And now what to do?

[keratea]

I am a teacher of mathematics in Greece. I decided to converce my bike to electric as a part of a lesson of energy and transportation.
My studens are very intersting for these staffs as in Greece are only scooters and cars for transportation and only a few pushbikes.
Well I bought a month ago my Magic Pie kit Rear wheel 28'' .
At the first time I noticed that there was no warranty card in the box.O.k. I thought, someone forgoted to put in in the box.
The box looked to a good condition and the foam was a lot.
The other day I started to put my new wheel to my bike. And the problems begin there...
I stay in Greece.The bike shop I bought my bike  told me that the wheels are 28''.
But my wheel is a 700c and the tire don't fit to MP rim.
Then I thought to buy a 28'' wheel and I bought a 28'' tire from Germany.
The tire came to me after a week and I was very happy because I thought that there was the solution of the problems.
I put the new tire to MP , the whashers as I read in this forum, and started to ride for about 2 km.
There was the second dissapointment.
I reached 35 km/h easily (90 kgr rider) but I was going up-down and zik-zak.The bike is new.
I looked the wheel and I found that one spoke was loosen and the rim had ballon problem about 1 cm up-down.
I took the whell to a bike shop to fix it.But the man from the shop told me that he can only true the wheel to fix zik-zak
but could not fix the balloon problem...
I believe that maybe this problem happened maybe to the customs or from a wrong push whith other boxes in the airplain.
Then I send to Tom an e-mail asking him about the cost for a new rim (700c ) and a set of spokes, but I didn't write him the problem.
He wrote back that the cost for rim-spokes is 20$ but the shiiping cost is 65$.Total cost 85$.
Now I don't nknow what to do.Shall I pay all the cost? And the warranty?I have already paid 1036$ for Magic pie plus 200$for customs.I believe and I think that GM must do something for that problem.
If anyone can give me an onother solution please do it.
Is it possible to change the MP rim with a pushbike rim? will this fit?And what spokes can use for this?
Help me GM...I loved this kit and I believe that it is a good motor.

[Leslie]

Hi Keratea.  Welcome to GM.

Now.

Fix it properly.

First.

Can you provide some pictures so we can give you the best and fastest possible solution to your problem.

We can help you.

There are many opinions here that you may find one that suits your needs.

My 2c for starters.

90 KG rider I would try moving down to a 26" and do it "NOW" while you're in this poo of a situation, or the best would be a 20" cast as this is as strong as an ox.  But this maybe difficult with the spokes.  

Gary at Golden Motors Canada sells a whole set of MP spokes for $60 and individuals for much cheaper, not sure about postage,.  I am not sure he can get your size though.  

The 28" can work but the bike shop man might not be able to pull this off.  This is advance stuff and you need some pretty good true and rimming to get 90kg + 35kg bike battery and and motor traveling down a road 45kph power assisted.  People ride over bumpy terrain way differently with power assistance. They are like here are the moghills vooooomearaaaraarara bang whack oof.  He he he he.

Nobody can pedal 1200 watts out of a pot hole.

Some picture if I dare ask you for anymore troubles, and your replies will be more helpful.

Thank you

[keratea]

Thank you LESLIE 
I am sure that finally I will be a huppy easy electric rider.Your help is real gold 
The wheel is now to the bike shop for truing.The man that told me that can not fix the ballon problem asked me for plenty time
to find a solution or spokes to fit to a new 700c rim or to true the wheel as better as he can.So I must wait a bit to see the results...
Then I shall send you the photos you asked.
By the way is it possible to by from GM only a set of spokes for 700c and to fit them to my previus 700c double rimed rim? (i mean not Magic Pie rim).Are there the same holes to fit these spokes?
I am asking in case there is no good results after the truing.It must be match cheeper than to buy and the Magic pie rim.

Thanks

[Leslie]

Thank you LESLIE  
I am sure that finally I will be a huppy easy electric rider.Your help is real gold  
The wheel is now to the bike shop for truing.The man that told me that can not fix the ballon problem asked me for plenty time
to find a solution or spokes to fit to a new 700c rim or to true the wheel as better as he can.So I must wait a bit to see the results...
Then I shall send you the photos you asked.
By the way is it possible to by from GM only a set of spokes for 700c and to fit them to my previus 700c double rimed rim? (i mean not Magic Pie rim).Are there the same holes to fit these spokes?
I am asking in case there is no good results after the truing.It must be match cheeper than to buy and the Magic pie rim.

