New in eBike World

[AndrewMD]

Hello, I‘m new in the pedelecs world. Last week I bought my first electric bike - KTM ecross p. I read here amazing review http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/electric-bike-reviews/ktm-ecross-p-review/ but I‘ve few questions about this bike:
- is it possible to replace battery to smaller size, it looking as big
- is it possible and how to unlock engine (limit to 25km/h)

The bike is naked, and I still don’t know what add: kind of rack and fenders

 

[Az.]

Welcome Andrew.

I would advice to leave battery as it is for now until you know your bike better. Usually people want bigger battery capacity, not smaller.

Removing speed limit would make your bike illegal on UK roads.

 

[AndrewMD]

Hi Az. I mean change size of battery, not capacity. I live in Poland so, I would like to try change limit to polish roads.

 

[Az.]

As far as I know speed limit in Poland is 25km/h... better check before modification. There are few ways coming to my mind, but I don't support any changes making bikes illegal. I am sure others will help you if you decide to do it.

Changing battery is possible, but it is not straightforward. Batteries are also very expensive. Capacity is very directly connected with size unfortunately. It is not a new bike, is it? Test it out and check how far you can go. You might need to replace battery anyway.

Edit: Looks like battery and battery might be Panasonic proprietary technology. Replacing individual components might be problematic.

 

[AndrewMD]

Yes, it’s used bike, thanks for your advice.

 

[Az.]

I think battery is so big because controller and all electronic bits are inside. May I ask how much did you pay for this bike? Looks very decent, but motor/controller/battery might be very expensive to fix.

As per speed limit.. police in UK generally ignore ebikes even visibly illegal ones. Polish road police is a force you don't want to mess with.

 

[AndrewMD]

I looking for user manual to bike controller. I payed £800. Don’t be afraid about police in Poland. They’re very ok for bikers and moto bikers as well. I also driving by Honda transalp

 

[Zlatan]

I looking for user manual to bike controller. I payed £800. Don’t be afraid about police in Poland. They’re very ok for bikers and moto bikers as well. I also driving by Honda transalp

Having used a dongle for a short while (device that slows speed sensor pulses to make bike think it's going slower than it is, and hence give power to much higher speeds) there are a couple of issues besides illegality that put me off "derestricting" bike.
Firstly your displayed mileage, average speed etc will be useless. (my speeds were OK upto 8mph or so beyond which they were halved, which I could figure out but the affects on distance I couldn't)
Secondly, and much more importantly, your range will be seriously reduced. At higher speeds major obstacle to overcome is wind resistance. Hovering around 15mph is probably ebikes efficiency sweet spot. A bit faster power stops, a bit slower and a bit comes in. With that facility removed you try and maintain 18 mph (or so), and you can but you can literally see battery display disappearing. I was 30 or 40% worse off with dongle, so removed it.
Be happy always doing 15.5 mph, (except downhill) it's a great average by any standard.
Override the speed cut off, you already wanted a bigger battery and you, ll need double the size battery to achieve your required range. You, ll end up with a 40kg bike.

 

[AndrewMD]

Thanks for your help. I’m new in pedelec and I’m still searching informations about everything. For example, now I would like to change language in display lcd from German to English but I haven’t user manual.

 

[Sarge1892]

in my opinion if your gonna get 9into tinkering and modifying your bike you should get yourself something off the shelf in a more open format avoid the fancy mtbs with the built in batteries and go for something with a external shark or behind the seat style battery

you can ride that around for a few months figure out what you like what you don't like then replace parts as you go you can swap out the battery for higher capacitys and voltages and replace the controllers with relative ease to options that suit your needs

your not going to know what those needs are until you've had some quality time with a e-bike I thought pedal assist was going to be the worst thing ever but having ridden one I don't mind it at all I started with a 11ah battery now I'm thinking i might want something a bit bigger for the milage i do (around 100-200 miles per month)