Vitus/Shimano E8000 range issues

[R120]

Thanks R120. We tend/can to use Eco most of the time and think that it makes us work harder - better exercise. Yes, I've been reading up on the new batteries earlier. They look pretty exciting. I did read one review suggesting that they wouldn't fit my bike, but with a new mount I can't see why would be the case.

Well I have one on order for my Vitus so will post up the results when it arrives, annoyingly I could get one now from Europe but dont want to muck around my LBS who I am a big fan of.

 

[PaulE]

My ride is showing 4200 feet of elavation gain and I managed about 32 miles with probably 50 50 trail eco and a couple of boost moments too.. Just a comparison for you!

Thanks Josh, all interesting stuff. I'll check out the tyre recs and read a few reviews. It's always a bit of a gamble trying to choose a tyre to fit every occasion and will always end up as a compromise.

 

[PaulE]

Well I have one on order for my Vitus so will post up the results when it arrives, annoyingly I could get one now from Europe but dont want to muck around my LBS who I am a big fan of.

I'll enjoy reading about how it fits and also how it performs, good luck.

 

[TG1971]

I am having the similar issues Me and my wife have 2020 vitus e-escapes vrx wife got hers a month before me she has done 2600km mine has done 1700km we ride the same terrain always together I’m 86kg and she is 73kg, I mainly ride in eco with occasional trail all in dynamic setting due to lighter weight of the wife she rides in all modes and gets great mileage out of her battery full charge capacity remains at 99% after 29 cycle but mine has gone to 87% after 26 cycles LBS used pc02 to get these figures, we did a flat test ride on railway lines and roads in eco only I got 26 miles and ran out, my wife had 40 % left, the next day we did exact same ride but with battery’s swapped the wife’s bike with my battery got 30 miles and dead battery and I still had about 20% battery I have contacted CRC
With the battery reports from LBS hopefully they will respond.

 

[dean-williams]

Hello Paul , i also noticed my mileage on my bike on a fully charged battery was 43 miles in eco mode. when it was 60 miles per ride. unsure at what mileage it changed

started looking through google and come across your forum post and decided to register on this forum, to post my experience

mine is also a vitus e-sommet, bought in Feb/march 2020 with a e8000 motor, my bike has done 1064 miles now, first 800mile were mainly cross country rides, to work and back , mainly in eco , trail when needed.
then used more for trail riding in woods , so up and down hills which is what its built for, and to work and back.

it was just the other day i checked my full charge mileage, and it was 43 miles, when i remember it was 60 miles, then riding to work on Thrusday, i dropped to 2 bars of battery left ( ~40% ) checked my range and it said 9 miles!!!! , my work ride its not hard going so always in eco.

first put it down to eco, trail, boost settings being high which would offset the range, so i lowered them all, thinking it would extend my range, but it was still 43 miles.
i have a Shimano Di2 SM-PCE02, which i bought back in august, just incase i ever need it, run a full test back then and everything was fine.but as what was said before, it does not check the the motor running.

i do know my battery is at 99% battery condition, i must say i have chipped/mapped my bike, but before everyone shouts at me, its done via software and not a little box connected to the motor. and being that my shimano firmware is fairly up to date, i can not change the assist speeds to 60mph or what ever i want.
but i have changed my motor from a EU spec to a US spec motor which allows the assist to go to 19-20 mph, which is still inside Shimano allowance, my speed is still correct , so my mileage is still correct, and i have also corrected circumference of my wheels with my maxxis tyres.

have you had any updates as i see there is someone else thats also having problems,

so its not just you,

Thanks for posting your problems , its been a great help
Dean

 

[R120]

Temperature makes a big difference to the range - I was out yesterday morning in Surrey Hills and it was about2/3 degrees, range down about 15% over what I would usually expect - I have found the drop off in cold weather to be pretty consistent over the last 3 winters.

 

[InRustWeTrust]

also have an e-summer 2020 and one thing I have noticed is that the display's battery% does not match what the meter on the battery shows, for example yesterday when I was out the display showed that I had 2 bars left while the battery showed that I had 3 bar left ... then turned off the bike and started it again and then the display also showed 3 bar.

it's like the engine kind of tries to kind of figure out how much I'll have left depending on how I ride but that is not the real battery status.

 

[R120]

also have an e-summer 2020 and one thing I have noticed is that the display's battery% does not match what the meter on the battery shows, for example yesterday when I was out the display showed that I had 2 bars left while the battery showed that I had 3 bar left ... then turned off the bike and started it again and then the display also showed 3 bar.

it's like the engine kind of tries to kind of figure out how much I'll have left depending on how I ride but that is not the real battery status.

