Vitus E-Sommet VR

[chrispymocha]

so first proper ride done - the thing descends like a beast which is great.

Less great are 2 things:
* The motor seems pretty noisy
* When going up slightly inclined fireroads unless you have it in boost mode it feels like the motor is giving very little assistance - it even feels like there is resistance - I am only going about 10mph so no where near the speed limit - it just feels like I'm peddling against treacle when I put more power through the pedals?
On singletrack climbs, which are a little slower I guess it pulls nicely, even in eco.

My bosch e-bike feels like it assists all the way to the speed limit regardless of power setting - it never has that feeling of resistance.

I'm hoping it is user error so any advice would be great!

 

[Benjimax]

i did my first ride on mine today too. Agree that it descends like a beast! I have no other e-bike experience to compare...but:
I could hear the motor but didn't think it was too bad...
Didn't find the resistance thing though...mine felt like it was giving good assistance in eco and trail, didn't use boost come to think of it. Sorry prob not much help!

 

[RocketMagnet]

so first proper ride done - the thing descends like a beast which is great.

Less great are 2 things:
* The motor seems pretty noisy
* When going up slightly inclined fireroads unless you have it in boost mode it feels like the motor is giving very little assistance - it even feels like there is resistance - I am only going about 10mph so no where near the speed limit - it just feels like I'm peddling against treacle when I put more power through the pedals?
On singletrack climbs, which are a little slower I guess it pulls nicely, even in eco.

My bosch e-bike feels like it assists all the way to the speed limit regardless of power setting - it never has that feeling of resistance.

I'm hoping it is user error so any advice would be great!

Agree I thought the motor was noisy but had nothing to compare it against... but it is what it is and cant do anything about it so didn't worry about it...
I personally noticed the resistance also in Trail but I put it down to not using the correct gear/cadence. I normally push effectively bigger gears on my clockwork so more power but lower cadence and I found the Ebike seems to benefit from a lower "effective" gear & higher cadence.... perhaps those with more experience would care to chime in but as far as I can tell it really likes you running a lower gear high cadence to maximise assistance.. so its spin to win.

Boost mode surges a bit and the other modes feel tame afterwards but you can increase trail mode assist level from the app (you'll need to disconnect the switch at the appropriate time).
Done some testing and it's "easy" climbing in Eco also compared to clockwork just feels poor after Boost.

Really enjoying the bike and having a total blast. Very different from riding my much lighter Enduro bike so I wouldn't have it as my only bike but given the choice of keeping only 2 bikes this would definitely be on the list.

Things I may upgrade/buy are the dropper and get a second battery so I can extend my "Boost" sessions .

 

[Pacobiker99]

I think that the battery of this bike is the Shimano e6010 with only 416 Wh. Do you Know if it is possible to install the 504 Wh shimano battery on this bike? That would be be a great improvement in terms of capacity ...

 

[RocketMagnet]

Thank you RocketMagnet, it does make some sense. I have my Fenix set to 1 second polling and thought that this would provide an accurate report of my rides. I think I will log a few rides with my Fenix and use my iPhone to log the rides directly in Strava and compare them to each other. Anyway, I am happy with the range that I am getting and bloody love the bike.

Ok checked the bike/Fenix & Satmap at a Trail Centre of 2X Laps.

Trail Centre Map : 11.5 Miles = 23 Miles.
Bike : 22.9 Miles
Satmap: 20.62
Fenix: 19.96

So yeah the Fenix is way out but also the Satmap but it was in the bottom of my pack and i didnt save the ride so cant interrogate it to see if it lost signal. Looking at both GPS they are both probably losing signal intermittently on the course I rode.

So the Bike = "Official" Trail Centre distance so as expected the bike is more accurate (basically spot on) and significantly so. If your road riding or just fireroading then i'd expect the Fenix to be much closer.

Anyway used 80% battery with ~1000 m (3281ft) of climbing, mainly Eco and Trail for short spells. As I get more used to it then Eco is easily enough support if you normal MTB and to require Boost it would need to be some serious climb.

 

[Gary]

I personally noticed the resistance also in Trail

Remove your chain and turn your cranks by hand in "off" mode.
That's all the resistance there is in the Shimano E7000/8000 motors.
I very much doubt you felt it while pedalling in trail.

most noobs mistake the extra weight/tyre drag in their brand new Emtb for motor drag. especially when riding past the assistance cut off point or switching down from boost or trail.

I found the Ebike seems to benefit from a lower "effective" gear & higher cadence

Yeah. From experience the exact opposite is true.
But I don't know what RPM you consider to be high cadence. (it's unlikely to be what I do).
Bear in mind the assistance output is controlled by the cadence AND torque the motor senses.

perhaps those with more experience would care to chime in but as far as I can tell it really likes you running a lower gear high cadence to maximise assistance.. so its spin to win.

