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I deleted because I was wrong. Both a PAS torque and cadence hybrid system would be considered Class 1 or 3. But if a throttle is added the model would not be compliant to the 3-class legislation which is still not good for the industry in my opinion (seems to me there is no reason why an ebike...

No real beef, I just think it's very difficult to have a program determine the assist level that a rider wants with accuracy so I tend to tend to think it's best to just provide the rider direct/immediate control via a throttle. The rider can still pedal with as much exertion as wanted.

I think what ebike manufacturers should do is have a base model with a throttle and allow the buyers to pay for extra costs of cadence- and/or throttle-assist. The buyers that only want a simple throttle assist benefit because they are not forced to buy what they don't want and those that want...

I agree and disagree at the same time. I do agree that preferred cadence typically falls within a smaller range but there are great riders that truly love their single speed bikes where the cadence range is huge and they obviously get effective exercise. That said "ghost pedaling" is entirely...

You don't need a lot of gears to get that exercise. If you are comfortable say with a cadence range of 40-100rpm an ebike is probably OK with just 3 gears. If a human/rider was capable of say a 1000rpm then we'd have bikes with small front chain rings and large rear cogs to always magnify the...

The motors can be optimized for how an ebike is primarily used - mainly about slow speed climbing or faster speed urban mobility. With parallel winding some of that trade-off can be eliminated as the "trick" is to make sure the Kv and battery voltage provides efficient performance at the...

Yea...agreed. The gearing on an ebike with a powerful motor like the Bafang Ultra is not about enabling the human power to be effective but more about regulating cadence in a range that is comfortable for the rider. Motors are simply more efficient and effective at higher RPMs so their internal...

If you ride a Bafang Ultra ebike with a 14 speed Rohloff you would find that you rarely need to be below like 7th of 8th gear and if you start t in 1st gear you will be shifting thru the gears so fast given the acceleration it makes no sense. Obviously I'm only talking about riding the ebike...

I understand. I rode my ebike over 6,000 miles one year and put another 6,000+ on my car. I thought it was strange I was putting more money/mile for bike tires than I was car tires. I do tend to believe ebike can be a viable transportation solution for many people so the old mindset that bikes...

I agree with your assessment but the weight paradigm that drove the bike industry for 50 years is far far less important with ebikes (especially urban mobility ebikes that do not need hyper handling like a great mountain ebike). Cost wise I think longevity isn't always more expensive - a cheaper...

If you really examine how the belt drive to a Rohloff is geared which is usually about a 50% torque reduction (both to deal with the under-drive nature of Rohloff's planetary gearing and to save it from the full torque of the Bafang Ultra) you'll understand that you never really experience the...

Get a rear view mirror that doesn't stick out past your bar ends. That seems like a reasonable solution. I had a bar end mirror for a while but it got destroyed by hitting something as your described. I purchased a better design that was under the grip on the left side. The reason why bar end...

Is 4000 miles on a gear hub motor considered acceptable product life cycle? What is it about the ebike industry that can't seem to get past the mindset that bike are only for recreation / leisure riding and should not be more "transportation-grade?" If the ebike industry is really ever going...

I rode a motorcycle for many years and now ride an ebike frequently. I have always ridden assuming that drivers simply do not see me. That can dramatically reduce your risk on two wheels. I have friends that have been seriously injured in motorcycle accidents and I do believe they could have...

I think the fact that a growing number of brands are releasing "multi-mode" models (nothing preventing this) the classes become a very grey line since the rider can flip between them by simply hitting a button. I predicted this the very first time I read about the 3-class legislation being...

There are safety standards in 1512 that apply to both bikes and ebikes. Recently a new standard was created for the drive systems but I can't remember the document number.

This is why when Dr. Currie drafted the original HR727 federal ebike definition he defined a 750W nominal rating (knowing it was nebulous but would be OK with congress given he could say it's just 1hp). He then established a maximum drive system wattage above 20mph per the constraints so an...

We've all read about the EU 250W power rating / limit for ebike drive systems but the drive system do have higher than 250W peak power. I'm trying to comprehend what the legislation actually specifies.... Is 250W the peak power the motor and controller can provide without overheating within 30...

In a way this power discussion is what this post is about because it does explain why the class 1 and 3 results were about the same.

Having some ebikes that are truly effective urban mobility is a bit more important that just making them good for recreation / leisure riding. I understand that oil and auto industries don't want the competition but the world needs great human scale transportation solutions. An ebike is...