Gary @pau hana graciously let us try out his e-Bike while we were at Q23... I think we’re hooked!
When folded, I suspect I can find room for a couple of ‘em in the back seat floor space of our crewcab truck. Now I just have to work ‘em into this year’s budget. 💸💸
Thanks, Gary!
Jim / crewzer
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There must be something in the air.
My wife has been wanting one.
We have 2- 1.0 Lectric E-bikes that we have had for a few years and love them. We fold them and carry them in the back seat area of the truck. Recently we made a Black Friday purchase of 2 - Lectric Lite E-bikes. They are 20 lbs. lighter than the older e-Bikes and fold up much smaller. They are much easier to load and unload and a little less expensive.
Gary = $$$$ Friends helping friends. 😁
Both bikes are from Velotric. My bike is the Mango (yellow) one on the left; it’s a “step-over” version of their new Nomad 1 model. It’s a big, heavy, fat-tire e-bike.
DW’s bike is the Cyan (blue-green) “step-thru” Discover 1 model.
Here’s a link to Velotric’s website:
HTH,
Jim / crewzer
We have purchased Pedego electric bicycles. They are heavy. I got the Interceptor Platinum. It weighs 58 lbs and the batter is an additional 9 lbs. Wife got the Boomerang Platinum that comes in a bit lighter at 53 lbs. We have only ridden them around town at home but have already put more than 100 miles on them since purchasing in January. We are in flat Florida, and we pedal using their "assist" mode. Haven't figured out how to travel with these monsters yet. Willl probably have to get another tow vehicle!
We really enjoy them and because we are home more than in the RV, these make perfect sense for us.
I am impatiently for the snow and ice to go away so that we can start riding ours. Yes there is a paved road under all of that white. 
So, it turns out the combination of my bike’s weight (70 lbs.), my weight (~270 lbs.), and the lonnggg downhill runs on our neighborhood’s steep roads are too much for my bike’s stock brakes (180 steel rotors, front and rear, plus organic resin brake pads).
Additionally, the stock knobby off-road fat tires are very noisy and have relatively high rolling resistance.
I’ve ordered larger (203 mm) fin-cooled rotors, semi-metallic brake pads, and street tires for my bike; I expect all parts to arrive next week.
I’ll post a behavior- and performance update after I complete the upgrade installation and take a couple of rides. 🔋🚴
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer
Jim, I read your last post and smiled. You and I have similar specs, bike wt and human wt. To date I have only been on one serious hill, I just let it buck I used no brakes and hit 39 mph. I won't be doing that again. 🤣 Please update your post after the parts swap and tell about the results.
@Bigboom338 posted:…To date I have only been on one serious hill, I just let it buck I used no brakes and hit 39 mph…
😳
Safe ridin’,
Jim / crewzer
Most upgrade parts have arrived. The last items are due today, and the rebuild will hopefully start tomorrow.
🤞
Jim / crewzer
Update: I’m in a “two steps forward and one step back” situation.
The new front tire, brake rotor, caliper adapter, and semi-metallic brake pads are all installed and seem to be working nominally, although I haven’t bedded-in the new pads yet.
The new rear tire, brake rotor, caliper adapter, and semi-metallic brake pads are also all installed, but the rear brakes don’t work at all. My attempt to bleed the rear hydraulic brake system didn’t seem to help, so the bike is doing to our neighborhood shop tomorrow.
Never a dull moment! 😖
Jim / crewzer
Update: I figured out the problem with the brakes (with a little help from YouTube): The master cylinder reservoir for the rear hydraulic brakes was not full. Frankly, it’s possible — perhaps even likely — the bike arrived in this condition, as the rear brake lever bottomed out before I had even opened the system.
Anyway, the rear MCR is now full, the new brakes — both F and R — are working very nicely indeed as they get bedded in, and the new tires are smooooth and quiet. 😎
Here are the upgrade details:
New tires: 2x 26 x 3.50 (89-559) Vee Tire Co. Speedster 72 TPI
New rotors: 2x 203mm Shimano RT-MT905 rotors
New caliper post mount adapters: Shimano 160 > 203mm (aka “+43’s”)
New pads: Generic semi-metallics from Amazon
So, we’ll see how all of this survives the ups and downs of our neighborhood roads.
