My Bafang Ultra Mountain Bike! Frey AM1000

[tsellers]

Don't know how, probably blow myself up. Lol

Nor really all that difficult, if I can do it, anyone can:
[youtube]c-x3YC2Fv2g[/youtube]

 

[washi]

I am also in the waiting line for receiving my order was made 7 months ago (10th of April), was supposed to be ready in mid-October and shipped by rail. Now is allegedly in the stage of production since last Friday.
My Frey representative (Ivy) claims that the railway shipments to Europe are suspended due to the pandemic but I am not offered an alternative solution yet.

 

[craigiet]

I am also in the waiting line for receiving my order was made 7 months ago (10th of April), was supposed to be ready in mid-October and shipped by rail. Now is allegedly in the stage of production since last Friday.
My Frey representative (Ivy) claims that the railway shipments to Europe are suspended due to the pandemic but I am not offered an alternative solution yet.

Do not go with Air shipping, I did and got a heavy duty/tax bill of 640GBP Grace told me 100/200USD a big difference. I'm seeking professional help tomorrow.

 

[Ecyclist]

I am also in the waiting line for receiving my order was made 7 months ago (10th of April), was supposed to be ready in mid-October and shipped by rail. Now is allegedly in the stage of production since last Friday.
My Frey representative (Ivy) claims that the railway shipments to Europe are suspended due to the pandemic but I am not offered an alternative solution yet.

Do not go with Air shipping, I did and got a heavy duty/tax bill of 640GBP Grace told me 100/200USD a big difference. I'm seeking professional help tomorrow.

You are lucky you live in UK. In the US a shrink will cost you an arm and a leg.

 

[washi]

Do not go with Air shipping, I did and got a heavy duty/tax bill of 640GBP Grace told me 100/200USD a big difference. I'm seeking professional help tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice, good luck with having Frey compensate you for the tax bill. If Frey wants to retain their good reputation they should offer another reliable shipping method, covering all the custom costs.

 

[JohnnyEppelseed]

I shall get intouch with Grace tonight and see if frey shall rectify this one

You could buy a few empty battery packs from Frey (about $50.00 each), and then build your own to the spec's that you want.

Huh? I paid $80 for my battery box from Frey.

 

[tsellers]

Huh? I paid $80 for my battery box from Frey.

There may be a few factors that come into play:
- Our last order (and not the first) was about $28,000, so wholesale pricing may factor in.
- The above order had those items listed on a purchase order that specified pricing based on the previous order from a year ago. (Purchase orders are tombstone documents so they help the buyer define his price parameters in advance).
- CC Battery packs cost more than $50.00 presumably because they are larger (I did not see the EX in our last order, however I noted the CC battery is exactly the same as my M600 battery, but longer. In fact, I can use my M600 battery in the CC by strapping it into place with a tension strap.)
- Our last order was before all the Covid insanity started, and we had no major shipping or customs issues.

$80.00 would probably be about the correct retail price for a battery pack.

Example of tension strap:

 

[JohnnyEppelseed]

Huh? I paid $80 for my battery box from Frey.

There may be a few factors that come into play:
- Our last order (and not the first) was about $28,000, so wholesale pricing may factor in.
- The above order had those items listed on a purchase order that specified pricing based on the previous order from a year ago. (Purchase orders are tombstone documents so they help the buyer define his price parameters in advance).
- CC Battery packs cost more than $50.00 presumably because they are larger (I did not see the EX in our last order, however I noted the CC battery is exactly the same as my M600 battery, but longer. In fact, I can use my M600 battery in the CC by strapping it into place with a tension strap.)
- Our last order was before all the Covid insanity started, and we had no major shipping or customs issues.

$80.00 would probably be about the correct retail price for a battery pack.

Example of tension strap:

Nice strap. Where can I find one?

 

[washi]

The most frustrating part currently is the luck of communication from Frey regarding the state of the production of the bike and the shipping options after 7 months since the order was made.
At the moment I am seriously considering cancelling the order and appliying for a refund.. :|

 

[tsellers]

The most frustrating part currently is the luck of communication from Frey regarding the state of the production of the bike and the shipping options after 7 months since the order was made.

The Chinese like to communicate using WeChat, and the Frey rep's have varying degrees of English skills, but are all on WeChat. Most all Chinese ExPat's use WeChat. If you have any friends that have WeChat on their phone, and they speak Mandarin, you'd make much better progress if you could enlist their assistance as a go-between to help stick-handle your order.

 

[tsellers]

Nice strap. Where can I find one?

Those straps are a real common strap that come in different lengths. Once you get used to them, you'll find they can be used for all sorts of handy purposes. Just about every store they sells outdoor equipment has them, especially ski shops. Ironically, I just ordered some ski's that will be the first pair I will not need these straps for as they use magnets now to clip together.

