I took the plunge and decided on a Kuberg Trail E for my 5 year old. He's been rding an XR50 for almost a year but I couldnt get him to stand up on the pegs (or sometimes use the pegs at all). I figured a trials type bike would be ideal for teaching this so the XR50 went on Craigslist and the search began for an Oset. As I searched I found that the Oset's commanded a hefty resale premium and I'd have to drive to get it or ship the bike. At $900, unless the Oset was local I was almost better off buying new. I broadened my search to include the Kuberg and the Gas Gas E bike. Thats when I found that the Kuberg was available on Amazon. I already had an Amazon Prime account so I got free 2-day shipping and the bike was discounted about 30% off of MSRP. I went to the store and purchased $1200 in Amazon gift cards. Buying the cards gets me points that gets me cheaper gas. Then came home and placed my order. It actually showed up in 1 day. The box was a bit battered but a quick inventory found that everything there was damage free. It included all the tools necessary to put it together. The setup instructions only talk about bolting on the handlebars. I found the steer stem torque to be way too tight making the steering notchy. I adjusted this and got the bars bolted on. The front wheel was not installed and no mention was made in the setup of doing this. It seemed pretty straight forward however so I went to mount it up. I could not get the pads spread enough in the caliper to get the rotor in there. I even released the cable, no dice. Having not dealt with mountain bike disc brakes before I resorted to my motorcycle experience and removed the caliper from the fork leg. The caliper screws had lock washers on them and removing them caused some of the white paint to flake off the founting lugs. The axle had a shim, washer and nut on the caliper side and a washer and nut on the right side. I soon found that the shim needs to be between the hub and the left fork leg to prevent the disc screws from hitting the fork leg. Wheel in and spinning freely I turned my attention to the caliper. I found that the fixed side of the caliper had an adjuster on it locked by a set screw. I loosened this up figuring I could adjust it once it was on the fork leg. Once bolted up I found that even with the inside pad removed, the brake was dragging. Further investigation found the the caliper body on the fixed side was dragging on the rotor. It appears that this is a simple matter of shimming the caliper over a bit and I would be golden. However, I decided to stop here and drop a line to the Kuberg folks and see what they had to say. I figured this would be a good opportunity to get an idea of their customer service campared to Oset's very positive reputation in this regard. Stay tuned! Cheers Brett
Bicycle shops have moon or horse shoe shaped shim washers they use to fine tune your disc brake setup. It takes some tweaking with washers and shims to get it right. Be sure the calipers are adjusted all the way out to allow fine tuning? Is the brake system an Avid BB7 type, cable? I would imagine a good bicycle shop would be able to get you set up. Update?
+1 Mountain Bike Mechanical Disks take a little work the first time, but they are pretty easy to adjust. If you have trouble, I would buy a Avid BB7. You can even get an 8" disk, which I find improves the modulation considerably, as well as pure power. As long as it is a standard bike fork (looks like it) the Avid adapters will work great. Hope he likes it.
I`m looking for the update. I have seven grandkids. You should be able to take a bike out of the crate and make it work!
When i worked at a bicycle shop we would shim the caliper to the disk.yes,they were mtn bike disk by the same company.
So I got an email from the CEO (yes the actual CEO) of the company as a result of my contact through the website. He explained how the brake is adjusted and he also gave me the contact information for the US rep for Kuberg. I got home from work and the US rep, Kelly, actually called me. He asked if I had any other issues and I relayed the fact that after adjusting the brake, I discovered that: 1. The keys were missing 2. A relay under the bodywork had broken off of its mounting tab. Kelly apologized. He said that it appeared that the bike I got from Amazon may have been returned. Amazon is supposed to send the returns back to make sure that everything is copacetic. It appears they just restocked this one and sent it to me. He advised me on how to bypass the key temporarily and said that if I attached the relay securely I should be good for the time being. He also said he was going to send replacement keys and a relay. I charged the bike overnight per the instructions (12 hours for the first 5 charges). My youngest son ended up riding it for about 2 hours the first day. I had the speed turned down. This is accomplished via a potentiometer near the charging port under the seat. He wanted to ride it longer but, he'd just come back from Grandmas and had some leftover Christmas presents to open. <iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zq5wzkkwC6M" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe> Here's some photos of the Trial E. It carries 3 12V 14Ah batteries. You can see the motor controller up near the key switch. This is the charge indicator near the right grip. My 8 year old liked riding it so much that he wants to unload his XR70. Now hes got one of his own. This is the Cross version. It is functionally the same as the Trial E. The frame is a bit different and of course it has a seat making it a bit taller. My 5 year old cannot touch on this. One thing of note: Keying the Trial E on results in an immediate illumination of the charge indicator on the handlebar. The Cross has a delay of about 2 seconds. It has some extra circuitry under the seat, namely a heat shrinked circuit board. This may be the cause for the delay. Its not an issue, just a difference. Now that they both have electric bikes it has been great to see how much riding they can get in. Whether its around the cones in the cul de sac or flat-tracking around a baseball diamond at the school down the street, riding has become an almost daily thing for them. This past weekend I took them to an area on the north end of town that is frequented by other kids and their quads/dirt bikes. I'll post up photos and commentary shortly. Stay tuned... Cheers Brett
I'm really happy to see that there is competition for the Oset bikes. I have an almost 2yr old, and I am excited to get him on two wheels through trials. It's mainly an excuse for me to get a trials bike too.... Still at least a year away for this. I can't get him to ride his tiny Lightening McQueen quad... Gonna get him a balance bike first.
