Button Or Twist Grip Throttle?

[ShlomiMir]

I'm trying to decide what kind of throttle will be good for the bike. Wanted to hear some feedback from people who have used both kinds of potentiometers.

I would guess that the twist grip would be cooler, more expensive, more likely to have problems, and problematic if you have twist grip gears.

I would guess that the button would be cheaper, more reliable, but far less fun.

What do you recommend?

 

[dogman dan]

I like the half twist. To use one I take the rear twist shifter and put it on the left side. The front shifter gets taken off, along with the front derailur.
One by one, all my thumb throttles get the tab broken off, and I make em into half twist with a piece of 1" pvc pipe. The way I ride, I could use a throttle that I push to turn the bike off!

 

[Drunkskunk]

twist shifters get in the way of twist throttles, and somepeople have clearance issues with rapidfire style shifters hitting any throttle style, but beyond that, its al a matter of preferance. the cost is even the same for both.

I prefer half twist, as the outer part of the grip remains fixed to the bar. on a motorbike, that wouldn't be a problem, but on an ebike, where you are pulling and pushing on the bars more to get over curbs, stairs, sidewalk bumps, ect, its nice to have a solid grip as well

 

[morph999]

I didn't think I'd like the thumb throttles but after getting one, I prefer them now.

 

[Patriot]

I tried twist grips. I broke them. They are just too fragile. I tend the muscle the bike around quite a bit while riding. When one of them broke, it broke in the full throttle position, and I flew down the road at almost 40mph, wondering how I was going to stop. I managed to hit the brakes hard enough to jump off the bike. But, the bike fell, and was slightly damaged.

Easily repaired. Since then, I went with thumb throttles and a nice set of Ergon grips. I consider it a much better setup than the fragile twist grips.

 

[ElectricEd]

I have SRAM gripshifters so use a thumb throttle. It works fine, but a few things to be aware of:
1/ When changing down you tend to wind the throttle on, so you get a surge forward which 'sort of' helps.

2/ If the side of the thumb throttle casing is too close to the gear shift casing, the lever can tend to stick, leaving the throttle on. Disconcerting at best, downright dangerous at worst. Be aware of this as the throttle can tend to work its way outward along the handlebar and eventually jam against the shifter. A small spacing ring between the throttle and the gripshifters will solve this problem.

 

[Joey]

+1 on the half-twist throttle.

Joey

 

[knightmb]

The half-twist is a winner for me. I've used the thumb twist and for long rides, it makes my thumb numb

The half-twist, like was mentioned, gives you a good grip while you are pedaling. The thumb twist probably wins for grip during a lot of motion, but it tends to pull your hands away from the brakes/shifters. The half-twist allows more smoother shifting while giving throttle, but can get a surge during a downshift like was mentioned.

If you ride bumpy roads or do light off-road, the thumb twist is great for control. If you ride mostly city streets without a lot of off-road action, the half-twist will be your friend.

 

[Sacman]

Hehe... "BUTTON" ... you mean THUMB THROTTLE.
When I first read that in the title (before reading any responses of this thread) I thought to myself ...
Who in their right mind would want to use a button instead of a vairable throttle to control their speed?
The title should be renamed "THUMB throttle or GRIP throttle"

 

[Link]

Half-twist FTW.

 

[Russell]

NEITHER...I love my TRIGGER throttle

http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8026


-R

 

[kazbluesky]

Thumb throttle but you have to position it properly. If you just stick on the bars you will get a pretty numb thumb. You have to orientate it so that your thumb is just touching the lever naturally when you are holding the grips and that you have to rotate your hand down when applying the throttle (not really using your thumb muscle) - hope you see what I mean.

 

[knightmb]

NEITHER...I love my TRIGGER throttle

http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8026


-R

Cool, didn't know they had those to build. I would have chosen that for mine (reminds me of riding the ATV days) but at the time couldn't find any 5 years ago.

 

[ShlomiMir]

If I wanted to make my own throttle, what components would I need? I am very good at designing and building mechanics, and an elementary understanding of electronics. I think making a spring loaded lever that operated some sort of potentiometer would be the way to go, but I don't know what is meant by a hal effect throttle, etc. Anyone done something like this?

 

[Drunkskunk]

Hall effect throttles use a hall sensor. basicly a solid state magnet sensor that allows voltage to pass relitive to the striength of a magnet near it. they do need 3 wires to run, a power, a ground, and a signal wire, but they tend to be more stable than a resistive style throttle.

In the throttles I've worked on, there are actualy 2 hall sensors. One that turns off in the presance of a magnet, and one that turns on. the magnet is close to the off sensor for 0% power, and close to the on for 100% power. the sensors are simply wired in series for the signal wire, so no other componants are presant. this setup gives you a positive value for off, a positive value for on, and a stable aanalog comparitor circuit as a throttle.

The Hall sensors look like PNP transistors, and run about $3 a piece at radioshack. the magnet is just a magnet, steal one off the fridge. should be easy enough to build one.

 

[kazbluesky]

Seeing as how I have managed to somehow fuse 2 thumb throttles in as many weeks I'm pretty interested in this subject.

So, if you've fried the throttle does that mean that it is these two sensors that have been fried? Usually do they both get fried at the same time or just one? I'm thinking now of maybe making one up myself.

I like the idea of the trigger throttle too, might have a go at that if I can get the parts.