SRAM Powertrain noise

[candlewax]

Hi Everyone -

I am a new owner of a Transition Repeater PT (new SRAM motor) and after just three rides, a new and horrible squeaking noise has developed in the drive-side crank/chainring area. At first I thought it might be the chain (it's been pretty wet, so maybe needed more chain lube), but alas it's where the crank arm meets the spindle and motor housing. I assume it's just some dirt and grime in some of the internals and I would normally just pull the drivetrain apart and clean and re-lube, but being brand new to E-bikes and especially the SRAM motor assembly, I am wondering how far I should go on my own. The SRAM Powertrain manual says I should be able to take the cranks and chainring off (allowing me to get in and clean the area), but I would like to know if someone else here has run into this issue and whether a home cleaning fixes it, or if it is indicative of a bigger internal motor issue that requires visiting a shop/dealer.

Thanks!

 

[Polar]

I have no answer just saying I'm super jealous of the new powertrain.
Lucky you.

 

[Heliflyr]

Hi Everyone -

I am a new owner of a Transition Repeater PT (new SRAM motor) and after just three rides, a new and horrible squeaking noise has developed in the drive-side crank/chainring area. At first I thought it might be the chain (it's been pretty wet, so maybe needed more chain lube), but alas it's where the crank arm meets the spindle and motor housing. I assume it's just some dirt and grime in some of the internals and I would normally just pull the drivetrain apart and clean and re-lube, but being brand new to E-bikes and especially the SRAM motor assembly, I am wondering how far I should go on my own. The SRAM Powertrain manual says I should be able to take the cranks and chainring off (allowing me to get in and clean the area), but I would like to know if someone else here has run into this issue and whether a home cleaning fixes it, or if it is indicative of a bigger internal motor issue that requires visiting a shop/dealer.

Thanks!

Did you get this noise sorted out?

 

[candlewax]

Did you get this noise sorted out?

Yes, the noise went away after a few more rides. Chalk it up to being a new bike and just needing to break things in a bit. It's actually remarkable at how quiet the bike is, it's been a blast!!

 

[Heliflyr]

Yes, the noise went away after a few more rides. Chalk it up to being a new bike and just needing to break things in a bit. It's actually remarkable at how quiet the bike is, it's been a blast!!

How many miles on yours? My first one had a speed sensor problem and after 400 miles they swapped out the whole bike for me, which was cool of them. Now have 400 miles on the replacement and it just developed a serious issue but waiting to see how Transition / SRAM handles it before I post anything specific (video) online.

 

[uxrjav]

How many miles on yours? My first one had a speed sensor problem and after 400 miles they swapped out the whole bike for me, which was cool of them. Now have 400 miles on the replacement and it just developed a serious issue but waiting to see how Transition / SRAM handles it before I post anything specific (video) online.

So what happened? Can you explain more on the issues? Two bikes and two problems in a short ammount of time does not sound good.

Looking at a repeater PT as an option and worried about this.

 

[Heliflyr]

So what happened? Can you explain more on the issues? Two bikes and two problems in a short ammount of time does not sound good.

Looking at a repeater PT as an option and worried about this.

First one had a speed sensor problem. New one has been intermittently having a lot of powered overruns and one time had battery signal error and would not stay powered on. In the process of getting new drive unit and wire harness installed. Hopefully this clears it up because the bike is simply amazing to ride when working properly.

 

[Heliflyr]

Motor and wire harness were swapped out and working perfectly. Let’s hope it was an isolated problem.

 

[Noelmonkey]

How many miles on yours? My first one had a speed sensor problem and after 400 miles they swapped out the whole bike for me, which was cool of them. Now have 400 miles on the replacement and it just developed a serious issue but waiting to see how Transition / SRAM handles it before I post anything specific (video) online.

