2018 RadMini Shutdown While Hill Climbing

[kphelan]

This is also posted in the FB Rad PowerBike Users group. Sorry for cross-posting but I am a newb looking for answers.

I am a RadMini one-week owner. I was out for a ride this morning on 2 lane country roads with numerous hills. I try to ride in PAS-2 for the exercise, and use the gears liberally. I will go up to PAS 3 or 4 when climbing a longer hill; it just depends upon when my legs tell me to hit the button. After about 10 miles I hit a stretch of hills, one after another, that eventually brought me to PAS-5 and gear 1 or 2. In the middle of the final hill I could feel the motor quit. No notice on the display. I still had 4 bars of battery left. Everything looked normal, but no power assist. I stopped and got off, turned off the controller, and walked the bike up the hill. After 5 minutes of letting it rest, I powered back on and everything was OK. I rode home on mostly flat ground w/o incident. I suspect it was the motor or battery being overtaxed/overheated that caused a shutdown. Has anyone else experienced this? I am not particularly alarmed, as this is the first occurrence and I was pushing the bike pretty hard. But this was by no means a classic big hill climb. Perhaps a half mile or more of steady PAS-5 usage. Seems rather lightweight to me to cause a shutdown.

 

[mrgold35]

I have two 2016 Radrovers and PAS 3 (375 watts) is the level I use for hills and normal paved road riding (PAS 2 for trails). I might bump the throttle near the top if I slow down too much for about 20-30 seconds. I sometime ride in PAS 4 (550 watts) if I have an headwind of +20 mph all the way home. I never use PAS 5 when I ride on level ground or inclines. PAS 3 seems to be about the right power level to climb hills all day long. You might have to add more leg power or reduce your mph maintain PAS 3 for long inclines.

I found my Radrover rolls easier with the PSI +20 (22-24 range). My rad also rolled easier when I upgraded my tires to Vee8 120tpi tires with the same +20 PSI.

 

[rich c]

I thought Rad put a line or two in the owner's manual about not using PAS 5 on hills.
https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/power-assist-5-and-steep-hills.14499/

 

[CodyDog]

In the owners manual it warns you not to you PAS 5 on a hill. Perhaps your shut down was caused by over heating or the controller.

 

[kphelan]

Thanks everyone. I suspected as much, I simply overheated the system. I will watch closely and try to learn when this might happen again. I am a very newbie on this bike (odometer 36 miles).