A working dongle - at last

[RobF]

Readers with long memories may recall I ordered one of the clip-on dongles from Badass ebikes.

It was a bit clunky to look at and had a separate battery pack.

But worst of all, it didn't work.

Fair play to Badass, they told me to keep it and they would send their improved version, which is about the size of a matchbox and is one piece - no separate battery pack.

That one arrived, but also would not work.

Fair play to Badass, they told me to return it and they would send another.

That one arrived on Saturday, and I've just had chance to test it, in between fiddling with gears.

Great joy - it works.

Fitting is just as the website, it clips on in seconds.

The magnet usually needs to be moved an inch or so, which is easy enough.

I've only given it a brief go so far, but it does what it says on the tin.

There is some useful assistance to be had, certainly up to around 20mph, I've not gone much faster yet.

Only downside is it causes the Bosch speedo to read about one third of true speed above around 8mph.

I might fit a separate speedo as per one of the videos on the website.

I've removed the dongle, and the bike goes back to as it was, so no fear of permanently scrambling the Bosch software.

Now that I've done the product development for them, I can highly recommend the Badass dongle.

It is far easier to fit and neater than the other one which needs wiring and the crank removed.

Thumbs up to Badass, too.

You only truly find out about a company's service when things go wrong.

They couldn't have handled the problems any better.

Landing page • eBike Tuning

 

[Artstu]

Very neat, hopefully this one will keep on working.

 

[RobF]

Longevity is the unknown factor, but there's not a lot to go wrong.

Lui at Badass told me it is powered by a watch battery which they reckon will last for several thousand km, and is replaceable if it does go flat.

Incidentally, I paid 89euro for the original two-piece version.

Badass are charging 139euro for the latest one, but they didn't charge me any extra.

 

[Tor Atle Lunde]

If you enter a steep hill at good speed and gradually going slower (still pedalling) until the Bosch speedo is reverting to real mph, will you get a 102 error? You might have to try a couple of times to be positive it won't.

 

[RobF]

I've now done some miles with the dongle and remain very pleased with it.

No error messages, the only electronic indication it's working is when the Bosch speedo goes to one third mph.

There is a useful amount of assistance from 15mph to about 22 or 23mph, although this being a Bosch bike you still have to put some effort into the pedals.

The extra few mph is handy on the road, I'm now able to keep up with the bus in front in town, instead of being boosted by the bus behind.

I did a fast run through Sunderland to Whitburn - about five miles - and nothing came past me.

That's only an indication, but there's no doubt in a 30mph limit drivers are less inclined to barge past when I'm doing 20mph+ than when I was doing 15-18mph.

Another indication was when I stopped after a short sprint, a pedestrian commented: "You were cracking on back there."

That's never happened to me before.

I've no intention of turning into an ebiking Mark Cavendish, apart from anything else there's no chance to admire the surroundings at 25mph.

But having access to a turn of speed when required has greatly increased my enjoyment of the bike.

 

[swordfish]

Bought one after reading the review (and getting some reviews translated by a friend on foreign sites).
I'm of the opinion that if the restriction was at 20mph i wouldn't have bothered, but it always seems to kick in a little too early.
Possibly if it was 20mph, I'd be saying 25mph though.
Still love my Koga btw. Except for on Tuesday in the rain and gales.

 

[jackhandy]

I've no intention of turning into an ebiking Mark Cavendish, apart from anything else there's no chance to admire the surroundings at 25mph.

But having access to a turn of speed when required has greatly increased my enjoyment of the bike.

Sums-up my modus operandum 'zackly

It's too damn chilly above 20mph lately.

 

[Paws]

Could you badass owners please write something about increase in power consumption when going >20 mph? Currently I am able to go around 100 km on eco/tour (Active engine) on one charge and would like to know what's the worst case scenario if I'd opt for the tuning.
A -50% in range would deter me of buying it, but anything less...who knows.

 

[Artstu]

Could you badass owners please write something about increase in power consumption when going >20 mph? Currently I am able to go around 100 km on eco/tour (Active engine) on one charge and would like to know what's the worst case scenario if I'd opt for the tuning.
A -50% in range would deter me of buying it, but anything less...who knows.

I take it you ride a fair bit above the assistance level? Obviously you don't get something for nothing, if you want to go faster the energy has to come from somewhere.
It's very hard to answer your question, only you can figure it all out for you personally, you could always turn the assistance off on rides where you want to do 62 miles.

 

[RobF]

The dongle doesn't draw extra power from the motor or 'tune' it in the sense most people would understand.

All the dongle does is allow the motor to carry on whirring above 15mph.

The motor is built for torque. not speed. so the amount of assistance you feel declines as you go faster.

You will probably need to use sport or turbo setting to get the most from the dongle.

Thus your power consumption is sport or turbo setting with the motor always operating.

You currently use tour setting a lot, turbo will use nearly twice as much power.

