crankythunder

Hi Guys:

Just got a Bike E for $150.00 and took it on my first long distance ride. Had to cut the ride short and turn around because the Bike E was slow.

It was like I was dragging anchors.

Previous owner said that the tires were leaky, and that they had to be topped off before every ride. Made me wonder if he inserted a couple pounds of slime in each tire. Anyways, have a set of Primos Comets with new tubes on the way to that should alleviate my heavy tire wonderings. Existing tires are ancient heavy tires and need replacement anyways.

I am thinking that it might have some friction on the front wheel bearing and the rear SRAM 3 speed internally geared hub. While I got to investigate it further, I did a search both here and on You Tube for instructions on rehabbing a internal 3 speed hub and couldnt find any instructions here and about a bazillion on You Tube.

Has anybody done this and if so, could you recommend a video or printed instructions please?

Thank you,
Cranky

VegasTriker

You can't get parts or replacement hubs for SACHS (now SRAM). They never were great for supplying parts and they discontinued making the Dual-Drive hub around 2015. I have one on my Greenspeed GTO trike but also have a spare hub that I bought when SRAM discontinued making the Dual-Drive just in case I ever need it.

Don't expect your BikeE to be a speed demon recumbent. I bought a BikeE AT as my first recumbent back around 2000 and it wasn't long before I discovered the same problem you are having. After a couple of months I bought a used Linear LWB and rode it ~3K miles in the first year. I kept the BikeE as a loaner/demo recumbent because it was so easy to adjust to different heights and anybody could hop on it and take off with no learning curve. Eventually someone destroyed the rear hub and it just hung on the wall until I found the same hub for $25 so I switched out the guts for the hub. I realized it was just as bad as I remembered and eventually just put it out in a dumpster when my neighbor offered me the chance to use their dumpster to get rid of anything I wanted gone. That was a few years ago. There were a couple of recalls by Bike E before they went out of business in the early 2000's. https://bicycleman.com/brands-we-don...bikee-recalls/

At least you didn't pay big bucks for it. I paid $600 for mine (used) back then. I see people advertising them for as much as $750 which is crazy when you can get a much better recumbent bike for that kind of money. I had no clue as to what made a good recumbent and it was available locally.

If you instead look at YouTube videos on SRAM Dual-Drive you should be able to find one on how to disassemble the hub. After all these years it might need cleaning and re-greasing. I've had several of them apart. It is not rocket science.

Me and my bikeE

If this can help, you can get bikeeE service manual
with this google search above
filetype: pdf “bikeE”
remove^space

BlazingPedals

If the 3x7 works, dribble some oil into the chain hole. That's almost all the maintenance the things need. If they die, I think there are a few modern equivalents; but of course they'll cost more than you paid for the bike. You can probably find a youtube video showing how to adjust the shift chain. Other than that, don't shift while pedaling. Internal hubs have some loss, but they're not that bad;

Bike-E was designed to use on paths and sidewalks, not racetracks. The main problem with the Bike-E was the bike. It has a very upright seating position for maximum frontal area, is heavy, and those small tires have a fair amount of rolling resistance, even Comets. Where did you find Comets in this day and age?

honcho

A BikeE was my first recumbent and I thought it was especially slow and I am not a fast cyclist other than downhill. Among other things, check for dragging/misadjusted brakes adding unwanted drag. The SRAM Dual Drive system is pretty robust and probably isn't the problem. Happy trails!