[EchoTony]

I agree 100%... My first SC and I am not impressed thus far (other than the plush ride).

I reported to Santa Cruz too, but haven't heard a thing from them....

I know, in my case, it is a Shimano issue, but still.... i bought a brand new (and pricey) Santa Cruz bike so this should be their concern too.
I'm a long time Santa Cruz owner that has, and have had, several Santa Cruz bikes, so i know they are, usually, very, very good. But i can just imagine if this had happened to a first time Santa Cruz buyer.... no more Santa Cruz for sure.
It's their name as a brand that is at stake and they should seriously care about it.

I had the shop call shimano. In stock for regular order is late July, but shimano does have some in warranty stock, at least when they called. They are sending out now, so should have by next week.

 

[EchoTony]

I have followed up with Shimano directly and have to say they are 100% on it. 2 days after contacting them, they are sending the shop a replacement motor. This is even before my LBS has a chance to actually look at the problem. They have spoken to my LBS and are sending it on my explanation and their desire to keep buyers of the EP8 happy.
I'm not thrilled it broke in the first place, but I have to say Shimano's CS is very good. I'm hopeful I'll have it back w/in the next 10 days. But given the LBS' current repair backlog, that's wishful thinking.

 

[anortham]

Bullit died, was swapped a Heckler to replace it instead of waiting months for a new motor. Heckler just died too, same symptoms.

 

[EchoTony]

I'm pleased to say that Shimano is working to keep people happy. I don't know if they have a defective product, but they did work hard to make me happy. From what I'm reading/seeing, these are about as reliable as the Brose motor. So they are going to fail until they figure out how to make them more robust like Brose had to do.

 

[BeerdedBiker]

Same thing just happened to me tonight. Another SC Bullit. Thankfully I wasn’t too deep in the trail system near me and could limp it out. Hopefully my LBS in Santa Cruz can get a replacement quickly.

 

[lotusdriver]

This is bad news, my E8000 has been fine but Shimano need to sort the EP8, did they not test it properly in development?

 

[EchoTony]

Same thing just happened to me tonight. Another SC Bullit. Thankfully I wasn't too deep in the trail system near me and could limp it out. Hopefully my LBS in Santa Cruz can get a replacement quickly.

Call Shimano right away. They will get the replacement to your LBS before they even order it.

 

[BeerdedBiker]

Call Shimano right away. They will get the replacement to your LBS before they even order it.

I had tried contacting Shimano directly but it was over the weekend so I decided to drop the bike off at the shop on Sunday. Talked to the LBS yesterday and I should be back on the trails by the weekend. Just hoping this doesn't happen again in a few months.

 

[The Jaisah]

My Commencal Meta Power SX Race stopped working last weekend. I've done ~850km on it and it's been great. Didn't use it much over the winter and then did a few rides when spring rolled around and then one day I started it up to go for a ride and got error code E035. It won't start. Took it to the local shop and they have had it for a week and don't know what the problem is. They've been talking to Shimano, did a full system wipe and reinstall and the problem persists. At this point I don't know what they will do. Might have to replace everything peice by peice until it works? I'm glad this it under warranty because I hate to imagine the bill if it wasn't. I think I might sell it when I get it back and just keep riding my trusty Stumpjumper. Anyone heard of error E035?

Another extremely worrying thing happened: when I was lifting it up onto the bike rack to take it to the shop I noticed that the front mounting bolt for the motor was gone and the next one back was loose. I showed the guy at the shop and he was like "**** that shouldn't happen. They should be extremely tight with lock tight on them." That's pretty worrying and I hate to imagine what would've happened if it came off when riding. Makes me wonder about Commencal quality control....

 

[lotusdriver]

That's bad news, l hope you get it sorted quickly, could be the connectors on the motor unit, l've read of a few problems with those.

However in regards to the loose motor bolts, it's really up to you to regularly check the bike, including all bolts and fasteners.

lf you've hammered the bike for nearly 1,000km it's well overdue an inspection. I check mine after every couple of rides.

Unless of course the threads have stripped or the fasteners have actually failed, rather than just coming loose.

 

[blueglide]

My Commencal Meta Power SX Race stopped working last weekend. I've done ~850km on it and it's been great. Didn't use it much over the winter and then did a few rides when spring rolled around and then one day I started it up to go for a ride and got error code E035. It won't start. Took it to the local shop and they have had it for a week and don't know what the problem is. They've been talking to Shimano, did a full system wipe and reinstall and the problem persists. At this point I don't know what they will do. Might have to replace everything peice by peice until it works? I'm glad this it under warranty because I hate to imagine the bill if it wasn't. I think I might sell it when I get it back and just keep riding my trusty Stumpjumper. Anyone heard of error E035?

Another extremely worrying thing happened: when I was lifting it up onto the bike rack to take it to the shop I noticed that the front mounting bolt for the motor was gone and the next one back was loose. I showed the guy at the shop and he was like "**** that shouldn't happen. They should be extremely tight with lock tight on them." That's pretty worrying and I hate to imagine what would've happened if it came off when riding. Makes me wonder about Commencal quality control....

According to Shimano that is an "abnormality detected in the vehicle settings". Has your bike been derestricted??

 

[The Jaisah]

According to Shimano that is an "abnormality detected in the vehicle settings". Has your bike been derestricted??

Yeah I found the same description in the user manual. It was pretty nondescript. And no it's not derestricted.

 

[The Jaisah]

That's bad news, l hope you get it sorted quickly, could be the connectors on the motor unit, l've read of a few problems with those.

However in regards to the loose motor bolts, it's really up to you to regularly check the bike, including all bolts and fasteners.

lf you've hammered the bike for nearly 1,000km it's well overdue an inspection. I check mine after every couple of rides.

