Throttle mode

I've turned on the "throttle mode" on my Mirider

While it's fun, on a ride tonight the battery was down to 25% after four miles.

After that l stopped using it and managed a further ten miles of normal assisted riding before the battery expired.

lt's useful to get started as the bike has only one gear, but pretty useless apart from that due to the battery becoming depleted so quickly.

I'd love to put the throttle back onto my bike again- useful to start after a suddens stop, if I happen to stop on a high gear. After sudden stops at intersections on steeper hills, I've had to lift the bike onto the pavement, cycle down to change to a lower gear before I could go back up.

It's daft that throttles are illegal on ebikes, but allegedly about to be made legal on road e-scooters - those things should have push-along-with-foot assist and no throttles, then people would stop buying them for fear of looking even sillier.

I hope their "New charge points", are generic ebike compatible:

https://www.whatcar.com/news/e-scooter-use-on-public-roads-to-be-legalised-%E2%80%93-move-electric/n24635

E-scooter kills dog:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1615138/dog-killed-e-scooter-manchester-walkden-accident-transport-bill-danger

Edited June 23, 20223 yr by guerney

lt's legal to have a throttle for starting off, as the Mirider has one of those as standard.

l think it has to stop assisting at around 4mph though.

 

lt's legal to have a throttle for starting off, as the Mirider has one of those as standard.

 

 

l think it has to stop assisting at around 4mph though.

 

Yes I could re-attach the throttle and limit it to 6km/h in firmware. I would have to take the end mirror, handle and all the other gubbins off to do so sometime. Then it could possibly be an awkward point of discussion if I get stopped by the Police, and they question the presence of the throttle. Mine is a conversion so they could be more sceptical, unless I insist they try riding it on throttle? I suppose I could lean it on the bike stand with the back wheel off the ground, and demonstrate it's slowness. That's if they don't immediately seize it for inspection at the station or ebike prison - [mention=19370]peter.c[/mention] recently reported that they were stopping ebikes looking for throttles, while looking for (currently) illegal e-scooters.

https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/best-kit-for-mostly-off-road-commute.43633/page-2#post-655602

Edited June 23, 20223 yr by guerney

On most ebikes without a torque sensor as long as you turn the pedals a little the bike will sit at its maximum speed of around 15mph anyway.

That's perfectly legal.

l don't understand why that is any different to having a throttle.

On most ebikes without a torque sensor as long as you turn the pedals a little the bike will sit at its maximum speed of around 15mph anyway.

That's perfectly legal.

l don't understand why that is any different to having a throttle:

you can ride slowly with a throttle, like when negotiating a gate or when the cycle lane is full of riders. When you ride slowly, the throttle replaces the torque sensor: instantaneous response and controlled acceleration.

With the pedelec sensor alone, it depends very much on how the controller is programmed: current control or speed control.

If it's programmed for current control, then the acceleration is moderated by the setting of the assist levels. If it's speed control, each assist level has a speed setting. The motor will give a bit of a surge every time the motor starts up then the power reduces as your speed gets nearer the pre-programmed speed. Current control is good for going slow because the motor does not give a big surge.

Either way (current control or speed control), the controller would be programmed such that your speed is still limited by your pedalling. You can still control your speed by pedalling slowly but it's rather unpleasant compared to a throttle or a torque sensor.

The thing is every person has his or her own preference. For most people, speed control is fine. It's pretty much what you would want the bike to behave most of the time: the bike accelerates quickly at startup and forces you pedal a bit more when you go faster. For more long term e-riders, current control makes the bike feel more like a push bike.

Bafang made available a piece of software that lets the user program the assist levels individually on their BBS kits. That's an advantage, you can pretty much get the motor to behave the way you want although it may void your warranty.

Edited June 23, 20223 yr by Woosh