Yes the display calculates remains range etc based on the ride you are on, whereas the battery display just shows the state of the battery. If you turn the bike off then on again it resets the ride info in the system.

 

[PaulE]

Hello Paul , i also noticed my mileage on my bike on a fully charged battery was 43 miles in eco mode. when it was 60 miles per ride. unsure at what mileage it changed

started looking through google and come across your forum post and decided to register on this forum, to post my experience

mine is also a vitus e-sommet, bought in Feb/march 2020 with a e8000 motor, my bike has done 1064 miles now, first 800mile were mainly cross country rides, to work and back , mainly in eco , trail when needed.
then used more for trail riding in woods , so up and down hills which is what its built for, and to work and back.

it was just the other day i checked my full charge mileage, and it was 43 miles, when i remember it was 60 miles, then riding to work on Thrusday, i dropped to 2 bars of battery left ( ~40% ) checked my range and it said 9 miles!!!! , my work ride its not hard going so always in eco.

first put it down to eco, trail, boost settings being high which would offset the range, so i lowered them all, thinking it would extend my range, but it was still 43 miles.
i have a Shimano Di2 SM-PCE02, which i bought back in august, just incase i ever need it, run a full test back then and everything was fine.but as what was said before, it does not check the the motor running.

i do know my battery is at 99% battery condition, i must say i have chipped/mapped my bike, but before everyone shouts at me, its done via software and not a little box connected to the motor. and being that my shimano firmware is fairly up to date, i can not change the assist speeds to 60mph or what ever i want.
but i have changed my motor from a EU spec to a US spec motor which allows the assist to go to 19-20 mph, which is still inside Shimano allowance, my speed is still correct , so my mileage is still correct, and i have also corrected circumference of my wheels with my maxxis tyres.

have you had any updates as i see there is someone else thats also having problems,

so its not just you,

Thanks for posting your problems , its been a great help
Dean

Hi Dean, please forgive, as I appear not to have replied to your very useful post, back in November. I'm sorry, but I've had a lot going on over the past few weeks and this got missed off my list.

I'm still riding and generally logging my rides/battery/motor performance, but I've not heard anything back from Wiggle, Shimano, or Vitus for quite a while and I haven't had time to keep pushing them. However, my guarantees start to run out in a few months time and even though my LBS does insist that Shimano will honour any guarantee, even after the 2 years has expired due to my fault having been logged, I still intend to make the effort to try and find out why I and many others, have seen this loss in performance, most likely from the battery.

I have taken both bike batteries to a local electronics company, who said that they would check them over and test them for any duff cells, but this couldn't happen without opening up the battery case and this would have led to me losing the guarantee, so no go!

Also, I have spoken with many other e-mtb owners and the general consensus is that most think the Shimano system to be rather poor in the reliability department. This isn't something I've ever thought, although many people on this forum have commented that they've had several new motors and batteries - not sure whether these have all been warranty issues though. That said, I’ve heard bad things about Brose and Bosch systems.

It does look like you and I use our bikes in a similar manner and have had very similar drop off in performance. I haven’t chipped our bikes, in fact apart from going tubeless, they’re just about stock bikes. I have been tempted, but again I’m worried about invalidating the guarantee. Once this has expired and if I get nowhere with trying to rectify my problem, I will alter the bikes and I may even buy another battery, either the new, larger one, or see if there is any other makes going which may tempt me. Generally, we consider that our bikes are working very well and we think that the most likely reason for the changes we have definitely had happen, is down to battery breakdown/poor battery quality. A common enough occurrence with all rechargeable batteries in my experience.

We love these bikes but, unfortunately, our experience and the seeming lack of interest from the manufacturers and the dealer to want to get to the bottom of this, means that we are unlikely to buy Shimano powered bikes when we replace ours.

 

[R120]

I dont think they are any less reliable, but I do think the Shimano systems batteries don't give as much range as the equivalents from Bosch - now this might not be cells or the battery, but the software of the system, but from riding with friends on various bikes I think this to be the case.

