The Frey HT1000 - And yes, HT stands for Hardtail! *updated*

entropic said:
The bike seems huge for a medium. I had hoped that it could fit my 5'4" wife but she can only stand over it in tippy toes. The goal was for each of us to have an e-bike, as similar as possible for maintenance purposes; I wish a Small or Xtra-Small was available.

Well, we figured out why the bike seems so big; Frey built and shipped us a Large instead of a Medium.

I'm hoping to finish putting it together over over the weekend and seeing if it even fits me! I'm 5'11" but it still seems pretty big. But it's my first MTB so maybe my size expectations are just wrong.
 
entropic said:
entropic said:
The bike seems huge for a medium. I had hoped that it could fit my 5'4" wife but she can only stand over it in tippy toes. The goal was for each of us to have an e-bike, as similar as possible for maintenance purposes; I wish a Small or Xtra-Small was available.

Well, we figured out why the bike seems so big; Frey built and shipped us a Large instead of a Medium.

I'm hoping to finish putting it together over over the weekend and seeing if it even fits me! I'm 5'11" but it still seems pretty big. But it's my first MTB so maybe my size expectations are just wrong.

That seems like a huge miss on their part.
 
entropic said:
joshuaho96 said:
That seems like a huge miss on their part.

Yes. But Ivy at Frey did resolve it to my satisfaction.

Curious to know how so. I find that a lot of these 750W+ torque sensing ebikes are basically at a bleeding edge and end users end up being beta testers so post-sale support is important to me. Still conflicted on whether I should go with a hardtail or find some way to get a rear rack on the AM1000.
 
joshuaho96 said:
Curious to know how so. I find that a lot of these 750W+ torque sensing ebikes are basically at a bleeding edge and end users end up being beta testers so post-sale support is important to me. Still conflicted on whether I should go with a hardtail or find some way to get a rear rack on the AM1000.

Luckily the bike fit me, so I'm keeping this one and they're providing other considerations to me. Sorry for being vague, but it sounds like Frey doesn't like those details out in the open based on others' post edits. Like I said, I'm satisfied and pretty confident that Ivy would have made it right if this one hadn't fit.

I'm with you, though: I'm not sure there's a great option yet for a supported high-power mid-drive bike. FLX might be your next best bet but I doubt you can expect much there either. But at least they're not half a world away and others report that they pick up the phone. I get the feeling you're pretty much out on your own for minor/medium stuff. These things are in their infancy. I think that the big bike companies are reluctant to put out a high-powered/potentially non-compliant product out there and fully support it.

A rear rack/carrying stuff is the biggest reason we went HT. Ironically, the large 16mm tubing on this rack means none of my bags fit. :roll: But I'm hopeful I'll make something work. Have you looked into the Old Man Mountain rack? I believe that's probably your best (but expensive) bet to get a rack on a FS bike.
 
entropic said:
joshuaho96 said:
Curious to know how so. I find that a lot of these 750W+ torque sensing ebikes are basically at a bleeding edge and end users end up being beta testers so post-sale support is important to me. Still conflicted on whether I should go with a hardtail or find some way to get a rear rack on the AM1000.

Luckily the bike fit me, so I'm keeping this one and they're providing other considerations to me. Sorry for being vague, but it sounds like Frey doesn't like those details out in the open based on others' post edits. Like I said, I'm satisfied and pretty confident that Ivy would have made it right if this one hadn't fit.

I'm with you, though: I'm not sure there's a great option yet for a supported high-power mid-drive bike. FLX might be your next best bet but I doubt you can expect much there either. But at least they're not half a world away and others report that they pick up the phone. I get the feeling you're pretty much out on your own for minor/medium stuff. These things are in their infancy. I think that the big bike companies are reluctant to put out a high-powered/potentially non-compliant product out there and fully support it.

A rear rack/carrying stuff is the biggest reason we went HT. Ironically, the large 16mm tubing on this rack means none of my bags fit. :roll: But I'm hopeful I'll make something work. Have you looked into the Old Man Mountain rack? I believe that's probably your best (but expensive) bet to get a rack on a FS bike.

