Montague’s newest e-bike, the M-E1, comes equipped with a Shimano STEPS E6100 mid-drive system to provide pedal assistance. Pedelecs like the M-E1 provide a boost to your pedaling input with an electric motor. In the case of a mid-drive, that motor is integrated directly with the crank arms. We’re going to show you the most important controls and capabilities of the Shimano STEPS system on the M-E1, as well as how to update the drive system firmware. While the STEPS system can use a handful of different battery and control unit configurations, we’ll go over the equipment used on the Montague M-E1, which includes the BT-E8014 battery and the SC-E7000 Cycle Computer, which we’ll refer to as the “display”.

Basic Operation and Settings

In order to turn on the system, you simply hold down the power button located on the battery, shown below. When it turns on, the lights on the front of the battery will illuminate to indicate battery level, and the display on the handlebar will light up with the “Shimano Steps” logo. If the system will not power on, the battery is most likely depleted and should be charged with the appropriate Shimano charger.

After the system powers on, the display will quickly change to the default view, which shows the current Boost Mode, a Miles Per Hour display or (Kilometer Per Hour if selected), and the battery level. If another device is connected to the system via Bluetooth, such as one of the available Shimano mobile apps (more on those later), then you will see a Bluetooth icon to the right of the battery indicator. If a wrench icon is displayed, then maintenance is required and you should contact the place of purchase or an authorized Shimano dealer.

Pressing the button on the bottom of the display cycles through the available options for the data shown on the right side of the display, which includes:

• Current speed (Default)
• Trip Distance
• Odometer
• Range (remaining with current battery level)
• Riding Time
• Average Speed
• Max Speed
• Cadence (revolutions per minute)
• Clock

The trip distance, riding time, average and max speed, and cadence can be reset whenever you’d like by holding down the button on the bottom of the display when each is shown on screen, or they can all be reset within the Settings menu. This enables you to track these metrics for an individual trip, or over any period of time you desire.

On the handlebars next the left grip is the Switch Unit with two buttons – Up and Down. On the default view, this changes the Boost mode, allowing you to cycle through “OFF”, “ECO”, “NORM” (Normal), and “HIGH”. Holding the down button will switch the drive unit to Walk assist mode.

The buttons on the Switch Unit will also help us to navigate the Settings menu. To access the Settings menu, hold down the main button on the bottom of the display when the default MPH / or KPH screen is shown. You should then see a gear icon and the word “Setting” in the upper right corner, and the first two menu items “Clear” and “Clock” should be visible.

Basic navigation is as follows. The up and down buttons on the Switch Unit allow you to scroll through the menu and to toggle between options, while the main button on the bottom of the display confirms the option you have selected. Each main menu item is explained below.

Clear – Reset trip data mentioned above, including trip distance, riding time, average speed, max speed, and cadence.

Clock – Set the internal clock. After selecting, the clock will be displayed and the up and down buttons will allow you to set the hour. Press the main Cycle Computer button to advance to the minutes. Press it again to confirm the time and return to the main menu.

Light – Toggle the bike’s front light being On or Off. When set to On, the light is always on when the drive system is on.

Beep – Turn menu Beep on or off. When set to “On”, the display will create beep when changing and selecting menu items in order to provide audible feedback on your input.

Unit – Switch between Miles and Kilometers. Your selection here will affect all distance and speed based calculations elsewhere in the system.

Language – Select the language for the display text. Available options are English, François, Deutsch, Nederlands, Italiano, Español

Font Color –  Switch between white font on a black background as shown in the images here, or black font on a white background.

Adjust – N/A with the M-E1 (Only applicable with electronic shifting)
Shift Timing – N/A with the M-E1 (Only applicable with electronic shifting)
RD protection reset – N/A with the M-E1 (Only applicable with electronic shifting)

Display Speed – Adjust the speed displayed by a small percentage (up to 5%) in order to correct a discrepancy between the STEPS display and another cycle computer or device.

Exit – Exits the Settings Menu and returns to the main display view.

Updating Firmware

The permanent software that runs on electronic devices is known as Firmware. Occasionally, Shimano will release updates to the Firmware running on your Shimano STEPS drive system which might introduce new features, improve performance, or fix bugs. Updating the Firmware can be done with the Shimano E-Tube Project mobile app for iOS or Android devices, or with the E-Tube Project software for Windows if you have the necessary linkage device to connect the STEPS system to your computer. The mobile app requires no additional hardware aside from your mobile phone, so it is the preferred choice for most M-E1 owners.

You can download the mobile app or Windows version of E-Tube Project from the Shimano website here.

The following instructions and screenshots show the process on iOS. If you’re using an Android device, the prompts and process may vary slightly. Once you’ve installed and opened the E-Tube Project app, you’ll need to connect to the STEPS system on your M-E1. This is done via Bluetooth, so ensure that Bluetooth is enabled on your mobile device.

The home screen of the app should display a large plus sign in the center. If you don’t see this screen, tap the bike icon in the middle of the bottom bar. The other options located there, the lightbulb on the left and gear icon on the right, will display Help and Settings for the app respectively. Tap the plus sign in the center of the screen to begin connecting your bike. The app will search for units nearby so make sure you’re within a few feet of your M-E1.

After a few seconds you should see the name of your bike under “Searching units…”. In this case it appears as “SCE7000”. Tap the name to connect. On iOS, a system prompt will appear to inform you of the Bluetooth Pairing Request, and you will need to confirm by tapping “Pair”. The E-Tube Project app is now connected to your drive system!

Note: Another system prompt may ask if you want to “change your passkey”. It is possible to set a passkey for your STEPS system so that only authorized users cannot connect to it. You can set this up now, or simply tap Later to proceed.

After connecting to your bike, the app will first as you to confirm that all of the hardware units are visible to the app. On the M-E1, this will include the Battery, Drive unit, Cyclecomputer, and Switch. Tap OK at the bottom to proceed. If any of them are missing, there may be a problem with the connection. If this is the case, try disconnecting and reconnecting the app. If the problem persists, you should contact the place of purchase or an authorized Shimano dealer.

When connected to your bike, there are three (3) basic screens which you can toggle between by tapping the menu at the top. These are labeled “Update”, “Customize”, and “Maintenance”. Tap “Update” in order to check for new versions of Firmware. Each of the hardware units will be displayed on the screen and those with available updates will be marked in red. You can tap “Update All” at the bottom to download and install all available updates, or select individual units you wish to update by tapping on them.

After tapping “Update” for the selected units (or “Update All”), the app may ask you to agree to Terms of Service for the new firmware version. It is recommended that you read any agreements thoroughly before proceeding. During the update, you will see a progress bar and percentage for each unit. Do not close the app while the update is taking place, and be sure to stay within a few feet of your bike to ensure Bluetooth remains connected.

When each Firmware update has reached 100% you’re all done! Your Shimano STEPS system now has the latest Firmware, ensuring the best performance possible.

In our next post, we’ll show you some of the customizations you can make to your STEPS system from within the E-Tube Project app, and how to use the E-Tube RIDE app to track even more data about your ride!