On one hand, it seems the motors are so good you don't hear all that much about issues, even as they overtake entire trailheads (especially in SoCal)... But on the other hand if you specifically ask for issues, in an enthusiast forum, you can end up with a laundry list of almost every motor in the industry failing for some unlucky fellows. But I just want to get a more general idea of the emtb motor landscape since I have not seen anyone provide anything close to actionable data on this concept (and I want to know if they really are all fine or if there are clear winners and losers with larger samples...)
So without writing out paragraphs, how long have you owned an ebike motor for without fail? (you can list multiple and list each length per bike)
As well as, which bike caused a failure/warranty (whether its as simple as sensor or a full battery fire)? (no need to list length of ownership but you can if you want)
(poll added for people who want a simple yes or no)
I have a Giant Trance E+1. It’s 7 years old now. I got it new. Yamaha PWX2 motor 500wh battery. I had the motor rebuilt 2 years ago. Only as a future precaution. 1 main bearing was a little rough and we replaced fibre drive cog as a precaution. Panasonic battery is 92% health. I have NOT replaced the bike because I like the 27.5 wheels front and back with 2.6 tyres.
Specialized / Brose Levo Gen 3, motor failed after 11 months approx. 1,000 miles and was replaced under warranty. Sold the bike a few months later, I know the second owner and he hasn't had any issues since.
Fazua 60 / Santa Cruz Heckler SL, motor developed alarming knock after 7 months approx. 800 miles and was replaced under warranty. Bike is now at 1,900 miles with no further issues.
Bosch CX 5 / Santa Cruz Vala. No issues after 850 miles / 9 months. Still sounds and performs like new.
shimano e8000 - at 6500km a bearing was loud, motor replaced under warranty due to friends at shimano, the second e8000 is 5000+ and still going strong under a mate of mine.
I moved to EP8, done 6000km's on this motor and no issues to report. 720wh BMZ battery (norco range vlt)
To put things into perspective, I put more km's on my emtb's than my own car per year.
Ive had 4 shimano motor's fail within 13 months, Never ridden in mud or anything like that.(2 bikes)
Had No failures on Bosch between 4 bikes.
Dude. Just buy one.
The motors are easily as durable as any of the other stuff in this hobby. If you’ve accepted that you can put a catastrophic scratch on a fork stanchion pulling your bike out of the garage, blow up a wheel at the trailhead kiosk, and get broke off on a green trail, the motors are just fine.
Battery degradation is my main eeb concern in 2025.
Eebs are the purest form of mountain biking ever: bomb smash repeat. The rippin and the tearin. Philosophical tenderberries that think there’s some sort of karmic reward for earning your turns are the same dingdongs who believe in karma. Insecure and afraid, they think they’ve got time left. Eebers know the truth. Mofos are gonna be on their deathbeds saying, “I’m so glad I got a fraction of the runs I could have!” Tragic.
I’ve complied with your reply format requests but I’m not sure I want to play your games. Saved my list to notes lol…you’re playing games. And it pains me to see that as we’re almost in 2026. Just buy one!
This is not about buying one. It's just a resource for the community (and myself, as part of it).
Also in terms of owning one. My girlfriend owns one. I steal it now and then. I have no need of an e-bike at the moment. (or put otherwise, "i have access to one whenever i wish")
What bothers me is 'schrodingers ebike'. The sense that every motor is 'okay', but also every motor is a roll of the dice 'equally'. Which mustn't be the case. I'd love to have SOME data, any data, to actually understand where things scale.
And the very start of this thread is already alarming. I dunno if people are reading the poll wrong but wow, that is alarming lol. It seems Shimano def scales more towards 'failure-prone' and I suppose unsurprisingly Bosch scales more towards bulletproof.
I'd love to get more input towards Fazua and TQ but I'm sure those sample sizes are inherently smaller so... Will be less accurate either way.
Also wondering how things are gonna go if Yamaha purchased Brose. Considering Yamaha are supposed to be good and Brose are supposed to be... FInnicky but repairable. I dunno. Will be interesting. (Are Specialized and SRAM still buying from Brose? And will they then continue...)
Oh.
Well that’s not exciting at all.
Here’s my decontextualized list of e-bike motors I’ve had die on me, with no reference to the ones that have not, nor any other classical bikes / components that have:
Currie motor: disintegrated. Ate its plastic gears. Sold as is to tinkerer.
