InTheRain

How long have you been riding with this system?
Have you run into problems with the battery?
Have you been able to get prompt and reliable service if you have had problems?
Rate reliability on a scale of 1 - 10.
Any issues with the system in the rain?
Has it met your expectations?
Would you recommend it to someone else?
Would you buy a Bionx again over another system that is available?

From what I've read, I like the system and I want to convert an existing bike. Most likely to a 350 watt rear hub (I understand that the new 500 watt is not compatible with rim brakes??) Thanks in advance for any feedback.

350htrr

Very quiet, very smooth, very reliable, good choices for assist 1-4 levels, good choices for re-gen 1-4 levels and I have actually used the re-gen to gain useable distance, easy 5 Kms... The only thing I don't like is not being able to delete the 32 Km/Hr speed limiter for the assist...

EDIT; I don't see why it wouldn't be compatible with rim brakes...

G1nko

Riding a Bionx for 3 years. First year the motor started making funny noises, like a playing card was stuck in the spokes. Sent the motor back and it was repaired under warranty.

Next year, the pedal assist stopped working. Everything works fine with the throttle, but there's no pedal assist whatsoever. No longer under warranty so the fix is on me, shipping and all.

I have a rear-rack battery. One day I hit a significant bump and the battery came dislodged from the rack. It was locked and the lock would not disengage. I had to actually pedal (gasp!) on my own power 8 miles home. I had to take the entire rack apart to get the battery out. The plastic housing around the lock was broken, but the battery slid back into place and locked. Then it happened again. Now I keep the battery tightly secured to the rack with black nylon webbing.

YMMV, but IMHO, the motor isn't particularly reliable and the attachment of the battery to the rack is poorly designed. If you google it, you'll find I'm not the only one with this opinion of the rear-rack battery.

Bottom line - would I buy it again knowing then what I know now? No. I much prefer my home-brew front hub/lipo combination on my other ebike to the Bionx. If I get the pedal assist fixed this spring, I'm selling it.

Also, @350htrr - search my previous posts for how to deal with the speed limitation on newer generation Bionx.

InTheRain

@G1nko, I saw in another thread that you did some modifications on the 20 mph speed limit of the 350 watt motor? Could this have caused any of the issues you had? Did, or would, those modifications invalidate the warranty? You sound like a technically competent tinkerer and thus I can see why you would prefer the build-your-own conversions. I'm nowhere near that competent. It seems that when I try things on my own, I learn a lot of things... but most importantly I learn... "that cost me a lot of money to have someone fix my mistakes." One of the things I like about the bionx systems is their ability to hook up the system to the bionx diagnostic tool and identify many problems without guessing. This is only available at a dealer... but my dealer knows a lot more about electric bikes than I ever will, and I really like and trust the guy.

I haven't made the jump/purchase yet, but I'm really, really close. I really enjoy my own bike, and thus far I haven't found a prebuilt electric bike that comes close to what I like about my own bike. Thus, I'm heavily considering bionx. I'm sorry to hear that it didn't live up to your expectations.

2old

ITR, if you like MTB, try to envision adding 5+ pounds to either wheel before considering a hub drive system (and test some examples). I have a light bike with a front wheel hub conversion, and mid mount battery. It rides really well and pedals nicely on road surfaces, but would be cumbersome when MTBing (IMO). I'm going to build a mid drive and see how that rides.

G1nko

I removed the speed limit almost immediately. When I sent it back for the warranty repair, I turned the speed limit back on so there would be no issues in that regard. How would they know, other than reading these boards?

IANAL nor do I play one on TV, but the only reason the speed limit exists is for legal reasons. An electric bike is defined as a bicycle and does not require licensing or registration as long as the max unassisted speed is 20mph/32kph. If it goes faster than 20mph/32kph, it is my understanding that it is now a vehicle and has to be registered. When you buy a CAN-BUS interface and build a cable, you are, essentially, building yourself a do-it-yourself dealer interface. You have access to the same menus and diagnostics the dealer has. You don't change anything mechanically by removing the limitation

The issues with the sound were because the insides rusted. The issues with the pedal assist are because the motor strain gauge is malfunctioning and has nothing to do with removing the speed limit. The issues with the battery are because the mounting design is for crap.

350htrr

I actually like the mounting design, tho a grommet shock reducer could help with shock loads... All it really needs is some lube to help sliding the battery on and off, forcing it on and off puts some real strain on the bracket so.... I too had a problem with the strain gauge but they fixed everything no cost to me, but maybe the LBS just did me a favor...

