Bought 2 KHS SIXFIFTY 5555+E ebikes - Not Real Happy So Far

[jallenlot]

My husband and I are new e-bike riders. We bought two SIXFIFTY 5555+E e-bikes. We had trouble finding any in stock locally and ended up driving 12 hours to pick them up.

Our first issue...The assist kept cutting out on one of the bikes. We drove back to the store. They could not figure out what was wrong so they traded it out for another.

The battery on the other bike is having issues.
On the 1st ride, the battery went from being 60% charged to total drain.
On the 2nd ride, the bike was down to 25% while the other was still at 50%.
On the 3rd ride, the battery dropped by 25% after only using the assist for 2 miles.

On the 2nd & 3rd ride we were staying in the same gear with the same assist power so that we could compare batteries. The only thing we have not tried yet is switching batteries to make sure the battery issue is not related to the motor or the controller.

I feel like our first mistake was buying the bikes so far away. We have already driven to the bike store twice. Another 12-hour trip sounds exhausting to me right now.

Is the battery issue I am having a common problem with these e-bikes or any e-bikes? I might be willing to just buy another battery instead of making that long drive back to the bike shop again. However, I am being told that batteries are hard to get right now. Is there an online e-bike store in the US that has batteries and other replacement parts.

Both bikes also have a real loud squalling noise when we hit the breaks. We have tried cleaning the pads and the discs and sanding the pads. Are there different quality brake pads?

 

[Anton]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the troubles with your new ebikes.

Before your very first ride, you should always charge an ebike battery for the full 12 hours. The long initial charge makes sure the current flows through all of the cells and helps to condition the battery right out of the box. If your battery continues to play up, even after a full charge, I would be definitely trying to claim it on warranty. I hope for your sake the battery is included in the warranty.

I must say the KHS SIXFIFTY 5555+E does look like a very nice EMTB.

The KHS SIXFIFTY 5555+E comes with a non branded battery where as the next model up, the KHS SIXFIFTY 6555+E comes with a Shimano battery. If you take a look at the specifications page on the KHS website it lists the following:

KHS SIXFIFTY 5555+E

• Lithium 36V x 14Ah, 504wh

KHS SIXFIFTY 6555+E

• Shimano Lithium 36V x 14Ah, 504Wh

I would say you could easily upgrade to the Shimano Lithium 36V x 14Ah, 504Wh battery in the future, however you should check with KHS to confirm the battery connection and holder are in fact the same.

As for your squeaky disc brakes, you can try cleaning your disc rotors with cleaning alcohol or a dedicated disc brake cleaner. Don't touch the disc rotors with your fingers and keep lubricants and sprays well away from them. Also read up about how to align disc brakes as the noise can sometime be caused by vibrations when the disc rotor is improperly aligned to the brake pads.

 

[Hoggdoc]

My husband and I are new e-bike riders. We bought two SIXFIFTY 5555+E e-bikes. We had trouble finding any in stock locally and ended up driving 12 hours to pick them up.

Our first issue...The assist kept cutting out on one of the bikes. We drove back to the store. They could not figure out what was wrong so they traded it out for another.

The battery on the other bike is having issues.
On the 1st ride, the battery went from being 60% charged to total drain.
On the 2nd ride, the bike was down to 25% while the other was still at 50%.
On the 3rd ride, the battery dropped by 25% after only using the assist for 2 miles.

On the 2nd & 3rd ride we were staying in the same gear with the same assist power so that we could compare batteries. The only thing we have not tried yet is switching batteries to make sure the battery issue is not related to the motor or the controller.

I feel like our first mistake was buying the bikes so far away. We have already driven to the bike store twice. Another 12-hour trip sounds exhausting to me right now.

Is the battery issue I am having a common problem with these e-bikes or any e-bikes? I might be willing to just buy another battery instead of making that long drive back to the bike shop again. However, I am being told that batteries are hard to get right now. Is there an online e-bike store in the US that has batteries and other replacement parts.

