The riders work sub-three-kilometre drops across Kebon Jeruk and Kebayoran, which is a
harder job for a battery than it sounds. Constant stop-start pulls current in short heavy
bursts, and a bike that manages 140 km on an open commute will do noticeably less when it is
accelerating from rest four hundred times a shift. We rated the fleet at 95 km of real working
range and told both operators to plan around that rather than the headline figure. Six weeks
in, the worst day recorded on the fleet telemetry was 88 km.

The more interesting number is downtime. Across 200 bikes and six weeks we have had eleven
workshop visits: seven brake pad sets, three punctures serious enough to need a new tyre, and
one controller replaced under warranty. No frame issues, no water ingress, and no battery
faults. Both fleets do their own daily checks and bring bikes to our Panjang workshop weekly,
which is the arrangement we would recommend to anyone running more than twenty bikes.

What we changed as a result: the fleet bikes now ship with the four-piston brake set from
the Trail X as standard. Pads on the standard two-piston caliper were lasting about five
weeks on this duty cycle, and while that is within spec, a fleet manager should not be
thinking about brakes monthly. It adds a small amount to the fleet price and roughly triples
pad life. Anyone with an existing fleet bike can have the upgrade fitted at cost.

Both operators have options on a further 150 bikes for the first quarter of next year.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. A frame claim handled by post takes between
two and three weeks, most of which is freight and customs, and for a rider who uses the bike
to work that is two weeks of lost income. Handled on site it is a day. Since we opened the
Ho Chi Minh City flagship on the same basis last year, the average resolution time on frame
claims across our network has gone from nineteen days to six.

The Bangkok site also stocks the full parts range. Because every bike we sell runs the same
motor, the same controller and the same battery format, “the full parts range” is a much
shorter list than it would be for most manufacturers — one motor, one controller, three pack
sizes, two brake sets. That was a deliberate engineering decision taken early, and stocking a
new workshop is where it pays off.

Walk-in service is available Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 18:00, with no appointment needed
for anything that takes under an hour. Test bikes in all six models are available to ride,
and the annual controller check and firmware update remain free for the life of the bike,
whether you bought it from us in Bangkok or anywhere else.

Chiang Mai remains a standard service point for now. We will look at upgrading it once the
northern rider base justifies holding frame stock.

Do not charge a wet port. This is the big one. Our motors and displays are
IPX5 and the packs are sealed, so riding through heavy rain is fine. The charge port is the
one place where water can sit against live contacts, and plugging in while it is wet is the
single most common cause of the electrical faults we see. Wipe it, wait ten minutes, then
charge. That one habit prevents most wet-season damage.

Know your wading depth. Standing water up to the bottom bracket is fine on
every bike we sell. Above that you are pushing water into the motor bearing seals, and while
they will survive an occasional dunking, doing it daily will shorten their life considerably.
If the water is above the crank, get off and push — walking a bike through floodwater is
slower and much cheaper.

Brakes take a few metres to bite. Hydraulic discs work in the wet, but the
first pull after a downpour wipes the rotor rather than stopping you. Brake once, gently,
before you actually need to. Riders coming from rim brakes tend to know this instinctively;
riders whose first bike is an e-bike often do not.

Tyre pressure down, not up. Drop about ten per cent from your dry-weather
pressure. You lose a little efficiency and gain a lot of grip on wet painted lines and metal
covers, which is where most wet-weather falls actually happen.

Store the battery inside, part-charged. If the bike is parked outside, take
the pack in with you. Lithium cells do not like sitting fully charged in the heat, and a pack
left at 100 per cent in a 34-degree afternoon ages measurably faster than one left at 60.
For a bike you are not riding for a week or more, 50 to 70 per cent is the number to aim for.

None of this is specific to our bikes — it applies to any e-bike ridden in this climate.
But it is what the five hundred or so wet-season workshop visits we have handled come down to.