Survey says, "36% of ebikes go wrong"

That few?

Based on mine and those of my riding friends, I'd say it's more like 75% of them will need something fixed within the 2-year e-bike parts warranty period.

Mine's been mostly okay, it's been back twice for a diagnostic that resulted in a quick, whilst you wait fix, but some are motorless for weeks. I'm dreading when the warranty ends, especially as I've got a Shimano, seems they wiped their arse with the whole idea of 'right to repair' or even service. Motor not working? Oh dear, how sad, £900 for a new one.

100% of bikes go wrong...  Be that a mech, chain, brakes, shocks, wheels, tyres....

FWIW i've owned 3 now... 1 went wrong with a controller which died... Is that any different to a shifter dying... Mmmm not really.

(maybe)

That few?

Based on mine and those of my riding friends, I’d say it’s more like 75% of them will need something fixed within the 2-year e-bike parts warranty period.

"...and another 39% are going to go wrong soon".

My Kenevo SL had a battery fault, meant it lost 6% of battery capacity. It got sorted under warranty in about 10 days (over Christmas and new year). Bike was still rideable and as I was away I was happy to leave it with the shop but I could have kept hold of the bike ridden it and just dropped it in for the day that it was needed for the swap.

At that speed of turnaround I'm not that worried.

It's a concern, admittedly.

Just bought an e-gravel bike for commuting. I've got a train/bike commute with the extra option of riding the full distance home which I did yesterday for the first time. 36 miles including significant hills. Hoping to build up to riding there and back at least once a week in summer but with a new job and a need to be in the office at least 2, ideally 3 days a week, I knew I was going to go insane if I drove that or got the train (actually 2 trains plus changeover time).

However, that sort of use means it's going to get a LOT of wear and tear on it.

Train station to work is 12 miles which I normally do in the morning just to save time. The way home, I can go back to the same station or to various other stations along the same line or just ride the whole way (36 miles). That's a potential use of nearly 50 miles a day (70+ miles if I ride the full there and back), 3 days a week which I'm guessing is probably more than the average e-MTB gets... Although equally, at least it's not being thrashed off road - there are some gravel trail options I can take which I'll try in summer but mostly it's road and country lanes.

The survey says 36% of e MTBs ridden by people off road and possibly use it for jumping, down hill and riding through standing water go wrong.

As @Weeksy comments "all bikes go wrong" (but some break more than others). There is a lot of difference between Junior Weeksy charging down hill and my commuting and bimbling. The bicycle I used for commuting just wore out components over time and that did 10s of thousands of miles. The only component failure was shimano leaky brakes.

The sample is selected from a group of people who use their bikes in a more demanding way than the average user.

.... 80-90% would feel more realistic, though if it hasn't burnt the house down yet consider it a net gain.

I think the bigger concern is for how long spare parts are made available to owners. With no real standardised parts and so many 'innovations' going on, plus software issues, I can see many companies cutting off all support after 2 years / the small box of spares on the shelf.

The survey says 36% of e MTBs ridden by people off road and possibly use it for jumping, down hill and riding through standing water go wrong.

...and?  It's a MTB Website and a MTB Magazine.  Their description is perfectly suited to an eMTB.

I also know quite a few people with e-commuters who've had faulty, batteries, motors, chargers or wiring.

100% of bikes go wrong…  Be that a mech, chain, brakes, shocks, wheels, tyres….

Well, no.  At least 3 of my bikes have never had a fault, not even a puncture.  But even assuming, "yes", many if not most of those faults can be fixed at home with basic tools or even by a LBS when needed - that's rarely the case with the electric bits of an e-bike.

Funnily enough I'm in the middle of writing a blog post about data quality in market research, starting with research quality - ie how surveys and their questions are written, how sample audiences are determined, and how they might be misused.

Long and short of it... 36% of STWers who completed the survey said their ebike had a problem. It feels high, and as you note, the self-selection bias (STW users, already a particular niche, who opted to complete the survey) probably pushes it higher than it might be among the wider population.

