Choosing Between the Rad Rover Step Through or Rad City Step Through

[Josh Warrior]

My research on the bikes above (I have no hands-on experience wit these bikes) led me to consider the line of bikes put out by Aventon. Their new "Level" bike (introduced officially next week on Feb 12) has a suspension fork and pretty good components (incl. fenders/rack), esp. for ~$1600. See the thread on Aventon Bikes.

 

[vincent]

One thing about all these entry level online order bikes is the controllers are sometimes not well done, meaning they can be very fast in level 1

For me this is an issue and I don’t like/won’t buy a bike like that

Haven’t ridden any of the new rad bikes but think they have worked on this and controllers are smoother

Last I heard from a few people the aventon bikes were not smooth and were fast in level one
Same for magnum
Possible these companies have upped their game for 2020, I don’t know

But if you can try to test ride some of them first
Rad has rental places in some cities

 

[Browneye]

PAS 1 on many hub-drive bikes is about 8-10mph. Depending on the motor watts, they can jump up there pretty good. We even got it with the hub conversion for her, but wifey is totally used to it now and actually likes it for quick starts in traffic, or when she forgets to shift down to stop.
What I'm saying is you can put the control on PAS0 for tight quarters, switch to 1 when you get going. It's something you get used to when learning the bike.

 

[vincent]

Yes you can work around it or you can just buy a bike that is better programmed or is programmable

There is no reason for the bikes to have these crappy programmed controllers at this stage of the game

Maybe mike can chime in on whether aventon and magnum have worked on this for 2020 think he is a dealer for both

Surface was better
And flx m600 motors while mid drive/more expensive are a decent price point for what you get and the motor is smooth
I rode one of the sondors fold a year ago and was impressed with the smooth programming on that one

There are alternatives

 

[AHicks]

PAS 1 on many hub-drive bikes is about 8-10mph. Depending on the motor watts, they can jump up there pretty good. We even got it with the hub conversion for her, but wifey is totally used to it now and actually likes it for quick starts in traffic, or when she forgets to shift down to stop.
What I'm saying is you can put the control on PAS0 for tight quarters, switch to 1 when you get going. It's something you get used to when learning the bike.

Agree with Vincent. Dealing with one of these would make me nuts quickly. Actually, I wouldn't deal with it for long, or ask my wife to either. You can buy a KT based controller and a pretty decent display used to program it for less than 100 easily. Out with the crap, in with the much better fully configurable controller that requires maybe a day of your time to convert.

If you have any interest, I've bought from these folks several times (PSWpower), and been treated really well even if there was a problem. They actually have a pretty decent reputation. Check out what it would take ($$) to replace your controller and display with something I've found to work really well. Pay attention to controller features, sensored vs. sensorless, cruise and regen, etc. Pick you controller, then add your display and anything else you might want to make matching the wires up easier.

9.44US $ |36V/48V 500W Brushless DC Sine Wave Controller +LCD or LED+Throttle+Brake Lever+PAS + Speed Sensor+light speaker+switch|lcd 36v|controller controlspeaker speaker - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[Browneye]

It's a feature, not a bug. lol
So you're saying a different controller can be set for each pas setting? That would be worthwhile. The steps are not incremental either.

EDIT: that controller doesn't say anything about being programmable. In fact it looks exactly what I have. LOL
Does Bafang or otherwise have programing software for making settings changes?

Edit2: This site says you can program a bafang controller: https://wiseinnovationtechnologies.com/programming-your-bafang-motor/

 

[vincent]

Imo it may not be a bug but is indicative of a low cost crappy controller, and is a lot of the reason cadence bikes get such a bad rap

I think most of the bafang mid drives can be programmed and some of the hub motors if you have the right controller

But some companies just program their bikes better

 

[AHicks]

Browneye, do a google search for "setting LCD3 parameters" or something to that effect. I'm sure you'll find plenty and many are identical other than the cover page. Pdf docs are best. The ones I see and use most are about 36 pages. The bike manf. isn't relevant. These are about programming the KT controller and display. They're all the same for the most part. There are also many youtube videos, but they generally don't go into the detail you need.

Among the different parameters is a switch that will use speed rather than a predetermined wattage for each of the PAS levels. That's the one you want to avoid as it's similar to what you are running now. Others will let you control max wattage available to the motor, and some fine tuning for the PAS levels - similar to a low, medium, high. No doubt it will take you a bit to get it all figured out, but with a little patience, pretty sure you'll be pleased with the results.

Do be careful picking out a controller. They can be very close from one to the next, but features do vary. The sensorless do not work well with geared hubs. Sine wave and simulated sine wave controllers are smoother and quieter than square wave (which may create a ringing sound in the motor while running).

I think I have some notes that might help too. I'll dig for them if you decide to go this way.

Not familiar with what can or cannot be configured with the Bafang. -Al