I am doing this post to help others that might be in the same situation as myself. I have ridden since a child and live riding mountain bikes. Awhile back I broke my kneecap and after that I could still ride but I can not pedal while standing, when my bad knee gets to top dead center it does not push over unless I sit. So I have built 3 electric bikes soo far. What my goal is to have a bike that basically is for off road only. I want it to feel like anormal MTB and give me just enough power to help a little and get me up a hill that I might not be able to get up on my own. I have not desire to have a bike that I ride on throttle and run like a electric motorcycle. I also want to program it to where when cadence goes up the power cuts back so I am not pedaling with no pressure or having to go to too high a gear to maintain pedal pressure (and end up going way faster than I intender).
1st bike was a Specialized pitch with a BBSHD. It worked well but after a couple of rides I found a kona full suspension bike so I bought it and moved all electrics to the Kona. This is my main bike. With stock settings I hated the bike as it would put out too much power and very quickly I would be pedaling and chasing the motor. Horrible. So after learning how to program it I managed a set of programming that worked, and as cadence rises power would cut back and my pas 2 and 3 felt just like a normal bike on flat trails(it still gives me a little mut not much ). As trails get some incline pas 4 and 5 come in to play , and for a steep hill 6 and 7.
I then built my wife’s Specialized Muta with a BBS02 and a luna Wolf PUP battery. I used the same mindset with hers. She loves it. Although the BBS02 has an issue that when using PAS the throttle does not work too well, I am working on doing a hardwire fix.
Next I installed a Ludicrous Controller in my BBSHD, and redid the programming. In all honestly for me I did not need it and would not do it again. The issue is that when I use the throttle it is very sensitive due to too much power. I will probably go back and drop the amps back to the equivalent of the normal throttle. Other than that I will leave it as it is supposed to be more built proof.
I will say that after riding both bikes for months now the BBS02 is probably enough power for anyone that wants what I have described, however the BBSHD is definitely more bulletproof, however way more weight and definitely needs a bigger battery. We rode 10 miles of trail today and my wife’s PUP still have 75% battery, as does my full size Wolf……
Now, my next bike is a Titus Racer X 29er that I built about 10 years ago. I am installing a TSDZ2 on it and was going to run a PUP like my wife’s. I installed it yesterday and am waiting on pedals. I went with the open source software. I really want to feel the difference with a torque sensing motor since that seems to be what most big name bikes are going with. I will report back in a couple of weeks with my impressions and compare it to the BB bikes. First impressions are that the tZ is lighter even than the BBS02, and smaller. However it definitely does not seem as well built. Seems cheaper built. For example, the triangle spacer that also bolts to the motor on the BB is thick and has the nipples to make sure the motor will not move, on the TZ it is thinner, no nipples and can bend easy.
On the flip side the open source software looks awesome for now. I can even see cadence……
As for heat, my wife and I had a long and steep hill section today, around ¼ mile of pretty steep climb and neither of the BB motors were hot at all. Again neither of us are relying only on motor, the motor is just assisting us.
