Evo 3 gears broken

Hi,

I purchased the evo 3 in January of this year. Unfortunately earlier this week the bike broke down. As I was riding, the pedals were quite suddenly completely locked. After walking back home and experimenting with the bike a bit, I realized I could still manually turn the sprocket (had to look that word up :slight_smile: ) directly without problems, but if I turned the pedals, they would lock after one rotation. With some strength I could push past it, but it would recur after the next full rotation. So the pedals always lock in the same spot. All this leads me to believe that the problem is in the gear box somewhere.

Does anybody have any advice on this? I browsed the forum, but I could not find mention of similar problems. In fact, I learned that the squeaky noises that the bike has been making when I peddle up the hill and that troubled me before, are most likely not part of the problem, as that is apparently normal.

Thanks,
Mathijs

Hello Mathijs,

unfortunately you’re not alone - there are several cases of broken evo drives known :cry:

I’m afraid you will need a replacement drive plus either a workstore or some tools:
Strida KS3 Gearbox Replacement

Evo 3 gear shifting problem

Kind regards,

Chris

Hi Chris,

thanks for the quick reply. Just to be clear: the problems described in the gear shifting section are not the same as what I have.

If I really need to replace the gearbox, that would be quite a disappointment. I have no technical knowledge, that’s why I bought a zero-maintenance bike… It’s still under the warranty, so I hope the dealer (Strida-Roma) will handle it for me (I wrote them today), but that will mean I don’t have a bike for some time. Also, if the gearbox just breaks like that, what is the likelihood that it will happen again?

It’s already the second time the bike breaks in barely nine months. Previously the ball-joint popped out, even though I was not doing anything crazy with the bike. I also had quite a few minor issues. So far I had a lot more to do with this zero-maintenance bike than with any normal bike I’ve owned.

Mathijs

Hi Mathijs, that is bad luck that your gearbox has failed but it can happen. It would be nice if the KS3 gearbox was 100% reliable but it is not. Your dealer will know what to do to help you. I have extra gearboxes so than I can help a customer quickly if it happens, hopefully your dealer does the same, ask them if they can put another gearbox in your bike.

Bill

Hello Mathijs,

yes, the issues are different but the effect is the same - broken drive.

Zero maintenance bikes do not exist on this planet - whoever claims that is a liar.

A Belgian friend gave up and sold his EVO after one year; he rode ~ 3500 km and needed three gearboxes… :confused:

Hi Bill, Chris,

thanks again for the quick replies. Bill, I think you helped me out once when I had this ball joint pop out and I visited your site while trying to fix it myself. I was helped by someone in the live chat there, I presume it was you, so thanks for that too.

I’m not expecting 100% reliability. I do not like that the bike is referred to as zero-maintenance, when that is not true, but I am not stupid and I understood that that was not exactly true when I bought it. But I have to wonder what the failure rates are here. How often does a gearbox just break? In most industries failure rates are expressed in ppm, i.e. parts per million. Would that be the appropriate unit here? If so, your Belgian friend might want to play the lottery. If, on the other hand, three failures (like his) are something that can happen and are shrugged off with “nothing’s perfect”, then I do not think this product is worth its price.

I hate to be aggressive about this, but I am genuinely surprised by the reaction of two professional strida sellers (which has been courteous and helpful!) to what seems to be a systemic problem. Just imagine that the same thing would happen with a new car.

Anyway, I do mean my thanks for the help. Let’s see how the warranty works out.

Thanks,
Mathijs

You’re right Mathijs; but if you mean me with the second seller then please note:

[size=150]Disclaimer:
I, Blackstridaaustria, DO NOT have any commercial connection to Strida - neither to Ming cycle nor to Strida Distributors/dealers!
[/size]

I’m connected via friendship with a few Strida dealers - and that’s it definitely.

Ah, I’m sorry, I misunderstood!

By the way, stridaroma has been most helpful so far.

Don’t worry, surely no issue :smiley:

I’d love to get in touch with the Italians - kind regards to them if possible, please :smiley:

I’d like to add here that in the case of my Belgian friend his drive was replaced two times by an official German Strida dealer, where the bike was bought, on warranty without problem.
(German because my friend lives exactly in the border triangle of Germany/Belgium/Netherlands near Aachen :wink: )

It will be hard to find out reliable number for a rate; guess Ming cycle won’t tell us, Strida dealers might watch things from a different angle of sight (partially of course comprehensible) and here at the forum will be just a minority of all Strida owners.
Well…and at forums appear people often if there’s a problem - and not if everything is running fine, I’m afraid of…
What I mean is; none of above mentioned parties will be able to supply true data!
But as always; there must be at least one exception to substantiate the theory;
for my meaning should this be the factory of the drives, namely sturmey-archer.
(I’ve heard that all defective drives will be sent back to Sun Race for refurbishing - they must know the real rate.)
So…what’s more easy than just writing them and ask?
Would you think that’s foolish?
I can tell you - I did!
Of course I got no reply at all :imp:

Also naturally I’ve asked directly in Taiwan and Korea about “how many” and everybody said “a few”…

Hi Mathijs, yes if we chatted on my website then it was me because there is only me at Strida Canada!

