Power Assist 5 and steep hills

[BiscoMaloney]

I have some pretty tough hills to climb and I am carrying a lot of cargo. The hills are short (100 yards at a time) but super steep. Power assist 4 with a lot of peddling isn't getting me up without MAJOR exertion.

Any experience with using PAS 5 during hill climbs. The tech at the retail store said you should really only use 4 max for climbing hills but wondering if anyone here has real world experience.

 

[Barkme Wolf]

The manual says to NEVER run over 500w on a 15% grade or steeper. I run PAS 3 on hills and that tips at about 500-550. FYI
Higher PAS doesn't give that much more help on hills anyway. Not enough for it to be worth wearing on the motor.

 

[rich c]

That's crazy conservative. NEVER run over 500w? Don't they claim a 750w motor? You are supposed to stay below the motor rating? Are you not supposed to use the throttle either? PAS5 is basically wide open throttle.

 

[Barkme Wolf]

That's crazy conservative. NEVER run over 500w? Don't they claim a 750w motor? You are supposed to stay below the motor rating? Are you not supposed to use the throttle either? PAS5 is basically wide open throttle.

I called them directly and this what they confirmed. I live in some of the hilliest regions (Seattle area) and PAS 3 does just fine on the hills. A hill so steep 3 can't do it, 5 won't do any better. I mean you don't drive a stick -shift up a hill in 4th gear.

 

[rich c]

Did they say why you can't run it at the motor rating? What about using the throttle while pedaling in PAS 3? I drive my stick shift up hills all the time in 4th gear. It would be odd to downshift going up a hill on the interstate at 70mph.

 

[Barkme Wolf]

Well, good luck.

 

[mrgold35]

I work commute and trail ride with my rovers with over 3500 miles between them in a year. It is usually 85-100 degrees for more than 6 months out of the year. I'm also +270lbs with about 25lbs of commuter gear (rack, backpack, accessories, spare battery). My understanding is the 500 watt limit on steep inclines is because of potential overheating and shortening motor life over time. I have to factor in my extra weight, high daily temps, and sometimes strong head winds of +15 mph and gust +20 mph. A strong steady headwind with a lot of gusts can feel just like a 10%-15% incline that suck battery power and strains the motor exactly the same way.

I have one spot during my work commute with fairly steep incline on the way home (my entire ride home is just one long incline up 550 feet over 6 miles). Probably 50-60% of regular pedal bike folks walk their bikes during this part. I have the newer controller programming with the watts are set for each PAS level (PAS 3: 375w, PAS 4: 550w). I can still pedal up those parts in PAS 3 or 4 depending on the mph I want to maintain between 8-17 mph. I'm also pretty tired, breathing hard, breaking a good sweat, and feel the lactic acid buildup in my legs when I'm trying to maintain the +17 mph up this section.

My goals is not to have sustained hub motor engagement above the 550w level for extended periods of time because of wind, heat, and/or inclines. Very easy to do with the newer "watts per PAS" controller programming compared when I had the old "mph per PAS" controller programming. I still use the throttle at full 750 watts power near the top of the hills for short runs if I start to slow down too much and just need a little boost. I've always set my PAS to 4 on this section with occasional bumps of full throttle as needed. Then back down to PAS 3 for the rest of the ride home.

The hub motor can provide enough assist if you adjust your gears and mph. You might have to check into changing the gearing to make your ebike into a better hill climber? My Radrover is not a hill climber with only 7 gears without the aid of motor assist.

 

[MarkElvis]

I often go over 500W -- for short periods of time, e.g. up a short, steep hill. No ill effects in 300+ miles.

 

[rich c]

I had no idea you had to baby Radpower bikes. It was my first choice, until I found a Sondors on the local Craigslist. Put 1500 miles on it, often hitting over 700 watts climbing some steep hills on streets. I had updated the controller on it though. I've since moved to Haibike, and run at full assist when riding single trails, up some very steep hill climbs. Sounds like I lucked out with my choices!

 

[JeffJ]

We are new owners of 2 Rad Mini's. I too was concerned about the warning of not using too many watts. Well, I'm a big guy and where I live, there are lots of hills, some pretty steep. PAS 2 or 3 just doesn't cut it. I had a talk about this warning with the folks at Rad technical. I was told that the issue is the overheating of the motor. They said if you keep it going 10 mph or more, you should be alright. They also said you can check how hot the motor is just by feeling it. After climbing some really steep hills, I've stopped and checked. I found that the motor was barely warm at all. Now, I have to work pretty hard to keep the bike at or near 10 mph while going up some of the hills around here but I don't think I ask too much from the bike. Now I could see it if some dumb-ass just cranked on the throttle while trying to go straight up a mountain without really pedaling, that motor is probably going to get overheated. I think the key to it, is understanding how the machine works, using your brains and remembering that it's still a bike, not a motorcycle.

 

[vincent]

Rich you dont have to baby them, i certainly have not babied either of mine any

I have 850 watts several times on my bike for a minute, i am just not stupid enough to do that for ten minutes straight

The bafang 750 watt motor is a tough motor, that being said i dont run my truck up 6 mile steep grades pulling a trailer and disregard temps either

Just use common sense