My amps were set at 18 Ride1up suggest 11

[Bikeman]

Can someone explain amps setting to me? My bike came with defaults that were much different then ride1up shows (manual says one thing, the company says another, and mine was different from both of them).

My bike came with the stock amps set at 18 A. Ride1up suggest 11Amps. I think the video was something like 14 A and he lowered it to 11. From there 11 is not much difference. My stock was 18 so I lowered it to 15. This is still higher than what their max was.

From 18 to 11 is quite a bit of a difference. I think it probably depends on the motors and our controllers what they can handle.

I know what amps are but how does this setting compare to with our hardware were using? If the max is 18, 11 seems pretty low.

With higher amps I think you’ll get a bigger battery drain which I do. If you lower it to 11 it will be weaker but I’ll get better battery life. Is that correct? Anything else somebody can explain real life with the settings variation will do?

What’s the bike designed to be set at?

 

[damianpenney]

You need enough watts to feed the motor. Watts is volts * amps. So to fully power the 750w motor on the LTD you'd need it set to 17. For a 500w motor it would be 11A.

Motor watts/battery volts will give you the amp setting. Setting it lower limits your top power, setting it higher potentially allows the controller to overload the motor if something goes wrong but in general even at the max setting the motor won't draw more than it needs.

It's the same with a power supply for an electronic device, a PSU that can supply 100A won't hurt a device that only draws 10A. But a device that can draw 100A can blow a 10A PSU.

 

[Bikeman]

OK. I have the r1up 700. I’m thinking the LTD and the 700 May have the same controller and they had mine set for the LTD.

The 700 was 1000 W peak. After I bought mine they lowered it to 800 in the software. The motor in the 700 is actually 500W sustained as you mentioned.

Question: If the motor is a 500 W sustained, with 800 peak, if you set it for the 500W (11A) do you lose your 800 peak? Should you set the amps for 800W that way you cover the peak?

Having mine set at 18 A probably explains why I could go so fast and my battery drain quicker. The thought of going from 18 to 11 hopefully won’t be too much of a disappointment.

damianpenney, You cannot believe how much you help me tonight. A lot of times big things don’t mean much, it’s the little things that do. This means a lot to get this figured out. Thank you

Hopefully the answer to the questions I just asked will help me understand even more and add more pieces that make the puzzle.

P.S. on the video they showed the amps at 14. Kevin lowered it to 11 to get better battery life. If the motor is 500W, why did they have it originally at 14W if it’s supposed to be volts * amps?


Thank you very much

 

[damianpenney]

I think that motor has peak wattage of 800W (under heavy load like going up a hill) and sustained of 500W - 11A correlates to the sustained wattage while 14 is the peak, in the video he says he doesn't need the torque that 14A would provide so he limits it to 11A which is enough to get to top speed on the flat, but not on hills.

 

[Bikeman]

Damianpenney,

Wow! Things are really clicking and falling into place in my mind! This is what I wanted so bad. I wanted to understand how the volts and the watts and the amps and the bike and the motor all worked together. You have helped me so much, thank you.

Don’t forget the questions above but I have one more that will cover over a Huge piece of the puzzle.

i’m probably going to set mine at 11, but let’s say for the sake of this discussion I set it at 17. That would mean I would be pushing 816W. Let’s say I’m in PAS level 3 and have it set for 50%, does that mean I am at 408W?

So if I had it set at 17A and was in PAS level 3, I’m still not running the 500W motor higher than it supposed to. I would only go past 500W As the percent of my assist go up. If I had my bike set PAS 5 for 100%, on 17A that would be the 800W peak?

Is this correct? If it is, to be as advertised, the correct setting would be 17 not 14 or 11.

The suggestion to lower it to get better battery life and longevity for your motor, controller and even your battery.

 

[damianpenney]

Here's the full manual for the display that goes into a bit more depth regards the various settings
Key Disp KD218 Manual

 

[Bikeman]

Could be 800W but a month and a half ago on the webpage they listed the 700 at “1000W peak.”

That’s actually the whole reason why I bought this bike. Kind of felt shorted (screwed actually). Durning a Covid wait, I lost 200W!!!

