Ribble Endurance ALe Sport for commuting - Part 10 – Mahle X35 Battery Capacity Less Than 80% After Only A Year

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning

Yep, I recognise that assembly.

When you took the outer plate off did you look at the "plastic" cogs on the motor that drive the metal teeth on the outer plate and think Oh I know why the freehub and outer plate are one assembly, they are going to last so much longer than the motor.🤣 Okay I do realise that sometimes the softer part can outlast the harder part, but I did wonder.

I have no objection in principle to lending out the spanners but they are big and heavy so expensive to post, plus of course I would wonder if I would get them back.

I am also not really sure why you need two, one for each side, as the outer plate was no tighter than a freewheel used to be and we never applied a counter force when undoing them.

Bye

Ian🤣

 

[Brandane]

When you took the outer plate off did you look at the "plastic" cogs on the motor that drive the metal teeth on the outer plate

I didn't take anything off, the LBS did the whole job. Which goes against the grain with me, none of my other bikes have had to go to a bike shop for any kind of maintenance in my adult life. They are quite simple things to work on normally, but when I got to the bit about the special Mahle tools I lost the will to live. And part of me was hoping it would be covered by the 2 year warranty, how naive of me! It's a bearing Sir, not covered.....

 

[wafter]

Perhaps I'm more disconnected from the real world than I'd thought; however the cost of a replacement battery seems shocking

Granted you're doing a lot of distance... if you break it down per mile on the supposition that your battery has now reached the end of its life (going by the industry standard practice of replacement once capacity has fallen to 80%); assuming 40 miles per working day is about 10k miles per year and £800 replacement cost you're looking at about 8p per mile. If we're charitable and say degradation remains linear and you use the battery until it's hit 50% rated capacity that brings cost down to about 2.5p/mile.

I suppose to be fair the latter's value's not utterly terrible although potentially more than you'd expect to spend on other cycling consumables.

Are you attempting all you can to prolong the battery's life, such as trying to keep charge capacity between 40 and 80%..?

Sadly it seems that your experience of this bike hasn't been great and only continues to reinforce many of my misgivings about ebikes - with some of my major draws to cycling (long-lasting and sustainable products, low / manageable running costs and gear you can usually maintain yourself) seemingly very much off the menu when it comes to their assisted counterparts

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good afternoon,

Sadly the battery unit, that is the smallest thing that even a reseller can buy and resell is a collection of 18650 batteries and electronics, is around £650 retail.

If we're charitable and say degradation remains linear.......
At this point and in its current state the battery is already at the end of life for a real world user rather than a marketing example, it can no longer do a commute to and from work under what I would consider a very low load usage.

I bought it as I am getting old and wanted an easier commute, I can do the commute without assitance I just don't want to.

Given that the last 40Wh are of limted/no use, running the battery down to 125Wh as total capacity gives 85Wh of useful energy or one steep hill, well almost!

Asssuming that the battery loses 30% of its capacity at 0 Deg. C. a number pretty much plucked of the web, then 200Wh becomes 140Wh and then remove the 40Wh zone and we are down to 100Wh to cover 40 miles.

I could carry the charger each way and do 2 charges a day or a get new one at around £70 and have one at home and one at work, that would delay the battery replacement.

Are you attempting all you can to prolong ....
I am not being sillily self rightous and I warm the battery before charging it, but beyond that it is a consumer grade product and I contacted Ribble stating my intentions before buying and they said okay.

It really does seem absurd that I can't just buy some new batteries, around £200 at full retail price for top of the range Panasonic ones and slot them in.

....Working day is about 10k miles per year
Don't forget that us office worker get holidays...... and I had a month off with knee problems, I couldn't even drive home.

....8p per mile.
That's the same thing that someone said when the freehub failed and cost a £140 to replace........ it's only n pence per mile

Bye

Ian

 

[wiggydiggy]

Good morning,

I actually meant retaillers who have the parts and actively advertise on the web that they will only sell these part to people who bought bikes from them.

There is an ebike specialist in Worcester that sells Orbea e bikes so have everything needed to work on a X35 drive system who very politely (I do mean poilitely I am not being sarcastic) told me that they wouldn't supply or fit a replacement freehub as I didn't buy the bike from them. The freehun is a non standard Mahle only part.

Bye

Ian

Ah I understand, seems very childish on their part. You should let let Mahle know they are missing out on business!

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good afternoon,

@Brandane I’ve tried installing the app on an Android phone and that doesn’t give the capacity values.

So what do Mahle think that iPhone users know/want/think that Android user don’t?

Sadly checked the iPhone app and I am down again.



Bye

Ian

 

[Shortandcrisp]

There is also the option of fitting an exterior range extender which would increase the range and also charge the main battery when the bike is stationary/ parked for some time.

 

[Brandane]

There is also the option of fitting an exterior range extender which would increase the range and also charge the main battery when the bike is stationary/ parked for some time.

Yebbut; it's a £450+ option. And adds another 2.3kg of weight onto an already heavy lump of bike!

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good afternoon,

Sadly the range extender is not just an extra fairly low capacity battery, 208Wh for which most retailers are asking £550.

It has a maximum output of 36V@2A, that is 72 watts or about 3/4 of the default setting for the low assist level this reduces the demand on the in-frame battery which is good.

What is bad is that when there is no assistance being supplied the range extender discharges itself into the in-frame battery. This makes sense and is required as only the main battery can deliver the higher current needed for the medium and high assistance level.

If both batteries are in perfect health then maybe this isn’t too inefficient.

If you are riding with a low level of assistance most of the time then this arrangement may work well even with a failing main battery. If you ride above the assistance speed limit most of the time with an occsional maximum assistance burst then it is unclear how much of the range extender's charge will be lost charging a failing main battery.

If as experience seems to show, 30% of capacity is lost when riding at around 0Deg. C. then that 208Wh looks even more miserly. So I am not sure that I want to cough up another £550 for an experiment.

Bye

Ian