Interesting. We are on our third display and second complete wiring loom. Now just waiting to install a new battery. I placed a Facebook post a while back asking if anyone had issues and had loads of DM’s with people having same issue. SRAM are still saying we the only ones they know of. Been a nightmare. Zero transparency of what’s actually going on. The dongle for the service shows no errors. Well over this bike

 

[Heliflyr]

Where did you post about the issue on FB? I never saw it. My SRAM guy did say that they were having a few problems with the Transition PT due mostly to their power connector and that also little to none of them have dielectric grease applied as spec’ed. I had over 1,100 miles before they swapped the drive and harness and I only had that power issue twice.

 

[Noelmonkey]

Where did you post about the issue on FB? I never saw it. My SRAM guy did say that they were having a few problems with the Transition PT due mostly to their power connector and that also little to none of them have dielectric grease applied as spec’ed. I had over 1,100 miles before they swapped the drive and harness and I only had that power issue twice.

Ours have had dielectric grease. On the outside of the connector. I highly doubt that’s the problem though as dielectric grease isn’t conductive and shouldn’t actually go on the connectors themselves. Also our bike had only ever been ridden in the dry and not even washed yet. We replaced all cables and then within 100kms we were in the same position again. We are now on a third set of cables and a new drive unit. We are at 130kms now with no issues. I have a brand new battery here to install but waiting for some hope v4 to arrive so I only pull motor and battery once. Fantastic bike to ride when it’s working. However after I’ve walked the bike home multiple times I’m well over being a Guinea pig.

 

[Noelmonkey]

Ours have had dielectric grease. On the outside of the connector. I highly doubt that’s the problem though as dielectric grease isn’t conductive and shouldn’t actually go on the connectors themselves. Also our bike had only ever been ridden in the dry and not even washed yet. We replaced all cables and then within 100kms we were in the same position again. We are now on a third set of cables and a new drive unit. We are at 130kms now with no issues. I have a brand new battery here to install but waiting for some hope v4 to arrive so I only pull motor and battery once. Fantastic bike to ride when it’s working. However after I’ve walked the bike home multiple times I’m well over being a Guinea pig.

 

[Paulh9848]

Ours have had dielectric grease. On the outside of the connector. I highly doubt that’s the problem though as dielectric grease isn’t conductive and shouldn’t actually go on the connectors themselves. Also our bike had only ever been ridden in the dry and not even washed yet. We replaced all cables and then within 100kms we were in the same position again. We are now on a third set of cables and a new drive unit. We are at 130kms now with no issues. I have a brand new battery here to install but waiting for some hope v4 to arrive so I only pull motor and battery once. Fantastic bike to ride when it’s working. However after I’ve walked the bike home multiple times I’m well over being a Guinea pig.

I’ve got the same problem with mine. Fitted a new motor @100 miles. Now it won’t turn on. Great bike when it works. But this will be the 3rd time it’s gone back and only done 300 miles total. Not good enough for a ten grander.

 

[Paulh9848]

I’ve got the same problem with mine. Fitted a new motor @100 miles. Now it won’t turn on. Great bike when it works. But this will be the 3rd time it’s gone back and only done 300 miles total. Not good enough for a ten grander.

 

[candlewax]

Where did you post about the issue on FB? I never saw it. My SRAM guy did say that they were having a few problems with the Transition PT due mostly to their power connector and that also little to none of them have dielectric grease applied as spec’ed. I had over 1,100 miles before they swapped the drive and harness and I only had that power issue twice.

Just curious to hear what the latest is and whether you have had any additional issues. As mentioned in my post a number of months ago, the noise issue went away, but then I started experiencing lost battery connection error messages. Turned out that was due to water ingress in the charge port. Took it into the shop and it's very much a known issue. I dried the port out and that problem went away. Now, I'm getting speed sensor errors due to dust collecting on the speed sensor magnets. No matter how much I clean that part of the bike after each ride, it is guaranteed to happen again on the next ride. I have to squirt water on it to make the error temporarily go away. It's all very very annoying. I wish the bike would just ride.