 

[washi]

The most frustrating part currently is the luck of communication from Frey regarding the state of the production of the bike and the shipping options after 7 months since the order was made.

The Chinese like to communicate using WeChat, and the Frey rep's have varying degrees of English skills, but are all on WeChat. Most all Chinese ExPat's use WeChat. If you have any friends that have WeChat on their phone, and they speak Mandarin, you'd make much better progress if you could enlist their assistance as a go-between to help stick-handle your order.

Thanks for your input. I used to receive responses within a day through Alibaba messaging until October, but this has changed in the last 15 days. Unfortunatelly I do not thing that the languge is the problem here...

 

[tsellers]

When our rep Grace went on Mat Leave, the same thing happened to us with the new rep. Then I got my daughter-in-law involved. Fortunately she is very 'dialed' and ended up contacting Grace at home while on Mat leave via WeChat. There are lot's of nuances and procedures that you will not appreciate, understand, or know how to deal with effectively unless you understand that culture which is expressed by being fluent in the native language. You may not think that language is the problem, and it may not be, but if you really want to get things moving along, I'd advise you to make an effort to find someone that can help you in this respect.

 

[washi]

You may be right, thanks for the advice!

 

[barbarossa]

unfortunately I had to cancel my Frey EX order. lack of ground shipping due to pandemic lockdowns would make it expensive, too expensive in my opinion.
refund process was fast and responsive - whole process at alibaba.com took around 3 days until money was credited back to my creditcard account - wow :thumb: . very professional and thank you Ivy for fast processing and your support.
so I can only say : no problems at all and responsive times were <1 day, sometimes within a few hours. this was my first cancelled order at alibaba.com and my frist refund process and I am really impressed. I had much more trouble with some European or German sellers so far...

 

[JohnnyEppelseed]

unfortunately I had to cancel my Frey EX order. lack of ground shipping due to pandemic lockdowns would make it expensive, too expensive in my opinion.
refund process was fast and responsive - whole process at alibaba.com took around 3 days until money was credited back to my creditcard account - wow :thumb: . very professional and thank you Ivy for fast processing and your support.
so I can only say : no problems at all and responsive times were <1 day, sometimes within a few hours. this was my first cancelled order at alibaba.com and my frist refund process and I am really impressed. I had much more trouble with some European or German sellers so far...

When did you order your bike?
Where did the process stall?
Are you in Germany?
My AM, according to Frey, is between China and Poland at the moment. Should I be worried?

 

[barbarossa]

unfortunately I had to cancel my Frey EX order. lack of ground shipping due to pandemic lockdowns would make it expensive, too expensive in my opinion.
refund process was fast and responsive - whole process at alibaba.com took around 3 days until money was credited back to my creditcard account - wow :thumb: . very professional and thank you Ivy for fast processing and your support.
so I can only say : no problems at all and responsive times were <1 day, sometimes within a few hours. this was my first cancelled order at alibaba.com and my frist refund process and I am really impressed. I had much more trouble with some European or German sellers so far...

When did you order your bike?
Where did the process stall?
Are you in Germany?
My AM, according to Frey, is between China and Poland at the moment. Should I be worried?

I ordered directly at Frey.
First I messaged to Ivy and then I used the button „apply for refund“ - easy.
Yep, destination was Germany.
It seems Poland is used to enter EU. But of course I don’t know if there are problems or not regarding ground shipping of your AM1000. Perhaps it takes a little longer, perhaps.

 

[indypup]

That's for sure!

Usually the first fail in the controller is a MOSFET. They are not that hard to replace once you've been able to diagnose. I know there's some folks have had them apart in here, hopefully they can help and get you back riding while you wait for parts from offshore.

I have no idea why my controller failed. I took everything apart and it looked pristine. No burn marks anywhere. I can't solder worth a damn and since it's under warranty I contacted Bafang support in California and made arrangements for them to replace the controller.

I tried to get Ivy to just send me a new controller and I'd replace it but she didn't like that idea.

I've read where it seems the g510 isn't as reliable as bafang's other motors. I have a BBSHD and it's rock solid and quiet. The G510 is very noisy compared to the HD.

I can't really blame Frey for the controller failing. At least the weather sucks right now and I'd probably not be riding anyway...lol

 

[tsellers]

I can't blame you for not tackling it. I had an old controller from a decade ago that shit the bed. So I bought some Mosfet's from Ali Express and tried to follow the Youtube video from Grin Technologies on how to replace them. I found that it's not that easy to isolate the bad Mosfet, and then you end up needing to purchase a little tester unit from Ali to make that job easier as well. Even though I consider my soldering skills to be adequate, overall it's much easier for most of us to just to swap out the controller I think, especially if you have better things to be doing with your time.

