Joe EE
Active Member
First warm weekend day in my neck of the woods and I took my new girl out for a spin to break her in, so to speak. My other bikes are geared so this is my first DD motor. Interesting diffence. On the flat the performance is what I am used to with my other bikes except this motor is really really quiet. She has lots of power at 1 kilowatt. Uphill she has lots of torque also, if you are already moving and or pedaling. From a standing stop in an uphill direction she doesn’t exactly blast off, but I can live with that. I like to pedal. Very glad I hooked up the pedelec. When you pedal, the sensation of power is fairly exhilarating, this bike is tough to pedal without any assist because of the forward pedal position. I added the Grin Tech potentiometer dial to fine tune my pedal assist wattage and that was a smart purchase. By keeping the assist at roughly 50 Watts my range has practically doubled. On another note, this is my first non-governed riding experience. I have no idea how fast she will go cause at around 27-28 MPH I backed off. I like that. I have no idea how fast my car will go either, if I floor it and leave it there, so I think that’s really cool.
There is a cruise control feature that is handy also. This bike is really heavy, so even on the slightest incline you will need power assist. I was able to keep the Shimano internal 3 speed in the rear, which is fun, but no amount of shifting is going to make this heavy girl climb. Instead of leaning on the throttle, at the beginning of a long incline you can pedal up to the desired speed on the approach, hit cruise control and forget the hill is there. A really neat feature.
Braking is also very different on this bike. She came with a disc in front that I had to remove and a coaster brake in the rear. The regen braking up front on the motor just stops the bike. I mean you won’t get thrown off or anything, but she just stops. Needless to say, I am really satisfied to this point with my experience with this kit!
There is a cruise control feature that is handy also. This bike is really heavy, so even on the slightest incline you will need power assist. I was able to keep the Shimano internal 3 speed in the rear, which is fun, but no amount of shifting is going to make this heavy girl climb. Instead of leaning on the throttle, at the beginning of a long incline you can pedal up to the desired speed on the approach, hit cruise control and forget the hill is there. A really neat feature.
Braking is also very different on this bike. She came with a disc in front that I had to remove and a coaster brake in the rear. The regen braking up front on the motor just stops the bike. I mean you won’t get thrown off or anything, but she just stops. Needless to say, I am really satisfied to this point with my experience with this kit!