 

[PaulE]

That's a fair point thanks R120. I've noticed that software upgrades on our bikes seems to coincide with reduced battery performance/range. Of course, recent weather has been very cold and I know that this does effect/reduce battery life. Our latest rides have been very poor, range wise. After trying out a recommended "battery reset" (which doesn't work!) and recharging the batteries, which showed a 59m range in eco, we did a simple, mainly country lane, ride of 14.2m. One bike showed 28m range left, the other 34m. The next ride we did a similar ride (always in eco) of 14.4m and had 19m and 16m range left - (this is always a very inaccurate reading, which we can't rely on). From the 59m suggested after the full charge, we should have had 30 miles left!

We knew that this would disappear very quickly, so recharged the batteries. We then did a very cold 8.3m and 14.6m ride over consecutive days last weekend and had only 22m and 24m range left, which we know will disappear very quickly if we attempt another ride without recharging. Again, we should really have had more like 36m range left.

Over the past couple of months rides, we are actually getting an average of closer to 39/41 miles from each charge, nothing like the 59m suggested on the bike computer, which we always had over the first few months of overnership and prior to software upgrades. This represents a performance reduction of 33% over the 2770m and 2550m covered, for bikes 22 and 21 months old. Of course, this is still within the warranty pledge from Shimano promising that the batteries will hold 50% of their charge over 2 years/1000 charge cycles, but it's not what we hoped for.

BTW, did you ever fit the new E-8016 battery and did you need a new mount to go with it? If so, was it straightforward, did it fit the Vitus frame okay and is it performing well? I've only seen one set of stats, which didn't appear to give much improvement over the original battery.

 

[R120]

Still waiting for mine - my anecdotal evidence is that the 630wh paired with the E8000 does give quite a bit more range, but that on bikes with the new more powerful EP8, combined with the weight of a lot of the new bikes, there isn't much difference between what you get with the E8000 with a 504wh.

The Vitus's are fairly light in the first place for a full fat EMTB, so the extra weight of the bigger battery won't be too bad.

 

[PaulE]

I am having the similar issues Me and my wife have 2020 vitus e-escapes vrx wife got hers a month before me she has done 2600km mine has done 1700km we ride the same terrain always together I’m 86kg and she is 73kg, I mainly ride in eco with occasional trail all in dynamic setting due to lighter weight of the wife she rides in all modes and gets great mileage out of her battery full charge capacity remains at 99% after 29 cycle but mine has gone to 87% after 26 cycles LBS used pc02 to get these figures, we did a flat test ride on railway lines and roads in eco only I got 26 miles and ran out, my wife had 40 % left, the next day we did exact same ride but with battery’s swapped the wife’s bike with my battery got 30 miles and dead battery and I still had about 20% battery I have contacted CRC
With the battery reports from LBS hopefully they will respond.

Hi TG1971, sorry but like Dean, it looks like I missed replying to your post. Thanks for your comments. It looks like your problems are much worse than mine and it's certainly interesting that, like me, to have two, identical bikes, doing identical rides, to compare the performance of. I've found, as expected, that I've had very little "real" help from Wiggle, they just go through the motions and appear intent on fobbing me off, I guess, until the warranty period is over. Gary and several other people on this forum have also agreed that the performance of Shimano drive systems does definately drop off, unfortunately in my case, not enought to allow me to envoke the warranty clause, as we are now down by a third of the battery, after 22 months, rather than the half necessary. You mentioned having contacted CRC, now part of Wiggle, how did you get on and have you anything further to report regarding your bikes performance?

 

[PaulE]

Still waiting for mine - my anecdotal evidence is that the 630wh paired with the E8000 does give quite a bit more range, but that on bikes with the new more powerful EP8, combined with the weight of a lot of the new bikes, there isn't much difference between what you get with the E8000 with a 504wh.

The Vitus's are fairly light in the first place for a full fat EMTB, so the extra weight of the bigger battery won't be too bad.

Those stats are interesting thanks R120, particularly with regard to the E8000 and very encouraging. I'd love to be able to get enough information on our bikes to convince me that battery fall off is the cause of our problems, I'd then find the decission to fit the new battery a much easier one to make.

I notice that on the thread dealing with the new 630WH battery that Gary shows a great photo of a battery with the cover removed. I'd like to do this and allow my batteries to be tested, but looking at them, it looks very difficult to remove the little screw flaps on the top of the battery, without damaging them, alerting Shimano to this and loosig the warranty.

On the same thread, I also notice that you show a picture of your bike with a new chainguide. Is your bike an earlier e-Sommet model, because your photo shows the top of the bottom bracket area fully enclosed, something that is vastly superior to the open, mud collecting design on our 2019 models?

