Bafang reliability (my experience - OVERWHLMINGLY POSITIVE!)

(Deleted)

 

Cant remove the topic.

 

Wasnt trying to wind anyone up - just wanted to share my experience of a reliable e-bike experience. Having re-read the law, I was under the impression the 25kph was the limit rather than 250w as specified having seen commercial bikes with higher power ratings.

 

Sorry for any misunderstanding

Edited June 16, 20241 yr by mark_44

Bike shops don't want to touch your bike with a barge pole because it is illegal.

Bike shops don't want to touch your bike with a barge pole because it is illegal.

 

That's likely to be complete bollox.

 

There is no reason why his BBS01 conversion is in any sense illegal. I have one. The throttle is easily disabled with a programming cable, and the settings can make it perfectly compliant with the 15.6 miles an hour limit. Mine cuts off completely at 15 miles an hour now.

 

If there is any trivial non compliance with markings - fk it. It meets the principal requirements vs a vis max speed, average power and all power only being delivered along with rider input of pedalling.

 

The sheep can baaah all they like. It's legal.

 

The reason Bike shops don't like conversions is that they have an obvious vested interest in selling very expensive Bosch and other manufactured high priced e-bikes. Simple as that. Transparently obvious, I'd have thought. They want the money.

The spirit of the law or the letter of the law, a question for lawyers and barristers to argue, I think.

Whether an HD Bafang “derestricted” to 18amps is more or less legal than a BBS01 “tuned” to 20 amps is for them, not us.

My thought is that the overstressed one is more likely to meet it’s maker.Not rocket science

BBS HD and BBS02 sensibly tuned, do not break, pressure washing IS a bit silly imho. Otherwise, yes to OP

HOTROD BBS01’s , not my field, tune at your own risk

The spirit of the law or the letter of the law, a question for lawyers and barristers to argue, I think.

Whether an HD Bafang “derestricted” to 18amps is more or less legal than a BBS01 “tuned” to 20 amps is for them, not us.

My thought is that the overstressed one is more likely to meet it’s maker.Not rocket science

BBS HD and BBS02 sensibly tuned, do not break, pressure washing IS a bit silly imho. Otherwise, yes to OP

HOTROD BBS01’s , not my field, tune at your own risk

 

No one who is not riding like an ar se will be attracting the attention of the police, so esoteric arguments by barristers are moot.

 

I set my BBS01 to 16 amps for the longevity reason you allude to. It does everything I need set conservatively and as I have said boringly, many times, I live in a very hilly area. It climbs very well. To be honest, on a lowish PAS setting which never goes above 250 watts, it climbs hundreds of feet on pretty steep roads without making me feel too flustered, or I can move to higher settings which draw 500 watts of power (that's allowed because its really a 250 watt motor, stamped as a 250 watt motor. The rule is that it must not be capable of continuous higher power than 250 watts. If I am set in the level where it can temporarily run 500 watts, which I have done just as an experiment, I can change to a low gear and just spin away lightly and the motor powers up those hills. The main reasons I don't leave it set at high PAS are that I don't need that level of support other than momentarily and I don't want to use up all the battery needlessly. I'm more interested in battery and motor longevity than speed. If I want to go fast, or fast-ish, I put on my motorbike helmet and go out on something better suited to fast riding than a bicycle. Proper motorcycles, bought second hand are FAR cheaper than fast ebikes anyway, and are far safer at speed.

 

I bought this around 2018 or 2019 for £650. It's a 27 year old, very low mileage , 20 hp (15kw) 250cc and will ride all day at 60 miles an hour at about half throttle. If I ride it quietly on the back roads of Northumberland at 45 -50 miles an hour, which is all you can safely do on the lanes I ride on, I rarely see another motor vehicle and it delivers 100mpg. When I got it, it only had 12,000 miles on it. These bikes with regular oil changes will do 80,000 plus.

 

That's likely to be complete ******.

 

There is no reason why his BBS01 conversion is in any sense illegal. I have one. The throttle is easily disabled with a programming cable, and the settings can make it perfectly compliant with the 15.6 miles an hour limit. Mine cuts off completely at 15 miles an hour now.

 

If there is any trivial non compliance with markings - fk it. It meets the principal requirements vs a vis max speed, average power and all power only being delivered along with rider input of pedalling.

 

The sheep can baaah all they like. It's legal.

 

The reason Bike shops don't like conversions is that they have an obvious vested interest in selling very expensive Bosch and other manufactured high priced e-bikes. Simple as that. Transparently obvious, I'd have thought. They want the money.

It's a Bafang BBSHD, which is per se illegal in UK. It's true some bike shops won't work on illegal bikes regardless of anything else. That's up to them. Personally, I think it's stupid, but I think that people using torque sensors and crank-drives unnecessarily are stupid too, and what about those guys that dress up in S&M gear and walk around on their hands and knees on a dog lead? Is that weird too?

