Regenerative braking

[Essgeebee]

Hi everyone, my first post on this forum.

I just bought a Kalkhoff Pro Connect Xion 27 bike and am having an interesting time exploring its features. One that has me stumped is the "brake assist" feature and regenerative braking.

I set it to come in at about 16mph and although it does kick in, it does so only very briefly and then seems to kick out again after a second or two. I get very little braking assistance and have to use my brakes constantly on downhill stretches. Likewise, there is an indication that energy is being fed into the battery by a symbol on the computer console but, again, it lasts only a second or two. I wonder if I have to actively do something else to get it to work properly. Any suggestions or advice welcome.

 

[Admin]

Hey Essgeebee! Welcome to the site, interesting situation you're dealing with... I love the XION system and Kalkhoff bikes are pretty great, hopefully it's working well aside from the brake assist thing.

I must say, I'm not super familiar with the system (aside from short test rides when doing reviews) but one thing that comes to mind is charge protection. Have you been trying to use the feature when the battery is completely full? When you have been turning to the brakes does that initiate regen at all or are you completely replying on the brake pads to stop? I read some ideas recently from a post on the Stromer ST1 that talked about regen not kicking in until batteries are <= 70% on some systems but this is just a theory.

I think you could reach out to the guys at New Wheel (I actually reached out to them and pointed them here for a response) since they carry these bikes. Where did you get yours?

 

[Essgeebee]

Hi
Thanks for your reply. I've tried it with the battery in various stages of charge including very low and everything up to full charge. I did find out something in a YouTube video yesterday (I think it's linked in some way to this site) after I posted. You can start regen braking by pressing the down arrow on the control buttons and there are two levels. I tried it today and it worked fine. I understood from the user manual that it would kick in automatically but my experience is it doesn't, or at least not for more than a second or so. The braking effect is noticeable but not great on steep downhills, perhaps understandably given the weight of bike and rider plus velocity.

I'm in the UK and bought my bike in January 2014 from 50Cycles based in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

 

[Admin]

Interesting... If you have a link to the video or can embed it in your post I'd like to see it. Glad you're figuring out the system, was kind of bummed that yours seemed to have issues but maybe it's just not as intuitive as it could be.

 

[newwheel]

@Essgeebee: It might be that you are exceeding the maximum acceleration at which regeneration can turn on. In order the minimize the amount of heat generated in the motor, the Xion motor does not have any resisters in the motor to throw off power, so at a certain speed when the wattage is too high, a switch turns off regeneration. That sounds like what is going on.

Is this happening when you're going down a particularly steep hills?