The Shimano friction clutch mechanism built into modern rear mech's is designed to eliminate chain slap and also keeps the chain under tension between the cage and the cassette. It works by using a one way friction place that keeps the chain taught and consistently under tension, it allows a small amount of movement for chain growth but pretty much eliminates the chain pulling on the rear cage over rough terrain, ultimately improving gear change too. It is in my opinion a great step forward and one of the best creations in cycling, I have ridden with it extensively and it does exactly what it says on the tin. Now the drive chain is that much quieter you can actually pick up on other noise from your bike, tyre resistance, motor noise etc. Although initially it was only featured on Shimano's top end rear mech's it has worked its way down the grape vine and the technology is now available on lower spec rear mech's (Shimano SLX for example). This in turn means that it is now featured on many mid - top end eBikes. Mainly of the MTB genre. Although it has been around for a few years now, I still get asked about it on a regular basis so I though I would do a little write up on it, to give users a little info on how it works and how it is maintained.If you have bought a eBike in the last couple of years and the drive chain is SLX level or above you probably have this technology on your eBike. It will have an on and off switch as follows. The switch is here only to allow you to be able to remove the rear wheel easily from the frame, as the mech is difficult to move when the clutch is engaged its a real nice touch to be able to turn it off. It is clearly marked on and off and there is an easy lever to operate each way. Now many eBikes will be shipped out with the clutch in the off position so make sure it is turned back on prior to riding. This switch also makes it easy to see what a difference the clutch makes. For example go for a ride with it turned off, then mid ride turn it back on and you can feel/hear the difference straight away! Anyway, enough about how it works, I bet a lot of you reading this are thinking.. "Its just one more thing to go wrong!". Well I have been dealing with these in the workshop for a few years now and although Shimano offer spare parts for all their rear mech's including the clutch mechanism it self I am yet to actually replace parts here. Seeing as the rear mech takes such a beating on the trail and it such a vital part of the drivetrain I think its really durable for what it is. Over extended use the clutch mechanism can fade slightly but it can actually be adjusted by the end user, its fairly easy to do as well on the newer ones. There are probably many how to guides for how to adjust it with a quick google search. But the gist of it is, you remove the plastic cover with 3 allen bolts, the clutch itself can be adjusted using an allen key, its simple to adjust the tension, turn it clockwise for more tension and counter clockwise for less tension. But don't crank it right up, just make quarter turn increments at a time, until the tension is set. (This is how to adjust the SLX and XT models, the XTR is slightly more tricky, google it!) Anyway enough of my babbling now, many of you probably already know all of this, but for those who don't, by me spending ten minutes to write this up will probably save me that triple amount of time on the phone..When I get the call 'What's the switch all about on my rear mech?'.. Maybe I should say, switch it on - and your eBike will float over water! View Electric Bikes that come with this Mechanism
I rode the RC29 that he had in stock around the car parks and streets in Alton and was simply blown away with the bike and the Bosch system. It had far more power than I thought it ever would and I was very impressed with the way it delivered that power. Now normally I avoid tarmac like the plague as it just gets a bit boring, but not today, this bike was FUN! Bearing in mind I was still in a state of permanent atrial flutter, here I was literally flying round laps of the town centre, hardly drawing breath and with a huge grin on my face (I apologise to anyone who saw the nutter on the bike that day!) I knew from that point that if my operation worked this time that a Haibike would tick my boxes. I could ride with my mates and easily keep up whilst keeping my heart rate nice and low, riding the trails I love without the concern I'm doing any further cardiac damage or speeding up the progression of my disease. My operation came and thankfully everything went to plan. A couple of patient days post-op I really could feel the benefit so I picked up the phone to Martin. As Haibike have a product unlike any other, they are in huge demand and they simply can't make them fast enough so they are in short supply. I've had too many reminders of how short life can be so after chatting it through with my wife (again my voice of reason) we decided I should go for it. I knew I wanted the full suspension model, the FS SL as I had seen the quality of the frame build and pivots in the FS AM Martin had in the shop (very reminiscent of the lovely Giant Anthem I sold). The AM was out of budget so the SL it would be.A couple of weeks later saw me pick the bike up from Martin at e-bikeshop and I was already itching to get out for a first ride once I'd finished healing. It went like this: I very optimistically thought as we are heading into spring I'd leave the mud tyres in the shed and throw on my maxxis advantage and high roller tyres on the bike as they are a personal favourite combination of mine. What wetness was on the trails will be hardened up with a bit of frost so they'll be fine was my thinking....! Err no! Thanks to the crank drive system, swapping the tyres was a breeze and even easier than a quick release with the bolt