 

[dean-williams]

Hello Paul

its not only you, i did not notice till now that you had replied to my post.!!!
i would not say i have felt a drop in power, but i have not used it in the woods/trail riding for a few months to really push the bike motor, only riding on tarmac to work and back, always in eco
plus all my settings are still set low,

i rode part of the south downs way last year, covered about 30 miles, with a spilt between eco and trail, and ended with the lower end 2 bars of battery left, which was find with some of the hills i went up. but really worrys me now that i could not do that now

but my range after a full charge is still at 43 miles, and see the battery meter bars go down fast.

i need to contact CRC, but i know how bad they can be to getting back to you, or i could contact vitus, as i might have more luck

but as it stands i have lose 25% of my range over night, from 60 miles to 43 miles with a fully charged battery.

 

[TG1971]

Hi TG1971, sorry but like Dean, it looks like I missed replying to your post. Thanks for your comments. It looks like your problems are much worse than mine and it's certainly interesting that, like me, to have two, identical bikes, doing identical rides, to compare the performance of. I've found, as expected, that I've had very little "real" help from Wiggle, they just go through the motions and appear intent on fobbing me off, I guess, until the warranty period is over. Gary and several other people on this forum have also agreed that the performance of Shimano drive systems does definately drop off, unfortunately in my case, not enought to allow me to envoke the warranty clause, as we are now down by a third of the battery, after 22 months, rather than the half necessary. You mentioned having contacted CRC, now part of Wiggle, how did you get on and have you anything further to report regarding your bikes performance?

They asked me to take it to a lbs to have checked and have a report done the lbs said shouldn’t deteriorate that quickly sent report to CRC they wanted a warranty filling in sent it but have had nothing back, the battery is now down to 82% wife still at 100% we did a totally flat muddy ride today got 28 miles in eco only had 5 mile range at end, my wife had 20 mile range she uses all modes mostly trail, we are just going to get 2 spare battery to put our backpacks on longer hilly rides when we’re free from lockdowns.

 

[R120]

You should be able to warranty the battery directly with Madison (Shimano UK) via you LBS if it’s a Shimano Service Center, avoiding the pita that is teaming with CRC

 

[Gary]

If the battery still works and you want to ride your bike with a battery in it anytime in the coming weeks I would wait until mid March to take it to your LBS for warranty

 

[dean-williams]

Hello

I HAVE GOT MY RANGE BACK.!!!!!!!!!!

its the firmware that is causing it to be reduced. I was on 4.8 and just updated to 4.9 and it was still at 43 miles.

but i wanted to test if i downgrade the firmware. Would it fix the problem. and yes it did. I have gone back to 4.3.2 firmware

my bike is software tuned with Emax. It was there website that shows you how to downgrade your firmware.

http://www.emax-tuning.com/Shimano-Firmware-Downgrade-English-Version_2_0.pdf

you will need a Windows PC/laptop. A shimano PCE02 , and an older version on E-tube project. Mine is a 2016 version
just follow the steps in the link.

if you cant get hold of the older version on e-tube project, you can also downgrade with your phone and the app

documents for downgrade via Bluetooth released – eMax Tuning

www.emax-tuning.com

What i will also try is to now update back to the latest firmware 4.9 to see if my range drops or not. if it does not drop. it might be something that is date/time related so might happen after say 30 days since updating. so means its something programmed to make it change.

Such a releif,

Dean

 

[TG1971]

me and my wife both have same vitus e-escapes upgraded to 4.9 we found range to be better but noticed a real change in power in eco and trail lowered to the point she would no ride in eco when normally she would ride most things in eco, I downgrades to 4.7 and both bikes feel more powerful, she rode the whole ride yesterday in eco with no problem but my range I back to pretty crap again as I’ve said previously I have problems with battery range and degradation and wife doesn’t she’s 13kg lighter, my battery 83% after 33 cycles and her’s is 36 cycles and still 100%,, on a flat ride off-road ride with no wind yesterday I got 28 miles in eco only had range saying 9 miles left, her bike said 30 miles left she used trail and eco, we have external 504wh battery

 

[TG1971]

I’m 15% heavier than wife, my Battery is 17% more deteriorated than hers we got bikes within 2 weeks of each other, always ride together.
On general ride on rolling terrain she gets 10 miles per bar using eco and trail and I get 7 miles at most in eco, I need to lose 15kg buy a new battery then do a new test ha ha will get back to you after diet
Think bikes were designed for 70-75kg riders I’m currently 86kg so must lose weight for range or buy second battery and stop this range anxiety ha ha

 

[dean-williams]

to me it sounds like your battery is degrading too fast, and like someone has said above. Try to get a changed over under warranty. Because even shimano stat that it should be better than that.
i take it you have swapped batteries with your wife and gone out for a normal ride to compare. ( sorry if you have already answered/said that already )

 

[Fatty-at-the-Back]

@PaulE I've been following your thread since i'm noticing a similar issue with my bike (albeit mine is a Canyon Spectral ON 2019 with external 504wh battery)

I've had the bike since Novemeber 2019 and have done 1300 miles on it.

