BionX motor giving a lot less power

[dekraan]

Good morning everyone,

I'm riding a pre-used Trek X600+ ebike, and I have noticed that the motor is lately giving me a lot less power than it used to.

I can tell on the ride+ display that the bar measuring the A (ampere?) isn't getting nearly as high as it used to. It only really goes up noticably when I am going up hill and am trying my best. When I drive to the office in the highest support setting, I only lose 1 bar from the battery gauge instead of 3 or 4 like I used to. So the engine is definately using less power than it used to.

What can be the problem? Bike does have one loose spoke in the rear wheel, where the engine is located.

At first, it seems to me like the motor doesn't seem to get the signal anymore that I am pedaling pretty hard and need some support. When I am going full out it does seem to help me out, since I can still go around 35km/h to even max of 40km/h if I really try (it has the original German software, I was told) and the wind is in the right direction...I don't think I could without assistance. So it seems like the support is there, but only if I use a lot more energy than I used to.

What throws me off is that when I used to have the bike in the highest support setting, and took off from a stop light, I would really feel a kick from the get go, even without pedaling very hard it would give me a massive boost. That's not the case anymore at the moment, as I can barely feel that I am being helped when I start riding.

Does anyone have an idea what it could be? The only thing the manual says is I should look into the fastening of the real axle nuts, which should be at 40 Nm. Could it be something with the chain, or the gears, or one of the sensors? Any help or advice is more than welcome!

 

[Vbruun]

Probably the strain gauge has come loose. It can be fixed but it takes skill and patience

 

[dekraan]

Probably the strain gauge has come loose. It can be fixed but it takes skill and patience

Hi Vbruun, I've read a little about that by chance, and I assume it means something in the line of taking off the rear wheel, opening it up and trying to fasten something somewhere inside? Do you reckon someone with patience, but no experience (or specific tools) can take this on?

 

[stancecoke]

I assume it means something in the line of taking off the rear wheel, opening it up and trying to fasten something somewhere inside

There is a long thread in the german forum:

Versuche defekten Dehnmeßstreifen zu ersetzen

Hallo BionX Fans , Habe ein Hinterrad 28" ( BionX ) mit defekten Dehn- Meßsreifen geschenkt bekommen ! Versuche in selbst zu reparieren . Das Öffnen vom Motor war eine einfache Sache . Vorgangsweise ; Auf der Zahnkranzseite die Speichen entfernt , mit einem defekten Zahnkranz und einen...

www.pedelecforum.de

regards
stancecoke

 

[dekraan]

@stancecoke thanks! Seeing those discussions on which kind of glue to use makes me think like I can answer my question above myself: this will be too challenging for me to tackle, probably. I'll start the bike hunt first while my bike still gets me places, and might give it a try if scrapping the bike seems to be the only other option left.

 

[dekraan]

Quick update: I did not mess with the wheel/motor, but decided to ramp up my settings from 1 to 3 for 0007 and 0008 (if I remember correctly). That gave me a lot more power, but I do realise this is probably only a temporary fix.