1st gen Bosch motor: died with low mileage but five years in. Replaced at exorbitant cost.
Shimano e8000: died like four times, resurrected each time by my mechanic the God of Bikes.
Shimano EP8: BSOD at 750 miles.
Tally ‘em up!
Interesting. So with the EP8 it just outright failed on you, and when you warrantied it they didn't give you a 'better' response? Just said software borked itself? And did they re-set the unit and re-use it or just install a new unit and call it a day?
Yeah those early generations seemed pretty dicey across the board and the new ones seem quite good across the board. I'd happily go with whatever if buying, although I've heard so many nightmares around Fazua (which is a shame) that I'd be hesitant which sucks cuz that awesome Transition bike uses Fazua. I love their concept.
Gun to my head, forced to buy, I'd be very torn between levo 4 and amflow. Levo more for convenience/dealership, Amflow for outright performance. I'd probly just have analysis paralysis and choose an Orbea Wild instead and run away with a trusty Bosch (which I didn't even love when I demo'd it but, it's not like it was a bad motor).
I had lived my eeb life up until that point thinking that if you got through the first couple hundred miles or so you were golden. Mostly anecdotal experience, but I was at a big bike company while they were bringing in some of the first eebs and I was paying attention (hyped on them). If the things still fired up on week two, the Shimano STEPS and the Bosch motors and even their in-house ones, they’d be good until the bikes themselves fell apart. Like medieval times, the infant mortality rate was skewing the numbers…early adopters beware!
That seemed to be the case until a few years later with Shimano EP8s, where they’d just wear out and die. Like the Broses in the Specialized bikes did. Even more anecdotal for this era, as I wasn’t at the bike company anymore.
It’s a bummer these die, electric motors are super simple. Side note superfunfact: the first electric power tool was a drill. 1895. DC current in and it spins. SAME SHIT. Someone needs to straight up overbuild (appropriately build) an eeb motor we can pop apart and service with shit from the hardware store or Shuck’s. It’s embarrassing to put plastic gears in them. Cmon. Bike geo is solved, we’re done there. Let’s do this.
But yeah that Shimano motor died like a year in. No warning signs, just hitting its stride, boom dead. Concerning. I ghostrode it through the Transition Outpost doors and they had a new motor from Shimano in there in a week. Still on it.
Cant imagine how rad my next one will be.
My E-Bikes get tested pretty good, so I have quite a few failures to report.
I ride about 5000km/year exclusively on enduro trails and often steep uphills. (2000m elevation per 30km ride). 90% of the time I ride boost mode and all through winter in the rain and mud. I never power wash bikes. All bikes bought online.
E8000: ran for 7500km before it started making noises. But I did a lot of distance on easy/flat terrain on this bike.
Fazua Ride 60: had 4 motor failures within the one year (about 4000km) I owned it. The last motor failure had a production date of January 2024, where supposedly every quality issues had already been fixed. Issues were different each time and never showed an error, just intermittent or no power at all from motor. I suspect most failures were due to the insufficient seal on the axle/axle bearing. Fazua support was quick, but finding a local shop to do the warranty and replacement not that easy.
Shimano EP8: Failed after ~2000km with error. The replacement was accidentally shipped with the shimano default ~32" wheel size setting and cannot be changed by local dealers.
My friends Shimano EP8 also failed twice after first 2000km and then about 800km. Both times it started grinding and overheating beforehand from water/dirt ingress.
Bosch CX Gen 5 100nm: all good so far (1000km).
With batteries I never had issues. I never go below 5% SoC, always plug in right away when i get home. I always leave them at 100%, even the second battery that sometimes sits for weeks without use.
Kona Minute cargo bike with Luna Cycles BBSHD kit on it and their Shark battery. 8 years, 3000+ miles. Zero problems. Fast and very powerful. We also have a $2k rad power city bike with over 2000 miles on it thats about 5 years old, no problems.
I ride a pals Levo gen 2 with 10000+ miles on it sometimes when I visit Santa Cruz. Its his spare bike. I think its on its 4th or 5th motor, replaced by S as he is in the industry. I believe they recently told him they'd not be replacing it again for free, but I can't confirm that. It rides great and has taken an amazing beating in its life. Last time I rode it the derailleur died. We pulled a rusty SLX 12s derailleur out of his parts bin, broke it free with some sort of bolt loosener solution and slapped it on there. I was shifting that thing up and down in turbo mode on ridiculously steep climbs with no issues. It was almost like the drivetrain shifted better with 4x the power put through it.