 

[JohnnyEppelseed]

unfortunately I had to cancel my Frey EX order. lack of ground shipping due to pandemic lockdowns would make it expensive, too expensive in my opinion.
refund process was fast and responsive - whole process at alibaba.com took around 3 days until money was credited back to my creditcard account - wow :thumb: . very professional and thank you Ivy for fast processing and your support.
so I can only say : no problems at all and responsive times were <1 day, sometimes within a few hours. this was my first cancelled order at alibaba.com and my frist refund process and I am really impressed. I had much more trouble with some European or German sellers so far...

When did you order your bike?
Where did the process stall?
Are you in Germany?
My AM, according to Frey, is between China and Poland at the moment. Should I be worried?

I ordered directly at Frey.
First I messaged to Ivy and then I used the button „apply for refund“ - easy.
Yep, destination was Germany.
It seems Poland is used to enter EU. But of course I don’t know if there are problems or not regarding ground shipping of your AM1000. Perhaps it takes a little longer, perhaps.

Thanks for the info. When did you order your bike? I ordered mine mid August.

 

[barbarossa]

unfortunately I had to cancel my Frey EX order. lack of ground shipping due to pandemic lockdowns would make it expensive, too expensive in my opinion.
refund process was fast and responsive - whole process at alibaba.com took around 3 days until money was credited back to my creditcard account - wow :thumb: . very professional and thank you Ivy for fast processing and your support.
so I can only say : no problems at all and responsive times were <1 day, sometimes within a few hours. this was my first cancelled order at alibaba.com and my frist refund process and I am really impressed. I had much more trouble with some European or German sellers so far...

When did you order your bike?
Where did the process stall?
Are you in Germany?
My AM, according to Frey, is between China and Poland at the moment. Should I be worried?

I ordered directly at Frey.
First I messaged to Ivy and then I used the button „apply for refund“ - easy.
Yep, destination was Germany.
It seems Poland is used to enter EU. But of course I don’t know if there are problems or not regarding ground shipping of your AM1000. Perhaps it takes a little longer, perhaps.

Thanks for the info. When did you order your bike? I ordered mine mid August.

I ordered mine end of July.

 

[barbarossa]

overall it's much easier for most of us to just to swap out the controller I think,

if only lower mosfet part is damaged it is easy. but normally the upper controller part especially the low voltage converter/section is the more sensitive part. so far I have never seen a damaged mosfet part (85v/120a mosfets are cheap ones but fortunately overspecified).
(assuming it is a newer motor version = v1.5) in that case it is not really easy because you also have to align the magnet for hall sensor on a chip - it has to match the logical controller part if you have to change the whole controller/upper logical low voltage part. not easy and if you don't do it start from standstill behaviour might be a little strange :lol: ...

that's the reason why normally the whole motor has to be replaced.

 

[FlyingFinn]

I think the controller is fried. I took the plastic cover off on the left side and checked the connections and power is getting to the motor. I also tried connecting using the programming cable and it would not connect. Also tried an 860C display with no luck. I took the stator cover off and it smells like smoke really bad.

I've emailed Frey but it takes a few days for them to respond. Sucks big time...

I have a spare controller as v.1.5 that has a detached component in the upper level. It’s good for parts. I can sell it for 50$.

 

[Mountgreenwood]

Hi,

Please don't worry. we are contacting with Alibaba to support us for handling it. as it is weekend now. we will handle it for you in coming week.

Best Regards,
Ivy Wang

I’d like to share what I have been going through with Frey. I ordered two bikes an ExPro on the in early April and a CC ($3050.00 with rack lights and mud guards) for my wife in early June. The EX Pro was with a free rail shipping promotion and the CC $550 rail to Ireland. I was sent a picture of a CC prior to shipping, it looked fine. I was then contacted and told that rail shipping was problematic and asked would I agree to air shipping for an additional $100-200. I foolishly agreed. When it arrived in Cork weighing 80kg in a massive box the customs boys were less than impressed with an invoice declaring a $500 frame. Of course they opened it. The back and forth between TNT, customs, Frey and myself was exhausting. I ended up paying $671.50 in VAT which is presently 21%. The pictures I was sent showed a bike with matching brown seat and grips. The bike I received had a black seat and brown grips. In fairness Frey did refund me $471.50 for the portion of the VAT I didn’t agree to but that wouldn’t have paid minimum wage for the time it took me to sort it out. The battery was another story with multiple tracking numbers and answers but that did eventually arrive. The CC is big, heavy and comfortable but loud. I’ve packed my own bbshd with grease so I will probably have to do the same with this one so she can hear herself think.