I'm not really concerned with stuff like replacing brake rotors, replacing derailleur hangers, etc... My concern is more like if I get a bent frame, if I discover some parts are fatally flawed and need a redesign, that they will actually try to fix the problem. If that means sending a new frame and I have to take everything apart and transplant to a new bike then so be it but the last ebike I bought was an HF1100 and they just completely ghosted me as soon as I provided proof that the frame was irreparably bent. I had to start a paypal dispute to get my money back.
 
joshuaho96 said:
I'm not really concerned with stuff like replacing brake rotors, replacing derailleur hangers, etc... My concern is more like if I get a bent frame, if I discover some parts are fatally flawed and need a redesign, that they will actually try to fix the problem. If that means sending a new frame and I have to take everything apart and transplant to a new bike then so be it but the last ebike I bought was an HF1100 and they just completely ghosted me as soon as I provided proof that the frame was irreparably bent. I had to start a paypal dispute to get my money back.

Yeah, it's hard to say at this point what's in and what's out. Based on other posts here, it seems like Frey is committed but it also seems like they can go incommunicado for a while... Them being so far away makes it a challenge too, communication can be tough because of language barriers and the time zones. My experience has been a positive one on the whole. Just initial impression is that I really like the bicycle.

It's a risk, for sure.
 
entropic said:
joshuaho96 said:
I'm not really concerned with stuff like replacing brake rotors, replacing derailleur hangers, etc... My concern is more like if I get a bent frame, if I discover some parts are fatally flawed and need a redesign, that they will actually try to fix the problem. If that means sending a new frame and I have to take everything apart and transplant to a new bike then so be it but the last ebike I bought was an HF1100 and they just completely ghosted me as soon as I provided proof that the frame was irreparably bent. I had to start a paypal dispute to get my money back.

Yeah, it's hard to say at this point what's in and what's out. Based on other posts here, it seems like Frey is committed but it also seems like they can go incommunicado for a while... Them being so far away makes it a challenge too, communication can be tough because of language barriers and the time zones. My experience has been a positive one on the whole. Just initial impression is that I really like the bicycle.

It's a risk, for sure.

I've bought a car in Japan before and with a sufficiently committed org the time + language barrier isn't really all that difficult to overcome. I'm on Pacific time though so it just means that communication happens when I'm home from work. I do wonder if it is too much to put everything regarding sales + support on Ivy though, that seems like a big problem organizationally.
 
My bike arrived safely and am loving it ,just at higher speeds not much input from cycling want to fit larger front chainring anyone know what's the largest that will fit or can I get offset any ideas
 
Wow, I like this version of the bike very much. How are the experiences of those that have one? Btw. I am 1.83 cm with relatively "short" legs. What frame size should I be looking for?
 
jpdio said:
Wow, I like this version of the bike very much. How are the experiences of those that have one? Btw. I am 1.83 cm with relatively "short" legs. What frame size should I be looking for?

I'm loving mine. There's some things I wish were a little different, but they're pretty minor. Very happy with the bike overall.

What's your PBH? I am 1.8m and have a Large and think the size is just about perfect, but the top tube can be a bit of a tight fit. My PBH is 86cm.
 
Map Paddy said:
My bike arrived safely and am loving it ,just at higher speeds not much input from cycling want to fit larger front chainring anyone know what's the largest that will fit or can I get offset any ideas

Map Paddy,

I did a bunch of eyeballing and some haphazard measuring and then ordered a Stone 48T narrow-wide 130BCD chainring from "Sports goods stores" on AliExpress. It was about $50 and arrived to my door in 3 weeks.

I mounted it this morning and it fits great. You miiiiiigght be able to fit a 50T but I wouldn't take the gamble; it wouldn't surprise me if 48T is as big as it gets on this bike. A couple pics:

YcpqpuD.jpg


L8FX2qy.jpg


I will probably plan to length the chain at some point but for now I can shift into all gears but the granny rear gear is a tight fit. It's aluminum, and the 40T that came on my HT1000 must be steel, the Stone is noticeably lighter.

