Do ebikes need more than 5 speeds?
- Thread starter Cyklefanatic
- Start date
Cyklefanatic
Well-Known Member
A lot of people have mentioned that they want gears so that they can maintain cadence in their comfort zone. My bike is restricted to 31kph so I find I am either stopped or accelerating to 31 or cruising at 31. My cadence at 31 is perfect. I don’t need ten gears for the 20 seconds it takes to get up to speed. If I am forced to ride slower because of traffic I go down two or three gears. On flats or slight inclines I can easily get going from a stop in tenth gear. As soon as the torque sensor sees the load I am putting on the pedals it adds assist to help get me up to speed. Maybe the key is to have a well calibrated torque sensor. Some cheap bikes don’t have one and the experience is not as nice.
fooferdoggie
Well-Known Member
How are you getting upto speed? me I will start in the lowest gear and work my way up maybe only a few strokes before shifting. this get me upto 20 sometimes by the time I am across the street. it saves the gears and motor since I am not making it work as hard.
My last bike was equipped with a Shimano motor and 11speed IGH with electronic shifting. Worked fine on the flats but not so good at picking appropriate gear/cadence on hills, which I have plenty of in my 12km commute. And it was clunky. Fortunately you could also electric shift manually. Great idea but needs refinement. Of course refinement costs more money. Smart shifters for ebikes will eventually work and be nicely tuneable, but not sure they will appear on low end ebikes.
Brose motors, and I may presume many ebike motors, are most efficient at or above 80rpm. More gears should make it easier to stay in this cadence range from startup to your desired top speed? And more gears makes it easier on the drivetrain, rather than grunting and leaning hard on these components to get the bike up to speed with big clunky gear changes.
Gates belt drive is very quiet and smooth, but can get clogged up if you use them in the snow. They are very reliable, until they break. And they eventually do wear out and break, just like chains.
All these innovations are exciting and fun to play with and work on. Each has positives and negatives, but they all require some care and maintenance. Run what you brung..and enjoy them.
Brose motors, and I may presume many ebike motors, are most efficient at or above 80rpm. More gears should make it easier to stay in this cadence range from startup to your desired top speed? And more gears makes it easier on the drivetrain, rather than grunting and leaning hard on these components to get the bike up to speed with big clunky gear changes.
Gates belt drive is very quiet and smooth, but can get clogged up if you use them in the snow. They are very reliable, until they break. And they eventually do wear out and break, just like chains.
All these innovations are exciting and fun to play with and work on. Each has positives and negatives, but they all require some care and maintenance. Run what you brung..and enjoy them.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
Any mid-drive motor likes to spin fast. If you start in a low gear, you are at the right cadence fast. Shifting up with small steps in teeth number on each sprocket makes the acceleration smooth. You mention the torque, Jimbo. Excessive torque (if you tried to start in the high gear) translates to high forces on the chainring, cassette and especially on the chain which is very bad for the drive-train for wear and tear. In the worst case, you might get your chain snapped.
Relatively small number of gears in the car comes from the fact the ICE is flexible over pretty wide range of RPM; that's not the fact with the e-bike motors.
I'd like to describe a fact that perhaps was somewhat overlooked before. Assume you normally prefer to ride in PAS 2 (Sport, Trail, Normal, etc). You would use certain number of sprockets in your cassette. Now, you need to"gear down" to Eco mode. That mode requires lower gears. Pretty big number of sprockets in modern cassettes is very good to cover any imaginable situation you might encounter on your ride. It has been many years of development of the derailleur/shifter systems since 1956. Shimano, SRAM, Campagnolo are not stupid. The progress over the last 64 years has been enormous.
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Cyklefanatic
Well-Known Member
I have two pedago folding bikes with shimano three speed and a gates belt. Over 3,000 km and no problems. Top speed is only 24kph. A fourth gear would up the top speed. Cadence is not a problem. Being able to shift while not moving helps a ton if you have to stop in a hurry and are in the wrong gear. Don’t know what I would do with 7 more gears.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
Aha.
Nova Haibike
Well-Known Member
The number of gears needed depends on local terrain, what kind of e-bike it is, how close you want the e-bike to be like a normal bike, and how sensitive you are to changes in cadence.
There is not much advantage to having fewer gear with a derailleur system. Even if it is a 1x set-up, the derailleur is still there so there is no difference in maintenance. The only thing you might gain with fewer gears is a more durable chain.
There is not much advantage to having fewer gear with a derailleur system. Even if it is a 1x set-up, the derailleur is still there so there is no difference in maintenance. The only thing you might gain with fewer gears is a more durable chain.
indianajo
Well-Known Member
The guys on road bike review were quoting 1500 km 1000 miles on 11 speed chain, pushing the pedals themselves. I got ~10000 miles on a 5 speed chain, sprocket tips wore first. 6000 miles on a 7 speed before I abandoned the bike because it twice threw me on my chin. I think the 8 speed chain on bike left I'm using is same width as 7 speed chain, have 4000 miles on it and haven't bothered to measure stretch yet.
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