What a revelation my Ebike is

[jedd]

Hi again.
I'm a newbie here but I've been a keen cyclist for many years.
I've always had a conventional road bike and never considered myself ever getting an Ebike.
Not too long back I would happily cycle 200 miles a week without feeling it, but the last few years, age has slowly caught up with me and the weekly miles and average speeds have dropped off.
A decent ride on my road bike nowadays leaves me feeling knackered for a good few days after with aching knees and feeling absolutely drained.
It's quite frustrating to end up feeling like this, because cycling (to me) is a great way to clear your head from the grind of life.After a hectic stressful day at work there's nothing better than to get the bike out in the evening and head off into the countryside to unwind and enjoy the solitude of natural.
Well,long story short I was gifted an E Mountain Bike, and at the beginning I was somewhat suspicious and sceptical about it.
As greatful as I was ,I did have a negative attitude towards them.
All the usual stereotypical views such as you don't get no exercise from them, the concerns about battery safety, how reliable are they and range anxiety.
I've had it three weeks now and covered around 600 miles on it and it's been an absolute hoot.The bike was unused
and it came with a spare battery that refused to charge when I got it, but soon discovered it needs to be switched on at the rocker switch to wake it up in order to get the dreaded green light on the charger to turn to red and start charging.
This weekend just gone I managed to do 150 miles on it and I'm feeling pretty good in all honesty.The old knees are not hurting and I feel eager to wanting to get back out on it the next day.After a few trials and errors I've found the perfect way to carry the spare battery.I have a very narrow backpack to which the spare battery fits snuggly inside and with a 50 mile range on each battery I've got a full days worth of cycling if I choose to..
The tyres on my new ebike are huge 26x4" affairs and look absolutely ridiculous,but coupled up to the motor the Ebike is a breeze to pedal along.Virtually all the roads I use are pot holed ridden affairs in absolutely the middle of nowhere.These tyre's just simply glide over everything that gets thrown at them and it makes a refreshing change,as on my road bike the roads had to be treated like a slalom course to avoid them.
For me I'm finding the heavy fat tyre Ebike far more safer to use in these conditions.
I'm also finding myself not avoiding any routes that include steep climbs any more (this can be difficult here in Wales) as the motor really takes the sting out of them.
As for not getting as much exercise as my conventional bike I don't really care.
I would much prefer to have some gentle exercise and be able to explore further afield and take in more of the stunning scenery as opposed to flogging myself to death on the ordinary road bike dodging the pot holes.
Coming home after a few hours in the saddle and not drenched in sweat, completely spent and having a big grin on my face , I will take every time.
So my conclusion is I'm now a very happy converted E biker and I'm looking forward to many more adventures along the way and happy that I can continue to be able to cycle well into the future of my advancing years

 

[Az.]

Welcome to the club.

... You just forgot to mention which bike did you get.

Edit: Gogobest GF600? Only 1kW motor

 

[portals]

I think he got a Surron...

 

[soundwave]

a dragster goes fast, it does not go very far

 

[soundwave]

 

[Peter.Bridge]

That's the best sort of gift - something you wouldn't have bought yourself but then realise it's brilliant. I too, am still a bit in awe of e-bikes and how brilliant they are, and you can turn the assist level up or down depending how much exercise you want and how fast you want to go. I saw a cyclist about the same age as me stopped near the top of the hills near me (in hilly North Yorkshire) and he looked a bit in distress. I pulled over to check he was OK, and it was just pedalling up the hill that had felled him. It never occurred to me, I had turned the assist up to 3 (out of 5) and flown up the hill , I was pedalling and getting some good exercise, but not drenched in sweat - probably at that point where I could just about hold a conversation.
The problem is when you realise how good they are, you start experimenting and trying different things to try and improve things further - I have a mid drive Bafang conversion to a Boardman 29er mountain bike (that I use mostly off road ) and have converted a Carrera with a Bafang rear hub and torque sensor that I use on roads. I have changed the tyres on the Carrera ,changed the brakes from manual discs to hydraulic, added mudguards, pannier rack and pannier, suspension seat post, changed from a speed based cadence sensor controller to a power based torque sensor controller. There's no end of tinkering you can do ! I keep seeing very attractively priced full suspension manual bikes on e-bay / facebook / gumtree and I'm sorely tempted to try and convert one of those !

 

[Waspy]

View attachment 57648

Mate, did you just post your home address on the Internet?

 

[peterjd]

With my old modified touring bike I also like the ability to quickly switch front wheels and cycle up local moderate hill on a short circuit. Reassures me that I haven't entirely lost the abilities of my younger years. Peter

 

[Peter.Bridge]

View attachment 57648

@soundwave how much of your battery does that trip use up ? Is it quite a busy route and you have to stop and start quite a bit or quite quiet ? - how hilly is it ?