Now onto the EX Pro.....I’ve seen photos of one but not a word of shipping. At the 203rd day of a 187 day contract I inquired about the status and was told by Cecelia that if I amended my shipping in Alibaba for “customs” to 250 days she would ship it that day. Lads I’m thick some times but not that thick.

I then was on to Ivy and was told they had just learned that day their rail shipper no longer goes to Ireland due to Covid and Brexit. I was given two options 1. Wait until the 10th of January to see if their shipper recommences service to Ireland or receive a refund of the $4180 I paid for the EX with the dropper, lights, rack and mud guards. Grace emailed me with the refund offer which is great then I applied for it via Alibaba choosing the “seller agrees to a refund.” They rejected my request while typing that they would refund me in the description box. The description box is not “live” so if I would have agreed to their rejection I was to have no recourse. So I communicated back and forth and they continued to reject the application until I “cancel the order”. That is not an option in the Alibaba drop downs I was “not care about it” and agree to their rejection. Off to escalation I go.

So here I sit hoping the trade assurance actually works. Wish me luck.

OK, here is an update as to where I stand. Alibaba escalation ruled in my favor for a refund of $4180. My credit card was refunded $580 shortly after. I have been going back and forth with Alibaba at which time they closed my order as completed showing they have refunded the $4180. My last message from a Alibaba had an agent tell me to take it up with my credit card. I have file a dispute with my card issuer which is awkward as the transaction is over 90 days old as my order was made in April. I’m now out $3,600 awaiting the dispute which can take 90 days.

 

[NoFanBoiz]

Hi,

Please don't worry. we are contacting with Alibaba to support us for handling it. as it is weekend now. we will handle it for you in coming week.

Best Regards,
Ivy Wang

I’d like to share what I have been going through with Frey. I ordered two bikes an ExPro on the in early April and a CC ($3050.00 with rack lights and mud guards) for my wife in early June. The EX Pro was with a free rail shipping promotion and the CC $550 rail to Ireland. I was sent a picture of a CC prior to shipping, it looked fine. I was then contacted and told that rail shipping was problematic and asked would I agree to air shipping for an additional $100-200. I foolishly agreed. When it arrived in Cork weighing 80kg in a massive box the customs boys were less than impressed with an invoice declaring a $500 frame. Of course they opened it. The back and forth between TNT, customs, Frey and myself was exhausting. I ended up paying $671.50 in VAT which is presently 21%. The pictures I was sent showed a bike with matching brown seat and grips. The bike I received had a black seat and brown grips. In fairness Frey did refund me $471.50 for the portion of the VAT I didn’t agree to but that wouldn’t have paid minimum wage for the time it took me to sort it out. The battery was another story with multiple tracking numbers and answers but that did eventually arrive. The CC is big, heavy and comfortable but loud. I’ve packed my own bbshd with grease so I will probably have to do the same with this one so she can hear herself think.

Now onto the EX Pro.....I’ve seen photos of one but not a word of shipping. At the 203rd day of a 187 day contract I inquired about the status and was told by Cecelia that if I amended my shipping in Alibaba for “customs” to 250 days she would ship it that day. Lads I’m thick some times but not that thick.

I then was on to Ivy and was told they had just learned that day their rail shipper no longer goes to Ireland due to Covid and Brexit. I was given two options 1. Wait until the 10th of January to see if their shipper recommences service to Ireland or receive a refund of the $4180 I paid for the EX with the dropper, lights, rack and mud guards. Grace emailed me with the refund offer which is great then I applied for it via Alibaba choosing the “seller agrees to a refund.” They rejected my request while typing that they would refund me in the description box. The description box is not “live” so if I would have agreed to their rejection I was to have no recourse. So I communicated back and forth and they continued to reject the application until I “cancel the order”. That is not an option in the Alibaba drop downs I was “not care about it” and agree to their rejection. Off to escalation I go.

So here I sit hoping the trade assurance actually works. Wish me luck.

OK, here is an update as to where I stand. Alibaba escalation ruled in my favor for a refund of $4180. My credit card was refunded $580 shortly after. I have been going back and forth with Alibaba at which time they closed my order as completed showing they have refunded the $4180. My last message from a Alibaba had an agent tell me to take it up with my credit card. I have file a dispute with my card issuer which is awkward as the transaction is over 90 days old as my order was made in April. I’m now out $3,600 awaiting the dispute which can take 90 days.

Wow. So even after Frey publicly posted here not to worry and that they would handle it in the following week. Sorry to hear you've been put through this stressful and financial mess.