Good uses for walk mode

[Jeremy McCreary]

I've been appreciating my ebike's walk mode more and more in recent months. And now that it's come up in several threads just in the last 2 weeks, thought it might be interesting hear how members use theirs. So...

Q1. Good uses you've found for walk mode?

Q2. How is it implemented on your ebike?

Q3: Has it ever saved the day for you?

Thanks for sharing!

 

[fooferdoggie]

on the tandem its been useful. once a flat that I had forgotten to replace all the tubes we had to walk 1.5 miles home it helped up the hills but it only goes 2.5 mph so thats a bit slow. if I am in the wrong gear because I had to stop fast or a unexpected hill I will use it and shift down using it. I push a button on the display to enable it then hold down another key to have it run.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Q1. Good uses you've found for walk mode?

Q2. How is it implemented on your ebike?

Q3: Has it ever saved the day for you?

Q1. Most commonly, walking my 70 lb bike with 2.3" hybrid tires across unrideable stretches of beach gravel or loose sand.

Thick layers of loose sand are also common on inland trails here — as are steep slippery or rutted pitches that I'm too chicken to ride. No problem with walk mode. It also comes in handy on stairs and steep driveways and ramps — including the ramp on my Thule bike carrier.

Q2. Press and hold the [-] button on my handlebar control. Works on or off the bike.

Q3. Once had a rear valve stem shear off a mile from an LBS. The walk would've been a slog without walk mode, and I was rolling again in under 30 minutes.

 

[Chargeride]

Sorry, just had to.

 

[Slaphappygamer]

I sometimes pick up my kid from school. My bike isn’t set up to accommodate a passenger, but I put the child on my bike seat and have my arms around them. I hit the walk mode and gently push the bike uphill while I’m walking. 2x the walk mode!

I press the up button for a few seconds to activate it.

This saved my back!

 

[Slaphappygamer]

Sorry, just had to.
View attachment 176822

Nice AT-AT Hybrid.

 

[PCeBiker]

I've never used walk mode on purpose.

I was trying to reset my trip meter by holding the + and - buttons but didn't have both buttons pushed in and I turned on walk mode.
My bike was inside the house with the battery plugged in.

I think walk mode is Dangerous and should be Elliminated from ebikes before someone crashes into their flat-screen TV. Again.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Q1. Good uses you've found for walk mode?

• Pushing a fully loaded (panniers!) e-bike upstairs after having returned home from the grocery shopping
• Negotiating steep and high stairs that can be found here pretty often (bridge-head staircases, railway stations...)
• Technical singletracks which I am unable to ride
• Walking the e-bike up a steep river or railway embankments
• Negotiating unrideable sand stretches

Q2. How is it implemented on your ebike?

Either of my e-bikes has a dedicated button on the handlebar remote. The Walk Mode is implemented perfectly on my Vado SL, where a push and hold on the "foot" button immediately activates the motor. I need to push and hold the "+" button on the Vado 6.0 remote, and the motor activates after a noticeable fraction of a second (it is probably a safety feature to not activate the mode inadvertently).

Q3: Has it ever saved the day for you?

Perhaps not as dramatically as "saving the day" but it certainly helps a lot in many dire situations.

 

[6zfshdb]

As mentioned before, I use walk mode to "walk" the bike up stairs. I also use it occasionally to power the bike up a loading ramp onto a rack.

Its activated by pressing setup on the display, then throttle, and toggling between walk and throttle.

A few seasons ago, I was riding a 30 mile loop trail and came to a spot where a creek had spilled over it's banks and overwashed the trail. I was just 2 miles from my truck at that point and didn't want backtrack 28 miles. The creek bed was too irregular to safely ride the bike across so Instead, I took off my boots & socks and used walk mode to power the bike through the 8" deep water while I walked alongside.

My only complaint about the feature on my bike is, at 4mph, it's a bit fast. It requires pulsing to use in some cases.