I’ve learned a lot about current bicycle technology from the little exercise. As I told our older son, I’ve done more maintenance on this bike in the last seven weeks than I did on all of my previous four bikes over many, many years.
I’m also going to check a few things on my DW’s bike…
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer
Jim, I do not recommend you doing any work on her brakes, this is a public forum and well if anything happened.......🤣
🤣
Jim / crewzer
Just returned from a lovely 3.6 mile ride up and down our hilly neighborhood roads… all seems to be working well! 👍 🔋 🚴
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer
This post is ironic, I was thinking about something like this yesterday. We went to Sioux Falls yesterday and rode the loop, I was thinking there may be a better way than our Hollywood rack when the camper is not loaded.
Looking good! 👍
What size is the hitch receiver on your truck? I’m curious because our truck’s is 2-1/2”, and I need an adapter for 2” shanks.
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer
The pickup in the picture is a 2". My Ram is a 2 1/2", I use an adapter on that. They are about $20 to buy.
We like our e-Bikes, but our neighborhood’s long, steep roads turned out to be quite a challenge for our bikes’ OEM brakes.
Both bikes’ original hydraulic disc brakes were 180mm rotors front and rear — apparently not heat-treated — and resin (organic) brake pads. All components were likely OEM entry-level grade.
I burned out my bike’s original pads within 76 miles, and the semi-metallic replacement pads subsequently ate the non-heat-treated rear rotor. As described above, I replaced my bike’s rotors, caliper adapters, and pads with heavy duty components, and the results are impressive, although probably still not ideal.
My wife separately concluded she was uncomfortable with her bike’s brakes. I replaced her bike’s 180mm non-heat-treated rotors with Hayes V8 203mm heat-treated models, installed new Shimano caliper adapters, upgraded her brake pads to Shimano’s latest generation resin (organic) products, and I carefully aligned her calipers and pads properly with respect to the new rotors. 😰
It was a real challenge to find 203mm rotors with a “wide” braking surface for “wide” pads, as most large rotors are apparently feature “narrow” braking surfaces and use narrow pads in an effort to save weight. 🙄
What a difference in braking performance! Happy wife, happy life!
Safe travels!
Jim / crewzer
New 203mm front disc brake rotor and pads on DW’s ~60 lbs. e-Bike:
New 203mm rear rotor and pads:
The rotor width issue:
Great report on the brake problems and a solution. I will definitely be looking into this.
Thanks, John. I did considerable internet research on mountain bike-, downhill-, e-Bike-, and heavy-rider braking issues, component capabilities and compatibilities to find the solution for my wife’s bike.
I hope the details of our solution are useful to you and to others; please feel to contact me with questions or for further discussion.
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer
Thanks for posting info on the brake upgrades.
I’m not happy with the brakes on my Lectric 3.0………., same issue, over time doing a lot of downhills that require braking kills the pads. Lectric is offering (no cost, free of charge) hydraulic brake retrofit kits to 3.0 owners……..I hope the pads on the retrofit kits are better than the original.
2 weeks ago we rode the bike trail around the city of Sioux Falls SD, 22.5 miles it was amazing. We stayed in pedal assist 1 for about half of the ride, but when we got out into the open we were forced to use the juice. There was a 25mph sustained wind that day and we had a headwind and a crosswind for about a third of the ride.
We are pretty flat for the most part where we live so brakes haven't been an issue yet. But thanks to you Jim they will be closely watched. Your brake upgrade is very useful knowledge.
Over memorial day weekend we did a 20 mile ride down by Yankton SD and used 1/3 of our battery, the next day we rode into town from our place (5 miles) and then decided to go a bit farther. Due to wind and hills I ran out of battery 5 miles from home, I do not recommend this at all. A 70 lb bike and a 280lb man do not mix well in hilly terrain. I made it but I was working hard, I had to walk 2 of the hills.
I do love these ebikes though. Happy riding.
Larry,
I’ve heard about Lectric’s no-cost hydraulic retrofit kits to replace the original mechanical disc brake configuration. I hope the fix works for you, and I’ll be looking forward to your report!
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer
@Bigboom338 posted:2 weeks ago we rode the bike trail around the city of Sioux Falls SD, 22.5 miles it was amazing. We stayed in pedal assist 1 for about half of the ride, but when we got out into the open we were forced to use the juice. There was a 25mph sustained wind that day and we had a headwind and a crosswind for about a third of the ride.