Both bikes also have a real loud squalling noise when we hit the breaks. We have tried cleaning the pads and the discs and sanding the pads. Are there different quality brake pads?

Holy cow for the money they are getting for those bikes they should be flawless. I suggest to return the bikes and by a name brand like a Giant or something that has a long history in the industry.

 

[Anton]

Holy cow for the money they are getting for those bikes they should be flawless. I suggest to return the bikes and by a name brand like a Giant or something that has a long history in the industry.

They're not cheap hey, you would expect a brand named battery for that price or at least a working battery with decent cells. Definitely return it for a replacement battery if you continue to have problems.

 

[jallenlot]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the troubles with your new ebikes.

Before your very first ride, you should always charge an ebike battery for the full 12 hours. The long initial charge makes sure the current flows through all of the cells and helps to condition the battery right out of the box. If your battery continues to play up, even after a full charge, I would be definitely trying to claim it on warranty. I hope for your sake the battery is included in the warranty.

I must say the KHS SIXFIFTY 5555+E does look like a very nice EMTB.

View attachment 1349

The KHS SIXFIFTY 5555+E comes with a non branded battery where as the next model up, the KHS SIXFIFTY 6555+E comes with a Shimano battery. If you take a look at the specifications page on the KHS website it lists the following:

KHS SIXFIFTY 5555+E

• Lithium 36V x 14Ah, 504wh

KHS SIXFIFTY 6555+E

• Shimano Lithium 36V x 14Ah, 504Wh

I would say you could easily upgrade to the Shimano Lithium 36V x 14Ah, 504Wh battery in the future, however you should check with KHS to confirm the battery connection and holder are in fact the same.

As for your squeaky disc brakes, you can try cleaning your disc rotors with cleaning alcohol or a dedicated disc brake cleaner. Don't touch the disc rotors with your fingers and keep lubricants and sprays well away from them. Also read up about how to align disc brakes as the noise can sometime be caused by vibrations when the disc rotor is improperly aligned to the brake pads.

 

[jallenlot]

Thank you Anton & Hoggdoc for your reply.

We have tried all the different steps on Youtube for cleaning the brake pads and rotary. We dropped one of the bikes off at a local bike shop. They are going to replace the pads and rotor. If there is still a problem or the problem pops back up again we will replace the front and rear brake systems with a better quality system. I do have to say that I was surprised that in order to get a better quality brake system on the bikes it will cost $250 for each tire. That will be $1000 for both bikes.

I am also going to start looking for a couple of Shimano ion lithium batteries to replace the ones we have. I have done a little bit of searching for them already but they don't seem to be easy to find. Can anyone here suggest where I might look and where I might buy them from?

I do want to add that my husband and myself are not riding these bikes real hard. I am in my 60's and my husband is in his 70's. We are being real casual and have so far only ridden the bikes on the pavement.

As you both said, you would think for the cost of these bikes they would have come with a higher quality battery. Now I am worried about the motor, which is an MPF. Does anyone here know anything about the quality of an MPF motor? Is this also a no-name or inferrer brand name motor. If the motor were to go out in a year from now, what are the chances of replacing it with a BOSCH motor? Do people ever change out their motors or is the bike just worthless if it completely goes out?

The bike itself without the electrical stuff is nice. However, I am starting to feel like we got a nice bike with a lot of cheap electrical and cheap accessories attached to it.

 

[jallenlot]

I just wanted to post an update on the situation we have run into with the two KHS bikes we purchased.

We do like the bikes themselves so we decided we would try to work with KHS INC to get the battery replaced under warranty.

We have reached out to KHS INC in Rancho Dominguez CA but they will not respond. The local bike shop where we live has also tried to reach out to them and they have also heard nothing back from KHS INC.

We took both bikes to the local bike shop to see if they could resolve the squalling brakes issue, they replaced the brake pads on both bikes with Shimano brake pads but the squalling noise is still there when we apply the brakes. We are going to have the bike shop replace the whole brake system on both bikes. This is going to cost us $250 for each tire. We are not asking for a warranty from KHS on the brakes issue. We simply want a resolution to the problem.