through axles. Another bonus point for me when deciding which bike to buy. Anyone who mountain bikes will know a puncture can strike at any time so I didn't want my humour tested with having to change a tube (or more realistically mend a puncture) on a hub motor system in the middle of a muddy trail, in a gale, miles from home and with numb hands.So early morning I headed out with friends and the nice mild weather meant no frost, instead of firm frosty ground I found mud and floods of biblical proportions. Now I've been riding these trails for a couple of decades and I simply can't remember a time they were as wet as they are now, just mental. Now I start to think "you idiot, why did you put these fast rolling summer tyres on?!!" To help the situation a bit I dropped the pressures down to around 30-35psi which gave them some hope of gripping a bit.The first section of really deep mud I came to was unrideable due to the damage from horses and sheer depth of the gloop. I knew this from experience and my mate's attempt to get through underlined that when he ground to a halt, hopped off and sank almost to mid shin depth!! I, however, have a new toy and I was intent on using it. I did however have in my head that even with turbo setting I wouldn't make it, but I was curious to see if I could get as far as my mate. Oh how my faith was put in it's place! The bike just kept surging forward despite the depth of the mud and even with my terrible tyre choice the Bosch system seemed to smoothly regulate the torque so the wheel hardly span up and the power just came in a very smooth yet very powerful manner. I emerged the other side with a grin that could be seen from space and to see my friend's jaw sat in the mud. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would actually get through! Now feeling enthused and very confident in the bike (after about 5 miles or so), I proceeded to start to aim for all the deep stuff to test it time and time again. Every time the same, just complementing my input enough to give that extra boost to see the job done. I then realised that both Turbo and Sport levels are just incredible, so to ease off a bit, as I had no idea what range I would get, I started to ride mostly in Tour mode with the occasional Sport enabled for a really bad section. Tour mode dealt with most things very comfortably. I did however try to avoid flood water as best as possible but I did end up committed in a section that got to crank bolt depth and required rocking of the cranks to keep going through. I glanced down and realised if my motor was under slung it would have been completely submerged! Thankfully that was as deep as I got and managed to avoid the rest of the really deep water. There is a long section through a field that leads to a woodland on the route we took. There is a section where cows congregate under the trees when it's wet to shelter and the path runs right through this section. In conditions like yesterday it's hard to walk through let alone ride. If you were somehow able to muster the sheer force to ride through it you'd be maxxed out on the heart rate by the time you got to the woods, I know, I've got the T shirt! My friends tried and failed, I would have also failed on my Giant Anthem. Yesterday I progressively made my way through, with some tactful track standing in the worst bits just to stay upright, got to the gate, checked my heart rate monitor and it said 104.Whilst waiting for my friends to catch up, I watched the rate drop down nicely into the 80s which showed how my body, and most importantly my heart, hadn't been placed under prolonged stress. This is two weeks after my heart surgery and a year without cardiovascular exercise too so I was over the moon that the bike was doing everything I had hoped it would do but was doing it so much better than I thought it ever feasibly could. To summarise we did a wee bit over 10 miles in the foulest ground conditions and with easily less than a mile of tarmac. As it was my first ride I was messing about with modes, playing with Turbo and Sport until I got a feel for the bike. In no means was I riding sympathetically regards the battery charge longevity. I returned with 3 lights remaining of the five on the battery. My friends said the 10 miler felt physically like a 30 mile ride.Haibike have produced an excellent mountain bike that would stand its ground easily on the trail amongst many "normal" mountain bikes costing significantly more. It rides like a normal bike (a very good one), weight distribution is very good and at no time did the bike feel unsettled. Coming from an 11kg bike to a 21kg bike I had hang ups about how it would ride in the rough. I needn't have bothered as once moving there is little perceivable difference. The suspension is great, the Rockshox Recon performed much better than anticipated and was nice and stiff (I'm a long time Fox fork fan), the Fox CTD rear shock was as you'd expect from Fox and flawless. SLX does exactly as it says on the tin and Haibike finishing kit of bars, grips, stem and seatpost are all good quality.After test riding though I did put their saddle out to pasture as it's probably the worst I've tried! Don't know what they were thinking with that one. Saddles are a very personal thing but there was no way that was staying on mine so my Cannondale saddle was put back into service. As for the Bosch system all I can say really is wow. It performed way beyond my expectations and I simply just raise my hat to the Bosch engineers (need a clappy hand icon!)So to summarise I'm over the moon. Only mechanical failure would dampen my new found lust but only time will tell regards that.....I was so glum that it appeared my MTBing days were over and the disease had wrecked my chances of continuing the one thing I have loved for many years. I felt an electric MTB would at best be a compromise but hey ho, if it meant I was still out, enjoying time with friends, then that's the way I would go. Instead I've found the bike has offered a breath of fresh air and excitement that a "normal" MTB just can't do. It's like starting the sport all over again and that is a very exciting prospect. So good points - all of the above and the grin that comes with it. Bad points - saddle and not been able to rotate the chain backwards with the cranks to use the chain scrubber after the ride. Oh and the fact that your friends now want to steal your bike! Purchase the Haibike xDuro FS SL Electric Mountain Bike
