jimrbob69
New Member
I bought 2 LMT'D bikes in December 2020. The main reason I bought them for me and my wife is we both had cadence sensors bikes before and we wanted the torque sensors because it was a more fun and realistic biking experience, where it felt like the rider was in control of the bike instead of the controller being in charge.
It was also safer and more predictable when on tricky narrow single track trails, you could precisely maneuver the bike around low speed sharp turns and obstacles without always changing the power settings, and feel the confidence of being totally in control of the bike, instead of the setting you are in and the bike wanting to go a certain speed when all you did was turn the crank one revolution and now you are surging forward.
We got to the point where sometimes on a tricky part of the trail, we would actually have to dismount and walk the bikes since we had no precise control over what the motor would do. All that doubt and uncertainty went away when we got our new torque sensorsed LMT'D's. Single tracks were easier again, like when we had our older standard mountain bikes.
We ride for the fun of it plus the exercise benefit. If we had hip, leg, knee etc. problems, we undoubtedly would prefer the cadence where all you had to do to move forward is ghost pedal. Like I said, we wanted more of a real and fun biking experience, on roads, bike paths, fire roads and bike trails, even single track.
Part of that real biking experience is exercise. To be honest, if we were decades younger, we would probably still be on good lightweight mountain bikes, so I hope you can see where we are coming from. The only thing we miss is being on bikes 30 or more pounds lighter.
Another BIG reason we bought the LMTD'S was it being so lightweight compared to other e bikes in the similar price range. 5, 10, 15, 20 pounds lighter in most cases. The only e bikes close to their weight have smaller motors and batteries, so really not comparable at all.
The previous cadence e bikes we had were difficult to ride together on the street or paths since one person would constantly have to ghost pedal or stop pedaling completely to stay together. We both prefer to spin constantly, the the torque sensor gave us exactly that. You could spin lighter or softer and the bike would go slightly faster or slower, like a standard bike, i.e. it was a pain in the ass to ride together with cadence sensor only.
There is no way to program a cadence sensor to predict what you want to do, from simply setting a power level and it sensing crank movement. When you are pedaling It always wants to go that preset speed, or faster if you are pedaling harder, or not at all. Never will it go less than the programmed speed, unless you actually stop pedaling or change the power setting. Start, stop, start, stop. What A PITA.
The torque sensor senses your foots' pressure on the pedals and exactly mimics that. What could be better? I have only 3 preset power levels on our bikes, and that is perfect and simple, minimal thought is involved so you can concentrate on the trail riding and gear selection. The power level is almost an afterthought.
We both love our torque sensing bikes we have now and wouldn't trade them for anything else out there. For us, they are perfect.
If they were only cadence sensored, we would have had to look elsewhere.
Please don't kill the torque sensor. Old school thinking some might say. We are both in our late 60's and have ridden mountain bikes on pavement and dirt for a long, long time. We just take it a bit easier nowadays. Very hard to find 50 pound or less e bikes like this one.
Thank you for making these bikes available to us, as other options are almost double the price or more.
A great bike.
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It was also safer and more predictable when on tricky narrow single track trails, you could precisely maneuver the bike around low speed sharp turns and obstacles without always changing the power settings, and feel the confidence of being totally in control of the bike, instead of the setting you are in and the bike wanting to go a certain speed when all you did was turn the crank one revolution and now you are surging forward.
We got to the point where sometimes on a tricky part of the trail, we would actually have to dismount and walk the bikes since we had no precise control over what the motor would do. All that doubt and uncertainty went away when we got our new torque sensorsed LMT'D's. Single tracks were easier again, like when we had our older standard mountain bikes.
We ride for the fun of it plus the exercise benefit. If we had hip, leg, knee etc. problems, we undoubtedly would prefer the cadence where all you had to do to move forward is ghost pedal. Like I said, we wanted more of a real and fun biking experience, on roads, bike paths, fire roads and bike trails, even single track.
Part of that real biking experience is exercise. To be honest, if we were decades younger, we would probably still be on good lightweight mountain bikes, so I hope you can see where we are coming from. The only thing we miss is being on bikes 30 or more pounds lighter.
Another BIG reason we bought the LMTD'S was it being so lightweight compared to other e bikes in the similar price range. 5, 10, 15, 20 pounds lighter in most cases. The only e bikes close to their weight have smaller motors and batteries, so really not comparable at all.
The previous cadence e bikes we had were difficult to ride together on the street or paths since one person would constantly have to ghost pedal or stop pedaling completely to stay together. We both prefer to spin constantly, the the torque sensor gave us exactly that. You could spin lighter or softer and the bike would go slightly faster or slower, like a standard bike, i.e. it was a pain in the ass to ride together with cadence sensor only.
There is no way to program a cadence sensor to predict what you want to do, from simply setting a power level and it sensing crank movement. When you are pedaling It always wants to go that preset speed, or faster if you are pedaling harder, or not at all. Never will it go less than the programmed speed, unless you actually stop pedaling or change the power setting. Start, stop, start, stop. What A PITA.
The torque sensor senses your foots' pressure on the pedals and exactly mimics that. What could be better? I have only 3 preset power levels on our bikes, and that is perfect and simple, minimal thought is involved so you can concentrate on the trail riding and gear selection. The power level is almost an afterthought.
We both love our torque sensing bikes we have now and wouldn't trade them for anything else out there. For us, they are perfect.
If they were only cadence sensored, we would have had to look elsewhere.
Please don't kill the torque sensor. Old school thinking some might say. We are both in our late 60's and have ridden mountain bikes on pavement and dirt for a long, long time. We just take it a bit easier nowadays. Very hard to find 50 pound or less e bikes like this one.
Thank you for making these bikes available to us, as other options are almost double the price or more.
A great bike.
Reply
Report Edit Delete
. Maybe in another year he'll take the rest of my advice and do a hub motor version...