 

[soundwave]

45%

 

[Peter.Bridge]

45%

That's probably quite similar to me - I can do trips of about 20 miles and the 20Ah 48V battery drops by about 3-4V , so probably uses just over 25-33% of the battery

 

[AndyBike]

 

[soundwave]

2016 batt showing its age now

 

[AndyBike]

15/16 miles again, moving at speed.
Just where are you going on these 15/16 mile trips that you're in a rush to get to

This much coincide with your trips to the dealers house

 

[Deleted member 16246]

That's the best sort of gift - something you wouldn't have bought yourself but then realise it's brilliant. I too, am still a bit in awe of e-bikes and how brilliant they are, and you can turn the assist level up or down depending how much exercise you want and how fast you want to go. I saw a cyclist about the same age as me stopped near the top of the hills near me (in hilly North Yorkshire) and he looked a bit in distress. I pulled over to check he was OK, and it was just pedalling up the hill that had felled him. It never occurred to me, I had turned the assist up to 3 (out of 5) and flown up the hill , I was pedalling and getting some good exercise, but not drenched in sweat - probably at that point where I could just about hold a conversation.
The problem is when you realise how good they are, you start experimenting and trying different things to try and improve things further - I have a mid drive Bafang conversion to a Boardman 29er mountain bike (that I use mostly off road ) and have converted a Carrera with a Bafang rear hub and torque sensor that I use on roads. I have changed the tyres on the Carrera ,changed the brakes from manual discs to hydraulic, added mudguards, pannier rack and pannier, suspension seat post, changed from a speed based cadence sensor controller to a power based torque sensor controller. There's no end of tinkering you can do ! I keep seeing very attractively priced full suspension manual bikes on e-bay / facebook / gumtree and I'm sorely tempted to try and convert one of those !

I love my converted specialised bike with its crank motor BBS01. Great assistance to get up the hills around here in the South Tyne Valley and North Pennines. I am a bit inclined to disconnect the thumb throttle to make it more legal. I only use that feature when moving off on hill or to get the full level of assistance on the worst of hills, but it is not presently legal to have a throttle like this which continues to move the bike beyond a crawl.

I need to follow Guerney's advice and get a programming lead to adjust one or two parameters to ensure proper legality, but there is next to no chance the police would ever interfere with me on it because of the way I ride it. They will just see a grey haired old git on a bike pedaling away at moderate speed. Why would they bother to investigate me? The speed is set in the LCD to 15mph, but I can edit that from the saddle and I don't think you are supposed to be edit teh speed to be more than 25 kph.

If I had a cable, I would also adjust the pedal assist in level 5 (highest level) so that I can get 100% of max current. At the moment, it never puts out more than 250 watts through pedal assist and that is why I use the thumb throttle to get max power on monster hills. That way it goes up to about 500 watts. I say about, because when I use it, I am pedalling so hard I can't quite read the lcd.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

I love my converted specialised bike with its crank motor BBS01. Great assistance to get up the hills around here in the South Tyne Valley and North Pennines. I am a bit inclined to disconnect the thumb throttle to make it more legal. I only use that feature when moving off on hill or to get the full level of assistance on the worst of hills, but it is not presently legal to have a throttle like this which continues to move the bike beyond a crawl.

I need to follow Guerney's advice and get a programming lead to adjust one or two parameters to ensure proper legality, but there is next to no chance the police would ever interfere with me on it because of the way I ride it. They will just see a grey haired old git on a bike pedaling away at moderate speed. Why would they bother to investigate me? The speed is set in the LCD to 15mph, but I can edit that from the saddle and I don't think you are supposed to be edit teh speed to be more than 25 kph.

If I had a cable, I would also adjust the pedal assist in level 5 (highest level) so that I can get 100 of max current. At the moment, it never puts out more than 250 watts through pedal assist and that is why I use the thumb throttle to get max power on monster hills. That way it goes up to about 500 watts. I say about, because when I use it, I am pedalling so hard I can't quite read the lcd.

I think people set the max current (using the cable) on the 36v BBS01 to 18 amps which would give you (legally) 650w output power from the controller.

 

[guerney]

The speed is set in the LCD to 15mph, but I can edit that from the saddle and I don't think you are supposed to be edit teh speed to be more than 25 kph.

I haven't done this, because it seems (I may be wrong) every KT conversion kit can have max speed set to whatever you like via their displays, and it's a parameter set via a display, not a big fat red switch with "OFFROAD SWITCH OR MODE" flashing in illuminated letters.... but if you like, you can adjust the firmware so that max speed can't be changed via the display. I can't change the max speed while riding, 20" wheels, because of needing to watch the road while not falling off and all that. It takes multiple fiddly button presses while squinting at tiny alphanumerics on a small screen.

I need to follow Guerney's advice and get a programming lead to adjust one or two parameters to ensure proper legality, but there is next to no chance the police would ever interfere with me on it because of the way I ride it. They will just see a grey haired old git on a bike pedaling away at moderate speed. Why would they bother to investigate me?

There are several BBS01B owners who can advise about firmware on the forum. You don't hear from them much, because their motors are quite reliable and they're too busy enjoying riding their bikes. Other than increase top speed to beyond 25kph and retain the throttle, I don't see what firmware changes would make your legal 250W manufacturer rated motor illegal. "250W" is clearly stamped fairly large into the metal underside of your motor's casing.

I think people set the max current (using the cable) on the 36v BBS01 to 18 amps which would give you (legally) 650w output power from the controller.

Or 720W at 20A, and it'd still be legal.