Sunday 12 September 2021

E-Bike Drawbacks

 Had my first drawback with the e-bike - a puncture in the rear hub wheel.


Because of the back brake, the derailleur and the power lead from the motor hub, it's rather a task to remove the back wheel. I couldn't accomplish it in the normal manner of putting the bike upside down due to the display poking over the top of the handlebars, so I chose to put it in the stand.

The battery had to be disconnected and the controller had to be unhooked from the motor - two connections at the controller - and all the zip ties had to be removed. The brake wasn't a problem and the derailleur was on the other side. However, the hub, being very heavy, caused some consternation when it dropped, tipping the bike forwards on the stand.

I managed to get it off, remove the innertube, fix the hole and reinsert the tube. Reassembling the rear wheel in the correct position, however, required an additional pair of hands due to the bike being the right way up, but on a stand and the hub being so heavy. No.1 Son duly helped with the reassembly. 

The problem compounded itself when we'd reassembled everything without first pumping the tyre up - it blew spectacularly. Had to disassemble the whole caboodle again, replace the innertube with another and then reassemble once more.

Next time I'll leave the bike upright - not on a stand. What would help would be a connector on the hub lead near to the hub itself, rather than the connector being at the controller end of the circuit. Repairing a blowout on the road requires quite a bit of kit - adjustable spanner, Allen key for removing the disk brake, wire snips for the zip ties, new zip ties, crosshead screwdriver, pincer nosed pliers and, of course, the innertube. A hub-end connector would eliminate more than half of such a toolkit.


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