Okay, so I messed around with the Yamaha e-bike app today. Here’s the lowdown on how it went.
First things first, I downloaded the damn thing from the app store. Simple enough, right? Typed in “Yamaha e-bike” and boom, there it was. Hit install, waited a few minutes – my internet’s kinda slow – and then opened it up.
The app asks you to create an account. Fine, whatever. I punched in my email, made up some password I’ll probably forget in a week, and verified my email address. Standard procedure.
Next up: connecting to the bike. This is where it got a little tricky. The app tells you to turn on the bike and enable Bluetooth. Okay, did that. But the app wasn’t finding the bike. I was staring at my bike, the bike was staring at me, the app was just spinning. Frustrating.
I tried turning the bike off and on again. Nope. Closed the app and reopened it. Still nothing. I was about to chuck my phone across the room when I remembered reading something in the manual about holding down the power button for a few seconds to initiate pairing mode. Gave that a shot… and bingo! The bike finally showed up in the app. Selected it, entered the pairing code displayed on the bike’s display, and we were connected. Finally!
Once connected, the app actually had some cool features. I could see my battery level, current speed, assist mode, and trip distance. Played around with changing the assist modes – eco, standard, high – and could definitely feel the difference. Also messed around with the navigation feature. Inputted an address and it showed me the route on the map, which is pretty neat. I think this could be helpful if i go explore new places.
One thing I noticed is that the app drains the bike’s battery a bit faster when Bluetooth is enabled. Not a huge deal, but something to keep in mind for longer rides.
I also looked at the settings menu. There’s some stuff in there about customizing the display and setting up notifications, but I didn’t really mess with that too much. Maybe I’ll play around with it later.
Overall, it wasn’t as smooth of a set up as I’d hoped. The initial pairing process was a pain in the butt. But after i figured that part out, the app seems pretty useful. I can see myself using it regularly to track my rides and adjust settings. I guess it was worth the hassle. Now I just hope it doesn’t crash on me mid-ride!