Having had/have 4 eebs. No issues. Except dropping the motor to get the derailer cable change. That sucks. But electrical? Nah. Not yet? HA
I’ve got 300 miles or so on a ep801 YT Decoy that I bought right before they went under. So 5 months maybe? If my knee keeps acting a little shit it’s going to be my primary bike for 2026. I typically ride rain or shine, I can’t right now as there’s too much snow on the ground. Should be a decent torture test as I’m not easy on bikes usually.
Shimano EP6 lasted 2000 mi with no issues before selling.
Current Fazua is at 1500 mi without replacing. There does seem to be some sort of issue with the torque sensor though, maybe once every several rides it will get confused for a minute and cut out or start jerking. This hasn't bothered me quite enough to go through the (ostensibly quick) warranty process
My Fazua ride 60 didnt work out of the box. Had to warranty replace the speed sensor.
Not a proper warranty, but I had to send a Shimano motor back to Shimano, it was bricked when I tried to do a software update via the blue tooth connection instead of plugging it into the computer.
The bluetooth connection dropped partway thru, and it was bricked bad enough that they couldn't remote fix it, the Shimano rep also wasn't able to resurrect it in the shop with his own laptop which had higher access privileges than the shops account.
So return to base for that one.
lol silly thing to try, but live and learn.
Maybe we've just been really lucky but not a single problem from any of mine or my dad's Shimano motors. E8000: 1,500 hard miles on mine, 2,000+ dad miles on his. EP8: 300 miles on mine 1,500+ dad miles on his. What's funny is between all four of these bikes we've had major problems that were NOT the motor. (broken chainstays, wire harness issues, Canyon Spectral ON battery recall) These bikes spend most of their time in dry to hero dirt conditions, but have seen wet (no creeks). We wash them carefully.
When my EP801 dies while out of it's 2 year warranty (a joke) I'll try one of the $350 EP8s on AliExpress. There's more than a few people on EMTB forums and FB that have bought them and say they're legit. The sheer time and effort it would take to engineer a fake ebike motor, not to mention the near impossibility of them reverse engineering the firmware has me confident enough to try an AliExpress motor for 1/3 the price. If it works it'd be great to have a spare motor on hand to never miss a ride when the next one dies. Places that rebuild Shimano motors are popping up too. PNW Suspension Service and this new place called EMTB Repair in FL.
For all brands it's not if, it's when the motor will die. All of the brands need to do better than a 2 year warranty. Provide repair parts, do official repair/refurb, sell me a service package, something that doesn't involve shelling out $1,000+ for an entire motor when all that needs replacing is the torque sensor. It's hilarious to me that you can buy a Santa Cruz with lifetime warranty frame, bearings, and rims but if the motor dies in 2 years you're out another $1,000+ on your $7,000+ bike.
Bought a Levo in June 2018, still going strong. Had friends with four Kenevos bought at the same time, every motor failed. All of theirs within two years, mine just after the warranty period. Only difference was mine was the only one kept in a heated space.
So motor replaced around 20/21, and replacement has been fine since. Original battery still working fine.
Two Transition relays with Fazu ride 60. One bought two years ago in November one bought the following February.
the older one has gone through 3 motor replacement one speed sensor. Nothing was ever visually wrong with the speed sensor but I got no power until that was replaced.
two motor replacements were completely dead, showing no signs of anything and it happened randomly one motor replacement was due to the drive side, bearing on the spindle wearing out and causing the bash guard to rub into the motor creating a whole bunch of noise.
the newer bike has had two motor replacements, both catastrophic failures meaning it just died out of nowhere for no apparent reason.
one battery on a friend’s bike died and he was able to just contact Fazu directly and they sent him one without any fuss about a week later
the warranty process has been fairly annoying only for the fact that you’re at the mercy of some shop kid who has probably not ever touched this product before so you’re just waiting for him to actually take the time to fill out. All of the documents require required for warranty as well as relying on someplace like the Transition outpost who has an incredibly high turnover rate for mechanics to actually do everything properly. Seeing as I bought the bike direct, I definitely should be able to replace the motor myself as there’s no training that Fazu offers.