I took it on a quick ride and I think it will be a good improvement for me. With the 40T, the bike had 2 gears: 10th gear was for climbing, 11th was for cruising. :lol: It didn't really have a gear for going fast fast, my masher self was cadenced-out around 25mph. But was able to pedal comfortably into the low 30s on the downhill part of my ride this morning. I should say I only use the bike on the road, mostly for commuting, so the gearing range is somewhat wasted on me. I think I'll still be using the bottom half of the cassette almost exclusively.
 
entropic said:
Map Paddy said:
My bike arrived safely and am loving it ,just at higher speeds not much input from cycling want to fit larger front chainring anyone know what's the largest that will fit or can I get offset any ideas

Map Paddy,

I did a bunch of eyeballing and some haphazard measuring and then ordered a Stone 48T narrow-wide 130BCD chainring from "Sports goods stores" on AliExpress. It was about $50 and arrived to my door in 3 weeks.

I mounted it this morning and it fits great. You miiiiiigght be able to fit a 50T but I wouldn't take the gamble; it wouldn't surprise me if 48T is as big as it gets on this bike. A couple pics:

YcpqpuD.jpg


L8FX2qy.jpg


I will probably plan to length the chain at some point but for now I can shift into all gears but the granny rear gear is a tight fit. It's aluminum, and the 40T that came on my HT1000 must be steel, the Stone is noticeably lighter.

I took it on a quick ride and I think it will be a good improvement for me. With the 40T, the bike had 2 gears: 10th gear was for climbing, 11th was for cruising. :lol: It didn't really have a gear for going fast fast, my masher self was cadenced-out around 25mph. But was able to pedal comfortably into the low 30s on the downhill part of my ride this morning. I should say I only use the bike on the road, mostly for commuting, so the gearing range is somewhat wasted on me. I think I'll still be using the bottom half of the cassette almost exclusively.

Well after being sidelined for about 5 months I'm back and finalizing my order.

I'm curious about which groupset you went with for your bike and the cassette ratio you're using?
 
Richard N said:
I'm curious about which groupset you went with for your bike and the cassette ratio you're using?

Hi Richard! Thanks for starting this thread and sharing all the details and photos!

I went with the Shimano XT M8000 groupset. The rear cassette they provided is the 11-48 11spd, so you could probably ask explicitly for that if you want that big of a granny gear. I'm not using it as an MTB and I have probably never used the top half of the cassette in the course of my actual riding.

I go back and forth on whether I should have sprung for the 8spd SRAM EX1. The SRAM is probably better and stronger and there's no need whatsoever for 11 gears, but I worried about replacement costs for chain and cassette.

The other upgrades I did:
  • Rock Shox Yari fork
  • Magura MT5e brakes
  • Gearsensor installed
  • 52V 17AH battery instead
  • Rekon+ tires (but swapped for my Schwalbe Super Moto-X in 27.5x2.8 shortly after)
  • Rear rack
  • Fenders
  • Integrated lights

Did some extras too: extra charger, extra charging pigtail (works well with the Luna 52V advanced charger), extra derailleur hangers (highly recommend), and a programming cable.

I also swapped out the saddle when it arrived but I assume everyone does that, seats being so personal. I also added pedal straps as I prefer to ride with those.

Just some general impressions, now that I've got ~150 miles:

  • 40T chainring was just too small for my riding. Ivy will probably know what the max size is if you're similar. I'm happy with the 48T. I should have asked for the bigger chainring initially.
  • The rear rack tubing is 16mm. This makes an awkward fit for my existing bags, though I bent the tabs on my main bag and that's working for now. I think 8mm/10mm is normal rack tubing size. I will probably buy a bag that can accommodate the 16mm securely at some point, but we have lots of "regular" bags. I get the impression this rack will support a ton of weight so I don't want to give it up.

Pretty much love everything else. My next area of attention will probably be handlebars, something swept back like the Jones H-Bar would fit my riding style better than what came with the bike. Eventually, maybe a fancier light setup.