From around November 2020 I started to notice that I was getting less range on my usual local rides - I put this down to the cold maybe and also mud on some sections of my ride. In terms of elevation its only around 1000ft at the most. I also thought maybe the battery is just getting old although it says 98% health on Stunlocker.

Anyway, my wife has a Canyon Neuron ON but has only done 200 miles on it and its never seen dirt lol. Just local rides with our kids. So today I thought i'd get my battery, stick it on the wife's ebike and do a local ride like the one i normally do.

Well, i got some interesting results - i know there are still a lot of variables involved but on the surface, it looks like on my wife's bike i'm getting around miles more per 'bar'. ON the same ride, i would normally go down to 4 bars around the 9 mile mark but on my wife's bike it was 11.89 something.

Obviously this is just after a days test but it does appear that over time and mileage the motor eats up more battery?

 

[TG1971]

to me it sounds like your battery is degrading too fast, and like someone has said above. Try to get a changed over under warranty. Because even shimano stat that it should be better than that.
i take it you have swapped batteries with your wife and gone out for a normal ride to compare. ( sorry if you have already answered/said that already )

Yep if I swap battery I get same as I used to get when new, been out today 28 miles 2020 ft climbing battery dead, wife range said 18 miles left 30% tried to get warranty CRC refused at 85% will try at 80%

 

[PaulE]

Hello

I HAVE GOT MY RANGE BACK.!!!!!!!!!!

its the firmware that is causing it to be reduced. I was on 4.8 and just updated to 4.9 and it was still at 43 miles.

but i wanted to test if i downgrade the firmware. Would it fix the problem. and yes it did. I have gone back to 4.3.2 firmware

my bike is software tuned with Emax. It was there website that shows you how to downgrade your firmware.

http://www.emax-tuning.com/Shimano-Firmware-Downgrade-English-Version_2_0.pdf

you will need a Windows PC/laptop. A shimano PCE02 , and an older version on E-tube project. Mine is a 2016 version
just follow the steps in the link.

if you cant get hold of the older version on e-tube project, you can also downgrade with your phone and the app

documents for downgrade via Bluetooth released – eMax Tuning

www.emax-tuning.com

What i will also try is to now update back to the latest firmware 4.9 to see if my range drops or not. if it does not drop. it might be something that is date/time related so might happen after say 30 days since updating. so means its something programmed to make it change.

Such a releif,

Dean

Thanks very much for this Dean. The range issues do seem to coincide with the firmwear upgrades we've had, but I can't believe that Shimano would actually knobble their own product. May be there is something else that we don't know about? I'll have a chat with my LBS and take a look at your suggestions - fingers crossed that this works for us as well.

 

[PaulE]

@PaulE I've been following your thread since i'm noticing a similar issue with my bike (albeit mine is a Canyon Spectral ON 2019 with external 504wh battery)

I've had the bike since Novemeber 2019 and have done 1300 miles on it.

From around November 2020 I started to notice that I was getting less range on my usual local rides - I put this down to the cold maybe and also mud on some sections of my ride. In terms of elevation its only around 1000ft at the most. I also thought maybe the battery is just getting old although it says 98% health on Stunlocker.

Anyway, my wife has a Canyon Neuron ON but has only done 200 miles on it and its never seen dirt lol. Just local rides with our kids. So today I thought i'd get my battery, stick it on the wife's ebike and do a local ride like the one i normally do.

Well, i got some interesting results - i know there are still a lot of variables involved but on the surface, it looks like on my wife's bike i'm getting around miles more per 'bar'. ON the same ride, i would normally go down to 4 bars around the 9 mile mark but on my wife's bike it was 11.89 something.

Obviously this is just after a days test but it does appear that over time and mileage the motor eats up more battery?

Hi F-a-t-B, thanks for this info. Have you had chance to test this anymore and if so, have you been able to draw any conclusions? I'm keen to know whether you think that it's down to battery degradation, due to use and age, or it's a motor issue.

