shabs

Thanks for the update. What a traumatic incident for the family. Glad everyone is on the road to recovery.

cat0020

Kids are usually more resilient than adults when it comes to accidents/injuries.
As long as the adults in their lives show them the way to resume activities responsibly;
the traumatic incidents can become just a lesson to them on avoiding dangers later.

Calcium levels drop significantly in women over certain age, especially in women who had given birth.
Consider calcium supplement and Vitamin D that help absorption during recovery of major/multiple bone fractures.
As long as her kidneys can handle the extra calcium intake, kidney stones would be a sign of calcium overdose.

Brain injury/trauma is different for every incident, every person I still have residual migraines from accident over 22 years ago; with age it doesn't seem to be improving.
I can't say that I expect to get better in the future, more or less learn to live with what I have and function the best way I can with it.
I learn my limitations as I get older, just pay more attention to my surroundings and my own body before the unexpected occur.


Right now is the height of cycling season, likely anything you order will take longer if it is not in stock.
If not in a hurry, just wait for things to settle and find replacement during winter time when prices & availability are not so crazy with the demand.

campfire

I hope and pray you are correct.


This is a newly-released model, so I don't have a lot of options. I haven't come across any in my local classifieds, nor would I expect to. I do, however, have a warranty claim filed with Lectric. We're all waiting for insurance companies before a replacement bike is officially ordered. But they have given me a placeholder order number to ensure that I don't get bumped to the end of the line once the new bike does get ordered. Last week, the bikes were in stock, now they're bumped back to "shipping in June." The accessories are "shipping in July." So our summer is off to a bad start, but we could still be rolling within the next few weeks. And, yes, I am in a hurry. I miss this bike! It was really handy.

campfire

I will say this...Of all the companies involved here, Lectric has the best customer service by a very wide margin. This isn't surprising, given the general reputation of insurance companies. But Lectric is punching above its weight. More than once, they've gone out of their way to ensure we have a good experience. Both with the initial order and with their response to the wreck.

Kudos to them.

Smaug1

I assume the car hit your family. Unless your wife was doing something illegal at the time, you should be entitled to a new bike + medical expenses + pain & suffering. (if you want to pursue that) It shouldn't even be a question. If the insurance company doesn't want to pay, I agree with the other member who said you need a good lawyer.

Meanwhile, are you back to driving for your errands now?

campfire

Yes, I'm back to driving or pedal biking. This is a hidden cost, a loss that's hard to tabulate for the insurance actuaries.

I started typing up a response to the legal advice, but realized I still am not in a position to say much. I used the word 'limbo' intentionally, because it's the most accurate word for the situation.

cat0020

Start with the police report first, read it a few times a day if need to.

dwoodul51

Hello - new member here. Hope I'm posting this in the correct location. Just purchased (8/24/23) a new Lectric XPedition. I'm 73 and have been riding bikes for many years and this is my first e-bike. Still ride a non-powered bike but wanted to try an electric. Purchased the 2-battery option and a second charger. Have only put 10 miles on the bike so far and love it - however, both tubes have failed since I got the bike on the road. Both times I found a small hole/failed seam on the inside of the tube on the rim side. Filled the tires to 30-35 lbs. I found no issues with the rim - the rim tape looks good so I'm assuming a bad batch of tubes. I ordered and received two new tubes on Amazon and have replaced both of them this AM (9/4/23). Using old tubes, I added a second layer of tube for the replacements as I have not yet found 20x3 heavy duty tubes and am not ready for the Tanus or similar product. Has anyone had an issue like this with a Lectric brand bike or the XPedition in particular? Also looking for heavy duty tires - Maybe Kenda or Sunlite..??

I'll post updates on the bike as I put more miles on it. I have added two drink cages, a second head and taillight, mirror and travel bag for spare tools and tubes. I bought the large Lectric cargo backet but it is heavy so may try a lightweight basket I have. I'm looking for heavy duty tires and tubes. Thanks for any input anyone can add. DW in Dallas.