But I'm really damn happy with it. My commute to work's best time was 35 minutes and my best time is now 24min. On the way back, my best time was 45min and I was dying coming up the hill (I'm out of shape); new best time on the HT1000 is twice as fast, 22min, and I don't feel like I'm about to pass out. With minimal assist it's still easy to feel like I'm getting some level of work out, but it's intoxicating to goose the throttle while passing or use sport 3 or 4 or 5 up the hill. Two big cycling annoyances, riding up a hill or into the wind are basically negated. And having to stop and restart at signs and lights is mitigated somewhat by the assist. It's a game changer.
 
Nice work entropic :bigthumb: did the same chain fit?I love my bike too use it mainly as trail bike and odd run around city ,I will be increasing to a 48 tooth also as even climbing literally up a mountain in north Vancouver didnt need top part of gears.took it down 7th secert espresso upper and lower on mt fromme in north van all rated black and bike is planted super stable powerful mt5 magura brakes and just a good feel .took it across baden Powell trail climbing rock stairs is possible look up those trails this bike is a Beast! Couldn't recommend it enough if like me you plan on going trail all the way I'd consider geting smaller cranks q6s have had strikes
 
Speaking of which does anyone know a good place to get a crank :wink: seriously tho somthing compatible with right offset at maybe 165mm
 
entropic said:
Richard N said:
I'm curious about which groupset you went with for your bike and the cassette ratio you're using?

Hi Richard! Thanks for starting this thread and sharing all the details and photos!

I went with the Shimano XT M8000 groupset. The rear cassette they provided is the 11-48 11spd, so you could probably ask explicitly for that if you want that big of a granny gear. I'm not using it as an MTB and I have probably never used the top half of the cassette in the course of my actual riding.

I go back and forth on whether I should have sprung for the 8spd SRAM EX1. The SRAM is probably better and stronger and there's no need whatsoever for 11 gears, but I worried about replacement costs for chain and cassette.

The other upgrades I did:
  • Rock Shox Yari fork
  • Magura MT5e brakes
  • Gearsensor installed
  • 52V 17AH battery instead
  • Rekon+ tires (but swapped for my Schwalbe Super Moto-X in 27.5x2.8 shortly after)
  • Rear rack
  • Fenders
  • Integrated lights

Did some extras too: extra charger, extra charging pigtail (works well with the Luna 52V advanced charger), extra derailleur hangers (highly recommend), and a programming cable.

I also swapped out the saddle when it arrived but I assume everyone does that, seats being so personal. I also added pedal straps as I prefer to ride with those.

Just some general impressions, now that I've got ~150 miles:

  • 40T chainring was just too small for my riding. Ivy will probably know what the max size is if you're similar. I'm happy with the 48T. I should have asked for the bigger chainring initially.
  • The rear rack tubing is 16mm. This makes an awkward fit for my existing bags, though I bent the tabs on my main bag and that's working for now. I think 8mm/10mm is normal rack tubing size. I will probably buy a bag that can accommodate the 16mm securely at some point, but we have lots of "regular" bags. I get the impression this rack will support a ton of weight so I don't want to give it up.

Pretty much love everything else. My next area of attention will probably be handlebars, something swept back like the Jones H-Bar would fit my riding style better than what came with the bike. Eventually, maybe a fancier light setup.

But I'm really damn happy with it. My commute to work's best time was 35 minutes and my best time is now 24min. On the way back, my best time was 45min and I was dying coming up the hill (I'm out of shape); new best time on the HT1000 is twice as fast, 22min, and I don't feel like I'm about to pass out. With minimal assist it's still easy to feel like I'm getting some level of work out, but it's intoxicating to goose the throttle while passing or use sport 3 or 4 or 5 up the hill. Two big cycling annoyances, riding up a hill or into the wind are basically negated. And having to stop and restart at signs and lights is mitigated somewhat by the assist. It's a game changer.

It sounds like we've planned out a similar approach.

I'm also going with the M8000 and the 11-46T. I've also planned on swapping out the stock Maxxis tires for a set of Super-Motos. The Gear Sensor upgrade was a must too, in fact, I think that Frey should make it standard equipment on their bikes.