Your point that about a quarter of eMTBs you test have issues feels more telling, given you'd expect manufacturers to try to avoid that sort of problem.

Are you able in the survey responses to break out eMTB from other ebikes (commuters, day to day pub bikes etc) and the fault rate among them? Because as a couple of people point out, eMTBs by their nature have a much tougher life than most other ebikes.

Reliability, durability and cost of replacement e parts when not covered by guaranttee has always been my concern.

I'm really tempted by the Van Rysel road/gravel ebikes by looks and price, but a non-removable battery is a big concern.

No bike I've ever owned has not gone wrong.

Isn't the important bit that  the survey refers to 'an e-specific issue that was not solvable by themselves ie. it required returning to the retailer.' All the other 'normal' faults presumably come factored in, I guess e-mtbs give their drive-trains a harder life than non-assisted bikes.

Anyway, away from the magical realism of EMTBN, where nothing is ever wrong with e-bikes. I'm just waiting for Steve Jones to claim that non-assisted bikes have the same number of motor and battery failures as e-bikes, I'd say 36% seems pretty low, I mean, it's only just over one third. So far, in about 2,000km of irregular riding I've managed two 'battery stopped working' instances. Cured by opening the thing up, pouring out water, drying it out gently and resealing it - I think it's a Specialized recall fwiw - and one where the bearings in the motor wore out.

As far as magazine test bikes go, I guess these are less likely to fail being low mileage, new-ish bikes rather than higher-use ones. That's media testing for you, it's hard to get the same level of use in as an actual owner.

I think mostly people know all this. Mostly e-bike owners fall into two categories: those who've had e-related failures already and those who will, at some point in the future, have them.

but a non-removable battery is a big concern.

Our Merida is on documents 'non removeable'. The LBS has a wee old tent peg, remove BB and go fishing through the hole into the downtube. Apparently pretty straightforward to do, and the non removeable refers more to the home mechanic and/or end of ride remove and pop in a car.
This on a hub motor.

No bike I’ve ever owned has not gone wrong.

Yeah anyway...

Back in the real world I think we might need to quantify 'gone wrong'

I've been riding for mtbs for 40 odd years and rarely if ever has a bike 'gone wrong'.  I've snapped a frame twice through use and had many easily replaceable parts wear out or break over time, some in my opinion well before they should do like a BB - I guess you could call that 'gone wrong'  But at the end of the day even replacing a BB that failed after 4 weeks of buying a bike is not really a big deal.

I think we all know what 'gone wrong' actually means in the world of eBikes. It means something eMtb specific like a battery, controller or motor breaking or malfunctioning in such as way as the bike either won't work or works in a very restricted way. There is no doubt this happens in far more eMtbs than you would hope, probably because of the hard life they lead but not always. Sometimes its just because of crap design. Either way paying 6-10k for something that isn't designed well enough for the purpose its going to be used for is the very definition of 'gone wrong'.

Ah, that sounds a bit like those ~£1k Momentum ebikes we've been writing about in the forum, @matt_outandabout .

Indeed - but just a Merida with a series of 'sausage shaped' batteries inserted into the downtube...

ebikes... its not if they break...... its when.

And i would assume anyone buying one must know this?

I've had 2 ebikes and they've both "gone wrong" in the first 12 months.

The first one - the forks were screwed. They would've been screwed if it didn't have a motor, but still I couldn't use it while they went back to Sram (twice).

The second one, the bolts holding the motor in place came loose and it rattled. Ebike specific, yes, but just needed the bolts tightened (under warranty, so by a shop)

I mean, so they went wrong, but it wasn't like the motor failed, or something else critical while I was miles from home 🙂

I bought my Orbea Wild fs in 2021 and it's been fairly good electric-wise.

I've had issues with the rear axle. Rubbish design imho but it's only fairly recently I've had some actual electrical issues.

Some of that I put down to actually not riding it much. Before the other weekend I hadn't ridden it for months.

Anyway, getting it back from the menders this weekend. It's a Bosch gen4

It had water ingress, as they all seem to which has caused an error 500366 and also needed the main crankshaft bearings replaced.

