Interesting question? When riding with no assist (not in level I,II,III) does the motor power down or does it continue to provide enough assist to achieve neutral torque to overcome internal mechanical losses? If not then when riding with no assist then I assume the rider would feel some drag from mechanical losses in turning the motor.
all reports seem to say that’s it’s totally like a regular road bike above the cutoff or when turned off. it has one of the two clutches or freewheels that a typical motor has…. but when it’s energized, the output shaft of the motor is rigidly connected to the cranks, requiring pretty sophisticated control of the current to the motor in real time. a software clutch of sorts.
Yes even some UK EMTB reviewers were saying this in relation to this power arms race, that it's rare you'd even need that much power and you'll rinse the battery very quickly on that boost level. Most kind of agreeing that the Bosch CX level is probably enough.
On the TW HPR50 bikes that I've worked on, that would require pulling the motor and removing the battery and cable. You would have to swap over the battery cable to connect the motor and charge port. That's the physical work. I believe that the controller would fault if it found that the main battery was missing. Even if it didn't, you'd be doing all that for half the range at best.
I have the HPR50, which has two mechanical clutches. When I ride with the system on and assist off, I can go for miles without the range changing at all. If there is any "drag" associated in the system, it doesn't appear to me that the system is compensating for it.
Could've used English subtitles to follow what he was saying, but pretty interesting to hear his revised take on ebikes after riding this one.
