A reader asks: “What e-bike do you have?”

Reader John Negley asks:

“Fred, What e-bike do you have?

“I know of your love of bike riding, I’ve seen your videos. I am also like you, approaching geezer age. So I’m thinking of getting a bike too. Just curious, what type of bike to you have? I plan on riding on paved roads & bike trails only, which is what appears that you do. Thanks.”

Yes, I returned to bike riding about two years ago with this e-bike, an Evelo ‘Aurora,’ here shown on a ride I took to Deer Island in Boston Harbor. (That’s Boston in the distance. I’d stopped for lunch when I took this shot.)

Why that bike? Some old Blogger posts explain what and why. Note that I probably would NOT make the same choices today (more on this in a moment), but my early experiences might still help inform yours:

The first 100 miles are the hardest… (Fred gets an e-bike)
http://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-first-100-miles-are-hardest-i-get-e.html

The second hundred miles (Fred’s e-bike adventures continue)
http://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-second-hundred-miles-freds-e-bike.html

An experiment
http://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2016/11/an-experiment-parts-1-and-2.html

I still love biking. It’s still my major form of warm-weather outdoor exercise.

And I love e-biking: I’ve been able to go farther, faster, than I could have otherwise, and that helps to prevent exercise-boredom.

But I’ve had a bunch of problems with this particular Evelo bike.

The worst of it was/is a series of repeated failures of the master one-way bearing (OWB) that’s at the center of the motor/pedal interface. Here are some pix of one of the OWB failures I’ve had: you can see that the bearing spacer/retainer is chewed up and ruined.

I took these shots to document my warranty claim, which Evelo rapidly approved.

And yes, I previously said “one of the OWB failures.” The last time I communicated with Evelo about this, they were up to Version 5 of the OWB, and that’s what I currently have on my bike. I hope I never have to find out if there’s a Ver6.

Once you know how to do it, it’s not hard to replace the OWB. But even if you know what you’re doing, it’s always a dirty job, and it always takes significant time because custom parts are involved.

And I do mean significant: After each OWB failure, I’d contact Evelo and describe the problem. They were always reasonably responsive and pleasant; they’d ship the replacement part quickly, and a couple days after shipping, it’d arrive. On my end, I’d watch some instructional videos and read some blogs, and then — after the part arrived — I’d actually attempt the repair.

But meanwhile, the bike was idle and unridden that whole time.

It was especially galling last summer when a series of bike problems ate into what turned out to be a relatively limited number of good biking days. It felt like I was spending the summer waiting to ride instead of riding.

Some bike repairs are just part of the deal: You’ll get flats. You may break a spoke or untrue a wheel. Whatever; it happens. But repeated failures in a proprietary drivetrain component are something else. It does not add to one’s faith in the product.

That said, a few hundred miles into the new riding season (coming up on 3000mi/4800km soon), the Evelo is running OK. I’m especially glad to see that the (expensive) battery packs are still in very good shape after the winter, and won’t need replacement anytime soon.

On the down side, the bike’s paint is actually (and literally) peeling off the frame at one point; and the drivetrain is re-developing an intermittent squeak that I’ve chased down before. (Despite great care and a liberal use of threadlocker (where appropriate), several bolts in the Evelo drivetrain assembly simply will not stay tight. I assume — a guess — that’s it’s frame flexure, but I don’t know. All I do know is I’ll have to burn an afternoon in wrenching someday soon. I hope it can wait until a rainy day.

Evelo has new models; the version I’m riding was sold three years ago. Maybe it’s different now. I don’t know.

But the above is where I am as of now. Thanks for asking!

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