Ribble Ale - Failed Freehub, what's a reasonable response?

[kingrollo]

Good morning,

You are right it is a disappointment to me, but having bought it it acquired a rack and became the commute bike,

But even if I were in love with it I would still have been annoyed at Ribble's attitude.


Thanks for thoughts and effort, fortunately It's not quite this bad, there are some shops willing to sell the parts to people who didn't buy the bike from them. I ordered them from https://www.swinnertoncycles.co.uk/ and they arrived yesterday.

I can see why shops wouldn't want to tie up money in holding many in stock but still want to be able to support those who bought a bike from them. So it probably isn't that Mahle aren't making enough available to retailers but that retailers don't want to buy them on the off chance that they can sell them.

As nobody I would normally use stocks them it was case of picking a shop at random of the internet, fortunately it went well.

I do plan to make Ribble spend too much time answering me, :-) and I am happy to pick up the £70 for the tools but will be bugging them for the £70 part but I wanted to wait for an invoice to include. The part is actually good value, freehub, wheel bearing and heavily machined mounting plate, it is so obvious that ebikemotion/Mahle don't consider the freehub to be a 5,000 mile disposable part.

[Edit]
I have just started to get adverts for Swinnerton Cycles on YouTube, now that I am customer that are advertising to me .

Bye

Ian

An ebike that is no easier to ride uphill would be a red flag for me. I would have returned it as not fit for purpose/ Faulty there and then

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good evening,

An ebike that is no easier to ride uphill would be a red flag for me. I would have returned it as not fit for purpose/ Faulty there and then

The relatively low 40Nm max torque of the X35 is well publicised and there have been a number of reviews around for a long time that have questioned if it is enough for longer or steeper hills so it was not a total surprise.

But there are number of people here with X35 powered ebikes who love them, so it is much more complicated than it's good or bad. The low torque is probably the cost of the light weight, the Ribble comes in at around 14kg or a tad over the weight of a 5 speed racer from the 1970s.

I suspect that the legal requirements contributed to my feelings as well, the law is 25kph cut off and I think there is also a requirement for a power phasing out as well. Even if it isn't a requirement it is still there on the X35, this brings the level of assistance available on shallow hills to minimal as you can pedal over these speeds and on the steep 10% plus hills although I am under these speed limits the lack of torque shows up.

If I wanted to sell you the bike I would find a 200 yard 5% hill, put it on maximum assist and put the bike in a really low gear then the bike will take you up the hill with virtually no effort on your part.

But that doesn't reflect the way that I ride the commute, it is at its best when I really don't want to ride or when there is a 15,271mph headwind.

Bye

Ian

 

[kingrollo]

Good evening,

The relatively low 40Nm max torque of the X35 is well publicised and there have been a number of reviews around for a long time that have questioned if it is enough for longer or steeper hills so it was not a total surprise.

But there are number of people here with X35 powered ebikes who love them, so it is much more complicated than it's good or bad. The low torque is probably the cost of the light weight, the Ribble comes in at around 14kg or a tad over the weight of a 5 speed racer from the 1970s.

I suspect that the legal requirements contributed to my feelings as well, the law is 25kph cut off and I think there is also a requirement for a power phasing out as well. Even if it isn't a requirement it is still there on the X35, this brings the level of assistance available on shallow hills to minimal as you can pedal over these speeds and on the steep 10% plus hills although I am under these speed limits the lack of torque shows up.

If I wanted to sell you the bike I would find a 200 yard 5% hill, put it on maximum assist and put the bike in a really low gear then the bike will take you up the hill with virtually no effort on your part.

But that doesn't reflect the way that I ride the commute, it is at its best when I really don't want to ride or when there is a 15,271mph headwind.

Bye

Ian

Up to you of course. But it sounds like your building a justification for bike that wasn't fit for purpose in the first place.

An e bike should be easier going up a hill than a non ebike .... Period.

IMO there should never be formula where that isn't the case.

But it's you're money, your bike.

I will say no more on the matter.

 

[T4tomo]

An e bike should be easier going up a hill than a non ebike .... Period.

IMO there should never be formula where that isn't the case.

Not if you're going over 15mph up a hill, then you have no assist but you're lugging the battery.

 

[mjr]

the law is 25kph cut off and I think there is also a requirement for a power phasing out as well. Even if it isn't a requirement

It isn't. The e-bike regs are pretty crude so far.

 

[albion]

Not if you're going over 15mph up a hill, then you have no assist but you're lugging the battery.