I sent it to E-Motor Repairs. Really good guys. They are fitting extra bush and seals to the crankshaft which will hopefully help keep water out in future.

Friends of mine have had multiple motor replacements. Many makes covered I think.

Yeah anyway…

Prove me wrong.

I think we all know what ‘gone wrong’ actually means in the world of eBikes. 

Ah, apologies - I was reacting to the headline, rather than what people thought the headline should mean. Sorry - must comply harder! 🙂

Your point that about a quarter of eMTBs you test have issues feels more telling, given you’d expect manufacturers to try to avoid that sort of problem.

This is the stat that shocked me most, given that they're going to be pretty new and only on test for a few weeks, (maybe days?) What percentage of analogue bikes go wrong during a test period?

Back in the real world I think we might need to quantify ‘gone wrong’

They did quantify it. 36.09% of ebike owners reported having an e-specific issue that was not solvable by themselves ie. it required returning to the retailer. That is a clear definition.

In order for the 36% number to be statistically useful, we would need to know the equivalent number for non-e-bikes. (Although I’d admit that I’d expect it to be much, much smaller).

36.09% of ebike owners reported having an e-specific issue that was not solvable by themselves ie. it required returning to the retailer

Again, nope. 36% of STWer ebike owners who completed the survey... It is different.

Another thought though, reading the comments above, is that car manufacturers are having a devil of a time building electric cars. It's not the electrics themselves, for the most part - it's the software and firmware behind it all that are causing the biggest headaches. And I wonder about bike manufacturers: they're really fantastically good at geometry and materials, mechanical and hydraulic parts etc. But writing or adjusting code for electronic parts??

I would also say 75%, this is based on the group of riders I ride with having had motor replacements under warranty, I've had a replacement Bosch motor and now I'm getting nervous as I will shortly be out of warranty. We are a group that ride all year round in all conditions in testing terrain - so UK mountain biking then! I agree that if you have a normal mtb then hang on to that as well. I still wouldn't be without an e-bike, they're GREAT!

I've got 2 ebikes, one has had 1 new motor, the other has had 2 motors and a display.

100% failure rate so far.....

My first eBike (Bosch Gen 2 with the tiny chainring) had 4 motors in 2500 miles, my second (Bosch Gen 4)got to 2700 miles without a single fault when I bought my 3rd. Bike 2 was put away fully functional, when I next got it out of the garage some months later the motor had died... eBike 3 (Mahle) is still on it's original motor but did have a new handlebar controller at about 4 months old, it wasn't a show stopper, just meant I had to use the app to change modes.

KSL

Lines on the screen at 1230km (4 months in) and Tredz sent me a new one which Infinity in Durham tried to fit. Computer said no...motor torque sensor knacked so the hoyed a new 1.1SL motor in. Took 2h.

3000km later and its still fine. I also wash it a lot less...

At least 3 of my bikes have never had a fault, not even a puncture

I think what's happened here is you've walked past a bicycle shop and fantasised about owning one of those nice shiny bikes in the window, and then confused that with reality.

Sounds a touch mean, I'm sorry, but based on my experience with (cheaper non-e) bikes, it's the only context I can imagine the never-going-wrong-not-even-a-puncture situation arising!

In almost thirty years of buying many bicycles, and many many hours riding them, I’ve only once taken a bike back to the shop to fix, and that was only because I couldn’t really be ****ed dealing with replacing the cog that had exploded on the  Nexus gear hub on my bakfiets.

"4 motors in 2500 miles" etc...

back in the day thats the kind of mileage I'd get out of just out of my legs every few months or so, hundreds of thousands of miles later and I'm still on my first pair.

Higher reliability would be nice, especially given the high cost of EMTBs. But the other side of this is how the manufacturers deal with warranties. I am now on e-bike 2. The first one was a Giant - the torque sensor failed rendering the bike unusable and the warranty was honoured - so far so good. However, 6 months to get a new motor and the LBS dealing with it pulling their hair out with frustration.  Apparently, Giant/Yamaha have the best reliability record but warranty stuff clearly a problem!