Simply looking at the powerbar along the bottom of the E8000 display shows how much assistance the motor is giving at any particular time. it's the most useful display feature on the display. And eventually you can learn the motor's traits through paying attention to it. It's not really a simple as just spinning a high cadence to max it out.

Anyway used 80% battery with ~1000 m (3281ft) of climbing, mainly Eco and Trail for short spells

If by this you mean there was one green bar remaining on the battery out of 5 you'll have actually used way more than 80%
the battery light indicators (and display indicators) aren't a linear scale.
all 5 lights stay on for ages, 4 a fair while but as you get closer to the last bar you tend to get far less from each of the last two lights before it flashes red and it shuts down.

also, trail centre rides with mainly dry fire road climbing you'll get way more range in comparison to soft natural conditions climbing. (Pretty obvious really when you think about it)

 

[Gary]

Its a Shimano SLX M7000, 11-46T, they are replacing it under warranty luckily

Oh.. Ok. mine (the one that came on my 2018 Esommet) is also an 11-46t SLX M7000 but it's only the 46T sprocket that's alu and all the others are steel.
Didn't realise Shimano had updated those.
"updated" over "upgraded" intentionally

 

[tonyker]

Oh.. Ok. mine (the one that came on my 2018 Esommet) is also an 11-46t SLX M7000 but it's only the 46T sprocket that's alu and all the others are steel.
Didn't realise Shimano had updated those.
"updated" over "upgraded" intentianally

arrived to day so can't fault them on delivery

 

[Master Link]

Ok checked the bike/Fenix & Satmap at a Trail Centre of 2X Laps.

Trail Centre Map : 11.5 Miles = 23 Miles.
Bike : 22.9 Miles
Satmap: 20.62
Fenix: 19.96

My faith in GPS has been destroyed?. Your results indicate about a 15% variance, which is enormous from a technological perspective. It’s a pity we can’t upload the E8000 data to Strava.

Anyway, my days of testing have been temporarily curtailed by a small fall that resulted in 2 fractures in my tight ankle. Off the bike for 4 to 6 weeks?

 

[RocketMagnet]

Strava/Garmin segments will be pretty accurate as it's timing between 2 points irrespective of the distance. It will just calculate between the two closest points around each start/finish points of a segment and the timing is accurate which is what counts... hence the Strava shortcut lines that show up at trail centres to take advantage of this limitation and post "faster" segments.

Had this discussion today with a Road rider m8 who independently said the same RE: GPS and mountain biking and any road riding that has fast switchbacks. Ultimately mine is so far out as I was regularly in thick tree cover on high sided valleys so it was straight lining points it did pick up. It's also >90% single track with lots of switchbacks both climbing and descending.

Mines a Fenix 3HR Sapphire so perhaps the 5 has faster polling times. IIRC the road cycling and mtb are the same polling times on the 3 when really the MTB requires a much faster polling time than Road. Don't worry your Car GPS polls really quickly as it's not trying to conserve a tiny battery . I did set up an EMTB mode on the Fenix to distinguish it from normal MTB.

So yeah the bike is really accurate and as long as you don't mess with the wheel diameter with different tyres it looks like its spot on.

Nasty... was that an uncontrolled dismount from the Vitus Master Link?

 

[Gary]

Strava/Garmin segments will be pretty accurate as it's timing between 2 points irrespective of the distance. It will just calculate between the two closest points around each start/finish segment and the timing is accurate which is what counts...

They're really not all that accurate at all. not enough to be seen as accurate race timing anyway.
The fastest refresh/update rate of a bicycle specific Garmin GPS device is only 1 second (which i itself can add up to a discrepancy of up to 2 seconds)
depending on settings/device that refresh rate can be as slow as 3 sec (6sec discrepancy)
Next the GPS point is only accurate to within 5-15m. That in real life can mean the difference between 3 corners.
also in poor conditions (low cloud, wet weather etc.) GPS track can be wildly out, particularly in steeper elevation tree covered trails.
Strava compares the entire GPS track and if too many deviations are recorded it will not "match" the segment. This can work both ways though .
ie. you can ride a fire road parallel to some trails 5-10 meters away and still be recorded as completing the true segment
alternatively you can ride the exact trail with no deviations/shortcuts and a GOS glitch caused by conditions or tree cover can mean you won't record a time at all for the segment.

This is why so many top ten Strava times in busy areas can often be wildy unrealistic

 

[Cisco]

Nearly at 2k miles now. looks like new. (wheels are new ) What a bike!

 

[Master Link]

[QUOTE="RocketMagnet, post: 53736, member: 2191]
Nasty... was that an uncontrolled dismount from the Vitus Master Link?[/QUOTE]
I was practising my wheelies on the heavier VR, and intentionally looping out. The third time I did it my foot landed in a depression and I fell. Stupid accident, but then again aren’t they all?.

 

[Master Link]

Nearly at 2k miles now. looks like new. (wheels are new ) What a bike!
Nice.
Question, have you had to replace any bearings (swing arm, head set, etc.) yet?