Here's a lovely story from one of our customers - Nick Culshaw. After purchasing the Haibike FS SL days after heart surgery. Enjoy. Up until the age of 16 I was extremely active and loved a whole host of sports. I sprinted at county level and only narrowly missed out on the England Schools Squad for 100 and 200m in my first year of competing. I had already discovered MTBing and if I wasn't running I was riding pretty much from sunrise to sunset. One unremarkable day whilst out riding I was having a bit of friendly competitive rivalry with a friend racing up onto the downs where I live on the Isle of Wight. When we hit the summit I quickly became aware my heart rate wasn't dropping and in fact, it was far higher than I had ever experienced before. I sat down for a few minutes to catch my breath thinking it might be a bit of heat stroke as it was a fiercely hot day. After a few minutes, the rate dropped down and I decided it best to call it a day and rode home at a sedate pace with a banging headache. A few days later the same thing happened again, only this time it didn't stop.My parents took me to A&E and the rate was brought under control. I was then transferred to Southampton General Hospital where I stayed for a month undergoing various tests, both invasive and non invasive. To cut a long story short I was eventually diagnosed with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). This is a relatively rare degenerative heart condition where primarily the cardiac cells of the right ventricle break down and as the body tries to heal the damage they become replaced by fatty tissue and scarring.Although I was unlucky enough to have ARVC, I am also very lucky as many patients die during their first attack. The doctors told me that my sporting background had meant I have a very strong left ventricle which thankfully was able to take the strain of the prolonged tachycardias. This was all back in 1992 and at 16 it's very depressing to be told that you shouldn't do all the things you enjoy, running, riding etc at a competitive level. I had to give my running up there and then but managed to continue my riding but with the requirement to not push myself too hard. At 16 though I guess there is a fair bit of denial and I did push myself further than I really should. Various medications and surgical interventions (all of which sadly made the condition worse) to control the disease occurred over the next seven years but I was still managing to ride but it was impossible to ignore that the disease was progressing and life was starting to become a struggle. The decision was made in 1999 that my right ventricle would need to be "disarticulated", basically severing the nerve connections from the rest of my heart so that the right ventricle would no longer beat. The rest of my heart would just have to man up and take the extra load required. This of course was major surgery and an operation that took me a long time to recover from with many complications along the way. By now biking again was a pipe dream. Over the next year or so I managed to recover and adjust and build myself back up to the point where I wanted to try the bike again. I was actively encouraged by the consultant who said the exercise would be beneficial. This required building myself up from ground zero and was a really hard slog with many false starts and setbacks. However, I finally got there and I could ride with my friends again and enjoy the trails. There were various setbacks but basically, the next 12 years were relatively good. That was until May 2012 when I developed a whole new heart problem, a permanent atrial flutter. The consultant said it would be a simple day procedure with a cardiac ablation and the flutter would be gone. That single day turned into 11 days, an ITU stay, a damaged AV node, and the requirement for a pacemaker to be implanted and what's more, the flutter was still there! I now knew the bikes had to go. I was very poorly and they were just sat in the shed gathering dust and depreciating. I reluctantly let them go but having had long chats with my very supportive wife, I knew it was the right decision. My biggest challenge was holding down my job so the bikes and my desire to ride had to fade into the background. For me a bitter pill to swallow at 36. The atrial flutter was diagnosed as a secondary complication due to how much harder my heart was having to work since the right ventricle had been taken out of the equation. The consultant was adamant we should try again and this time the op would work. They learnt a lot from the unique way my heart works during the last failed attempt. I had no option other than to put my whole trust in him. I've always felt the need to have a focus to get me through my condition, to help me stay positive. Thankfully my wife and kids bring so much to my life that my goals have become clearer and more realistic. Where the riding used to be my single focus, it's now a "would like to" on my focus list. I was happy that the decision to sell my bikes was the right one as MTBing is simply too strenuous a sport for my condition. I did however start to wonder if someone, somewhere actually produced a capable "e"MTB. More