sidenote we constantly have problems with the ring controller sticking, and the bikes randomly shutting off despite it not happening in all conditions some days I’ll have rides that is completely dry and it will shut off two or three times and other days where I’m literally riding in a bathtub and the will stay on the entire time.
all in all I absolutely love the bike that it’s attached to and when it works the feeling that the motor Gibbs is second to none but holy shit does Fazo have the worst reliability of any product in any space I’ve ever owned
Wild reports. Not sure I'd buy a higher end mtb ebike from anything other than a well established local shop just for the support if the motor fails. And that this point maybe only a bike with a bosch motor.
Shimano e8000 on a 2018 Meta power: Motor replaced at 10,000 km and 4 years, €1000 out of pocket, replaced the lower battery terminal/connectors also.
Giant/Yamaha: 2 years and 4,000km no issues at all, sold. Great motor just a bit less efficient than a Bosch and less powerful and overheated in Summer on long climbs.
Bosch Gen 5: 1 year and 2,000 km without issues. I have the 100Nm upgrade which overheats dramatically in summer (like 10 minutes of tech climbing the motor goes into limp mode).
EP8 with 1200 miles on it, no problems before I sold the bike. Ran the 630 battery, had multiple ones to swap around. Did see some degradation in range and an unreliable battery percentage (as shown on a connected Garmin) when below 30% - would dump pretty fast at that point regardless of which of the three batteries I was using.
1st & only ebike is a 2023 Marin Alpine E with Shimano ep6 motor & 504wH battery. Zero issues so far, but all I've heard is that it ep6 or 8 is "flaming garbage" but 2.5 years later and 2500 miles deep, battery health is 92% and no probs to report. Can still pull 4000 ft climb days (450 if riding 1 of 7 power, riding with reg bike crew). Maybe I'm just lucky - should add I'm mostly riding really steep / rough terrain with gradual gravel road vs. techy climbs.
Bosch Gen 4. 200km? System turns off randomly after 10 minutes every time I think I've solved the issue. I'm assuming it's a faulty overheating sensor but I've had 3 Bosch techs plug in and say nothing is wrong. Haven't been able to get a warranty so It's been a nice tease for the last two years in my garage.
Wait, YOU could not get a warranty!?!? Lmao. Yep, The bike business is cooked!
An ep8 and dafron battery combo shit out at about 100 miles
Two other ep8’s with no issues
A fazua w a faulty sensor replaced under warranty
Two yamaha motors absolutely flawless
Thats cute you ride the same size bike as your girlfriend 😂
Been riding a ep8 for almost 2 years now, got 4000 miles on it with no issues, & bought it used with no warranty!
Fazua Ride 60 on a YT Decoy SN died after 260 miles. It started pulling the crank spindle towards the non-drive side until bottoming out the crank against the chainring lock ring, and then ate itself. One shop refused to help because they hated dealing with Fazua. A second shop had a whole box of spare drive units ready for warranty replacement and did it for me in under a week. I was thankful but am concerned that they stock spare motors. Only 50 miles with the new motor so far, fingers crossed for better luck, because this thing is amazing.
It's a shame that this crowd is echoing everything I've read across EMTB forums/Reddit/Insta about the Fazua, because it really does seem like the goldilocks zone of ebike motors. The Relay is the perfect ebike concept too. I think of it as "this is my shuttle bike" sometimes the shuttle is a chairlift/ truck (battery out, weight of motor at bottom making the bike eat) and sometimes the shuttle is my own legs with assist. Want to do a really long self-shuttle day? Extra battery in the truck at the shuttle pickup zone. Really hope companies don't abandon that concept but with the amount of non-removable battery Bosch bikes (wack) and the fact that DJI doesn't even make a removable battery doesn't have me holding out hope.
Totally offtopic, but this trigger me so much. Even brands local to me (where most people live in flats/apartments) refuse to design removable battery ebikes.
Apart from that, what I fear the most about jumping into an ebike (apart from cost) is not so much reliability (its gonna suck) but for how long you are going able to find spares, most batteries not being standar but also the number of times motor companies change their bolt pattern
Post a reply to: I want some useful data. How long have you owned your ebike with no failure/warranty? (And which ebike MOTOR/battery did have failure/warranty?)