 

[Heliflyr]

Just curious to hear what the latest is and whether you have had any additional issues. As mentioned in my post a number of months ago, the noise issue went away, but then I started experiencing lost battery connection error messages. Turned out that was due to water ingress in the charge port. Took it into the shop and it's very much a known issue. I dried the port out and that problem went away. Now, I'm getting speed sensor errors due to dust collecting on the speed sensor magnets. No matter how much I clean that part of the bike after each ride, it is guaranteed to happen again on the next ride. I have to squirt water on it to make the error temporarily go away. It's all very very annoying. I wish the bike would just ride.

I continue to have intermittent issues with battery signal loss errors. Power up sometimes just flashes logo and turns off. SRAM has another wire harness they want to try. The last harness lasted 500 miles and started crapping out just like the first. I love the bike when it’s working properly but my patience has been tested and if they can’t get it sorted out soon I’m going to have to do some buyback with them as it’s too iffy whether or not I’ll get a good ride in. I don’t think they tested production units adequately before release. I’ll keep ya posted of any updates in this thread.

 

[candlewax]

I continue to have intermittent issues with battery signal loss errors. Power up sometimes just flashes logo and turns off. SRAM has another wire harness they want to try. The last harness lasted 500 miles and started crapping out just like the first. I love the bike when it’s working properly but my patience has been tested and if they can’t get it sorted out soon I’m going to have to do some buyback with them as it’s too iffy whether or not I’ll get a good ride in. I don’t think they tested production units adequately before release. I’ll keep ya posted of any updates in this thread.

Thanks for the quick update. I hope SRAM sorts you out. Keep this post open and let us know, very curious about customer service as I have only engaged with the LBS and my own off hand "fixes". Agree that the bike is amazing when it runs without an issue. Sigh.

 

[Noelmonkey]

Ours is still going correctly after a full electrical replacement. Motor battery hmi all cables. Everything. So far about 600km no issues. They better not come back or it’s going back.

 

[Heliflyr]

They sent the SRAMbulance this time. On the first harness replacement, the local shop monkey did not apply dielectric grease on the connector to the battery and according to the engineers in Germany, the dry connector is prone to fretting on the pins and sockets after 500 miles or so. This time the expert changed the harness and lubed it properly. It’s been agreed with SRAM, should this issue arise again in the future, they will facilitate a return / refund with Transition. They (SRAM) have been very responsive and helpful but understand that a bike this expensive should not be giving this much trouble. When the drive system is working properly, it’s amazing and I would hate to give it up but there comes a time where ya have to cut bait and run. Hoping it does not come to that but only time will tell now….

View attachment IMG_8380.jpeg

 

[marwallace]

hi!
i've owned a propain ekano cf in march this year (sram powertrain). german direct seller, so no dealer support for me. have 1800km so far. had several battery errors that i could fix with taking the battery out and in again. sometimes short time loss of motor power, wich was improved with the update 9.2.2. i love the bike WHEN IT WORKS.

a week ago the motor seems to be broken. in rally mode (with max torque) the motor supports and then turns up and the torque goes down. this happens 2 or 3 times and than the display shows error. "restart ebike" or "service required". i contacted propain and sram with not much success. it seems to be not so easy to jump into the "next level support" at sram. does anyone here have a direct contact at sram?

 

[Noelmonkey]

Sad to say that these motors are lemons I think. Don’t know of any brands going forward with new models with them in. I sure as hell won’t touch another one. Harnesses are the worst I’ve seen in an e bike. I’ve seen a lot. Haven’t heard of a bike going well for a long period of time yet.

Honestly think you just need to kick up a stink push for support. The issues are well known at this point.

 

[whitymon]

This is why I did no triggered yet a buy of an ekano.

If you are in a country where there is no propain service partner, far from a sram partner: you are really in a sh... position. This is my case and I am just next Germany!

Propain does not do much for you in that situation - was the case for me on one of their bike, they literally ask me to try different bike shop until I find someone willing to help me or with the skills or the parts. But they are really nice and easy to get on call

Any issue with the motor, if you do not have a sram partner near you, which is my case, like not within 3-4 hours ride, you will need to strip it and ship it for just having a diagnostic. So no bike, no clue about the situation for weeks at least.

