On September 23 of the year 2023, my HERO LECTRO C5i becomes 2 year old and iin this article is based on my personal experiences of how this electric bike performs and what are pros and cons of it. Earlier I have written my personal experiences after one year of use and here I shall be writing in depth after 2 years of use. Probably, in Puri town I am the first user of electric bike from hero Lectro and many wants to know how it performs after 2 years of regular use.
Battery:
HERO LECTRO C5i has the battery whch indicates that it has four stages with each of stage shows one red light in metre of electronic bike. In the first year even after riding 12 kilometers which is to and fro from my office, the all four red led battery indicator remains same till the time I reach home. Now after 2 years of use I find that after driving it for some time one light indicator stops and three light indicator remains as it is. This means that battery is weakening and within one kilometre ride one light indicator stops and only the rest three light indicator remains.
This means battery is weakening but not at an alarming rate. I have seen when I activate pedal assist mode high, from the light mode then for some time battery indicators remains in four red indicators more time than I used to run it with pedal assist medium mode. Then I found that when I HERO LECTRO C5i connect Bluetooth pairing with mobile which requires an app to use and after downloading HERO LECTRO app from Google Play store, and pairing with mobile i Bluetooth normal mode then battery stays for some more time.
HERO LECTRO App:
When I connect HERO LECTRO app with HERO LECTRO C5i bike and if the connection is in separate app or sound that is available in Samsung 13 android mobiles then I found battry discharges quickly and even after driving four to six kilometres it shows that only one battery indicator remaining. Separate app sound is a Samsung only feature that comes up with Bluetooth functionality and it works in dual mode that is the phone can run two separate Bluetooth devices at the same time. Suppose you have smart watch which connects with bluetooth and you have Bluetooth ear buds then you can connect both with Bluetooth and can run both of these sounds in separate channels.
Similarly while my smartpohone is connected with smart watch and then another is connected with HERO LECTRO C5i, this means that here Bluetooth is connected in dual mode and in these circumstance I do find that battery runs down faster, for the reasons so far unable to find out and when HERO LECTRO C5i connected with phone’s Bluetooth in normal mode battery stays as it is otherwise in separate app sound mode in Bluetooth within two kilometres of journey battery worns out and it only shows one indicator red light.
Tube of HERO LECTRO C5i is not there at dealer shop of Puri, Odisha:
For some time the rear tube is patched and I need to exchange it so that it remains good and while I drive both front and rear tube should be in the state of perfection so that I could not be in a situations where there would be difficulties in dealing with it but sadly in dealer’s shop of HERO LECTRO C5i at Puri, and for this almost for a year unable to replace the rear tube and for this I am thinking of what are some of other options which I could be exploring such as finding this in Bhubaneswar or in the website of HERO LECTRO C5i or some other third party options. This means in comparatively smaller towns findings of the accessories takes time or it has some difficulties and for this we need to be aware of this situation and if both the tyres could have been tubeless tyres the such annoying situations could have been averted. Similarly, I find it difficult to have the cover for my meter indicator as it is not been sold here in Puri town.
Permanent seat problem of HERO LECTRO C5i
From the beginning of the purchase of HERO LECTRO C5i there is permanent seat problem as it stays on one side and seat stays in one inclined situation and that makes seating almost difficult and that makes driving slightly difficult to use. Even dealer’s mechanic unable to fix it as it remains slightly on the right side which sometimes makes life difficult to ride it when there is too much crowd in the road. While driving this electronic bicycle, sometimes balance are not being equally distributed and even in the roads of high traffic due to unstable seating arrangement holding of balance becomes not so stable.
Spokes of both wheels of HERO LECTRO C5i are not protected in saline climate such as seaside
When, I purchase HERO LECTRO C5i its spokes are black coloured and they are stainless steel so it would not be damaged in saline climates such as Puri town. As my office is situated in new marine drive road of Puri and the office garage is situated in front of direct of sea side and it is wide open, and for the entire day, it remains p[rone to saline winds and after almost two years most of these spokes becomes junk and automatically two spokes at the rear side and it is to be changed but still not able to know whether it s available at the dealer shop or not but still the time I have not reached to the shop because I have some health issues with it.
Persistent rear brake issues:
In HERO LECTRO C5i the front brake is that of disc brake which works wonderfully and it stops electronic bicycle all of a sudden and it also stays good for some more time so that going to mechanic shop does not need all the time. The problem is its rear brake which is sponge brake and the sponge goes out of order within one month or two months when the brake is used more often than not in crowded localities as while returning from office, entire new marine drive road and VIP road of Puri town filled with large number of vehicles and use of brake time and again has to be implemented and for this within one month or two month entire read brakes gets damaged and this is another problem which I found with HERO LECTRO C5i needs to be resolved or if the rear side brake could have been the disc brake then all of these problems would not have been there at the least.
Headlight switch not working at all and meter switch depends upon Bluetooth paired app:
After pairing of Bluetooth app with HERO LECTRO C5i I found that even not at the stage where there is no Bluetooth connectivity the light switch of meter is not working and in the evening time when it requires light still it is not possible to switch on the light and that makes driving difficult and the only solution to this is that HERO LECTRO C5i to be connected with Bluetooth and from within the app you can switch on the electronic light from there itself from the mobile app of HERO LECTRO C5i. Similar situation is switching on of different modes of HERO LECTRO C5i driving as it stays at the lite mode and do not reach to other modes and this has to be done after pairing it with its app and from the app you can turned it on to different modes and this has been the persistent problem after using it for several days and using the app for several times I found that this is the problem where you have to use the app in order to do certain regular functions. One neds to install app and should be always on internet connectivity in order to use and enjoy all of the functions of HERO LECTRO C5i
Conclusion:
After two years of constant use of HERO LECTRO C5i I have faced some problems but not so high problems and for this most of these are solved through dealer shop but some parts not even found here and for this I should be searching at Bhubaneswar and online searching but still it is almost manageable to its core and after two years I have found that the rear brake of it has some problem. The seat has some permanent problem, and the rear brake has also and in my opinion if rear brake could have been that of disc brake then for sure it should provide permanent solutions to some of impending problems the electronic bicycle should have been. One more problem is that when HERO LECTRO C5i is connected with bicycle through its Bluetooth connectivity then if it is connected with separate app sound mode of Bluetooth then batteries drains faster for some other reason and this could be the bug and this needs to be corrected. Even most of metre functionalities as well as turning on and off lights depend upon Bluetooth paired app and for this you need to have the smart phone as well as active Bluetooth connectivity.