Unless of course the threads have stripped or the fasteners have actually failed, rather than just coming loose.

I dunno man, there are some parts that are user serviceable and there are some parts that should be tightened and lock tighted in place. I've had my 2019 Stumpjumper for almost 4 years (bought it late September 2018) and I've done a lot of km on it. I check it regularly but I've never had a single bolt come loose. A well built bike shouldn't have problems like that. Even the technician at the shop was shocked and said that those shouldn't come loose as they're supposed to be torqued quite tight with locktite. I've had a few other minor issues with that bike too like the top cap of the dropper post coming undone and sucking grit into the seal. That too isn't user serviceable and should be locktited into place. I sent it back to them under warranty and they cleaned it and sent it back but doesn't change the fact that the stanchion is scratched. Again I'll reference my 4 year old Stumpjumper with 3000+km on it and the dropper post works like new with zero scratches. It works better after 4 years than the one Commencal provided when it was new. Overall it's a decent bike but just feels a bit cheaply made and clearly they didn't put it together very well.

 

[bmwzimmer]

Bringing this thread back. What I am noticing is a lot of the EP8 failures stem from bikes with easily removable batteries. I’ve had a bike with a removeable battery and sometimes it had issues when water would get on the contacts or when the battery is occasionally removed and installed a few times the connection points would not be as tight. I am guessing an intermittent connection at the battery may cause some of the sensors or electronics to get a little whacky??? With my old bike, I tried to stretch out the contacts to ensure a good connection, spray it with contact cleaner and added lots of dielectric grease and stopped removing the battery and my issues never came back. Just a thought as many EP8 owners with non removeable batteries don’t seem to have as many issues with the motor

 

[33red]

Bringing this thread back. What I am noticing is a lot of the EP8 failures stem from bikes with easily removable batteries. I’ve had a bike with a removeable battery and sometimes it had issues when water would get on the contacts or when the battery is occasionally removed and installed a few times the connection points would not be as tight. I am guessing an intermittent connection at the battery may cause some of the sensors or electronics to get a little whacky??? With my old bike, I tried to stretch out the contacts to ensure a good connection, spray it with contact cleaner and added lots of dielectric grease and stopped removing the battery and my issues never came back. Just a thought as many EP8 owners with non removeable batteries don’t seem to have as many issues with the motor

My Yamaha/Giant takes 2 seconds to remove/install and no issue. I ride/charge/remove twice a day.
Maybe i am a smart rider, i never wash a bike and that helps.
I just wipe the excess off. Without a car i ride to the trails and back.
This bike sees ice, snow, rain, slush, etc an keeps on running.

 

[dolomitedad]

Interesting seeing these issues with warranties and replacement times - I guess it depends on your country's consumer protection laws. Here in New Zealand the E7000 motor on my Kona died after 470km. Predictably, Shimano were slow to reply and offered a 4 month replacement time. Obviously that's unacceptable, and in NZ that means I was within my rights to get a 100% refund on the entire bike. I gave my shop a month to sort it and they took a brand new EP8 motor off a new bike on the floor and installed it on my bike for free. So I had a good deal, but I guess that's because we have good laws here in NZ to address such situations. Now I'm hoping my EP8 lasts!

 

[bakemyner]

I have an Orbea Rise H15, purchased in Salt Lake City, UT on 6/17/22, it has 220 miles on it, the EP8 motor started making clunking noises and then not engaging the pedals at the start of pedaling, it was very intermittent until it was making noise all the time. Took it to a Shimano dealer and they just called to say Shimano will replace it under warranty but it will be at least a month to get a new motor. No crank arm issues that I know of. I ride black and blue trails and weigh 225 pounds, and am 62 years old so I not ripping as hard as most anymore. Never crashed the bike. After waiting 5 and a half months to get the bike I wanted and now this delay waiting for a motor replacement that may or may not produce the same issue, I'm pretty disappointed in the whole experience so far. I'm looking forward to riding it more than I've spent time waiting to ride.

 

[ktmrider525]

Seeing if anyone else out there has had problems with their EP8. Purchased an SC Bullit in march and I now have 520 miles on it. Yesterday I drove down south to explore some new trail in Utah. 20ft into my ride and the motor cut out. You can hear the motor spinning and attempting to assist, but no power is delivered. My first thoughts are that the disengagement part of the motor that allows it to pedal freely after 20 has already broken.

If you've already had a problem/warranty, how long did it take for you to get a replacement? I know the Shimano rep and he said September is the next shipment on those... o how I hope it's not that long.

I have about 2600 miles on my Orbea rise. The other day my motor stopped and the display showed a E050 code . I called Shimano and they where not any help. Then I updated the firmware with a shimano app, that fixed it.

 

[shipmannampihs]

Mine failed after 650 miles you can hear it spinning but no forward drive. Sometimes it’s works sometimes it doesn’t.

 

[Eatdirt2]

I don’t know if this is a a little late but my Santa Cruz bullet EP8motor after 1000 miles took a dump it’s just over its warranty. Shimano doesn’t wanna help with anything new motors $1500 plus whatever labor cost is into it so I guess I’ve got a Ebike. It is going to become wall art suggestion Don’t buy anything with a EP8 Shimano motor they don’t back their products. you paid $10,000 for a bike and it only lasts 1000 miles when they say they got motors under test for 20,000 miles and then they don’t want to help you out at least on half price. I mean if a motor get leased 6000 miles on it you might be happy if you bought a Tesla for 100,000 dollars and it last for 50,000 miles and a Tesla would step in and take care of the problem I mean might sound stupid, but that kind of money for an E bike and then Shimano doesn’t want it back nothing sorry for the rant just pissed