Also - wanted to add that the bike was easy to unpack (watch the Lectric video on "first ride"). I checked all adjustments and found everything OK. Had to adjust the seat height and handlebar for my height (5'8" at 190 lbs), and add air to the tires. No damage from shipping. Make sure you move the chain to the roller guide and, after reading the instructions, off I went. I only tried PAS 1-3 on the class 2 setting. The bike climbs hills like they aren't there and I can only imagine what the bike does on a class 3 setting in PAS 5. Rode 10-13 miles and batteries still show a full charge - then the tires went flat. At least they held out 'till I was home... Update: Put 30+ miles on the new tubes with no issues so far. Lectric has not responded yet as of (9/6/23) but I know they are busy. Again - I love the bike but HATE flats. Will use the bike now for shopping as we are lucky enough to have a couple of shopping centers just off a bike trail that's accessible to our house. I believe I received the standard saddle and it has been comfortable so far. The bike shifts smoothly and moving to a higher or lower PAS level is easy. The batteries are, of course heavy and weigh 7-8 lbs. each but don't affect the bike's ability to move quickly and climb hills easily. The ride is smooth and the bike seems balanced well. So far, so good. Will add updates as I add miles. As I stated I'm looking for a couple of heavy-duty tires/tubes and may try adding flat-out soon.

campfire

I agree you probably got a bad pair of tubes. Make sure to tell Lectric about it, so they know they have quality issues. As for heavy duty tires, I bought Specialized Carless Whisper tires for my XPedition. Good road tread in the center with side lugs for anytime I go through the grass. And their "flack jacket" puncture protection layer. Interesting that the reviews on their site are from folks putting them on other brands of bike (like me) rather than as replacements for their line of cargo bike.

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/ca...=352700-218291

campfire

As for my long-overdue update...insurance bought us a new XPedition. The new one needed a few adjustments and the stem wasn't tightened properly. After 80 miles the motor controller failed. Lectric sent a replacement and got it back on the road pretty quickly. For folks with the dual-battery XPedition, the dual battery module sits loosely inside the large frame tube. On my new bike this rattled endlessly, so I moved the module to a solid external mounting point above the motor controller. I do not have this rattling on the old bike.

While they are both joyous to operate, the new bike seems to have a slightly sloppier build quality than the original one. Perhaps because the original bike has a pre-release (11/2022) production date, while the new one is a normal production unit?

We had to wait an extra month for our Orbitor cage. Lectric said they rejected an entire shipment of Orbitors for quality reasons. The unit we eventually got seems good. The Orbitor & running boards also wound up being replaced under warranty, so we only paid to replace the bike and the front rack (IIRC). We've also added a Yepp Maxi seat for the toddler. Yes, the Yepp seat is overpriced. But it gets the job done better than some others that we've tried, and it can be quickly added or removed to reconfigure the seating as needed.

campfire

As for the crash bike...Once it got out of insurance limbo, I did what any tinkerer would do and started rebuilding it.

This corner of the cage took most of the impact:



All of the bars & tubes have bent, and the cage is pushed forward at least an inch. The rear battery mount isn't accessible anymore.



The ditch gravel did a number on this side:



Stock photo showing an un-bent cage:


The whole cage is a bit lop-sided now.





Those center tubes used to be vertical!




So the cage yielded and absorbed a bunch of the impact energy. It successfully kept all 4 of the riders from directly hitting the car. And that's just...amazing. When I first assembled the cage, I thought the entire bike was overbuilt. It weighs 70 pounds without the cage, it has too much tubing, the cage uses an obsessive number of bolts, etc. Looking at it now, I won't complain. That held up to a 40MPH collision much better than I would have dreamed. I have checked every (fully TIG-welded) weld on the aluminum frame and cage, and I have found no visible cracks. The cage is trash, and a number of non-structural items are broken. But the main frame is still straighter than several of my old commuter bikes. It's a strong vote of confidence in the frame's design & production quality that it held up so well. Especially coming from a cheap entry-level bike. They seem to have spent their money where it counts.

For comparison, here's a picture of the Kia that hit them:



Physics dictates that the bike riders always lose in a car-bike collision. But I'm confident that the bike itself held up better than the car did.

campfire

I made the following repairs:

Broken battery mount - replaced under warranty.
Flat tire - turned out that the wreck dislodged a patch that I had used for the one time I picked up a staple. I took this as a sign that it was time to mount up my "carless whisper" tire with Tannus Armour insert.
Crooked handlebars - needed to be straightened. Also has a minor amount of looseness in the tilt-adjust portion of the riser.

