beyonddoubt

I'm in a bind. I have a Trek FX+ bike, but the thing constantly goes dead if I don't remember to charge it often and properly, especially during the winter because I store the bike in the garage.

Every time I take it to my Trek dealer, it takes them two weeks to bring a windows laptop in and hook it up to charge and diagnose. I'm sick of being down a bike for two weeks every time i let the battery discharge too much.

I got a bright idea that I was going to buy one of the Bicycle Interface Boxes from my Trek dealer, so here I am $250 later and it didn't come with any software or anything.

Any ideas on where I can get access to the Trek or Bionx software to make this $250 BIB something other than a paperweight?

happyJohnrn

I took a look at your bike on line, looks like a Trek Bike with a Bionx kit. Can you take it to a Bionx dealer? They may have the software. I have had to take mine to the (Bionx) dealer before and they have a laptop with all the software right there, no big deal. Your Trek dealer needs to get into the 21st century, for goodness sakes. I have two laptops it the house, they cant have one for their business?

Robert C

I know it does you no good to hear this; but, you are on the bleeding edge. The US bicycles brands are still trying to figure out how to incorporate the e-bikes into their line-up.

The Brands know that they are important and a coming thing. At the same time they recognize that their bread and butter customers are very resistant to the existence of e-bikes in the bike shop where e-bikes become associated with and equated to pushbikes.

This is a classic problem for brands, do you jump on a new trend or do you strongly identify with your existing market?

This question spreads its influence into the service shop where the brand is unwilling to demand that the service dept be equipped and trained to work on e-bikes out of fear of offending the "sport" rider mindset that is the current profit driver.

The way I have seen the problem addressed here in China has been twofold. First, most odf th elow end e-bikes and low-mid grade bikes are sold at different dealerships, each with a different specialty. The brand that has managed to deal with both has bene Giant. Giant is seen as a brand providing upper-mid to high end bicycles and their e-bikes are among the best available; yes, with prices to match.

Normally, the e-bikes are placed in a different part of the floor from the sports bikes, be they mountain or road. This helps to distinguish them as a different line within the brand. Typically, different sales people will assist you as you switch from looking at sports bikes to e-bikes. There are other tings done in the shop that allow them to appeal to both sport and e-bike transportation riders. Service is generally performed by the same people (this is China, service is done on the sidewalk in front of the shop).

The point is that they are learning how to attract both sport and e-bike riders to the shop. This is something that the US brands are still trying to figure out. Look at even this board (however, it is much better now than it was a few years ago); sport riders are still offended by th epresence of e-bikes and feel that they must be deginierated. However, a brand can not take this position. It will be a challenge and you are on the edge of it.

Mabman

I agree with the point you are making but this person has already decided to buy a bike from a dealer of one of the best known brands here in the US, Trek. There are e bike specific dealers here in the US already but they are few and far between while Trek dealers are everywhere. Trek made the decision to enter the e bike market using the Bion X system, and are not the only ones to do so worldwide. The problem is that while they use one of their standard issue bikes as a platform and know how to fix them well enough there can be issues with the electric aspect of the bike that hardly any of the Trek dealers are prepared to deal with properly. The technology to fix these problems and the warranty programs are in place but the shop mechanics have not been trained properly.

This pertains to what you said about the separation of the sport bikes and e bikes. So the mechanics, as well as the sales personnel here in the US can deal with the sport bikes but not the e bikes at this time. I don't doubt that over time they will become more comfortable with e bikes but it is going to take awhile. Taking two weeks to fix problems and selling customers a $250 piece of hardware without the software to support it is not going to help matters either.

What I would like to see offered here is a bike made to US regulations which allows for more wattage than China or EU spec but until the demand for this occurs outside of the garage tech, early adopters here the large companies will not bother doing so as there will be little ROI for them. In my state the legal limit is 1000w and 20 mph and my bike hits both those limits with no pedelec using a throttle. I am a life long cyclist and when I get on a EU spec bike I just want to get off of it because it doesn't do what I want it to, enable me to go further, faster and carry more of a load than I can on my pedal bikes.

knurly

You might consider buying a trainer for less than 50$, leave off the resistance module the comes along with it. Put your bike in regenerative mode and top off your battery once in awhile.

prathmann

So what was their response when you asked them for the software to go with it? If they sold you the hardware and it needs software to make it do anything then they should either provide that or give you your money back in exchange for the hardware.

beyonddoubt

Honestly, I haven't contact them again since buying the box. I know they're not supposed to supply the software, and I feel like an idiot for ordering it in the first place.

Am I correct to assume it's just as hard to obtain the software under the Bionx name as well?

Thanks for the input everyone.