Cheat-O-Cycle hits 1000 miles

 

My Rurui XT10 Electric Mountain Bike hit 1,000 miles today.  That took just over a year.  My first ride was December 11th, 2021 and today is December 30th, 2022.   I have had some great rides on this thing.  I made several upgrades along the way to make it better suited for heavy duty off-road riding.  I still get tons of exercise since it is a very heavy bike with fat tires and full suspension and I ride up long steep loamy hills mostly. I pedal the whole time.  A typical 2.5 hour 20 mile off-road ride burns around 1,300 calories and I can really feel it.  The big difference with the electric assist is the speed, especially up the hills and in soft terrain.  I mostly use power assist level (PAS) 1.  I would guess it is in PAS 1 about 70% of the time I am riding with assist. PAS 2 probably accounts for another 20%.  I don't use assist going downhill of course, which can be almost half of a typical ride.  

After my upgrades, this bike works well for my riding.  I am on my 3rd controller now.  They can't handle the power and fail.  Both were replaced by Rurui though and the latest one claims to be rated for 18A instead of 17A.  So far, so good.  If it fails again, I will be getting a higher power rated controller.  Other than that, it has been a good bike overall.  I also had to replace the rear tire and rear brake pads because I wore them out.  I bought this bike for $1,599 and I would say I got good value for the money.  That is quite inexpensive for a full-suspension 750W fat-tire electric mountain bike.  I have been looking casually at other bike like it since I bought this but have not really found a more compelling one in this price range, or even for more than tipple this price.  I have also considered building my own but decided I would be far better off just upgrading components on this one.  

Mercedes GL450 120k Maintenance

 The GL450 is now past 120k miles (123k) and due for a few maintenance items.  I recently replaced the front brake pads for the first time.  My E350 also went 120k before needing front pads.  Here are the new versus old pads showing wear.

I let them go long enough it also took out the wear sensor (which is cheap to replace).

I replaced the spark plugs too.  This required a special 14mm thin-wall 12-point wobble socket.  

When working on a Mercedes, you will need a set of reverse torx sockets and wrenches too. 

I also replaced the accessory belt. 

The belt appeared to be in great condition.  No cracks or visible wear at all.  My E350 belt was like that too.  But at 120k miles it seems like a good idea to just replace it anyway as they are not expensive, even through Mercedes.

As I was replacing the belt, I broke 2 plastic coolant tubes.

Overflow Tube

These were about $130 each and in stock at the local dealer since they often get broken.  The overflow tube in the bottom photo broke very easily.  

I change the oil using the oil reminder in the display.

2013 GL450 versus 2020 GLS450

 

Our 2013 GL450 when we bought it in 2018

We bought this Mercedes GL450 back in 2018 with 64k miles on it.  We now have 123k miles on it.  With the high cost of fuel, and time for some maintenance, we decided to look at options.  First we considered getting an electric car.  We settled on the Tesla S and drove several.  We almost bought a really nice red 2018 but decided the added cost of insurance, tabs, etc., and parking space just was not worth it.  So we decided to consider replacing the GL450 with something newer and more economical.  We also wanted lighter color interior as ours is black and it gets hot in the sun.   We drove a 2019 Mercedes GLC350e plug-in hybrid.  I liked it but Kelly preferred the GL450 we had to it.  The 2020 and up GLS450 has mild hybrid and a smaller 3.0L I6 engine that is rated at the same 362HP as our GL450 which has a 4.6L twin-turbo V8.  It claims 5mpg better in town and 4MPG better on the highway.  I found a 2020 GLS 450 with 33k miles on it at the local Mercedes dealer so we drove it.  Very disappointing actually compared to our 123k mile 9 year old GL450.  Ours drives smoother, has significantly more acceleration and delivers it much smoother, and has a better feel to it.  So, we will be keeping our 2103 GL450 for a while more.  I suppose we will eventually need to replace it but not in the near future.  Below are some photos of the 2020 GLS450 we drove.  

There were some really nice features in the newer model.  I like the instrument cluster (LCD screen really) and the much larger navigation screen and better navigation, and Android Auto.  I liked the mild hybrid but it did not seem to add much other than useful start/stop where the accessories remain working including the AC compressor.   Honestly, that was about it.  I am disappointed with this GLS450 being the replacement for our GL450.  It does not feel like a step up in some of the most important ways.