I would be VERY grateful for more information on these bikes and your experience please! I am thinking about buying a pair of bikes for my kids when I get back form Afghanistan, and these and the Oset seem very interesting. I am concerned about the time limit on the ride time. How long do they typically last, how much do they weigh when it is time to take the dead bike home? Can you roll them without the batteries, or do you have to carry them? Things like that are of interest to me. Now that you have had them for nearly a year, do they hold up, are the stout little bikes, or do they fall apart a bit? Thanks so much for your thread, this has been really great to read. V/R Brian
Czech Republic. Here's a pic of their latest not-yet-released 20" tricks bike, seen at the AIM Expo in Orlando:
I have the Trial E and Cross. They both have 3 12V 10Ah batteries. It requires about 30 minutes to remove them if you know what your doing. Essentially all the bodywork has to come off. I've hauled both on a hitch mounted bicycle rack. The kids will ride them for about 3 hours before they notice a performance reduction. The only issue I have had is with the chain. The oset does not experience a tension change because the motor is mounted on the swing arm. The Kuberg is more like a traditional bike with the motor in the main frame. Thus the tension changes through the travel. I've found it easiest to remove the shock (easy) and line everything up (counter shaft, pivot shaft and axle) to set the tension. I have also found a 0.175" misalignment in the sprockets. I fixed this with some lathe time. The misalignment causes it to throw the chain in rough terrain. Kuberg is aware of this and I'm told it had been corrected on later bikes. I have not verified though. Gripes: the thing is sprung way too stiff for a 50 lb kid. I have ordered an air-shock to hopefully remedy this. The tires suck in rough terrain. I think this is endemic of 16" tires that are available. However I did see in shots from this years AIM Expo that the 16" bikes appear to have a more aggressive tire on them. I'll probably contact them to order a set. The folks at Kuberg are super responsive though and willing to do what they can to make you happy. Cheers Brett Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
Howdy, We got a Kuberg Trial E for my 7 year-old nephew. The 2014 model is a little bit improved from the 2013. No problems at all putting it together and getting it going. He was riding a Suzuki JR50 (WFO all the time) and the Trial E is more powerful at #2 of 5 power settings, so there is room to grow. I was worried that, since we live in the city, my nephew and my kids would never learn to ride dirt bikes. But, this little electric bike is perfect for secluded sections of city parks! Just smiles from dog walkers and mountain bikers here in SF! fun fun Charlie
I got a Trial Start for my almost 3 year old this passed Xmas. Offer a 2nd to the great customer service by Kelly the US distributor. Good guy who will return your calls/emails same day. For 2014 a MX seat is offered as an accessory which give the bike a bit more height thereby extending its ideal age range. Also speed adjustment changed to a 5 level push button selector rather than the previous dial potentiometer. Not sure that I'm sold on the 5 level push button as level 1 is really slow and only useful on flat pavement and with really good balance (or training wheels). #2 is a significant jump up on pavement and the minimum you can realistically use in dirt/grass or with hills. Another nice touch on the 2014 is that they come with magnetic lanyard kill switches so the power dies when your kid falls off. I added a remote shutoff switch to mine (not a Kuberg product) since my kid thinks its funny to try and ditch us. All in all the bike is great and I'll be sticking with Kuberg when he outgrows this one. Oset has a nice product, but the construction is obviously chinese. The kubergs are a much nicer product IMO, complete with heim joints and quality welds.
I sold my Trial E today to a fellow AdvRider from California. Sad to see it go. My youngest was simply getting too big for it. He's moved up to his brother's Cross and the older has moved back on to his XR70. His skill on the 70 has improved vastly since he's been riding the Cross regularly. So much so, were looking for a KX65 for him now. Anyways, I have nothing but great things to say about my Kuberg Trail E experience and especially about Kelly at Kuberg. Cheers Brett
http://www.instructables.com/id/Suzuki-JR50-gear-mod/ You did know about the hidden gear in the jr50?