Wind resistance is a big factor as speed increases.

It may be you could extend the battery life quite a bit by trundling along nearer 20mph in sport setting, or even tour if you can provide plenty of power through the pedals.

 

[Artstu]

I use mine a lot in tour at around 23 mph. I can also do 2 miles in 3.50 mins in turbo if the mood takes me. It just gives so many variables, I love it.

 

[Paws]

@Artstu 23 mph on tour is a really nice speed I'd like to be able to achieve too...I presume u have slick tires on that KTM of yours...say, what's your estimate in increase on your average speed comparing to restricted engine? Commuting being my main deal, now I average 13-14 mph according to HMI. The bike is Cube SUV Hybrid (Active engine).

@RobF Thnx, your real time infos are invaluable to me. As of now I think I decided to go for a dongle and if battery performance starts to drop rapidly on my commute I could always remove the dongle (or go sub 25 km/h).

 

[Artstu]

@Artstu 23 mph on tour is a really nice speed I'd like to be able to achieve too...I presume u have slick tires on that KTM of yours...say, what's your estimate in increase on your average speed comparing to restricted engine? Commuting being my main deal, now I average 13-14 mph according to HMI. The bike is Cube SUV Hybrid (Active engine).

23mph on tour is only on the flat with no headwind. The tyres are currently the standard schwalbe mondial tyres, they're not a very good roller IMO but they suit the mixture of riding I currently do.

Hard to say how much faster I am, 2 to 8 mph. I can average 23 mph on some of my rides, that includes 800 feet of climbing too. I did a ride the other week, one way with a drop of elevation of around 500 feet and averaged just shy of 25 mph over the 14 mile journey, and about 23 mph on the return journey.

Yesterday I did 43.5 miles with 5,300 ft of climbing and averaged 16 mph, most of the ride was done on tour too.

 

[NigelM]

Hi, Does use of the dongle have any effect on battery life?

 

[Artstu]

Hi, Does use of the dongle have any effect on battery life?

Yes, if you make full use of all the power, you don't get something for nothing in this world.

 

[Paws]

After some time of waiting I finally got my paws on typ3.2 and after only an afternoon of testing all I can say is...wow - completely different feel of the bike.
Did manage to go around 27 mph on flat (sport) for some time which seemed so fast comparing to the "ordinary" speed. The wind resistance is certainly an issue in these kind of speeds.
My current bad shape and disrupted health don't allow me to maintain such speed for long time but I hope to improve them as my kilometers stack up.
As of battery drain, it's too early to judge, but my first feel is that minumum required range of 40 km should be easily achievable on tour/sport modes.
And for the downside - it certainly crossed my mind that any kind of accident would be much more severe with 1,5x the legal assisted speed.

 

[Artstu]

Did manage to go around 27 mph on flat (sport) for some time which seemed so fast comparing to the "ordinary" speed. The wind resistance is certainly an issue in these kind of speeds.

Glad you're sorted. Funnily enough I did a local 10 mile time trial the other week. I followed a friend on his 6K sub 6 kg time trial bike, the course way a little downhill into the wind and slightly uphill with a tail wind.
I kept up easily uphill, on the 3 mile downhill he pulled about a 30 second gap, which I then made back on the uphill bit, I finished 28 seconds behind him, average speed 27 mph over the 10 miles. It just shows how fast these time trial guys are.

 

[Paws]

Well, after my first commute of 40 km the battery was on 3/5 (I'd say around 50%) wich made me so happy. Used mostly tour mode and less sport. The average speed increase is very noticeable - around 7-8 kph which made my trip about 10 minutes shorter.
From my point of view, the full potential of (Bosch) pedelec is seen only when you derestrict it. But, if the legal assisted speed would ever be upped to 30-35 kph, that would be enough. Again, IMO.

 

[futurecat]

Hi

I have been reading these posts with interest. Please could somebody answer a few questions.

1) The dongle... when you use it does it always cause the speedo to be 1/3 of the actual speed, even if you are below the normal 16mph limit?

2) Does anybody know if the bosch motor was examined by bosch e.g. during a fault that required a return during the warranty period, could they tell if the dongle had been used? Is there anything within the motor housing that stores previous trip data that could suggest that someone has used a dongle and therefore make the warranty void?

Hope you can help!

 

[RobF]

The Badass dongle starts to work at about 11mph, so if you are accelerating the Bosch speedo reads 11mph than 4mph - to indicate a true 12mph - and so on.

There's no effect to feel, so if you were not watching the speedo you wouldn't know the dongle had cut in, or cut out when you slow down.

As regards what the motor stores, who knows?

I doubt it is a full black box recorder, but if it was anyone interrogating would soon know because every time you hit 11mph you put the brakes on to 4mph.

My guess is the motor won't store enough info to tell anyone it has been dongled.

Another effect is you will record fewer miles than you have done, so the bike will appear lower mileage than it is.