Another guy did also and he asked the company. They said people would leave it on full throttle up long hills and burn out the motor so they turned it down in the software, to now advertised as “800W peak”

 

[Bikeman]

Thank you. It read it over and over again waiting for my bike. I’m going to print out the pages but a lot of the settings or not like mine. I have the manual, mine is different, and Kevin suggestions are different. It got contradictory and confusing.

I’ll print it out and keep reading it over and over again hopefully it will be cleared up.

 

[damianpenney]

Could be 800W but a month and a half ago on the webpage they listed the 700 at “1000W peak.”

That’s actually the whole reason why I bought this bike. Kind of felt shorted (screwed actually). Durning a Covid wait, I lost 200W!!!

Another guy did also and he asked the company. They said people would leave it on full throttle up long hills and burn out the motor so they turned it down in the software, to now advertised as “800W peak”

Well to get that peak 1000W back you could always set your controller to 21A... Might get a little toasty if you push it for too long though....

 

[Bikeman]

Thank you for everything. You help me out a lot. No, I don’t want to get that high Watts.

I just can’t believe if this is the way it works, and I was in the example level three that I would only be at 250 W at 11A. My radbike friend might beat me.

 

[damianpenney]

It's less that setting it at X amps runs the motor at a certain wattage and more that it caps it. So even if the motor is working really hard and wants to draw more amps to service that load it won't be able to so you'll stop accelerating or start decelerating.

I don't think pas level limits what the motor will do, it will just make you pedal harder for it on the lower settings.

 

[tlippy]

Bike man..was there a 27.5 wheel dia. setting? The default is 26.
Also I think we should realize we really have a 500 watt motor. Not the advertized1000 watt peak. Most of thr Euro bikes have 250.

 

[Bikeman]

Mine came default 27.5.

Interesting, R1u now lists 500 W motor and no peek.

The 500W rating is that you can ride at 500W continuously without having the motor overheat. To go up a little higher temporarily (peak) doesn’t hurt it. It’s when you keep it high over a period of time that hurts it.

interesting that when bike sales went up 600% and people were ordering like crazy, our motors are rated 1000watts. Then they went down to 800W with radbike advertising 750 peak. Now that all the rush is over with, it goes down to 500W.

Actually, if my memory is correct, before I bought they advertised the 700 as 750W continuous and 1000W peak. When they introduced the LMTD they lowered the 700.

Still happy that I got the bike but the watts is the reason why I ordered it over a radbike.

 

[Bikeman]

I found the problem!

First, I love R1u up, I had such high expectations and the bike is so good it just takes a while to get things worked out.

last night I set the amps to 11 to try it out this morning. I started out in past one the bike was going 17 mph. I clicked it up to level two and went 24 mph and it was powerful like it was before. I went downhill for 10 miles and stopped at a park with the battery at 36%.

I checked the current setting and it was at 01 amp. I reset it to 11 and had a milkshake. I went back in and checked and it was at 01 again. Every time I set the amp and then turn the display off it goes to 01A and is very powerful.

Being that I have to go uphill with my 36% battery left I put it on 11 and left the display on and started home. Almost when I got home it went power full again.

When I got home I checked and it was at 03A

So the problem is my display isn’t doing the amps correctly. It doesn’t stay and it ends up in different numbers.

 

[Bikeman]

This is unbelievable. The support I’m getting is horrible.

I can see and feel when I ride my current setting is floating all over the place. Sometimes when I ride with throttle it goes to 20mph. Other times I can feel it pulling very strong to 24 before I shut down.

Ridding on flat, peddling consistently, my wants are in the 900 to 800 with an occasional down to 600. Sometimes my watts are in the 1000’s..

They jump around like this. 856, 925, 27, 989, 45, 989, 125. I can feel the bike way powerful, then low, then average, then really powerful again.

I can tell my amp current limit, that number is jumping all around while I ride.

Can’t tell you how many times since I got my bike my watts is in the thousands. That must be when the amp number goes up to 18.

Support told me that when I make the amp adjustment, it will only work if it’s in pass assist zero. Every time I turn on my display, it’s always at zero. That’s not the answer.

Heading into the final, big weekend where a friend and I we’re going to ride to the state park and my amp setting floats around and changes and the support doesn’t have any idea what to do.

