How many miles since last breakdown?

[swade]

By breakdown, I mean something beyond your control that prevented you from using the bike for more than a day. It might have cost more than a few dollars to fix, expertise beyond an average bike owner to fix and trouble shoot, waiting for replacement parts to arrive etc. Downtime while upgrading (unless its to replace something that broke) or experimenting with modifications to your setup shouldn't be factored in to this.

I'm mainly curious to see where I stand in relation to other e-bikers. It might also help to show that e-bikes are more reliable than one would gather by just reading the board. A lot of us probably only post when faced with a difficulty, thus skewing the impression that ebikes might require a lot of technical skill to be practical.

For the record, I've been six months and about 1500 miles since my last controller had to be replaced, probably due to riding in a big rainstorm.

[jondoh]

I voted zero though I've been tripped up by a tire blowout. The resulting accident was catastrophic and required re-lacing the hub into a new rim. I have not had a single problem with the motor (though I wonder about a rough buzzing noise it makes only at 13 mph). The controller has been perfectly fine as well.

My milwaukee battery packs have a lot of redundancy. With 2s5p, i will still have 80% if one string goes. I've actually replaced like 4 packs under warranty. Only one was due to a bad cell. The rest were bms problems.

I've got almost 1600 miles on my ride now. My wife and I share one car so my bike is actually my main way of getting around.

[pwbset]

(though I wonder about a rough buzzing noise it makes only at 13 mph)

Sure it's the motor? I get a gnarly buzzing right around 13mph also... sounds like a dying chainsaw, but I swear it's my controller and not my motor. Smooth as silk otherwise.

[Link]

Zero. I still need to either replace the hall sensors or get one of those PCBs that turn a controller sensorless.

[Zoot Katz]

A frame failure is about the only thing that could keep me from using my bike for a day. There are at least three more donor bikes in the stable to take the Xtracycle/ebike conversion so I'd probably be back on the road in less than 24 hours.

A charger and a controller suffered infant mortality but were replaced under warranty by simply riding the bike to the dealer. Neither of those problems kept the bike from working.

A wheel failure on the road could stop me but it would have to be pretty bad to resist my rude boy methods for straightening tacos.
The bike won't fit on a bus rack or in a taxi so a worst case scenario means pushing it home or collecting it later with a co-op vehicle.

I'm not worried about electrical gremlins crippling my machine. It is a bicycle after all. Hills are finite so not insurmountable.

I've only had the bike up in its present configuration for 57 days/941 kilometers. The 48V 18Ah NiMH pack reliably gives the 5304 motor ~100 km range.

[deardancer3]

Giant Lafree Lite, never a breakdown in 5000 miles other than common flats.

[BiGH]

BMS blew in my battery pack - waiting on replacement BMS so i can charge the headway cells.

[swbluto]

Hub flange broke and I'm delaying repairs until after I move. So, I haven't been riding since making that 0 miles.

(Okay, it's honestly been about 5-10 miles for those "emergency" trips.)

[Drunkskunk]

Battery failure, I went out to ride, and it was puffed up. new battery will have to wait a while

[Icewrench]

I ride a sla36 volt ev global brushed 500 watt geared heinzman and it`s been reliable with no break downs. With about 500 miles use.
Just smoked a controller on the bench with a few extra volts, my fault. that`s the 0 mile rank.
The project is to add current ebike tech to an un ridden 24 volt ev global ebike. Hoping to have it go farther, quieter, and with more zip.
Lithium batteries, dewalt or milwuakee for range increase and weight reduction. Even newer bms waiting for assembly.
Brushless geared rear hubmotor , quieter, snappy acceleration, bmc v1 with supplied controller was gutless, so I overvolted and let some smoke out of that controller. Another better adjustable controller will be here soon.
Good thing I have a working spare e bike cause this project thing is moving at a snails pace.