I always refer to the Strida as low maintenance and not zero maintenance and I think one of the most important parts of the low maintenance is keeping it clean.

From my experience what compounds the gearbox issue is Sturmey Archer’s policy of repairing the gearbox and not replacing it. When the gearbox was first released this made sense because they may have wanted to know what internal part was failing but after three years this policy for me no longer makes sense. This is because I have experienced a much higher rate of gearbox failure with repaired units than new units. Possibly this may have been what happened with your Belgium friend Chris, the original gearbox fails, it gets repaired it fails again, it gets repaired and it fails again. Or the gearbox gets replaced with another repaired and not new gearbox. Si it ca happen, one gearbox three failures, not three different gearbox failures.

I have one customer who this has happened to, luckily this person is my son in law! I have also received a repaired gearbox from Sturmey Archer that did not work from day one!

All the Sturmey Archer KS3 gearboxes have a serial number on the end and this S/N can be traced by Strida.

Cheers, Bill

So I ride approx. 50KM per trip a day / min. 3 days a week = 150+ KM per week.

How long is the expected life expectancy of an average Strida Sturmey Archer’s KS box?

Since I can’t perform maintenance on it myself or by the Bike Shop (who is the authorised reseller for Strida) - what makes sense? It is easier to just BUY a NEW KS Box?

Is that possible and how much does it cost?

Sometimes I really wish a could transform myself into a mouse - this way one might be able to collect serious data… :stuck_out_tongue:

The reseller should at least be able to change the drive as a whole for my meaning.
(And if it is a good reseller he has to have a few replacement drives in stock.)

That should be possible, the costs are most likely lower than that of an ATS (dual) speed drive kit ( ~ 500 $).
I’d expect ~ 300 US$.

Edit:
One year riding 50 kms per week are in sum about 2500 kms - right?
I’d say; of course is that speculation only:
If your drive would be affected - it would be broken already a while ago.

Good to know!
Well I just sent my Strida EVO for a basic servicing - only as I am also swapping out some parts (customising and giving it some love back since I been riding my other bikes of late - and it’s been 1 year). I use the EVO as one of my exercise bikes - hence 3 times a week - pending good weather and if I can wakeup early enough since it takes me approx 2.5 - 3 hours for the 50km :smiley:

So on that note - I am aware that not all moving parts will last forever - and I am totally HAPPY to pay for servicing etc - It’s just that I am baffled or intrigued that I am supposed to just “leave it alone” - hence I am holding my breathe wondering how long this KS drive will last on my EVO.

Thanks for the insightful sharing and information.

Hi Chris - you are not far off indeed. :smiley:

Found it selling on AMAZON. It’s a little bit more but not too far off.


russian image hosting

Indeed very interesting, thanks Willie :smiley:

A bit irritating the reply of the seller to the question about upgrading a 5.0 Strida:

EVO drive diameter is 95 mm and all other brackets are 60 mm.

Couldn’t find any contact info of “BikeAid” and they also do not ship to Europe.
(Even if they would ship to Europe one had to add ~34 % of the sum for import sales tax and customs duty - plus shipping costs…)

My Evo3’s gearbox seized up after 15 months. It’s in the shop now, and they’re trying to contact SA to get help with the repair, but they haven’t heard back. I found the Amazon listing shown upthread, but there are no more available there. Where can I order a replacement KS3 from?

Sorry to read that.

Perhaps here, the price seems not so bad (for Europe):
https://www.stridanederland.nl/product/evo-sturmey-archer-3-versnellingen-trapas-voor-strida-evo-3s/

From where are you, please?

I’m in Austin, Texas, USA; that does look like a pretty good price, even with shipping. I’ll hep my repair shop to that in case their repair attempt doesn’t work out. Thanks!

Ah? Even with shipping - that’s surprising me :smiley:

You do not have to pay customs duty I believe; there is a limit of ~800 $ - is that correct?

However, in that case (U. S.) I’d recommend also to ask Bill:
https://stridacanada.ca/contact/

Thank you BlackStridaAustria, yes I can help with a KS3 gearbox. Please contact me.

Regards, Bill