The Jones H-bar Loop is also on my wish list.
 
Map Paddy said:
Nice work entropic :bigthumb: did the same chain fit?I love my bike too use it mainly as trail bike and odd run around city ,I will be increasing to a 48 tooth also as even climbing literally up a mountain in north Vancouver didnt need top part of gears.took it down 7th secert espresso upper and lower on mt fromme in north van all rated black and bike is planted super stable powerful mt5 magura brakes and just a good feel .took it across baden Powell trail climbing rock stairs is possible look up those trails this bike is a Beast! Couldn't recommend it enough if like me you plan on going trail all the way I'd consider geting smaller cranks q6s have had strikes

How did your experience with shipping work out? I'm going to be shipping to Victoria.

Did you use a sufferance warehouse or just let FedEx handle the customs clearance?
 
entropic said:
joshuaho96 said:
Curious to know how so. I find that a lot of these 750W+ torque sensing ebikes are basically at a bleeding edge and end users end up being beta testers so post-sale support is important to me. Still conflicted on whether I should go with a hardtail or find some way to get a rear rack on the AM1000.
I'm with you, though: I'm not sure there's a great option yet for a supported high-power mid-drive bike. FLX might be your next best bet but I doubt you can expect much there either. But at least they're not half a world away and others report that they pick up the phone. I get the feeling you're pretty much out on your own for minor/medium stuff. These things are in their infancy. I think that the big bike companies are reluctant to put out a high-powered/potentially non-compliant product out there and fully support it.

Biktrix comes to mind as the closest we've got to well-supported Bafang Ultra bikes, they will replace just about anything on the bike within warranty (and make great bikes).

I am digging the Frey stuff also! this HT model in particular, as I prefer rigid or hardtail fatbikes. Not really a fan of the rectangular tube construction in the rear triangle, tho.
 
Richard N said:
Map Paddy said:
Nice work entropic :bigthumb: did the same chain fit?I love my bike too use it mainly as trail bike and odd run around city ,I will be increasing to a 48 tooth also as even climbing literally up a mountain in north Vancouver didnt need top part of gears.took it down 7th secert espresso upper and lower on mt fromme in north van all rated black and bike is planted super stable powerful mt5 magura brakes and just a good feel .took it across baden Powell trail climbing rock stairs is possible look up those trails this bike is a Beast! Couldn't recommend it enough if like me you plan on going trail all the way I'd consider geting smaller cranks q6s have had strikes

How did your experience with shipping work out? I'm going to be shipping to Victoria.

Did you use a sufferance warehouse or just let FedEx handle the customs clearance?

I shipped to local fedex center in Burnaby let them handle customs Ivy Mark's in category to keep cost low fedex fee was like 80 dollars if I remember right there is extra charge to get to your door depending on your address
 
Map Paddy said:
Richard N said:
Map Paddy said:
Nice work entropic :bigthumb: did the same chain fit?I love my bike too use it mainly as trail bike and odd run around city ,I will be increasing to a 48 tooth also as even climbing literally up a mountain in north Vancouver didnt need top part of gears.took it down 7th secert espresso upper and lower on mt fromme in north van all rated black and bike is planted super stable powerful mt5 magura brakes and just a good feel .took it across baden Powell trail climbing rock stairs is possible look up those trails this bike is a Beast! Couldn't recommend it enough if like me you plan on going trail all the way I'd consider geting smaller cranks q6s have had strikes

How did your experience with shipping work out? I'm going to be shipping to Victoria.

Did you use a sufferance warehouse or just let FedEx handle the customs clearance?

I shipped to local fedex center in Burnaby let them handle customs Ivy Mark's in category to keep cost low fedex fee was like 80 dollars if I remember right there is extra charge to get to your door depending on your address

Great news. I've not gotten to the shipping arrangments yet so I don't know if I'll be able to get it dropped in Victoria or if I'm stuck going into Van. I was thinking about using a warehouse and doing the customs clearance myself but for just $80 I'll let someone else deal with the paperwork.
 
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