I think fancy stuff are fancy stuff until they do not work. DTC is my way to go but I do not think this is pretty wise for an emtb - especially on a motor that has an expiration date like brose and their belt.

Eg: the Ekano CF I want and configured is nearly 10k ... I cannot stand having a brick in my garage that would not be able to be used. Yeah I have other bikes but humor me, for this price this is not something we should accept.

I can do tons of stuff on my own, potentially too on a motor some things might be easier than we think but in your case this would void the warranty so you have no other choice than going through support again and again.

 

[marwallace]

This is why I did no triggered yet a buy of an ekano.

If you are in a country where there is no propain service partner, far from a sram partner: you are really in a sh... position. This is my case and I am just next Germany!

Propain does not do much for you in that situation - was the case for me on one of their bike, they literally ask me to try different bike shop until I find someone willing to help me or with the skills or the parts. But they are really nice and easy to get on call

Any issue with the motor, if you do not have a sram partner near you, which is my case, like not within 3-4 hours ride, you will need to strip it and ship it for just having a diagnostic. So no bike, no clue about the situation for weeks at least.

I think fancy stuff are fancy stuff until they do not work. DTC is my way to go but I do not think this is pretty wise for an emtb - especially on a motor that has an expiration date like brose and their belt.

Eg: the Ekano CF I want and configured is nearly 10k ... I cannot stand having a brick in my garage that would not be able to be used. Yeah I have other bikes but humor me, for this price this is not something we should accept.

I can do tons of stuff on my own, potentially too on a motor some things might be easier than we think but in your case this would void the warranty so you have no other choice than going through support again and again.

thanks for your comment. most of the things you wrote i can confirm. like in similar constellations you need to jump over to the next support level. then it kind of work. so i did, but unfortunately it took me one week to jump from the really well trained (NOT) "no, i have no idea about motorproblems on ebikes we sell"-guy to a guy who did knew what has to be done. shipping the bike. this worked quickly, it seems they have spare motors, because the bike is already on his way back to me. knock on wood it will be ok and the motor will work.

in a nutshell: at the moment i would not recommend buying from anyone a bike with that new sram-motor. i called at least 10 sram-dealers who had even no idea about an sram-motor at all. and propain itself has no idea wich sram-dealer can do a diagnose or service on that motor. because why? because even sram itself does not know wich dealer can do a diagnose because the tool is freely sold on the market and seemingly sram has no interest to find out wich sram-dealer could support (why does sram having no interest???). so i just buy the tool myself? for shure you need a sram b2b-account the get the software working. apartfrom the fact that as a customer that should not be my job.

honestly i do not blame propain for that service desaster. they did what they can do (beside the fact of not well trained service level 1 staff). sram should have done a better job if they are even a little interested in this new motor.

 

[whitymon]

In my last discussion with sram they said the same: we will not sell or help you with the topic as you are not a partner or a service company. So ... yeah go ahead, buy tools, look at youtube video but guess what, like any video youtube in real life they something happens, not all the tools, missing experience blabla, you are going to end with a brick.

Still changing the belt seems easy, few tools are required.

Still, I think this is the issue with tons of brand, they have no clue about motors and electronics and it is easy for them to drop the ball. In the end they are just using on the shelf motor, batteries.

There is not as much support as what you can get from a car but the price are increasing so much ... man for 10k, I can have a not so bad car.

But it is what it is, this is not their core business and they have no intention to go over there, even if I dislike the Amflow bike from DJI, not enough travel, not being freeride, their support will be awesome in comparison as they master the whole chain and they build a bike around their motor!