InTheRain

No, I'm not into mountain biking. From what I understand the mid-drive systems are excellent. I've riden a bosch mid-drive bike... really nice.

InTheRain

Pulling the trigger tomorrow. I'm having the Bionx S350DV installed on my touring bike. I figured now would be a good time to mount some new tires... going with the Schwalbe marathon plus 700C x 28. It looks like next week is going to be a rather wet work week. I'm excited to be riding this beast In The Rain.

powell

My BIONX PL 350W with 36V rear rack 9.6Ah battery works just fine after crossing 1000kms millage.
It is installed on Toba Edwin bike Canadian - made step-through bicycle.
I bought it already installed .
The only complain - backlight on display is not that bright , could be more adjustable.
I can remove battery from rear rack, needed some lubrication.

InTheRain

It's on. I rode it a bit. The authorized dealer did some software tweaks to make the the bike respond the way I like it. It's amazing how they can dial in the riding experience by tweaking things with the software. It was fun climbing a hill at 18 mph hour into a 30 mph headwind! By far the smoothest and quietest of all the different ebikes that I tested... Ezee, Bosch, Izip, Emotion... Kalkhoff was pretty quiet, but didn't have the power of the Bionx 350W electric motor. I'm happy (we all are on day one, right?)

InTheRain

First ride this morning on the bionx? FABULOUS!!! I rode in assist level 2. Mostly flat, then some downhill at railroad grade. Very responsive to the force applied to the pedals.... and dead silent! I climbed one short hill. I usually do it at 6-7 mph with quite a lot of effort... 16.5 mph this morning with not quite as much effort. I could see that assist level 4 would take me up that same hill at 20 mph with not too much effort. It's nice... it still feels like riding a bicycle.

350htrr

I'm still happy with mine, 4 years in. I think BionX got it perfect for those who still want to pedal their bike normally but sometimes just want some assist to keep the work down and the fun up... Hope you like yours as much as I like mine after a few years... The throttle does come in handy to increase safety going through intersections and that is about the only time I use it if I need some instant speed, you should think about putting yours on for some instant power if needed...

InTheRain

The throttle was an issue with installing the kit on a drop bar bike that has some funky shaped tubing in the bars. I opted not to have it installed because it would have required the use of an additional attachment coming off the stem. It would have looked strange and really wouldn't have been any more convenient than using the "+/-" on the console to change the pedal assist mode. When I saw how little you use your throttle, I decided against it. The dealer and I messed with the software and made an adjustment to some of the parameters to make the pedal assist more responsive on the initial thrust to get me through those intersections a little quicker from a standstill.

I've ridden 10 miles on the initial charge... the battery indicator level hasn't budged yet. I'll give it a tougher workout this evening as there is a stretch of about 2 miles that is a slight uphill (something I rode at 10-13 mph without assist.)

350htrr

Another thing with the hub motor after a few hundred miles the spokes must be re-torqued or one risks broken spokes...

InTheRain

The dealer did not mention re-torquing the spokes. He did mention that at 125 miles that the hub should be re-tourqued with a torque wrench. He said to just take it into an auto tire shop and have them set the torque wrench to 40 Nm and have them tighten it up. I would think that you would have to a re true a wheel if your going to mess with all the spokes.

350htrr

Page 22 of my manual says to have the spoke tension of the rear wheel and the torque of all screws checked after the first 200Kms/125Miles... It took me 2 broken spokes the first 6 months before I re-read the manual...

2old

My front hub conversion started creaking after 150 miles; since the wheel was still true, I just tightened each nipple 1/8 turn (start at the valve hole so you know where to stop). This resolved the issue.

ezbikin

We have three complete pre-2009 I2C PL350 units on our several recumbent bikes. Had two problems, a new, dead battery, and a wheel with bad connection, both of which were quickly replaced by dealer/factory. We've gone through several batteries on these, one of the units being a 2007 with about 18,000 miles on it. We purchased replacement batteries on two occasions, but now I have Electric Rider repack them, as Bionx stopped selling them a couple years ago. To avoid this problem in the future, I recently bought a new Falco 500W 36V system for one of the bikes, the advantage being that you don't need a proprietary battery to power it. All in all we have been happy with Bionx. The torque sensor is very smooth and intuitive, and once you learn to adjust the parameters of the system it works great. Keep in mind that the system is designed optimally as a pedal assist, not a throttle system.

