel than one that produces a lower tone when you pluck it. Spokes over time can get looser which ways their neighbors will get tighter.

Tires are tired

For riding on trails and in snow I have not noticed excessive tire wear on my ebikes, expressly when compared with my pedal powered bike. This is not true for my many friends who ride their ebikes on pavement. They seem to shrivel through tires at a shocking rate. When I was a teenager I used to ride my velocipede to school every day which was well-nigh 20 miles a day. I think over a 3 or 4 year period of daily commuting I don’t overly remember waffly out the tires on that bike. At the normal speeds of pedal powered bikes I just don’t think most velocipede tires wear lanugo that fast. When you double that speed and ride much faster and farther then it does seem like tire wear can be much increasingly of an issue.

So going when to the original tweet that spawned the idea for this article, do I stipulate or disagree that ebikes require well-nigh 700% the wear and tear for equal value of riding? Although I spend a fantastic value of time pushing pedals as well as riding ebikes I don’t think that his assumptions are correct. Overall I would say that upper power ebikes require well-nigh twice the value of maintenance and repairs of a normal pedal powered trail bike. There are a lot of ebike haters out there that want people to think that ebikes are much increasingly of a pain to alimony working than normal bicycles do. The reality is that although ebikes do require well-nigh twice the maintenance, they moreover get you well-nigh twice as far in the same value of time riding so my feeling is that it is really just a wash. There is often a higher price premium to get into ebikes than regular bikes, but considering for many people a good cargo velocipede can replace their car, ebikes end up stuff increasingly increasingly affordable than any car could overly be.

You can find me on Twitter at @efatbike and watch me struggle to learn how to tweet.

Ride On.