That was enough to get the bike through a test ride. It definitely sustained some wear & tear, but it rode well enough that I've continued using it for commuter duty. The new bike is now the designated kid-hauler, but this bike has accumulated another ~300 miles since the wreck. Not as many as I originally expected, but we've been biking less since the wreck.

Other noteworthy damage:
Bent running board & scratched front rack - not surprising given how the bike landed.
Cracked display mount - decided not to repair this (yet?).
Bent cage - not sure whether to remove it and reverse its direction or to leave it as is. I worry its mounting plates might spring out of alignment if I loosen the bolts. Hasn't been a problem yet aside from blocking access to the rear battery mount.

campfire

Lectric's customer service has been great through this process. They've given me several free parts, provided useful technical answers to my troubleshooting questions, and been prompt and friendly during the whole process. That's far above average for a producer of consumer goods. Their bike is cheap, and that's apparent in the low-level components they've chosen for it. I really wish they had spent a few extra dollars on the flimsy brake levers. But their support has made up for that. I've heard rumored horror stories about getting support for Specialized's Globe (this year) and Rad's Radwagon (last year's tire fiasco), but so far I haven't encountered this with Lectric. And that's why I bought the second XPedition. I had planned to buy a different model for comparison's sake (I was looking at the Blix Packa or the Aventon Abound). But I decided I'd rather support the company that supports its customers. And I hope more companies start acting like this.

2old

It's amazing and gratifying that your family survived so well. I think the way the Kia crumbled obviously helped absorb some of the impact.

campfire

Yes, I'm quite happy this happened with a modern car vs. the rigid-bumper cars I grew up with...

campfire

Update - it's been almost exactly a year since the XPedition launched. We received ours in...March? April? Somewhere in there.

The family's recovering nicely from the crash in May. Everyone's back riding again (even the bike!). I did rotate the orbitor cage 180 degrees so it leans backwards instead of forwards. This freed up access to the second battery plate. The cage doesn't get used much anymore since the kids generally ride in the second XPedition.

It had about 350 miles at the time of the wreck, and it now has around 900. Less than I would have thought, but I've been pedal biking more and ebiking less. The second bike has around 400 miles. No new issues with either one. Still on the original brake pads, though they're starting to chirp.
My wife prefers to ride slowly, so she'll have less air drag and be able to contribute more pedal power. She can get 100 miles out of a battery, even hauling the kids on the back. I usually ride it as fast as the controller allows. As such, I can drain a single battery within 20 miles.

Not much else to report. We still like the bikes, they're good at carrying groceries along with whichever kid(s) are "too tired to pedal" on a given day. Sometimes we'll load up both bikes with all 4 kids and the whole family will blast off at high speed.

I'd still recommend this to anyone wanting a cheap cargo bike. It's overbuilt in a good way. Its small size makes it easier to maneuver (it doesn't feel or handle like a long bike). I'm selling my old (non-cargo) ebike because this one has completely replaced it.

2old

Lots of good news. Congratulations on selecting a bike that protected your family, and it's great that you've all recovered so well.

Dudelsack 

How do you transport your bike?

campfire

Good question. It's small for a cargo bike, but it's still large and heavy by bike standards.

It fits into the back of a van or wagon. For RAGBRAI we put it in a trailer with the rest of the bike fleet. Lectric says it will fit on a standard hanging rack, and they sell a bar attachment for such. But I haven't yet been willing to trust mine with it. I rarely want to transport mine, I just ride it wherever I need to go.

In stock trim it's not so bad. The folding stem helps. But we have ours outfitted with a huge front basket, aftermarket headlight, rear cage, running boards, and often a baby seat. Here's a RAGBRAI picture showing the arrangement:

cat0020

It's a cargo bike, just ride it when you need to go, not much need to transport it; unless you have a flat or mechanical that you can't fix roadside.

campfire

~1100 mile update: I have replaced the rear brake pads. That's it. Still running the stock front tire, and it still has a reasonable amount of tread left. No new issues, the bike just keeps hauling.

Cane Creek now makes a vibration-damping headset that fits this bike. I haven't tried it, but it might be of interest to folks who don't like the steering oscillations common to this type of bike.

CrimsonEclipse

Me: "That cage looks bulky and really difficult to get in and out of and has little practicality."

*Bike and cage murders a Kia*

O.O


huh......

2old

In the "old" days some installed steering dampers on motorcycles with that problem. I wonder if it's applicable here.