I was expecting a presumptuous comment like this. Shame it was the first one. My bike is not illegal. One of the first things I did was set the speed limiter to 25kph. That seems to be the main point of contention for most objectionable sorts.

It is still possible to exceed this with leg power and hills, like any ebike. The ability to accelerate quickly from the lights and maintain speed up steep hills is not illegal either and as far as I'm concerened a saety feature.

 

The bike shops would have no idea if a conversion has a speed limiter applied, so perhaps that is thier concern - but as the subsequent poster say the only bikes they seem to promote are unsuprisgly very expensive bossh motored ones so they may have thier biases/interests.

 

Im an engineer and tend to over engineer/spec for reliability. It's my experience when something is opperating well below it rating, being unstressed it will maintain durability. In hindsight I would have been fine with a lower powered motor, but not being able to try and compare easily - I erred on the side of caution and over-specced. 5 years of trouble free e-cycling has confirmed my choice was sound.

The motor makes it per se illegal, no matter what you do with it. It's a 1000w motor only a 250w one is allowed, and it must be marked 250w.

Bike shops don't want to touch your bike with a barge pole because it is illegal.

 

 

100% however Summit Cycles Aberystwyth would not even just service my bike, minus the electric side simply because it was a conversion LEGAL 250w Bafang B01, Halfords did and perfectly.

No one who is not riding like an ar se will be attracting the attention of the police, so esoteric arguments by barristers are moot.

 

 

Rubbish, if you have an accident, even not your fault and the police are called, or there is an injury you are an a world of hurt with an illegal bike. God help any illegal bike rider who involved me in an accident.

It's a Bafang BBSHD, which is per se illegal in UK.

 

 

I was mistaken then. I thought it was a BBS01.

 

I'm not replying to your remarks about S&M freaks.

I understand that the BBS01 is legal. It is a 250 watt continuous motor. If you operate it with a full speed throttle you might not be. Mine is disabled in the firmware. I could have just unplugged it, but setting it in firmware to 0 amps means it isn't a throttle anymore.

Rubbish, if you have an accident, even not your fault and the police are called, or there is an injury you are an a world of hurt with an illegal bike. God help any illegal bike rider who involved me in an accident.

 

I don't have an illegal bike. It's a BBS01 with no throttle.

That's likely to be complete ******.

 

There is no reason why his BBS01 conversion is in any sense illegal.

 

Except he doesn't have BBS01. He has BBSHD.

I completely understand why professionals don't want to have anything to do with illegal conversions.

(Deleted)

 

 

Why did you delete it? It was interesting.

I don't have an illegal bike. It's a BBS01 with no throttle.

It's a shame you can't make the throttle dependent on pedalling in the settings, and I'm surprised that it wasn'tadded as a feature in the OSF. That's another one up to hub-motors with KT controllers. The throttle is really useful as an instant max power boost. It saves so much messing about.

It's a Bafang BBSHD, which is per se illegal in UK. It's true some bike shops won't work on illegal bikes regardless of anything else. That's up to them. Personally, I think it's stupid, but I think that people using torque sensors and crank-drives unnecessarily are stupid too, and what about those guys that dress up in S&M gear and walk around on their hands and knees on a dog lead? Is that weird too?

 

Believe it or not, some people think it odd that some folk put about conspiracy theories about faked moon landings.

Believe it or not, some people think it odd that some folk put about conspiracy theories about faked moon landings.

Yeah, you get all sorts. Some people are wind-up merchants too. It's all good for the forum, though. I think engagement is down a bit at the moment, so poor Lenny has to work overtime. We should all help him out a bit where we can, otherwise the advertising revenue will go down and Helen and Russ won't be able to have Turkey this Xmas.

It's a shame you can't make the throttle dependent on pedalling in the settings, and I'm surprised that it wasn'tadded as a feature in the OSF. That's another one up to hub-motors with KT controllers. The throttle is really useful as an instant max power boost. It saves so much messing about.

 

Yes - I did try to change the throttle speed to set it really low at the legal speed, which I think is 6kph, but in my version of the firmware - the motor is of 2020 vintage - it would not go below 15kph, which is about 9 miles an hour and too high for the law. My only solution was either to remove the thing altogether, or to set it to current control rather than speed control and then to set to 0 amps the current max. I tried it with about 2 amps and it kept on supporting movement on a downward slope way beyond 6 kph even though the power was negligible. I'm happy with it as is now.

 

I've read your many remarks about the KP controllers. I am sure they are excellent and versatile. If I was making a new conversion, I would be interested in doing it a different way, even just to try it and compare. I might yet convert my brompton, but I am by no means convinced yet that it needs conversion. I ride it mostly in a flattish environment, and can pedal it fine.

Yeah, you get all sorts. Some people are wind-up merchants too. It's all good for the forum, though. I think engagement is down a bit at the moment, so poor Lenny has to work overtime. We should all help him out a bit where we can, otherwise the advertising revenue will go down and Helen and Russ won't be able to have Turkey this Xmas.

 

I was wondering whether the drop in posting had been the result of my tedious, repetitive posts.

It's a shame you can't make the throttle dependent on pedalling in the settings, and I'm surprised that it wasn'tadded as a feature in the OSF. That's another one up to hub-motors with KT controllers. The throttle is really useful as an instant max power boost. It saves so much messing about.

 

I don’t know if that’s deliberate misinformation, ignorance or just a terminology difference.

 

I’ve been running my Baf bb’s like this for years, my shared path mode has no pas at all till I push “throttle”, then I get variable pas according to to torque given by my thumb with max of 125watts.The throttle does nothing without pedalling so completely passes your “Bobby Test” where they lift wheel and press trigger.

Of course original Bafang BB firmware doesn’t do this, nor does SOFTWARE allow you much. Clunky at best.

 

OSF is another story, changing the FIRMWARE gives you a whole lot more, google is your friend, search the sphere, at least two different OSF downloads that I know of.

 

I’m not a geek, I don’t write code, just use what others create.

They also add features for those on here that believe adding amps is legal and create the “fastest legal ebike”, an oxymoron if ever there was one. Temp cut out is one, instead of motor or controller cooking when they overdo it, it will reduce current before it goes bang. Keeping current limits at Bafangish specs make this unnecessary in my experience, but rider ability (correct gear etc) is not universal so hire bikes probably need it.

 

Shame OP deleted his post , to me there is no comparison between Bosch and Bafang for those that keep things, Bosch make throwaway stuff, Bafang sell spare parts.

That Bosch have the gall to put a “legal” sticker on them and then claim the most outrageous torque from “250watts continuous “is the icing on the cake. Extracting the urine !

 

They also add features for those on here that believe adding amps is legal and create the “fastest legal ebike”,

 

That makes little sense as legal assisted speed limit is 25m/h

 

That Bosch have the gall to put a “legal” sticker on them and then claim the most outrageous torque from “250watts continuous “is the icing on the cake. Extracting the urine !

 

It is continuous rated power as specified by manufacturer to be precise or rated power for short. If you say continuous 250W, people can come to wrong conclusions and think motor is providing 250W all the time - which is not true.

to me there is no comparison between Bosch and Bafang for those that keep things, Bosch make throwaway stuff, Bafang sell spare parts.

That Bosch have the gall to put a “legal” sticker on them and then claim the most outrageous torque from “250watts continuous “is the icing on the cake. Extracting the urine !

 

A bit like the VW 'dieselgate' scandal. Do tests and then publish whatever lies you like.

 

As for OSF and replacing the original firmware, I would need a lot of convincing that I would not brick the thing.

I don’t know if that’s deliberate misinformation, ignorance or just a terminology difference.

 

I’ve been running my Baf bb’s like this for years, my shared path mode has no pas at all till I push “throttle”, then I get variable pas according to to torque given by my thumb with max of 125watts.The throttle does nothing without pedalling so completely passes your “Bobby Test” where they lift wheel and press trigger.

Of course original Bafang BB firmware doesn’t do this, nor does SOFTWARE allow you much. Clunky at best.

 

OSF is another story, changing the FIRMWARE gives you a whole lot more, google is your friend, search the sphere, at least two different OSF downloads that I know of.

 

I’m not a geek, I don’t write code, just use what others create.

They also add features for those on here that believe adding amps is legal and create the “fastest legal ebike”, an oxymoron if ever there was one. Temp cut out is one, instead of motor or controller cooking when they overdo it, it will reduce current before it goes bang. Keeping current limits at Bafangish specs make this unnecessary in my experience, but rider ability (correct gear etc) is not universal so hire bikes probably need it.

 

Shame OP deleted his post , to me there is no comparison between Bosch and Bafang for those that keep things, Bosch make throwaway stuff, Bafang sell spare parts.

That Bosch have the gall to put a “legal” sticker on them and then claim the most outrageous torque from “250watts continuous “is the icing on the cake. Extracting the urine !

If you've done this modification, why don't you share it? Which firmware did you use and which exact settings?

Except he doesn't have BBS01. He has BBSHD.

I completely understand why professionals don't want to have anything to do with illegal conversions.

 

Why not legal ones, Summit cycles won't even change my brake pads

 

Why not legal ones, Summit cycles won't even change my brake pads

 

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You should have asked them.

 

It is easy to change brake pads. Watch some YouTube tutorials and do it yourself.