 

[Mike N.]

They have a 30 day return policy if your not satisfied. Have you checked out the support page on their web site. I saw this.

Update Controller Software - 500/700 Series

Available only in the case of glitches or software issues in certain situations, the controller software can be updated.

 

[Bikeman]

I’ve been thinking about that. I wanted one up to tell me to do that before I did it on my own. Support is usually two full days, so I won’t get that answer till next Wednesday. I’m afraid to ask. I’m afraid they’ll tell me to put air in my tires.

I am thinking about sending the bike back but that’s hundreds of dollars and rad bikes are sold out this year.

Who knows what kind of damage has been done to my motor and internal controller or even the Display screen.

Not sure what to do with the support advice of putting my assistant zero. I guess that’s support is done on this apparently. That’s all they got. with the holiday weekend Any other help I guess I’m not going to get a response till Tuesday or Wednesday.

I got a bad charger also. I can charge the battery all day long and it never goes green. Touch it and you can Burn your hand off. Hope it doesn’t explode. I guess on other forums there’s a bad batch because many people are complaining about their chargers.

Funny, I can go around a few blocks in my neighborhood twice, and get the battery down 20%. We can’t charge it properly because the chargers defective. I never got a response from my first charge support.

Thank you for the help.

 

[tlippy]

I’ve been thinking about that. I wanted one up to tell me to do that before I did it on my own. Support is usually two full days, so I won’t get that answer till next Wednesday. I’m afraid to ask. I’m afraid they’ll tell me to put air in my tires.

I am thinking about sending the bike back but that’s hundreds of dollars and rad bikes are sold out this year.

Who knows what kind of damage has been done to my motor and internal controller or even the Display screen.

Not sure what to do with the support advice of putting my assistant zero. I guess that’s support is done on this apparently. That’s all they got. with the holiday weekend Any other help I guess I’m not going to get a response till Tuesday or Wednesday.

I got a bad charger also. I can charge the battery all day long and it never goes green. Touch it and you can Burn your hand off. Hope it doesn’t explode. I guess on other forums there’s a bad batch because many people are complaining about their chargers.

Funny, I can go around a few blocks in my neighborhood twice, and get the battery down 20%. We can’t charge it properly because the chargers defective. I never got a response from my first charge support.

Thank you for the help.

Have you tried posting on Facebook?

 

[Bikeman]

I see they seem to get better responses but I’m not on Facebook.

I just got another support answer and he said just change everything to default and leave it. Problem is, when I set mine to default, it defaults to 18 A.

The one thing I hate in my life is when you ask somebody a question, they give you an answer and afterwords they didn’t answer anything.

 

[damianpenney]

This is unbelievable. The support I’m getting is horrible.

I can see and feel when I ride my current setting is floating all over the place. Sometimes when I ride with throttle it goes to 20mph. Other times I can feel it pulling very strong to 24 before I shut down.

Ridding on flat, peddling consistently, my wants are in the 900 to 800 with an occasional down to 600. Sometimes my watts are in the 1000’s..

They jump around like this. 856, 925, 27, 989, 45, 989, 125. I can feel the bike way powerful, then low, then average, then really powerful again.

I can tell my amp current limit, that number is jumping all around while I ride.

Can’t tell you how many times since I got my bike my watts is in the thousands. That must be when the amp number goes up to 18.

Support told me that when I make the amp adjustment, it will only work if it’s in pass assist zero. Every time I turn on my display, it’s always at zero. That’s not the answer.

Heading into the final, big weekend where a friend and I we’re going to ride to the state park and my amp setting floats around and changes and the support doesn’t have any idea what to do.

The watts jumping around could be fine, for a given load at a given pedaling cadence it should remain the same, but if you're on a ride over varying terrain while pedaling at different speeds you would expect it to bounce around. What does sound odd is it displaying watts in the thousands, at 18A it shouldn't be able to go above 864W. The max the controller can handle is 1200W (48*25)...

Perhaps the motor is giving you a bit too much of a push for a given cadence, like the ebike escape guy felt with the LTD. What happens if you change the slow start setting to say 4, the slowest. Slow start changes how quickly the controller responds to a request for more power.