As for the defective battery on one of the bikes, we feel this should be a warranty issue.

We are very disappointed that these bikes came with such low-quality accessories and that KHS will not address our concerns.

I guess we will be replacing the battery ourselves. I just hope that the motor on both bikes does not have any problems in the near future.

Can anyone tell me where most people shop online for their e-bike accessories?

 

[ejphotos]

Sorry to hear about the issues. Stinks to have brand new bikes with those issues, takes away from the fun factor.
Regarding the brakes - how do they perform besides the noise?

 

[jallenlot]

Sorry to hear about the issues. Stinks to have brand new bikes with those issues, takes away from the fun factor.
Regarding the brakes - how do they perform besides the noise?

The brakes are spot on as far as stopping the bikes, but the noise is horrid.

 

[ejphotos]

Some slight squeak noise is common with hydro discs, but it shouldn't be horrid noise. Were the rotors replaced as well, or just the pads? What kind of material pads are they?

 

[jallenlot]

Only the pads were replaced. The bike shop that did the work said the rotors were fine. If I remember correctly, they put metallic brake pads on the bikes. After they replaced the pads, both bike brakes worked without any noise for about 2 miles before they started making noise again. They are mountain bikes and we do ride in the mountains but most of our riding has been on paved roads.

 

[Slogger]

Hello, I came from the motorcycling world into the e bikes. Brake squeal is sometimes caused by vibrations which can be damped out by using this stuff -
Perma tex
Between the pad and the caliper surface.
Trying to help out..
Slogger

 

[dave1247]

Personally I wouldn't worry about brake squeal if they are working OK and not binding. It may well go away on its own over time anyway.

 

[jallenlot]

Hello, I came from the motorcycling world into the e bikes. Brake squeal is sometimes caused by vibrations which can be damped out by using this stuff -
Perma tex
Between the pad and the caliper surface.
Trying to help out..
Slogger

Thanks, we tried this. The squeal was still there.

We did finally resolve the problem. It turned out that both bikes had a lazy piston. This actually surprised us just because it was both bikes.

We also have resolved the battery issue. Our local bike shop was able to get there KHS rep to send us a new battery.

In 2 months we have gone almost 200 miles. We took our first ride through the mountains a couple days ago with out the horrid squealing sound. It was real nice.

 

[neilh]

My husband and I are new e-bike riders. We bought two SIXFIFTY 5555+E e-bikes. We had trouble finding any in stock locally and ended up driving 12 hours to pick them up.

Our first issue...The assist kept cutting out on one of the bikes. We drove back to the store. They could not figure out what was wrong so they traded it out for another.

The battery on the other bike is having issues.
On the 1st ride, the battery went from being 60% charged to total drain.
On the 2nd ride, the bike was down to 25% while the other was still at 50%.
On the 3rd ride, the battery dropped by 25% after only using the assist for 2 miles.

On the 2nd & 3rd ride we were staying in the same gear with the same assist power so that we could compare batteries. The only thing we have not tried yet is switching batteries to make sure the battery issue is not related to the motor or the controller.

I feel like our first mistake was buying the bikes so far away. We have already driven to the bike store twice. Another 12-hour trip sounds exhausting to me right now.

Is the battery issue I am having a common problem with these e-bikes or any e-bikes? I might be willing to just buy another battery instead of making that long drive back to the bike shop again. However, I am being told that batteries are hard to get right now. Is there an online e-bike store in the US that has batteries and other replacement parts.

Both bikes also have a real loud squalling noise when we hit the breaks. We have tried cleaning the pads and the discs and sanding the pads. Are there different quality brake pads?

nice full suspension e-bikes. what did you pay for them? i had a battery replaced w/o a problem in the 1st couple months but it all depends on the warranty of course and where you bought your e-bike. but the battery should be pretty dependable. its very rare for one to fail during a 1 year warranty period. other than the battery all other parts are pretty cheap if you have to replace anything.