Also, I see on another thread that you've fitted the new 630Wh battery on your Canyon, something that I've been considering for my Vitus. I'm really keen to know how much difference this makes to your range. Again, to try and fathom out whether my drop off is down to battery or motor and also to see if one really can get a huge amount more range when the additional weight is added into the equation.

I've not seen anything yet that really convinces me to part with £700 for the bigger unit, so any info will be gratefully received thanks.

 

[PaulE]

Update - I wrote another email to Wiggle, Shimano (via my LBS) and Vitus last week, just as our first bike was coming to the end of the warranty. It was quite a long and involved history of our falling range issues and coincided with our worst performance to date - 34 miles from a full charge for each of the bikes, on mixed trail/lane, easy rides. This dropped them below the performance level guaranteed by Shimano.

Vitus replied the next day, advising me to make a claim using the Wiggle claims form on the link they provided. Wiggle also got back to me quite quickly and asked me to send both of the bikes back to them, using boxes they will send me. As their warehouse is only 30 mins from where I live, I asked if I could delivery and collect them, rather than chance the freight service, but they will NOT allow this! Shimano asked the LBS to get one bike in, do an up to date diagnostic test and reduce all of the motor support settings to 50%. This has made little difference to the range but has resulted in the bike computer only showing a total range, when charged, of 55m, rather than the 59m it used to show. I've expressed my disappointment to the LBS that Shimano (Madison) haven't been more interested and the LBS now promised (again) that they'll request a new "loan" battery to test the theory that the batteries are responsible for the range drop off. Getting somewhere, but bloody slow and late!

So, having read on here that when bikes are sent back to Wiggle, they may be gone for many months, I'm really worried about sending them back, but if I don't agree to this, I guess that's the end any warranty claim I may have with them. Shimano really don't appear to be very helpful and I'm quite disappointed after putting such a lot of effort into reporting back, via the LBS, for many months on the performance after every ride - as they apparently requested. I'm now feeling very apprehensive and sorry that the bikes have never failed totally over the past few months! At least I'd then have a much clearer claim.

 

[TG1971]

My vitus e-escarpe is now at 81% after 40 cycles when it gets to 80% going to try to claim warranty, I’m getting 30 miles in eco on a flat off-road ride and battery died, when new last august I’d have 40% battery left on same ride, now to top it off got lots of play in swing arm and pivots and a cracking noise, the wife’s vitus e-escarpe is at 99% 42 cycles and is running well, she can do same ride in trail and not run out.

 

[PaulE]

Both our bikes went back to Wiggle just over 3 weeks ago. This morning I got the following reply from CRC, even though I bought from sister company Wiggle.

"Hi Paul,

We have completed extensive assessment of your bikes and are unable to get the battery issues resolved. I appreciated this isn't what you wanted to hear, With this being he case we can refund you for the bikes as we don't have any replacement models available. If you are able to confirm that you are happy for me to do this I can get that done for you and your personal items returned.

Thanks,

Tim

Tim G Warranty Advisor
Web: www.chainreactioncycles.com"

Obviously, we're very disappointed by this outcome, even though we do appreciate their offer to refund us for the bikes - don't know whether this is for the full purchase price though! Unfortunately, no E-Sommet bikes appear available at present, so no idea when we'll be able to replace them. Also sorry that we haven't had a chance to try a new battery and see what this does.

So, more questions, if you can help me please. Has anyone followed the refund route and do they give a full refund normally? Should we just take a chance and try a new battery? Has anyone got a new E-Sommet 297 and is the VRS or the VRX, the equivalent of our 2019 E-Sommet's? Is the new Vitus range still as amazing as the original? Is the new Shimano EP8, with integrated E8036 battery, a big step up from the 8000 series drive?

As usual, thanks for any help and please let me know if I'd be better to post this on another thread.

Cheers, Paul

 

[PaulE]

Looking at reviews, it doesn't look like the new Vitus 297 range isn't as good as the earlier versions. I haven't found out much about the new Shimano EP8 drive units yet, or the 630 E8036 battery, but it's very disappointing that Vitus has made it very difficult to remove the battery for external charging, unlike other manufacturers, like YT.

We have been offered 30% discount off future bike purchases from CRC/Wiggle, but the only make available, apart from Vitus, seems to be Cube. However, this does use the Bosch power unit and 640Wh battery, which does seem to be highly rated. I need to look at this a bit closer.

If anyone can offer any advice/recommendations on new motors, bikes etc, please let me know.