How to Maintain Your Electric Bike

Battery Health: How to Get More Out of Your Battery

30-80 Rule

As much as possible

 keep your battery between the 30-80% charge level. This simple rule can double the effective lifetime of your battery

Mild Temperatures 

Avoid temperature extremes! Very hot or cold temperatures can negatively affect the performance of the battery and shorten its expected life.  Recommended storage temperatures are 32F – 77F. Avoid exposing the battery to extreme heat, 104F + for long periods of time.

Storing Your Bike/Battery

If storing, it is a good idea to store your battery with a 80% charge.  After 3 months, it’s a good idea to check the charge level of your battery. Do not store your battery plugged in! 

Bike Components

Chain:

Don’t wait until your chain/ drivetrain gets noisy to check it out! You can extend the life of your drivetrain by reducing the amount of metal on metal contact! A lubed chain will not only make your pedaling smoother, but will make the chain glide up and down the gears smoother.

Shifting:

It is also important to routinely have your shifting mechanism tuned up by professionals, or become an expert yourself by watching a few helpful YouTube videos. Being able to smoothly shift into every gear is important for the life of the cassette, chain, and derailleur! If things aren’t lined up correctly, it can cause premature wear on components.

Helpful Video: https://youtu.be/On57Tl9qYRM

Brakes:

The importance of having your brakes dialed in is not only to be able to slow/ stop the bike when needed, but also to ensure none of the braking components are rubbing,  which will wear down your rotors/ pads faster and ultimately make you slower! 

Helpful Video: https://youtu.be/Ym8mreUhelQ

Tires:

Check your front and rear tire pressure often. You should pump up your tires at least once or twice a week, or before every ride if you don’t go out that often. Some bike tires have been known to lose pressure after 4-5 days of sitting still.

Spokes – Ride1UP electric bike spoke adjustment

Avoid broken spokes! Spoke tension is more important for electric bikes with hub motors as the immense torque from the hubs can leave you with broken spokes if your spoke tension is off.

Check your spokes on a regular basis, especially when new, as some seating and mating of the connect points takes place and can make the spokes loose. This especially exacerbated with greater rider weight; 180lbs and above is going to accelerate the wearing in process and spokes are bound to loosen.

If you don’t want to take the bike to a shop or buy a tool to measure the tension, you can use the sound method to check tension. The tap-tap-tap ting-sound of spoke tuning is an easy thing to learn – you can hear the thud sound from a loose spoke. Give it a quarter turn and tap it again – all spokes should sound fairly close to the same. You also don’t want to over-tighten or you’ll pull the rim out of true. If you are able to measure with a tool, please click the link above for specs.