BH Emotion Neo Xtrem

First the link to the spec etc http://www.bh-emotion.co.uk/bikes/neo/xtrem/

My urge to get back on a bike after some 20yrs or so, had got so bad that I caved in and bought myself an E-bike.

The reason for buying a battery/electric assisted bike over bog stock pedal power is quite a simple one. My knee and ankle joints are pretty much shot to bits and want to try and build some muscle strength up around the joints, and gradually reduce the assist mode, but have it as a buffer for when things get tough.

The reason for not buying separate components and making my own bike, are that I didn't have a bike, and don't yet have the competence/knowledge to build my own e-bike.

The road/hill that I live on is approx 2.5km long, the lower end has this 14 percent gradient and it is similar towards the top. The first ride from bottom to top of this hill was carried out on the largest chain wheel, with a probable average of fourth on the rear and the bike was only set on eco mode. The first ride was then cut short after the electrics stopped working due to what turned out to be the wire on the display console not being tightened up.

Once I had sorted this issue things have been okay and I have ridden approx 100km in the last week, but I also now feel that I need to change a lot of things about the bike. It just isn't fast enough when using pedal power alone. This isn't a fault of the bike, it is my fault for not trying a few bikes first. I guess that I now sadly need to try and change the gearing, tyres etc, or even more drastically get rid of the bike, and buy something more suitable.

The negatives..

Whilst the bike has four levels of assistance, eco, standard, sport and boost, I have failed to find any difference at all between them. Either the system is broken, or it is just a sales gimmick. I suspect the latter.

Regen. Once again I am sure that this is just a sales gimmick and does not actually do anything.

The speedo goes blank when you hit an indicated 60km an hour down hills.

The front forks also feel very cheap and nasty in quality.

The positives....

Styling.

Relatively light weight.

The brakes are superb.

Besides the front forks, the build quality is very good.

The pedal assist is a pleasure to use, and really does make going up steep gradients effortless.

Counted as a positive, the bike is quite a talking point where ever I take it.


It wouldn't really be fair of me to mark this bike out of ten, simply for the fact that, I have the hang up over not selecting the right bike for me. Anyone wishing to ride off road, cycle tracks, and perhaps the daily commute to work, will find the bike a pleasure to use. Anyone wanting to spend their time riding on the road at a reasonable pace, forget it and look at the race, which is what I should have done.

I wish they had an option for an upgraded battery that is triangle-shaped, and 50% to twice the size, but still snaps into the frame-battery interface.

I keep hearing good things from satisfied customers who have ridden the BH eMotion bikes...

Speaking of the battery, it would be handy if it had a slight indent in the moulding to make it easy to grab for removal. It is quite tight and awkward to hold to remove.

They are planning to offer an upgraded 36v 12 ah battery for the 2014 season per an email from a Tech guy at Emotion dated 7/11/2013. No notion on the cost yet though. The current stock battery doesn't live up to the big miles they advertize. We get 20 to 27 miles in hilly country with the assist on eco.

As to the levels of assist, I think you have a defective unit if you are unable to tell the levels apart. We have about 1500 miles on our two NEO bikes and each level is very obviously different.

Lastly, if you are road biking only, get rid of the knobbys. The ride will be easier and much quieter.

Good Luck with the new bike!
Tom

The number of miles per Watt Hour (WH) of the battery will improve when the size is increased. Small-sized batteries are often specified to keep the purchase price down, but this stresses the battery chemistry, by the controller trying to pull "X" amount of amps from a small battery. 50% more battery volume might yield 80%+ miles than the current size of battery. With the added benefit that the pack "might" last more months...

Thanks for the replies, I now have some narrow section slick tyres on order just to have a play with, and I also plan to visit a guy locally who apparently is a bit of guru when it comes to chainrings etc. It'll be interesting to see what ideas he can come with.

I guess that I also need to run some kind of test, to establish what is or isn't working in respect of the power settings. I can't fault the bikes climbing ability in eco mode though, if it is eco mode.

I bought a Emotion Neo Cross about a month ago.
So far it is a 9 out of a 10.
I bought the bike for the same reason you did, health related problems that are serious.
Also, I am 60 and big at 6'3" and 230 lbs.
I can tell a big difference with the different modes and find the bike does everything I ask.
I have lost 5 lbs in the last month and credit it to 100% riding the bike.
It does get me up some pretty steep hills but I have to use the most advanced pedal assist and pedal hard.
I have yet to run the battery out on my rides of 16 miles just using the eco pedal assist. I think I might get 20 miles out of one battery charge. Will be checking this week.
I plan on using less of the pedal assist and increasing my mileage over the coming months.
Rode the bike a lot up at Lake Tahoe and loved the brakes, smoothness, gearing and mostly the quiet motor. I was very stealth.

RC

Any misgivings that I had about the bike have been lost and I now really rate very highly.

I think that my issues with it, were related to the use that I was giving it. I had been using it of busy A roads, but last weekend I did the best part of 30miles on very narrow lanes and tracks. The bike was brilliant, and it quickly became very obvious that I had been trying to use it on roads that it wasn't perhaps designed for.

I still can't tell the difference between power modes though, so this is something that I shall have to take up with the shop, and I seem to have an intermittent clonking type noise that I can't locate. It does it both when pedalling or free wheeling, and I just can't locate where it is coming from.



I've even made a stand for the bike to sit in when I take it in the back of van to work with me.

It turned out that the clonking noise was a collapsed rear wheel bearing. Something that I find slightly hard to believe, but can only go on what the dealer had been informed by BH when the rear wheel was returned to them.

