Has anyone else had an issue with their trek Ride + bike being hard to pedal? It seems like mine is in generate mode most of the time. Ive taken it to my local trek dealer twice now & they have it where I can ride it, but if I turn on the motor and leave it at 0 setting, it is very hard to pedal. It feels like it is in generate 4 mode. I'm going to take it back to the dealer, but since it seems like they may not completely have the solution(they are recent converts to the Trek + system), I was hoping to maybe get some feedback from you guys to offer some suggestions before I bring it in.

Thanks in advance.

The motor failed on my Trek +, and the bike was locked in regen mode 4 full-time. In my case, the display wouldn't activate and it blew the battery in the fuse. My dealer ordered a new motor, and had the fuse replaced in the battery. Total repair took 4 weeks, and the bike works fine now.

I haven't had that experience. Does it show as charging when you pedal? I know the Bionx hub has to be lined up correctly so the assist level is right, but this sounds like something different. So if you're biking along with the system off everything is fine, but when you switch it on then you get strong resistance?

The bike does not show generate, but assist, although it feels like it is in generate mode. I could feel it when I hit 15 mph in 4th level assist and had to take it to my local shop twice to get that fixed. It still does it in level one & some of the other levels, but I find that if I leave it in level 4, I am fine for my whole ride to work, so for now I am just leaving it, as I am honestly tired of taking this bike into the shop. My last hub stopped working & the shop replaced it with a new rear wheel. That solved the not working problem, but now it is hard to ride without the assist on pretty heavy.

You should always ride it on level 1 to compensate for the weight of the motor and battery. What gear are you riding in. Is it hard to pedal when you start from a stop or when you are riding? What level assist are you riding in?

Thanks, maybe that is part of it. I was trying to ride it in level zero. It just seems that since I had my rear hub replaced that there seems to be resistance any time I am not using a lot of resistance. Maybe I am just misremembering, but my old hub seemed to ride like a normal bike without the assist, but now I feel like it has a different feel from my other bikes. I'm going to take out my other bike this weekend to see what that feels like.

Sounds like cogging drag. With the motor off, the Direct Hub motor will drag much more than a non-motored wheel.

This is not true for most Geared Hub motors, or Direct Drive motors like the Currie that have a freewheel. The freewheel allows the motor to remain at rest when the wheel is turning and the motor is not being used. No EBike motors that I know of that provide re-generative breaking have a freewheel.

You can sometimes feel the increased drag when moving the bike across the garage. When you lift the wheel off the ground, and give it a "Wheel of Fortune" spin, you will notice it doesn't go as far as you would expect.

lfairban,

just to make sure I understand, this sounds like normal behavior for this hub to you? (I'm assuming that the treks have a direct hub motor) If so, at least it will stop driving me crazy trying to figure it out,

Thanks,

A couple of month ago my motor stopped working in middle of my 14 mile commute I had to peddle the remaining 6 miles without any assist. I normally ride in 16th gear. Without any assist I went down to 12th gear. When I use assist level 1 I will normally go down 2 gears to 14.