If I'm outrunning my gears...

jaizon

Active Member
So I ride my e-trike every day. I live in a moderately area so many ups and downs on my circuit. I have noticed a couple of things and need some advice about how to fix/correct them.

1) when I'm going downhill I very quickly outrun the gearing, even at the highest level, i.e., I can't peddle fast enough to maintain any tension at all on the pedals. Yes, I can coast, but that defeats the idea of me wanting to get beneficial exercise on these parts of the ride. Short of changing the gearing (chainring?) I'm suspecting that with this trike, I am stuck regarding this issue.

2) I have spent the last 6 weeks trying to figure out how I like to ride this trike. There are a couple of hills where I do struggle if I miss the timing on the correct shift, even with PAS. My fault and I'm working on getting better. Mostly I have ridden in PAS 2, which requires more shifting from me (both to PAS 3 and gearing), but lately I have been riding mostly in PAS 3 which seems to require less shifting and keeps me at higher speeds, but often run into the "I've run out of gears" problem. I would like to be able to ride not so much with a constant cadence, but with a more constant resistance in the pedals. I this just a learning curve for me or is there some way of achieving that other than my just learning the bike and sensing when and which way I need shift to maintain that resistance.

I hope that was clear enough for those of you out there to offer a response. Thanks.
 
Hello, congratulation for having a fun exercise machine. First, we want to know what kind of etrike do you have. If you have pictures the better. I am assuming that you have a hub motor (no mid drive).

Going down hill is fun. If you are "clown pedaling" in top gear you can dial down on your power assist. In that way, the speed will decrease a little bit and the pedal resistance will return.

I wonder at what road speed are you clown pedaling already and also what cadence is that?
 
Hello, congratulation for having a fun exercise machine. First, we want to know what kind of etrike do you have. If you have pictures the better. I am assuming that you have a hub motor (no mid drive).

Going down hill is fun. If you are "clown pedaling" in top gear you can dial down on your power assist. In that way, the speed will decrease a little bit and the pedal resistance will return.

I wonder at what road speed are you clown pedaling already and also what cadence is that?

"Clown pedaling" anywhere from 13 mph on up. I've had this trike up to 22 for brief periods, way to twitchy there. But in 7th gear (the highest) and PAS 3 (or 2) at 15 mph, there is no resistance, so I just coast.
 
If that's the case then maybe you can go up to 48 teeth or even 56 teeth (if such thing exist).
Are you able to check your cadence and "clown pedaling" rate?
 
Preferably, you should be at 80-85 rpm cadence at 20 mph so you will have enough room for climbing ratio.

I'm going to take a picture tomorrow of my chainring, because it looks nothing like what you guys are showing. :confused: Much bigger.

And the chainring is 36 tooth, not 32.
 
Once you get the cadence we can match you the correct tooth count. Or you can record it and we will count the clown cadence for you.
 
Also you could get a different gear as well.

The stock one comes with 7 speed... Is this a cassette or freewheel?

Capture10_large.PNG

That is strange since the spec says 7 speed but the picture and the video shows 6 speed shimano freewheel ( MF-TZ20 marking on it ). The 6 Speed MF-TZ20 has 14-28 teeth count range. With a 20 inch wheel and 14 teeth top gear I think you got to have a chain ring that is at least 42 teeth count.
 
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