Brake Sensors

[Bikes4two]

Some interesting comments in this post especially the odd reference to IGH gearing, an avenue that is going to be of interest as I'm looking to electrify our Rohloff IGH tandem and (damn it) I'm limited to only being able to fit a front wheel hub, an experience I'm not particularly looking forward to having after the joys of the TSDZ2 mid drive torque sensing system.

The more I think about it, the stronger the feeling I get that crank-drives are stupid.

Are the crank drives you refer to cadence sensing or torque sensing or both?

My derailleur gear changing experience with the TSDZ2 (torque sensing) isn't any different to what I experienced on a non-ebike, i.e. smooth/good - maybe cadence sensing presents different challenges?

 

[saneagle]

Are the crank drives you refer to cadence sensing or torque sensing or both?

My derailleur gear changing experience with the TSDZ2 (torque sensing) isn't any different to what I experienced on a non-ebike, i.e. smooth/good - maybe cadence sensing presents different challenges?

Yes, both. I have ridden many crank-drive bikes of all sorts,. I used to work in a large ebike shop. I've built several and still own two myself - one torque sensor and one cadence sensor.

When you ride around with low power, you don't experience the worst disadvantages of a crank drive, and when you change from a normal pedal bike to an ebike, there's not much change to gear shifting. It's when you've been riding hub-motors for a while and you change to crank-drive, you can see how illogical, uncomfortable and stupid a crank motor is. Obviously, if you do serious off-rad riding, the advantages of a crank motor overcome the disadvantages, so I'd use one for that, but not for going to the shops or work.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

I like the idea of touching the brake lever to activate the brake sensor to change gears on a mid drive going up hill. On my BBS02B (without gear sensor) I seem to able to change down gears on assist levels 1-5 (up to 50% power on my set up ) with the motor driving the chain with no (audible) problems, seems very smooth. Above 50% power it gets a bit crunchy.

Just fitted a hydraulic brake sensor to my BBS02B bike - this technique works great - dabbing the brake lever to stop the motor (without going far enough to engage the brakes) to change up to the 11t ring on the rear cassette or changing down gears up a steep hill - no crunching to be heard.