Thanks

I asked the bike shop man the same thing and 2 weeks latter I went back he made me do it myself.  The spokes were in adequate and he asked me to drill these nipple hole reinforcement seats out and I knew it was going to be the end of the rim.  He finally used his frustration regarding my refusing to continue to destroy the rim in the manner he told me too to yell at me and make me feel insecure.

I grabbed my hub and got some real Ebike spokes online and rimmed it myself with no further problems.  30,000 kms latter and its still as strong as an ox.




This rim has been through hell and back and is true as the day I set it.  And I don't need to slow over the bumps, Ive hit pot holes at 53kph.  

OMG and look at the original GM cheesy tire so many dissed upon including myself, this little tire has out performed every other tire I have bothered to use.  These tires are actually very awesome, slick and wear proof.  If you have one of these laying around and need a good tire, Damned well use them guys, they are very good and I have tested them very well. Try the tire and you will see what I mean after some good months of use.


I used 12ga spokes and they are not tight at all, they even still have the bends I needed to put in them to get them it in the spoke seat well, so they are only about 2~3 turns on the tense side.  Yet it stays dead straight.  I hit a big bump I may get a little wobble that goes away in the next ride, it fixes itself it seems.   Very difficult to get on there.  Nipple holes needed to be enlarged.  

As long as your bike shop man knows it has to be much, much stronger than his usual wheels, he might do your job good.  

I hope its not another sad bike shop man story, bike shop man do let a number of us people down with jobs that last a few days.  My 18yo son had little respect for my skills and he wrecked his bicycle rim.  He used to throw the bike down after use and generally mistreat the bike I bought him.  I made him go to the bike shop and get it fixed and pay for the service I would give him for free.  It cost him $200AU dollars for a new wheel and trued that lasted him a just over a week.

You need to know the length of the spokes and nipple holes can change size you can make them fit as long as the double wall rim holes arent too big.  Bikemad suggests washers I think,

[keratea]

Well the story is that:
All the bike repair shops in greece took the decision NOT to touch electrical bikes, because they are afraid that this new kind of bike is dangerous for there future...
I was very angry because they fight strong all electric bikes.It is stupid.
So I gone to the bikeman and asked him to give me back the Magic Pie, so to fix it myself.
After a lot of youtube.com videos and forums I started today morning to true the wheel myself.
And after 3 hours and 3 cups of coffee I finally fixed it
I fixed the left-right problem and when I put the tire on, I noticed that the ballon problem (up-down of the rim) was almost fixed to,
and I was very lucky for this.I am runing now 37 km/h (36v) and the up-down is very little.I mesured the difference and I saw that before the fixing was 8mm and now was only 2mm.
Thank you Leslie for the courage you gave me these days.

I have a new question now.
When I push the horn there is no sound.Where is the horn?
Is it in the wheel or is an external horn?
If it is external there is a problem because in the delivery box there was no horn...
How can I fix it to work? Or how can GM send me the horn that forgot out of the box?

Thank you





 



 

[Leslie]

Well the story is that:
All the bike repair shops in greece took the decision NOT to touch electrical bikes, because they are afraid that this new kind of bike is dangerous for there future...
I was very angry because they fight strong all electric bikes.It is stupid.
So I gone to the bikeman and asked him to give me back the Magic Pie, so to fix it myself.
After a lot of youtube.com videos and forums I started today morning to true the wheel myself.
And after 3 hours and 3 cups of coffee I finally fixed it
I fixed the left-right problem and when I put the tire on, I noticed that the ballon problem (up-down of the rim) was almost fixed to,
and I was very lucky for this.I am runing now 37 km/h (36v) and the up-down is very little.I mesured the difference and I saw that before the fixing was 8mm and now was only 2mm.
Thank you Leslie for the courage you gave me these days.

I have a new question now.
When I push the horn there is no sound.Where is the horn?
Is it in the wheel or is an external horn?
If it is external there is a problem because in the delivery box there was no horn...
How can I fix it to work? Or how can GM send me the horn that forgot out of the box?

Thank you

Check you connectons for the horn..

Glad to hear your ok.  You have now more experience than the bke shop man at Ebikes. It's sad they are scared of the new technology but this is the way it is,

If you cant fix the horn maybe get a bell and leave the bike because its working good.  Thats if there is no error in the wires, it would be good to isolate any such problems and find out whether its going to hurt anything else or fix it.

[Bikemad]

Unless the contents of the kit have changed since I purchased mine, no horn is supplied with the Internal controller Magic Pie kits.

Perhaps someone would be kind enough to confirm whether or not the Magic Pie kits with the External controller option actually come with a horn.

Alan
 

[e-lmer]

No, it did not, but they did send me one when I asked about it
with the external MP controller.

Sadly, they did not include the connector for it.