Bike two has a Bosch motor - No idea if it will be more reliable/better but the LBS will take a motor of a new bike if required to keep me going and the local Bosch rep reckons he can get a new motor within 48 hrs. So even when it goes wrong I  can keep riding!

I think the best support for parts and warranty is a major factor most will not think of when buying. Perhaps some investigative journalism opportunities there......

You'd hope that reliability improves with each new generation of motor. Like @doomanic my Gen 2 motor(S) suffered a similar rate of attrition . In the end Bosch emailed me and advised against riding the bike (MTB) through any water as they quote don't like that ?

I had visions of riding the Quantocks and stopping at every stream crossing and lifting the bike across, rolls eyes!

As I say new generation I would hope would be a lot better ?

whats worrying is that all the failures mean mire waste, in sure some can be recycled, but e-waste is particularly hard to recycle and environmentally damaging

obviously that's not just for e bikes, but it feels like more of the things around me now have electronics in them including MTBs

https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/the-growing-environmental-risks-of-e-waste/

#accoustic_till_I_die (or my knees give out)

In order for the 36% number to be statistically useful, we would need to know the equivalent number for non-e-bikes. (Although I’d admit that I’d expect it to be much, much smaller).

My guess is that the number of 'e-specific issues' on non-e-bikes is vanishingly small...

And I wonder about bike manufacturers: they’re really fantastically good at geometry and materials, mechanical and hydraulic parts etc. But writing or adjusting code for electronic parts??

Few bike manufacturer do. Companies like Bosch and Shimano write the software and make the motors and controllers.

Specialized, Trek and Giant have, but they are at a totally different scale to most.

I think what’s happened here is you’ve walked past a bicycle shop and fantasised about owning one of those nice shiny bikes in the window, and then confused that with reality.

Sounds a touch mean, I’m sorry, but based on my experience with (cheaper non-e) bikes, it’s the only context I can imagine the never-going-wrong-not-even-a-puncture situation arising!

Well, I build all my own bikes from scratch, they have electric gearing and tubeless.  So far, on 3 of 7 bikes, they've been faultless.  1 is a road bike another is a gravel bike and the last is a singlespeed.  The last is rim brakes and no gears.  Why should they go wrong?  The road bike is proably due some new tyres after 2500km, but nadda for anything else.

I reckon most of the time normal bikes don't actually "go wrong". I mean stuff wears out and stuff breaks but whacking your rear mech on a rock and stuffing it into your back wheel isn't the bike going wrong, a puncture isn't the bike going wrong, needing to bleed your brakes or replace a worn out cassette isn't the bike going wrong.

Frame snapping or leaking pistons on brakes IS the bike going wrong but this really doesn't happen very often. Adding motors and electrics are always going to increase the likelyhood of things breaking unnecessarily.

I'm waiting a while longer yet before I delve into the ebike world though, just seems too much to go wrong for too much money at the moment. Once the beta testing is complete I'll see whats best...

My guess is that the number of ‘e-specific issues’ on non-e-bikes is vanishingly small…

been on 2 rides where someones non ebike axs batteries have died, does that count!

@kimbers after my 4th replacement Bosch motor I looked at their website, all "green" and fluffy . So I asked them what happened to the duff motors did they end up in landfill? They replied saying they couldn't give me that information as it was commercially sensitive.

3 eMTB (2x Orbea Rise, 1x Spesh Levo), so far: 2 have gone wrong with ebike specific issues: first Rise: motor failure (torque sensor) after 26 months. Luckily LBS did a sterling job and managed to argue with Shimano/Madison that it should be a FOC replacement, otherwise it would have been £1000!  (less than 2 month outside warranty - I was tempted to go down the 'not fit for purpose' route)

2nd Rise - not used for a couple of months (due to time and weather) complete and utter battery failure when we went to use it just after Xmas. Nothing - nada - zip - zilch...  Just under 3yrs old.  Have had to purchase a new battery - £540 (for 360Wh) and it's taken a month to get here.