View attachment 10733

 

[Shog46]

Absolutely gutted, I took the plunge and ordered a size large vitus e-sommet vr last week (very exciting first ever emtb) however today I received a email explaining that my new bike was in the workshop being built by there mechanic and getting a pre delivery check (?exciting exciting my bike is coming) however one of our team discovered a chip on the lower underside of the downtube which they have touched up and wondered if I was happy to accept it. Should I accept the bike they would like to send me a £30 crc voucher ?‍

Am I been picky ?

 

[Gary]

It is a 170mm enduro bike. it's going to get paint chips at some point.
£30 seems a little low as compensation

 

[Shog46]

Yeah I know I can accept that but I just thought £30 in vouchers (so I’ve got to spend it at there shop) and the fact it looks like they’ve touched it up with tippex and coloured it with a maker pen

 

[Doomanic]

It is a 170mm enduro bike. it's going to get paint chips at some point.

Yeah, but not usually before it's even been delivered.

£30 seems a little low as compensation

Far too low. I'd be looking for £100 at least. Otherwise I'd have a new, undamaged bike, thanks very much.

 

[chrispymocha]

£30 seems a little low. When I got my whyte from the LBS one of the stickers on the frame was very slightly crinkled (no paint damage) and the chap knocked £50 off the bike straight away, and that was after a generous discount to start with

 

[R120]

I wouldn't be put off by the damage, but I would scour the CRC website to see if there is something you fancy on there that you could ask them to chuck in.

 

[Gary]

Yeah, but not usually before it's even been delivered.

BITD pretty much every DH bike you ever owned would get placed in a cattle truck, drivven up a ropey fire road and dry humped by all the other bikes' pedals, disc calipers, bars and levers for half an hour BEFORE being let out for it's first proper ride. From years of this I'm probably a little more de-sensitised than most.
I'm sort of of the opinion if it's not a stanchion a scratch is generally not too bad but yeah, I still wouldn't let some boy down the pub key my downtube for 30 notes.

 

[chrispymocha]

ps. I was unhappy with the sommets power in trail mode - I changed it to explorer mode and its way better now - its exactly what I was hoping an e-bike would be. Looking forward to testing it out on BPW now

 

[Gary]

and the fact it looks like they’ve touched it up with tippex and coloured it with a maker pen

TBF it probably doesn't look quite so bad in real life. The parts box includes touch up paint so I'd have assumed that's what they'd use

 

[RocketMagnet]

Just checked my Fenix and found it was set to SMART and not 1 Second so will test it again set to 1 Second.

 

[RocketMagnet]

Absolutely gutted, I took the plunge and ordered a size large vitus e-sommet vr last week (very exciting first ever emtb) however today I received a email explaining that my new bike was in the workshop being built by there mechanic and getting a pre delivery check (?exciting exciting my bike is coming) however one of our team discovered a chip on the lower underside of the downtube which they have touched up and wondered if I was happy to accept it. Should I accept the bike they would like to send me a £30 crc voucher ?‍

Am I been picky ?

View attachment 10746

I had something similar but mine was delivery damage.. I was offered 150 IIRC but sent it back , yes they are cheap ebikes but still no small change and personally I'll add my own "character", a ding or a scrape from your mistake is your own story to tell IMO... received damaged well that's not character, that's just a new bike received damaged...

A 30 voucher is a bit insulting considering they will loose several hundred+ selling on their Ebay store.

Personally I don't think it's unreasonable to buy a bike new and receive it in new condition.... but that's just my take as I wouldn't accept it.

 

[Shog46]

I emailed them back at 5:30ish saying I’ll wait for a new one but now I’m sat here looking at the picture thinking mmmm it’s not really that bad maybe I should have accepted it ??‍

 

[Polaris]

I emailed them back at 5:30ish saying I’ll wait for a new one but now I’m sat here looking at the picture thinking mmmm it’s not really that bad maybe I should have accepted it ??‍

£30 is bs, they gave me £100 just for a scratch on the forks! No way should you receive anything of this value battered in anyway by anyone else. May be my OCD kicking in but any damage should be yours to make lol.

 

[Polaris]

ps. I was unhappy with the sommets power in trail mode - I changed it to explorer mode and its way better now - its exactly what I was hoping an e-bike would be. Looking forward to testing it out on BPW now

What is explorer mode and how did you change it to this?

 

[chrispymocha]

What is explorer mode and how did you change it to this?

You can change the motor settings via the e-tube phone app. The default setting gives boost the highest power level and the trail setting the lowest, after eco. The explorer mode gives trail a bit more power and boost a bit less power which feels spot on.
There is info on this thread about connecting Bluetooth as the controller unit will prevent it from working initially.

 

[chrisr]

Can someone explain how to disconnect the controller to carry out the app change please, where do you disconnect and how, don't want to break anything.
Ps invisiframe should now have the kit in small soon.