InTheRain

Thanks ezbikin. I'll be ecstatic if I have an experience similar to yours. I don't have the throttle hooked up to my system. I'm loving the pedal assist feature. I find myself in level 0 or 1 about 60 percent of the time on level ground and gradual downhill descents. But it is a joy to kick it into level 4 on a difficult hill and climb it at 15 mph. I keep hearing about Falco. Hopefully you can keep us up to date on how that experience goes.

350htrr

If you can, I think it is worth the while to set up the throttle too, because you can change settings with the throttle and then you don't need to take your hands off the handlebar every time you want to change the setting for power or re-gen...

bareyb

How do you like your Falco kit compared to the BionX? Did you get the "Off Road" version or is it limited to 20 mph like the BionX?

ezbikin

I bought the road legal version. I may wind up with it on my wife's bike and I don't want her getting out of her comfort zone. Falco has been a bit of an adventure. The hubmotor appears to be very well made. I had issues with the wheel at first. The build was sloppy and the spokes were really loose right out of the box. I eventually rebuilt it onto a Rhyno-Lite rim and all seems to be well. There is a lack of instruction with the kit. Even the online instructions were pretty skimpy. Engineers tend to think everyone else has the same understanding of a subject that they have. However, the questions I posed to Falco were answered quickly. I question why they felt the need to go wireless. Over eight years and three kits, I've never had a wiring problem with Bionx, and the ANT+ programming system is really obtuse if you have never done anything like it before. But again, Falco made that right. The performance of the system is great. Real smooth, and more power than our old PL350 of course. I got the combination of the torque sensor and the thumb throttle. I wanted pedal assist performance much like our Bionx, but with the thumb throttle for a little help starting from a dead stop on a hill, for example.

bareyb

That's kind of been my experience too. If you are technically inclined, it's definitely a plus. I do think Falco is trying to improve in that regard. They just redid their website and there is a LOT more info available now than there was even two weeks ago. So it appears they are listening and improving. I'll admit I was little turned off at first, but with Rakesh answering all my questions, it's actually made me a believer again. You simply can't get the same speed and versatility from a prebuilt bike so I will very likely be buying another Falco kit for my next project instead of a new built from scratch e-bike.

kosio86

Hi,

I like how smoothly my BionX bike works, when it does, but recently I have the following issue:

Randomly while I ride the assistance just stops and the speedometer shows 00 km/h. The assistance level is displayed correctly, but the assistance bar does not fill up. When I switch to G mode again nothing happens- the bike just rolls freely.
I enter the diagnostic mode and I see errors 40 (problem in the connection between the Console and the battery) and 55 (Problem in the connection between the Console and the Motor). So I checked all connections and cables with Multimeter and I did not find anything suspicious, so I decided that since the only constant in the equation is The Console - the problem is in it. I bought new one and replaced it and 1 week later I got the very same issue again.
I am wondering could it be some connection of the cables inside the motor, or some issue inside the motor that could cause such error. What led me to this is that I noticed, that only while I am pedaling I hear a small clicking coming from the hub which is present just randomly not related to the state of the motor - off or on (the noise reminds me of magnet slightly touching the aluminum hub). When I just roll without pedaling the clicking stops. The clicking is really odd because it doesn't come from the pedals as it clicks on several revolutions of the pedals and several revolutions of the freewheel. So I think that there could be some issue with the mechanism inside the motor which is rotated by the chain and detects the strain and I suppose the speed as well.... Or some magnet could be dislocated and hits the coils at some angles.
I am desperate because in my country there is no BioniX shop which can help me(the bike is imported from Germany), no BioniX community or forum, and I already bought an excessive part from abroad and don't want to spend more money without knowing the reason of the problem.
I contacted the support and they advised me to check the connections which I had already done.
The big issue is that when the problem appears- stays very long time - sometimes hours, sometimes days. I just leave the bike and randomly check it- and at some point the problem just disappears without having any intervention, or anyone touching the bike.

My version is 250/350W 37V 10AH LiMn with G1 console version 5.4 (replacement console is with 6.2 and works smoother but the problem is not resolved) and it is just 2200km old only. The battery holds good charge as well. But when the problem appears I have to climb the steep city streets and the point of having electric bike is lost.

Therefore I now would prefer that I've bought Chinese e-bike kit which does not have proprietary parts which I cannot buy except from abroad and no one can help me troubleshoot the issue. So if anybody has idea how I can deal with it, I would appreciate if a PM is sent to me.