Spesh Levo was bought pre-owned whilst waiting for Rise #1 to come back from LBS - now called 'Winter Hack' and so far has been 100% reliable.  But I know that if it does go wrong this motor is far more serviceable/repairable than the Shimano motor, so I'm not as worried.

It would be interesting to see the results of what ebike specific part went wrong and from which component manufacturer.  It seems from my friends that Shimano motors are a bit pants, Spesh SL motors not much better, Bosch CX motors seem to be the most reliable, but a wider survey would be needed.

But someone mentioned 'right to repair' and how Shimano seem to be against that (I've heard that elsewhere as well) - this is something we need to get sorted so companies such as E-Motor Repairs have a better chance of actually fixing them!

Apologies - double post (website slow to respond)

after my 4th replacement Bosch motor I looked at their website, all “green” and fluffy . So I asked them what happened to the duff motors did they end up in landfill? They replied saying they couldn’t give me that information as it was commercially sensitive.

I'm also a little concerned about this stuff. Someone on here seems convinced that Specialized Brose motors which are warrantied - and anecdotally, there seem to have been an awful lot of them - are then reconditioned and re-used, but Specialized don't seem to confirm this anywhere, however google offered up this article which suggests that Brose themselves are keen to re-use warrantied motors. The gist of it is that the mechanical parts are usually deemed unsuitable for re-use, while the electronic components are more likely to be viable - quote:

'we can currently manufacture around 30 per cent of the overall weight of the drive from used components'

https://www.ebike24.com/blog/ebike-brose-remanufacturing

It seems to be - predictably - quite a time-consuming process as old motors need to be stripped, the components cleaned and then multiple tested to make sure they are safe to re-use.

Interesting read. Apparently the latest motors use more glue to hold them together, which in turn makes them harder to re-use in this way. Batteries a difficult one too.

The media seem extraordinarily bad at addressing this stuff. I don't think I've ever read an emtb review which even mentions sustainability and the brands themselves don't seem to be that bothered either.

They replied saying they couldn’t give me that information as it was commercially sensitive.

Bosch do a roaring trade refurbishing alternators and other car parts that have electrical components such as injectors - many bosche parts from ECP/GSF/Etc have a surcharge which is refunded on return of the old part, as such, I very much doubt they're going to landfil.  Even if US, they'll be stripped carefully for parts.

been on 2 rides where someones non ebike axs batteries have died, does that count!

I don't quite understand when they've now integrated the mech hanger, derailleur and cassette into one standard with UDH why they couldn't power it off a magnet in the cassette or jockey wheel like those super-simple pulsing dynamo lights that rely on a magnet in the spokes and a coil on the fork leg.  Or put it in the disk rotor and run the wire through the axle. We're probably talking fractions of a milliwatt to keep the battery topped up. The rectifier circuit in a dynamo is probably lighter than the battery!

bedfordrdFull Member
Apologies – double post (website slow to respond)

36% of ebike owners say the STW website goes wrong?

I wonder how ebikes compare to e-vehicles as far as these stats go... Only one I'm aware of is a neighbour's Golf. Seems to have courtesy car on the drive more often than his own car 🙂

We've currently 11 bikes on the fleet. 3 are off-road, 2 of those under 7 years old are no longer repairable due to no parts being available. Any car manufacturer getting into that state would be rightfully pilloried in the press.

Some of our stolen new bikes had faults out of the box. 1 controller replaced, 1 motor replaced. That's out of 5 bikes 2024 vintage. Really quite woeful for bikes that are £2.5k retail and spend their lives riding quiet back roads with irregular cyclists who do take care because we will charge for breakages not down to fair wear and tear.

Bosch and Brose definitely refurbish warrantied motors and that’s what is used for further warranty replacements. When this information appeared on the EMTB forum my dramaqueenometer exploded from all the whining. ? 😆

Edit: I see emojis still don’t display.

I don't often hear about Yamaha equipped ebikes, good or bad.

I'm assuming that's a good sign?