Five things worth knowing before the monsoon

The wet season is when our workshops get busy, and the pattern of what comes through the
door is remarkably consistent. Almost none of it is the bike failing. Here is what we tell
riders at the start of every rainy season.

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.