out of curiosity than anything, I battered away at Google to see what I could find. I was finding home build kits to strap to existing bikes, I was finding "MTB" look a like bikes which I could tell simply weren't up to the task of what I would require them to do. I found hub drives, crank drives, read online reviews, and started to see that there might be a slight emergence in the market for such a product.....then I found the Haibike website. Now!! This is where I got focused. Their Xduro range appealed immediately. Here was a company that somehow had got inside my head and built exactly what I was looking for. My research had proved to me that I needed a crank drive system on an MTB for the best application of torque, ease of tyre access, central weight distribution etc. I had been very impressed by Bosch's literature on their system so I was pleased to see it strapped onto the Xduro. The most striking thing though was the way they have engineered the frame to support the motor rotated up out of harms way. Bottom bracket clearance in MTBing is essential and any design with a conventional underneath mounting of the motor would leave it very vulnerable to rock strikes, hitting outcrops when descending, riding flights of steps etc. It also would be submerged in the often encountered large puddles found in the winter. All of this was too risky and I was not prepared to pay my money for a failure waiting to happen. But Haibike had got it! They realised this obvious flaw if they were to produce a truly capable MTB and engineered a solution. They have produced a bike around the Bosch system and stuck to all the golden MTB rules regards the requirements of the bike. This is simply not a "me too" bike where the system has been bolted onto any old frame so the company can say "yeah we have one of those in our range too". Haibike had certainly got my attention and made me think, just maybe.....I was booked in for another go at the operation at the end of February 2013. Whilst still researching the pedelecs, I stumbled upon the forum and took the time to read various posts about people's experiences, likes, dislikes etc. I also noted online that Haibike were to be breaking into the UK in 2013 with a proper importer. All my research gets me back to the Haibike as the most suitable product on the market for my requirements and just within my budget. I read on the forum that Martin at e-bikeshop was going to be stocking them once they were launched. This was great news as I wanted to see one up close, ride it and check build quality and see if the Bosch system could offer what I knew I would need it to. Once Martin said he had the bikes in stock I called in at the shop whilst on the mainland (thank you to my ever-suffering wife for her patience and understanding!). I had a chat to Martin, explained why I was looking at the possibility of a pedelec and if he felt it would be able to tick my boxes. He said he felt it would but the best way to know was to try one. So I did..... Click here to read part 2 >>Purchase the Haibike xDuro FS SL Electric Mountain Bike
Only a short clip here guys of a quick blast round my local. I was doing some 'testing' so thought I would record a little video. The Haibike FS AM rode like a dream! Couldn't fault it as it blasted round the woods. Only thing is I wish I had more time to go for a longer play. I will be shooting a video soon with some more burly stuff including, berms, drops & jumps. I will of course upload it in due course. To see the full specification of the Haibike FS AMT Electric Bike
Past Experience / Why choose the Haibike FS AM? First off when you see this bike in the flesh - well I was truly impressed with the engineering. It’s a class act. Look at any of the components and you are immediately taken by the sheer quality of it. The brakes are stunning. The wheels are a work of art. Everything looks like it was supposed to go with the thing next to it. But you really only appreciate this when it’s actually there in front of you. So the moment I got it I could tell I was dealing with something a bit special (and you could say at these prices I should bloody well hope so!). Now to the riding – Well I am sorry but I am no off-road freak - this bike is being used as a city run-around - I am sure it does the off-road thing very well - all the components seem more than adequate for such things - but I am mainly using it to zoom around Wimbledon - to the bank and back - to the shops and back - that sort of thing. What can I say? It's great! Its just bloody great. The way the power comes on progressively as you put more pressure on the pedals matches almost perfectly. There seems to be no lag between applying the pressure and the power coming in - and no after-power once you lift off applying the pressure - its simply like an extension of your own desire to go faster. Perfect. The handling is great too - admittedly I am talking about the handling as one zooms around London buses and past the Lycra boys and their 27 speed whatever’s that they ride these days (especially pleasing as you go up the hill to the Village) - really really fun. The read-out is a work of art too - and it comes off of course so there's no chance it will get pinched. Plus it comes with this very fancy saddle tube whereby you can raise and lower the saddle when you stop at lights and then go again - at first it seemed a bit OTT but in fact practically it's something I have used a lot. It really works. So that’s it. Of course it is a mad price - and I think you're paying for engineering that many of us won't use - but what the heck - somebody has to spend some money to keep the economy going - so it might as well be you. Right? Many thanks to our customer for this review. To view the full specification or to purchase this bike - Haibike xDuro FS AMT Electric Bike