Apologies to those who may have read this survey on the Cycling UK forum but as there's no response so far (03May22), I'm posting here as I'm sure there will be greater interest.
Intro
• A bit of a long-ish read, but bear with me if you will – this is all about dispelling urban myth in favour of more factual experiences.
• I am a TSDZ2 user (of around 5 months now and almost 3,000Km) as is my wife and two friends (and I installed all their kits).
• Prior to buying the TSDZ2 I read and watched a lot of comment on the motor and took careful note of the problems that people had had with it.
• Reports of overheating, blue gear failure, sprag clutch problems and axle breakages are numerous but of course forums rarely attract reports of ‘I’ve had a great day/year/experience’ but rather along the lines of ‘something is wrong/broken, how do I fix it’.
• Further, it is often not possible to deduce what type of usage a motor has had e.g. was it a lower powered 36v 250w version taken to the High Street a couple of times a week, or one of the higher powered options with a 52v battery powering along at 750w+ in sub tropical conditions, to say nothing of the rider weight, riding style and terrain.
• Anyway, at a price point of under £300 I didn’t expect precision engineering and in any case, most problems seemed to be fixable by a competent person plus a good level of availability of spares, and forums such as this and Youtube for guidance.
The Survey
My own TSDZ2 experience has been very positive but I am keen to hear of other’s direct (not here-say) experiences with this motor. So to kick off, here’s my input:
• I have had no problems with the motor and neither have the other 3 TSDZ2 users. I’ve done 2,900Km at the time of writing (May 2022) whilst the other users have done, 1,600Km, 1,000Km and 400Km respectively – so no great mileages here and during the winter months of 2021/22!
• I am the only one running Open Source Firmware (OSF) and I’ve only experienced one peculiarity with it in that occasionally the motor ‘drives itself’ i.e. the motor keeps turning without any crank rotation, albeit very slowly and with little power behind it. As I have not fitted ebrakes to my bike (or to any of the others), applying the brakes lightly is enough to stop bike movement and a power on/off resolves the issue. Interestingly, two of the other ‘fits’ occasionally experience the same thing and they are running stock firmware.
• Mechanicals – I like many others, experienced the cranks loosening. I resolved this by buying a torque wrench and properly tightening (as opposed to guessing) to 40Nm. I do re-check for tightness on all motor fixing points and the cranks around every 1000Km – sometimes a bit of tightening is required but not to a degree that you’d say something has coming loose.
• And a comment on chain wear as some owners have commented that mid-drive motors lead to excessive chain wear. After 2,900Km my KMC chain has of course some wear but well within acceptable tolerance and not requiring changing as yet. However, on the 1,600Km bike, I had to change the ‘no name’ chain at around 1,400Km and whilst our riding styles and terrain are similar, I generally use assist level ECO whilst my freind generally uses the next level up - draw your own conclusions?
NB. For chain wear I use a simple 2-wear level go/no-go gauge (0.7% and 1.0%) which from experience is as accurate as measurement with a steel rule and far more convenient.
Phantom Problems
• What are these you might ask? Well, these are problems that I may have initially thought were down to the motor but turned out not to be so, e.g. the loose crank issue as mentioned above.
• Another one was the motor suddenly and randomly powering down. This took a while to resolve and it turned out to be a dodgy BMS in the bottle battery.
• And yet another one was an annoying creak that despite my prolonged efforts, persisted, until that was, I re-greased the headset bearings and peace reigned again.
Over to You
It would be really useful to know of other’s direct experiences with their TSDZ2 (or those of a friend to which they can testify to credible accuracy). So if you’ve had any problems, what were they, how were they resolved and most importantly, what motor spec, type of riding (style and terrain) was the motor used for.
And of course if you’ve had a positive experience, then please share that on here too.
Thanks for sharing and happy e-biking
Intro
• A bit of a long-ish read, but bear with me if you will – this is all about dispelling urban myth in favour of more factual experiences.
• I am a TSDZ2 user (of around 5 months now and almost 3,000Km) as is my wife and two friends (and I installed all their kits).
• Prior to buying the TSDZ2 I read and watched a lot of comment on the motor and took careful note of the problems that people had had with it.
• Reports of overheating, blue gear failure, sprag clutch problems and axle breakages are numerous but of course forums rarely attract reports of ‘I’ve had a great day/year/experience’ but rather along the lines of ‘something is wrong/broken, how do I fix it’.
• Further, it is often not possible to deduce what type of usage a motor has had e.g. was it a lower powered 36v 250w version taken to the High Street a couple of times a week, or one of the higher powered options with a 52v battery powering along at 750w+ in sub tropical conditions, to say nothing of the rider weight, riding style and terrain.
• Anyway, at a price point of under £300 I didn’t expect precision engineering and in any case, most problems seemed to be fixable by a competent person plus a good level of availability of spares, and forums such as this and Youtube for guidance.
The Survey
My own TSDZ2 experience has been very positive but I am keen to hear of other’s direct (not here-say) experiences with this motor. So to kick off, here’s my input:
• I have had no problems with the motor and neither have the other 3 TSDZ2 users. I’ve done 2,900Km at the time of writing (May 2022) whilst the other users have done, 1,600Km, 1,000Km and 400Km respectively – so no great mileages here and during the winter months of 2021/22!
• I am the only one running Open Source Firmware (OSF) and I’ve only experienced one peculiarity with it in that occasionally the motor ‘drives itself’ i.e. the motor keeps turning without any crank rotation, albeit very slowly and with little power behind it. As I have not fitted ebrakes to my bike (or to any of the others), applying the brakes lightly is enough to stop bike movement and a power on/off resolves the issue. Interestingly, two of the other ‘fits’ occasionally experience the same thing and they are running stock firmware.
• Mechanicals – I like many others, experienced the cranks loosening. I resolved this by buying a torque wrench and properly tightening (as opposed to guessing) to 40Nm. I do re-check for tightness on all motor fixing points and the cranks around every 1000Km – sometimes a bit of tightening is required but not to a degree that you’d say something has coming loose.
• And a comment on chain wear as some owners have commented that mid-drive motors lead to excessive chain wear. After 2,900Km my KMC chain has of course some wear but well within acceptable tolerance and not requiring changing as yet. However, on the 1,600Km bike, I had to change the ‘no name’ chain at around 1,400Km and whilst our riding styles and terrain are similar, I generally use assist level ECO whilst my freind generally uses the next level up - draw your own conclusions?
NB. For chain wear I use a simple 2-wear level go/no-go gauge (0.7% and 1.0%) which from experience is as accurate as measurement with a steel rule and far more convenient.
Phantom Problems
• What are these you might ask? Well, these are problems that I may have initially thought were down to the motor but turned out not to be so, e.g. the loose crank issue as mentioned above.
• Another one was the motor suddenly and randomly powering down. This took a while to resolve and it turned out to be a dodgy BMS in the bottle battery.
• And yet another one was an annoying creak that despite my prolonged efforts, persisted, until that was, I re-greased the headset bearings and peace reigned again.
Over to You
It would be really useful to know of other’s direct experiences with their TSDZ2 (or those of a friend to which they can testify to credible accuracy). So if you’ve had any problems, what were they, how were they resolved and most importantly, what motor spec, type of riding (style and terrain) was the motor used for.
And of course if you’ve had a positive experience, then please share that on here too.
Thanks for sharing and happy e-biking