 

[harryS]

I had a flat tire 4 miles out, doing the walk of shame, and was using walk mode to get the bike up a hill. After a mile of this in the heat of summer, I said "screw this, I'll never make it home."

It was a rear tire that was flat, so I jumped on the bike and rode it home. Tried to stay on grass as much as I could.

As a DIY ebike hobbyist, I found walk mode is a good way of debugging whether a motor works when there is a question of throttle or pedal assist wiring.,

 

[PCeBiker]

It was a rear tire that was flat, so I jumped on the bike and rode it home. Tried to stay on grass as much as I could.

How did that work out for you?
Did you damage your tire, tube or rim?
Did you have to replace anything?
Did you ride it in walk mode?

I bought Tannus inserts for my fat bike specifically because I was supposed to be able to ride on a flat tire at 10 kph without damaging the tire or rim.

It didn't work for my fat tires.
When the tire goes flat, it falls off the rim and gets jammed in the frame (chainstay), so not only can I not use walk mode, I have to carry the rear end of the 95 pound ebike.

My new e-bike has 27.5"X2.8" tires and the bead won't fall off the rim, so I might just ride it if I get a flat?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The most exciting application of the Walk Mode on a mid-drive motor is the ability to shift the gears while stationary.
On a dropper-post e-MTB, it is doable to downshift, then raise the rear wheel (with the seat dropped) with the other hand, and then activating the Walk Mode. The rear wheel will spin and shift the gears. With a more "normal" e-bike, you can get off the bike, open the kickstand, tilt the e-bike onto the non-drive side, and then downshift and use the Walk Mode to do the actual downshifting. I do that to restart my ride against a very steep climb.

 

[Ben J]

I saw a suggestion once to use walk mode (on a middrive bike) to shift gears if you're in a tough spot and entirely the wrong gear. You can just rock the bike up on the kickstand so the rear wheel is free and let walk mode pedal through the gears.

 

[Taylor57]

I dont know if I have ever used it?

 

[PCeBiker]

Q1. Good uses you've found for walk mode?

Q2. How is it implemented on your ebike?

Q3: Has it ever saved the day for you?

I can set my throttle lock at any speed from 3kph to 32kph, and turn it on and off with either brake lever.
I simply don't need walk mode.

However, I will keep this in mind if my throttle ever croaks,..

As a DIY ebike hobbyist, I found walk mode is a good way of debugging whether a motor works when there is a question of throttle or pedal assist wiring.,

I should be able to ride it at walk speed if my throttle fails.
I didn't connect my pedal assist sensor, so I depend on my throttle.

I wonder if I'll have pushed the bike for half an hour before I think of trying walk mode?

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I wonder if I'll have pushed the bike for half an hour before I think of trying walk mode?

The time my hub-drive's chain broke, I pushed the bike uphill for almost half a mile before realizing that could have just throttled home. Of course, walk mode didn't occur to me, either. Duh.

 

[gromike]

I just had a duh moment. I tried using the walk mode while walking my mid-drive bike off a ferryboat today. Man, that thing went too fast to comfortably walk alongside. And now I just learn to shift it into a lower gear for walk mode! Thanks Stephan!
(though, admittingly, heretofore I used the throttle for walk mode)

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The time my hub-drive's chain broke, I pushed the bike uphill for almost half a mile before realizing that could have just throttled home. Of course, walk mode didn't occur to me, either. Duh.

When my hub-drive's chain broke, I was just "ghost pedalling" to the nearest train station (PAS was just acting as if it were a throttle). Funnily enough, chain never breaks on my mid-drives

 

[fooferdoggie]

I just had a duh moment. I tried using the walk mode while walking my mid-drive bike off a ferryboat today. Man, that thing went too fast to comfortably walk alongside. And now I just learn to shift it into a lower gear for walk mode! Thanks Stephan!
(though, admittingly, heretofore I used the throttle for walk mode)

I wish bosch was faster it limits it to 2.5mph no matter what gear you are in.

 

[gromike]

I guess the bosch is just smarter than the bafang.