Frustrated with initial purchase

Posted by FullMeltAlkmst@reddit | ebikes | View on Reddit | 21 comments

I bought a motor goat v3 with the frame battery and it’s a well built machine. I upgraded to Magura mt5e brakes and Magura rotors front and back. I love the feel of the bite with the heavy weight of the bike. I put on a 56t chain ring so I could pedal at 40 for exercise. Out here in Vegas the trails will get you exercise so that upgrade was great the most valuable. I have been using the bike to practice rollers with a pocket 3 and a Tilta hydra attached to it. I go out and hunt Lambos and other fun things around the city and use another go pro for pov. I love doing this but my editing is slow.

So although this bike was the right purchase I am super frustrated with the experience so far. I watch other people getting 6500 miles plus without issues. I have had issues since the first 50 miles. First the throttle stops responding in the middle of traffic intermittently. To fix this I waited for the frame battery to arrive so I could organize all the wires throughout the frame. I unplugged everything and repplugged and zip tied the wires better. What happened was a ground out from all the wires being jammed in that little controller storage under the seat.

Next they send me the wrong frame battery to the power goat which weighs 81 lbs. Waiting for FedEx to change my delivery date was beyond frustrating, having to take the battery back to the business fed ex almost killed me and had to wait for the another frustrating fed ex drop off for the correct battery. I know it cost them lots of money to fix that but I guess I did them and whoever was waiting on that battery a solid by taking it back immediately.

For the final problem the controller just fried. I have power to the lights and the batteries are fully charged. I emailed motor goat 4 days ago and no response. I’m not in a panic but help me at least find an upgrade. I have only done 250 miles on the bike and the bike is just a decoration in my living room. In Vegas it is hot but randomly it gets cool for a perfect time to ride. I just want to get this thing reliable but the parts are specific and I don’t know of the best electrical upgrades. Just pointing out my frustration with my experience buying a $5000 e bike setup.

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Dnugs94549@reddit

If there's one thing that I've learned about PEVs, it's that you're going to have a bad time if you're not hand enough to fix everything yourself. The good news is that this stuff is pretty simple, and there's all kinds of information out there to help you learn. If I were in your place, I would buy a fardriver controller, instead of whatever crap they put in these. Fardrivers are fairly robust, and they offer quite a lot of customization, while retaining beginner friendly stuff like the auto learn.

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

The connections are specific and there is a splitter that I have to use for the frame battery & original battery. I just read the upgraded controllers are sine wave so I’m just going to have to wait for the company replacement or recommendation. The far drive almost is an option but I would have to do some splicing.

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Dnugs94549@reddit

Those are the same connections that my motorcycle uses, it has a fardriver controller. Any decent controller is sine wave, even if it was square wave, that's not a compatibility issue. You have a very strange level of knowledge about this stuff. You're almost there, but you've got some misconceptions about how things work. Its like some salesman gave you info, but in such a way to steer you towards and away from certain things. Im happy to help you work through this if you want, without trying to sell you anything. Its honestly more simple than it seems.

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

My knowledge is what components are on the bike and the YouTube community of people with the same bike. One guy had switched controllers on a goat and his is a lil too fast looking for me. It required some modifications that I’m not ready to cut the metal. I’m watching the fardriver videos now and can say if you can’t point me in the right direction for a good installation video I might just buy the controller if it seems like something I can do.

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Dnugs94549@reddit

Cut metal, to swap a controller? It should just require unplugging some cables and hooking them up to a new controller. https://youtu.be/nqXp7ranw3w?si=zNicR0iJo_mU0gFq this guy goes over the connections on a fardriver its a little tedious, but doable.

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

Same video I watched this morning . I saved it for the future. It would work. The space housing the controller is designed too tight on this bike. The frame is built really solid and the metal is thick. Cutting it I could get away with some well placed holes if the controller got any longer.

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

Fixed it, it’s not the controller but the power button. The zip tie was choking something and causing it to short. If you zoom in on the picture that’s the way it came from the factory. Whoever zip tied this hits the gym. I just adjusted the wire to breathe and the bike turns on & off flawlessly. Took me 4 days of troubleshooting and complaining to find this out. Thanks for anyone that gave input.

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its-not-that-bad@reddit

How did this get to $5000? They sell this bike for $2600. The issues you are bringing up sound right in line with chinese bikes.

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LetoTheTyrant@reddit

$1600 for frame battery $800 for mt5e

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

$4550 for the bike & battery, brakes were $340, chain ring was $80, pedals were $50.

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its-not-that-bad@reddit

Thank you for clarifying, OP. What I think has happened is you’ve upgraded and put top of the line components onto a mid range ebike in an effort to make it the best. I commend your drive in doing this as I’ve done this many times to previous road and mountain bike Builds. Since you are one that pushes limits, you will be constantly finding “the weakest link.” Right now it seems to be the controller. In the past it was brakes. Next? Who knows. I’d say get a new controller under warranty if you can and if you break that one too, then go to a higher end aftermarket controller.

The more things you break and subsequently upgrade the fewer issues you will face down the road. That is unless you keep pushing the envelope for instance trying to do 65 mph instead of 45 etc…

I’m sure all this is frustrating but when you get the bike dialed all it’ll take is one ride down LV BLVD and some nice weather and it’ll all be worth it

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

You’re right, I’m just missing out on the current action but once dialed in I can start trusting it like my reliable corolla.

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Proof_Agency9613@reddit

Where on earth are you buy mt5s for 800? They are like 200 new for front and rear

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

Amazon had a sale for $110 each. The rotors were about $50 each

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

Unlike surrons I’m out in the city 5 hours at a time doing up to 45mph. Smoother ride and I use it as a camera bike.

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mack-y0@reddit

fair enough, nice bike tho hopefully everything works out soon

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InevitableMeh@reddit

Do they have a phone number? Call them.

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FullMeltAlkmst@reddit (OP)

I have been in contact with all the other problems. This delay I’m thinking they’re out of office.