I already knew that the quality of front fork was pretty crap, but they have developed a problem of not locking and or unlocking. I may well bin these at some stage in favour of some rigid carbon ones. It does bug me though that a bike with this kind of price tag, comes fitted as standard with a pair of £57.00 forks.

Another niggle has also cropped up today during a 69km ride. The display console kept flashing an empty battery symbol, when I knew that I hadn't even used the battery for more than about two minutes duration from full charge. I have traced this problem back to a poor battery fit and it vibrating loose. If this problem continues BH are having the bike back, as the rubbing is starting mark the battery case.

On a plus side though, I still love the bike, and it's brilliant fun hill climbing with it off road on loose surfaces. Spinning the rear tyre as you pedal whilst the front hovers just in contact with the ground, has you grinning from ear to ear. Power wheelies as you crest a ridge are also just so easy to do.

I've done nearly 500km on the bike now, and the last few rides have each been around the 60km mark, and I have still only used quarter of battery life with each ride, so I'm fairly confident that for me running out won't be an issue.

I do try to use the battery as a last resort though, and challenge myself as much as possible not use it. 21kg or so of bike weight is still a lot to pedal around though. :wink:

As soon as I can find out the torque setting for the rear wheel nuts, slicks are going on it. I've entered a sportive event and want to get this thing rolling better.

will their be a 29er jumper version any time soon ?

Eddie;

I don't understand the loose battery issue. On our two NEOs, the locking key cams the battery down firmly into place. If yours is loose, I would sure think the dealer should be able to fix or replace the 'durn thing.

Tom

@eddiej the battery mount is adjustable by the two screws on the battery hook up. There are two screws for adjustment.

@gab no 29" but there will be a 650b jumper (27.5"). I think Eutope will be getting it early, but the US will hopefully see them close to the end of this year.

The battery issue seems to have sorted itself out without my intervention, although sometimes it can be a bit of a problem to remove. I think part of that issue isn't helped with the battery pack not having any recess to grip it by to remove.

My love of this bike just keeps growing though, and I really look forward to my weekend fun on it. Battery times (and increase in my own fitness) now mean that my average ride distance of 28miles, which is mainly off road, is only using 50% of the battery life. Obviously I must be doing more unassisted mode, but it's still nice to know that I should always be able to get home.

Now that the weather is changing, this is how the bike looks most weekends.

Great to see these bikes getting some good trail use. The battery removal difficulty is fairly common, I too feel a recess could be beneficial. I'll pass that on the Easy Motion team, they probably left it out to keep the lines clean.

longislandelectricbikes said:

Great to see these bikes getting some good trail use. The battery removal difficulty is fairly common, I too feel a recess could be beneficial. I'll pass that on the Easy Motion team, they probably left it out to keep the lines clean.

Click to expand...

Bottle cage mounts would also be another nice addition.

The poor old thing is starting to get some proper use now, but I won't be taking it along this green lane again.

Not a pleasant trail. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDnnFullfRQ



This photo is 3.09 into the video.



Two other niggles with the bike, are that the two rear rack frame captive nuts spin inside of the frame. The second is that the paint does not seem to have been etched/keyed to the frame very well, and is now chipping and peeling off.

I'm not overly worried about either problem and won't be making an issue about it, but it is a quality detail that should be looked into.

It looks like that trail is pretty rough. I admire you for attempting it. Regarding the water bottle holder I generally recommend one that attaches behind the seat. I'll definitely pass the suggestions on to BH though. I'm not sure if you purchased the bike locally, if so I'd maybe ask them to repair the fittings, if not I'd refer to this guide http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/water-bottle-fittings I'm not so sure about the paint, but nailpolish makes great touch up, it's a bit tough to find flat black but it's out there (a little trick I learned from a motorcycle builder).


-Chris

The BH has made it onto a map.

Okay, that map is pretty nice! Your work?

Islandsoon said:

Okay, that map is pretty nice! Your work?

Click to expand...

Nah, I just bought it online.

The old girl was playing up a bit today. I had a few code 13's come up for no reason. I checked all of the connections several times, but suspect that the battery wasn't quite seated properly.

That was the least of issues on today ride. It rained constantly, was very muddy, and I had five separate punctures in the space of 18miles. After the fifth one, I cut the ride short and gave up.

I can't imagine that many tyres/tubes would put up with thorns like these!!




I have also just fitted a Topeak front mudguard, which I am very impressed with. It seems to stop more gaud than the close fitting guard, and also has the advantage of extra clearance.

I clean the bike thoroughly after each ride, taking great care to wash it properly, use an air line to remove all water, then coat the whole bike thoroughly with ACF50, but Saturday the bike had to be put away wet, and this is the sight that greeted me on Sunday morning.


Both fork tubes are the same.

I took my BH Xtrem to the Kalamunda trails over the weekend - first time I have ever taken it off road, it is normally a commuter. It has the 48v 9ah battery and Rock Shox, not the 36v and Suntour OEM.

I was surprised at how good it was on tight trails - I kept it on "Eco" for virtually the whole ride, didn't need anything more. It used 1 bar out of 5 of battery, and I did 22km....

Very impressed with this bike, as a general "do-it-all" - obviously not a specialist in anything.

Picture below is of the bike, not the trail!

@Eddie, did you ever figure out what happened when your battery mysteriously went to zero? Mine just did that today. Also, I had the same problem with the battery not fitting and the manufacturer squared it up for me - I'd recommend contacting them. Thanks for the heads up on the loose fittings, I'll keep an eye as it seems like we are having some of the same issues: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=63669&p=959954#p959954

Wonder if we both got bikes from the same batch.. if so, keep an eye on the motor.