Mission Control

[rede]

Have 2016 Turbo Levo FSR. On third motor, second harness, and second charger. Mission Control speedometer frequently does not show speed when coasting, only when pedaling. Odometer is correct all the time. The calorie counter seems way off. If I ride one hour at eco setting (30%) in my hilly area, the calories may show as 120-150 calories. If you look at the numerous calculators online, it seems it should be in the 4-500 calories range or more?? Any one else have this issue? Mission Control support is non-existent, and the dealers have no tech support for the app, just the bikes.

 

[Sierratim]

I have to ask about the basic stuff;

Do you have the latest version of the app?

Is your bike firmware is all up to date?

Are your Profile settings in the app correct?

I have read posts where others were having problems with the app when using an Android phone with the latest release of Andriod. Does your phone & OS fall into this category?

 

[rede]

I uninstalled and reinstalled the app a few months ago,and assume it's current, but see there may be a new one a few weeks ago.
The battery is 4.17.1 and the motor is 7.1.1, which I believe is the latest, but my dealer is trying to check that, but not getting much help at the moment.
I see the profile settings are incomplete, and will update those, and recheck on next ride.
I have an Iphone 11

Should have also mentioned that recently, the charge level shows the remaining charge from the last ride, not the full charge, but it registers correctly after a short time riding. Also the total consumption often shows zero wh, and up to 158 wh for the same ride. The support level is also all over the map.

The third motor was installed in January, and the performance is far better than the previous ones. I noticed that the motor temperature is now always relatively low, never more than 60C even on a long uphill ride using trail and turbo boost. On the original motor the temperature would often get up to the limit of 80-85C, where the motor cuts out to save it.

I'm an octogenarian and don't really need a Levo FSR, but I like mountain bikes, and I have had a Cannondale Lefty over 20 years. I live in a hilly area, my house
is 720', and so it's all downhill to as low as 100', and then typically over 900' gain, depending on return route. The e-bike allows me to ride from home and not have to walk some hills. BTW, the Levo FSR is an excellent handling bike,and I feel very safe riding it. I have never figured out why it's so heavy. My Cannondale, also full suspension weighs about 22 pounds. Add a motor and battery should bring it maybe to 35 pounds, not 45-50 pounds.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Sierratim]

Your profile settings might help with the calorie calc, but won't affect reporting of power consumption, etc. This is either at the phone or the bike. If the phone and the app are up todate it would seem to leave the bike as the only possible problem. In that case pressing the dealer on this may be your only option. They have the Specialized diagnostic software and hardware interface that automatically checks for firmware updates. They also have the dealer support line to Specialized. They, and Specialized, should be able to resolve this for you.

Good luck.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Regarding the kilocalories: The bike measures the cyclist power input and assumes the efficiency of the human body to be at 25% (four times more kcal burnt than resulting from the rider's leg input).

Now. Let us assume I have been riding with my leg input of 100 W for one hour. It makes my leg input equal to 100 Wh but my body has burnt four times as much energy, so that's 400 Wh. The online Wh to kcal converter gives: 400 Wh = 344 kcal. So 120-150 W is a way too little.

I shall set my Mission Control and do a test ride to confirm real values.

P.S. My MC stats read my typical kcal burnt figure is 250 kcal/h

 

[rede]

Here are recent ride stats. 16.35 miles, 1:17:24 duration, 12.67 avg. speed, 1187' elev gain, 1148 elev lost, 218.48 calories, 324 wh, 438.53% avg. support. On this ride, I most likely started in eco (30/35), switched to trail about 2/3rds through, and may have gone to turbo near the end. Many recent rides show 0 wh, or maybe 5-10 wh, and the calories in the 120-180 range, for 11 mile rides. What does avg. support mean? Thank you very much for your help.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

218 kcal is 218/4 = 54.5 Wh provided by your legs. You rode approximately 1.3 hours. Your leg power is calculated as 54.5 Wh / 1.3 hour = 42 Watts. Now, the average support means your Watts * Average Support = motor power used on average. If we take 42 W leg power and multiply it by 4.38, we will get 184 W of average motor power. Now, let us multiply 184 W * 1.3 h = 239 Wh used by the motor. If we divide the 239 Wh by reported 324 Wh battery charge consumption, we are getting at 74% motor efficiency.

These numbers might match. Please tell me:

1. Do you perceive yourself as a strong rider? 42 W of leg power means very casual pedalling;
2. Do you pedal fast? I mean cadence that might also be reported by MC. If your cadence is in 50's, the motor might indeed work at low efficiency.

Just guessing.

 

[rede]

I don't know if strong rider would be a good description, not at my age. I pedal at what I consider at least a moderate effort on the flat, going 14-15 mph. and try to maintain that on the upgrades by downshifting, which means 9-11 mph. My typical cadence is 60 rpm. I sometimes pass road bikers on the upgrades, even in eco level, and so I don't think I'm in the casual category. I'll be riding again tomorrow. As an experiment, I will start as I normally do, and when I reach the lowest elevation, will close out the ride, and then restart, the way back, which will be generally uphill. This could be a better measure of my effort.

 

[rede]

I rode today as I planned with the same trip recorded as two legs. I stayed in eco (30/35) the whole way. 96F heat index, a little uncomfortable for this old man, but it was okay. The stats are:
Leg A Leg B

Distance 4.27 mi 11.37

Duration 15:20 55:48

Avg Spd 16.69 12.22

Min Elev 193’ 147’

Max Elev 728’ 715

Elev Gain 154’ 803

Elev Lost 666’ 269

Max Spd 34.51mph 23.19

Calories 44.56 kcal 223.18

Tot Cons 33.00wh 167.00

Avg Supp 238.67 227.93

 

[rede]

Oops, submitted too soon. Note the differences in total consumption and average support. In the previous example I may have used more boost for part of it, but specifically stayed in eco this time. Having passed at least on road biker, I'd give myself a moderate. As you suggested, I updated my profile with, as it only had my name in it previously. Thanks for any further analysis or comments you can make.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

@rede, I've just checked the figures for my last ride. It was 357 kcal for a 27 mile ride, all in Turbo mode. Makes sense. Online calorie calculators never take the pedal assist into consideration.

 

[rede]

Just returned from a short ride. The MC odometer suddenly added 600 miles to the clock, about 2 miles into the ride, and so I approached supersonic speed, with an average of 671 mph. When I got back, i checked the motor odometer, and it read 693 miles, which seems spot on, as this is the third motor, which was installed earlier this year. This sudden jump occurred at least once before. The motor/control performs flawlessly, the best it's ever been. I'm thinking there is something screwy in the app. At some point I'll take it back to the dealer for a tune-up, but at the moment see no reason to, and besides the dealer is super busy. Today was surely 12.3 miles, as it's one of my routes, and 196 kilocalories, 173 wh, which seems to match. Thanks for your insight.