Mid drive motor, how long it lasts for you? Maintenance?

[pucak92]

Hello guys, i have my Yamaha E-bike, with mid drive motor, 1 year and 9 months, almost over for warranty, i did arround 13K km, bought another battery, just to be sure if thisone makes problems i have spare one, also for the range.

Few times i have hit stones, whatever with my pedal, and over the course of time, the axle in the mid drive motor started to be a bit wobbly, like loose, BUT!, the funny thing is that it is only loose when i dont use engine, if i use engine its working well.

SO! I want to ask you guys, if it goes for the mid drive motors, how long do they last? If they ever break, what kind of service would they need? If the engine has to break anytime soon i hope it breaks within the next 3 months i heard new engine is 900 euro, it is riddiculus, new bike cost me 2000, how can engine be almost half price .... Whatever, so what do you guys think? If you guys have mid drive motors, how long did they last you for? shall i do some repair after warranty? like opening engine, anything to lube there?

 

[Sunder]

Keen on this answer as well, as I am thinking in 2 years time, of building a bikepacker bike to do 3 or 4 of the Eurovelo tracks, which will be around 7-8000km (or was it miles - still early days). Obviously being a bikepacker, I won't have tools and ability to carry spares. Staying long enough in one location to have one shipped to me won't be an option either. So a high reliability and high availability of substitute parts will be most critical to me.

As for the cost shock - considering it's possible to buy a push bike for $100, it shouldn't surprise you if the electronics component make up the other $1900. Of course out of that, you need the battery too.

$900 seems reasonable for the mid-drive components. This leaves say $4-500 for a battery, $1-200 for the controller, and ~$500 for the bike frame itself.

 

[Sunder]

By the way, I've never seen a Yamaha eBike, so I could be way off... But if you described the same symptoms in a pedal only bike, I would say that you needed new bearings in your bottom bracket, or in some cases, just a clean and regrease would reduce the movement.

Before you spend the $900, it might be worth putting some photos on here, and seeing if you can take it apart enough so we can see how the crank assembly looks, and whether it looks like it might be possible to repack the bearings on it?

 

[MadRhino]

Yamaha is making the PW system, not the bike. The Yamaha PW series was used by Giant, Haibike, Lapierre... On various quality bikes and components. 900$ for a new unit may seem expansive but it is not that high. I have no doubt though, that bike manufacturers had a much better price, because they bought a lot of them. For servicing, Yamaha is not as bad as Bosh who are very shy about supplying spare parts. Yet, unlike the motorcycle market, dealers have no obligation to repair the units, or carry spare parts.

I too, believe your problem is only a matter of replacing bearings. That should not be a very complicated task, and equivalent bearings should be found locally.

The reliability of those integrated BB drives is pretty good, mostly because they are low power. ES members who are building powerful mid drives are having much busier maintenance.

 

[pucak92]

Yes its Haibike Yamaha Sduro SL 2015