We are pretty flat for the most part where we live so brakes haven't been an issue yet. But thanks to you Jim they will be closely watched. Your brake upgrade is very useful knowledge.
Over memorial day weekend we did a 20 mile ride down by Yankton SD and used 1/3 of our battery, the next day we rode into town from our place (5 miles) and then decided to go a bit farther. Due to wind and hills I ran out of battery 5 miles from home, I do not recommend this at all. A 70 lb bike and a 280lb man do not.mix well in hilly terrain. I made it bit I wad working hard, I had to walk 2 of the hills.
I do love these ebikes though. Happy riding.
Great report, Mike! Yeah, I can see riding into a 25 mph headwind would require some extra “juice”! 💨 🚴
I’ve started a new thread where we can discuss trails and experiences: https://community.lanceowners....c/617765965228876402
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer
Jim, where did you source your brake parts? I am thinking that I should get some pads ordered just to have on hand. We are planning on riding the Mickelson trail in the Black Hills in August or September.
Mike,
I tried identifying and sourcing replacement parts at our local bike shops, but that didn’t work out, mostly due to poor inventory.
Here are the parts and sources for the brake upgrade on my wife’s bike; prices and availability seem to vary widely:
Rotors: Hayes V8 203 mm six-bolt from Wheat Ridge Cyclery
Brake pads: Shimano B05S-RX resin / organic from Amazon
“+43” Adapter (post mount) for front caliper: Shimano F203P/P from Amazon
“+43” Adapter (side mount) for rear caliper: Shimano R203P/S from Amazon
I also needed a couple of 6mm ID flat washers to use as spacers between the calipers and adapters to align the caliper and brake pad height with respect to the rotor braking surface area.
These are the parts I used for my wife’s bike, and they’ve so far worked out very well. However, not all bikes use the same specs for each component, so your needs may vary.
HTH,
Jim / crewzer
Caliper and pads are well aligned with “wide” front rotor for maximum pad-to-rotor contact area and optimal braking performance.
Love the posts on e-bikes. We bought ours before considering taking them camping... Each weighs 77 lbs (KBO Ranger)- so no bike rack on the back of the Lance. We live in Florida - but so enjoy riding around St Augustine, Fernandina Beach (Fort Clinch) and other areas (O'Leno/High Springs). With my wife's knee replacement, it has given us back some of our youthful fun.
Considerations - weight of the bike!! Not only are our bikes heavier than normal, but bulky. I'd go with a much lighter bike for life in the flat lands. I have made a ramp into our truck bed that works ok. My wife wouldn't want to do it tho... Range - ours has close to 60 miles - no problem testing/proving that out. Suspension - we added a shock absorber for our seats - fantastic for us both.
Happy camping and travels!
Hey Crewzer - If the rotors and pads don't fix your issue hit me up, I chased this issue on my non-E MTB for a couple years but have found a solution that has now worked for the last 2 years.
COC —
Thanks for the follow-up and offer.
Our brake mods seem to have worked out. For example, my bike’s replacement pads have lasted over 500 miles, which is probably quite good considering our steep neighborhood roads, the bike’s weight, and my weight. However, they are considerably worn, so one of my June projects will be to replace the pads on both bikes.
Nonetheless, if you have the time, I’d like to know more about your mods.
Thanks again,
Jim / crewzer
I have tried a bunch of stuff to get my brakes to bite better, not fade, and not burn up the pads. I found that my pads were glazing and I was wasting half the pad. I finally found a great combo that works as long as I don't ride the brakes on long or steep downhill sections and use a on/off brake stroke. The brakes are 2 piston Shimano Saints, rotors are Shimano Ice tech 203/180mm, and Shimano saint finned resin pads. I went back to resin as they bite better without the warmup and don't glaze as much, the tradeoff is they don't last as long as metallic. The other trick is I get new rotors ever other set of pads, a little excessive but I can really tell a difference.
I ride about 3k miles a year for exercise since my bad knees can only handle a bike for exercise. I usually only go through one set of pads in that 3k!
Amazon.com : Shimano H03A Resin Disc Brake Pads and Spring with Fins : Sports & Outdoors
Thanks for the detailed info and your report!
Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer
