Whyte Portobello V3
BBS01B 250W 36V (44T)
Speed restriction removed.
Display: 500C
Throttle: No
Brake Switches: No
Gear Sensor: No
Supplier: Accolmile EU via Amazon (2 day delivery).
Use: Commuter
Installation:
Really straight forward for the motor. My BB was 68mm with screw in bearings and a 16 notch nut which matched the type the BBS01 uses. I opted not to use the throttle and I couldn’t get the brake sensors to work with my brakes so I modified the harness so only the Display connector was left. This also allowed me to run it through the internal cable route through the downtube rather than clipping it to the outside and also reduce the amount of excess cable you have to somehow tidy around the bottom bracket. I reckon I probably had half a metre spare there before chopping it out. I also cut the length of the battery cable down. I left all the cables exiting the motor housing as they were. If I strip the motor I may shorten them if it looks feasible. But for now I only wanted to chop up cables I knew I could replace if need be. Mounting the speed pickup was a pain. My chain-stays are so close to the spokes there wasn’t enough room to mount the bracket inside the stay, so I had to modify it to mount on the outside. This got me the perfect distance in the end (thanks to those who chipped in on that thread). The battery was the next pain. The mount only lined up with 1 bottle holder bolt. I ended up making an aluminium bracket that used all the bolts plus an extra I drilled on the battery mount, this then could screw to the bottle mounts and I extended it up to the secondary bottle mounts on the seat tube to reduce wobble. Feels absolutely solid now.
Experience:
I’d not ridden an ebike before so I had no idea what to expect. The best way to explain the BBS01 is that if you have driven and old diesel car where you have an initial surge and then the power feels like it tails off, it’s like that. I'd expected something more akin to a rev happy petrol engine where I'd need to pedal fast. If you are used to spinning the pedals out before changing up you’ll want to change your style. You need to short shift and ride the torque rather than try to spin out the motor with high cadence. Initially it made me feel like I was going slower, but soon becomes apparent that whilst you feel a relaxed pace, the bike is whipping along as you are cruising in a higher gear. To put it in context my commute is 9 miles each way. I knocked ~10mins off the ride in, got to work and realised I’d forgotten my laptop so had to immediately ride back and knocked ~15 minutes off my return time! Got home and whilst feeling like I had had some exercise I don’t think I even broke a sweat. 18 miles, 25 minutes quicker and felt fine. I couldn’t do the commute faster in my car. I’ve heard that the BBS02 likes a higher cadence if you want to spin faster, but honestly, for a commuter and looking at the times I don’t feel I need that.
Annoyances:
CRUNCH! Down-changes are a thing. I don’t have the brake switches or the gear sensor so I really need to think about changing down. I’m going to change the 'motor off' time when my tuning cable arrives, but I’m used to slow pedalling as I change down approaching a stop, but of course this now has a motor putting torque on so I need to change my habit. Hoping the re-tune should help a bit with that whilst I re-tune my brain.
Conclusion:
I’d had to rule out hub motors as I have thru-axles. So had to go the mid-drive route for a commuter. I wanted to keep it theoretically legal but was a bit apprehensive going with the lowest power motor. Especially when the whole internet sounds like Jeremy Clarkson telling you need more SPEED & POWER on your pedelec. I think you’ll see from my numbers that this isn’t always the case, it’s very much a use/ route based decision. Around 70% of my route is cycle track with most of the remaining roads having 20mph limits. On a few occasions I had to check myself, such as riding between bollards or coming up to tight corners, where I felt like I wasn’t putting as much effort in as usual, but in reality going twice as fast as usual!
In summary whilst I want to make a few tweaks still, I’m really happy with my conversion. Once I’ve had the chance to play with the controller settings and got a few more miles under my belt I’ll report back.
BBS01B 250W 36V (44T)
Speed restriction removed.
Display: 500C
Throttle: No
Brake Switches: No
Gear Sensor: No
Supplier: Accolmile EU via Amazon (2 day delivery).
Use: Commuter
Installation:
Really straight forward for the motor. My BB was 68mm with screw in bearings and a 16 notch nut which matched the type the BBS01 uses. I opted not to use the throttle and I couldn’t get the brake sensors to work with my brakes so I modified the harness so only the Display connector was left. This also allowed me to run it through the internal cable route through the downtube rather than clipping it to the outside and also reduce the amount of excess cable you have to somehow tidy around the bottom bracket. I reckon I probably had half a metre spare there before chopping it out. I also cut the length of the battery cable down. I left all the cables exiting the motor housing as they were. If I strip the motor I may shorten them if it looks feasible. But for now I only wanted to chop up cables I knew I could replace if need be. Mounting the speed pickup was a pain. My chain-stays are so close to the spokes there wasn’t enough room to mount the bracket inside the stay, so I had to modify it to mount on the outside. This got me the perfect distance in the end (thanks to those who chipped in on that thread). The battery was the next pain. The mount only lined up with 1 bottle holder bolt. I ended up making an aluminium bracket that used all the bolts plus an extra I drilled on the battery mount, this then could screw to the bottle mounts and I extended it up to the secondary bottle mounts on the seat tube to reduce wobble. Feels absolutely solid now.
Experience:
I’d not ridden an ebike before so I had no idea what to expect. The best way to explain the BBS01 is that if you have driven and old diesel car where you have an initial surge and then the power feels like it tails off, it’s like that. I'd expected something more akin to a rev happy petrol engine where I'd need to pedal fast. If you are used to spinning the pedals out before changing up you’ll want to change your style. You need to short shift and ride the torque rather than try to spin out the motor with high cadence. Initially it made me feel like I was going slower, but soon becomes apparent that whilst you feel a relaxed pace, the bike is whipping along as you are cruising in a higher gear. To put it in context my commute is 9 miles each way. I knocked ~10mins off the ride in, got to work and realised I’d forgotten my laptop so had to immediately ride back and knocked ~15 minutes off my return time! Got home and whilst feeling like I had had some exercise I don’t think I even broke a sweat. 18 miles, 25 minutes quicker and felt fine. I couldn’t do the commute faster in my car. I’ve heard that the BBS02 likes a higher cadence if you want to spin faster, but honestly, for a commuter and looking at the times I don’t feel I need that.
Annoyances:
CRUNCH! Down-changes are a thing. I don’t have the brake switches or the gear sensor so I really need to think about changing down. I’m going to change the 'motor off' time when my tuning cable arrives, but I’m used to slow pedalling as I change down approaching a stop, but of course this now has a motor putting torque on so I need to change my habit. Hoping the re-tune should help a bit with that whilst I re-tune my brain.
Conclusion:
I’d had to rule out hub motors as I have thru-axles. So had to go the mid-drive route for a commuter. I wanted to keep it theoretically legal but was a bit apprehensive going with the lowest power motor. Especially when the whole internet sounds like Jeremy Clarkson telling you need more SPEED & POWER on your pedelec. I think you’ll see from my numbers that this isn’t always the case, it’s very much a use/ route based decision. Around 70% of my route is cycle track with most of the remaining roads having 20mph limits. On a few occasions I had to check myself, such as riding between bollards or coming up to tight corners, where I felt like I wasn’t putting as much effort in as usual, but in reality going twice as fast as usual!
In summary whilst I want to make a few tweaks still, I’m really happy with my conversion. Once I’ve had the chance to play with the controller settings and got a few more miles under my belt I’ll report back.