My heavy ebike only really gets above 15mph after a descent, it fast falling on hills. Having a rear hub and being only 50nm I make the point of working near my max to keep the speed near or above 10mph. Below that speed motor efficiency drops dramatically near nullifying similar or even higher efforts.

With that strategy battery distance does not fall too much with hills in the equation. Doing the hills gently, it can fall off a cliff.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

A lot of this seems very low powered
I am now TdF cyclist but on every ebike I have had (4 in all - long story) I have been able to maintain 17-18 mph on the flat most of the time in spite of the cutoff being 15.5

even if there is a head wind I can maintain close to 15/16 if I put the assist level up to Tour - the second lowest

On my first ebike (Powacycle Salisbury - pre 2016 regs so only 180W) I could very easily keep up 15.5 even on a slight hill - in fact I had trouble going slower due to the "not very good" assist system

I mean - I am old fat and don;t exercise much at all so if I can do it and some others can;t I would suspect it is the bike that is not helping them rather than me being wonderful!!!

 

[albion]

I seldom see flat.
In referring to 'tacking hills' these are 5% to 20%. Anything below 5 on an ebike is hardly a hill at all.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I seldom see flat.
In referring to 'tacking hills' these are 5% to 20%. Anything below 5 on an ebike is hardly a hill at all.

Shouldn;t be - or at least should just be an exercise in spinning a lower gear than normal for a few minutes
but some of the reports on here seem to say otherwise

Which seems wrong

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

I learnt something this morning..... there are at least two types of freehub body for the X35.



The one on the left is what I have and the one on the right is the one that I ordered. They are different sizes, so I can't just use the new one.

Sadly I needed the tools to know this, I couldn't take old hub off until they arrived, so maybe I should have ordered the tools first.

Bye

Ian

 

[gbb]

Good morning,

I learnt something this morning..... there are at least two types of freehub body for the X35.

View attachment 749768

The one on the left is what I have and the one on the right is the one that I ordered. They are different sizes, so I can't just use the new one.

Sadly I needed the tools to know this, I couldn't take old hub off until they arrived, so maybe I should have ordered the tools first.

Bye

Ian

I feel your pain Ian, nothing more depressing than getting that far and...oh, bugger.

 

[Espresso vecchio]

Look on the bright side.... You may have found already that the only problem was sticking pawls (fingers crossed), you can return the unused part for a refund (or the correct size if needed), and still have the vital tool to take it apart next time when or if it sticks/breaks again.

I'm puzzled by your picture. Have you unscrewed the planet ring from your original?

As we all discover too, next time the job will take a fraction of the first time.

 

[Dadam]

I'm aware there are the original X35 and the newer variant motors called "X35+" which google tells me was an upgrade from 2021. My 2022 orbea has the X35+ and I'd assume as your Ribble is recent it would also have the newer model.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

I feel your pain Ian, nothing more depressing than getting that far and...oh, bugger.

Especially when it is me being an idiot.

Look on the bright side.... You may have found already that the only problem was sticking pawls (fingers crossed), you can return the unused part for a refund (or the correct size if needed), and still have the vital tool to take it apart next time when or if it sticks/breaks again.

I'm puzzled your picture. Have you unscrewed the planet ring from your original?

As we all discover too, next time the job will take a fraction of the first time.

I eventually worked out what I had done. You have to remove three screws on the the freeehub+plate to attach the spanner to undo this from the hub, if you don't replace these screws the freehub+plate comes off leaving the the toothed outer ring still attached to the motor.

What you should see after taking the plate off is this.


I found this you tube video and it looked credible
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Mg4dkkK0A
but if you look carefully the freehub+plate is removed with the 12inch long spanner still attached, I removed the spanner to avoid the tool levering any bearings.

I thought that the supplied replacement part had changed, when @Dadam mentioned the X35 and X35+ it was obvious as the same part is a replacement for both of these.



It is a really trivial task once you have right tools, although oddly the spanner length and the wheel radius are the same, this means that the jobs takes a bit longer than it needs to as you have to stop to put a plaster on the finger that gets trapped between the spanner and a spoke.

As you can see from the left hand photo on the previous post there is no way to get at the pawl mechanism, at least not on a part that you intend to reuse. You may be able to spray LPS etc through the "sealed" wheel bearing and I will try that, but what it will do to that bearing is a mystery.

Anyway, hopefully some useful information for the next confused person.

Bye

Ian

 

[Espresso vecchio]

OK, The metal annular ring was undamaged and the three white plastic pinions in your last picture look fine - so what was the fault that you found? Pawls?