 

[Noelmonkey]

Yup. I won’t touch another sram motor again. Will stick with the main brands. I had a noisy Bosch motor. Had a new motor in 3 days. My sram motor went from phone call after phone call to getting a dongle sent down going through a whole lot of steps that weren’t necessary because the distro had the same info on the motor as I did. Took ages to get a new motor. So far we are 1000km on a complete new install with everything replaced and it’s working mint. Sadly it took over 6 months and has put me well off.

 

[whitymon]

fyi here is an official propain response, I just got, in case of motor issue:

Since almost every bigger bike workshop is a SRAM and Shimano Servicepartner, you can bring your motor to almost every bike shop and they will make a warranty claim for you if you give them your invoice from Propain.You will just have to pay a little service flat rate for their work time.

Basically you are on your own, thanks for the purchase mate, it is like you should have 2 invoices in the first place. One for the bike and its classic components and one from sram.

I get what they said but I guess I need to look for another freeride ebike.

 

[marwallace]

fyi here is an official propain response, I just got, in case of motor issue:



Basically you are on your own, thanks for the purchase mate, it is like you should have 2 invoices in the first place. One for the bike and its classic components and one from sram.

I get what they said but I guess I need to look for another freeride ebike.

thanks for your comment. most of the things you wrote i can confirm. like in similar constellations you need to jump over to the next support level. then it kind of work. so i did, but unfortunately it took me one week to jump from the really well trained (NOT) "no, i have no idea about motorproblems on ebikes we sell"-guy to a guy who did knew what has to be done. shipping the bike. this worked quickly, it seems they have spare motors, because the bike is already on his way back to me. knock on wood it will be ok and the motor will work.

in a nutshell: at the moment i would not recommend buying from anyone a bike with that new sram-motor. i called at least 10 sram-dealers who had even no idea about an sram-motor at all. and propain itself has no idea wich sram-dealer can do a diagnose or service on that motor. because why? because even sram itself does not know wich dealer can do a diagnose because the tool is freely sold on the market and seemingly sram has no interest to find out wich sram-dealer could support (why does sram having no interest???). so i just buy the tool myself? for shure you need a sram b2b-account the get the software working. apartfrom the fact that as a customer that should not be my job.

honestly i do not blame propain for that service desaster. they did what they can do (beside the fact of not well trained service level 1 staff). sram should have done a better job if they are even a little interested in this new motor.

update:
received the bike wednesday and had a ride yesterday - world is perfect again. new motor. propain took just two days for replacing the motor (THANK YOU PROPAIN, honestly), so the already have spare motors. dhl took from wednesday to wednesday to deliver it back (argh). service hotline propain took nearly a week to get me to the right person that told me to send it in. dhl from me to propain took 4 days.
the fastest way to get the motor fixed is to send the bike to propain and you get it back with a new motor in aproxx one and a half week if everyone is doing his job. next time... and there will be next time...

sram are you listening? introducing a "new" motor with this level of engagment is just not enough. if you're serious with ebike please do your homework and train your dealers. i understand that it is not easy, but if you dont do that your "service-net" is just marketing-bla bla :-(. at least you should have an overview wich sram-dealer can do a diagnose to help your customers! this diagnose-dongle is just 200€

 

[whitymon]

That is pretty cool from Propain.

The thing is that it is not a suitable solution after they reach no stock for this motor.

The new brose motor has no belt, more powerful, different batteries, controller, not the same fixations …

I have no clue how sram will manage this but this is no good news for the brose mag s which will be completely retired pretty soon.

Motor was annonce and year ago and delay cause of the the current one major issue.

Expected to be used in 2025 but who knows by whom as it will require new frame.

 

[valecek]

Hello, after 5 years of practically problem-free use of the mondraker crafty RR 2021, I sold it and am looking for a new enduro ebike. I really like the new propain, especially with the discount they offered, but after reading your problems, I'm pretty much on Dragonflies. Is it really that bad, or "cat in the bag" and better to avoid the bike and look for something else?

 

[Noelmonkey]

I wouldn’t buy a bike with a SRAM motor again. Too many issues and fixing them takes an absolute age with lots of back and forth of not knowing why it stopped. Never again.