Electric Brake Cutoffs Important? (Dillenger)

[greggers89]

Hi there,

I've just purchased my first e-bike kit, the Dillenger 350W. I was wondering how dangerous it is to operate without the included brake handles (and electric brake cutoffs). I have these Shimano shifter / brake combos and would prefer not to get new shifters. I also saw that Dillenger sells hydraulic brake cutoffs. It looks like they are $30 + $18 to ship (which is a little ridiculous to ship 2 wires one state away), but they said they would not find a cheaper shipping option. I'm also a little hesitant to order more from them than I have to because they forgot to ship my kit for a week until I asked them about it, so I'd like to at least play around with it without the cutoffs.

Alternatively, if someone is familiar with the kit and knows how to extract the sensors from the included brakes, that would be helpful too! Thank you,

greggers

 

[RustyKipper]

Are you using the pedal sensor or a throttle to control the motor?

I have found that with a throttle they are not overly important however I had to negotiate one of those annoying staggered barrier things on a cycle lane once and in my concentration forgot to let go of the throttle and managed to crash into a lamp post, only at low speed but very embarrassing also this somehow brought in the battery bms (the batteries internal safety circuit) so the battery shut down for about 5 minutes.

The thumb throttle does make your thumb hurt if you are holding it for an hour or so, because of this I went over to the pedal sensor which in my case works very well indeed however the brake levers then become crucial as the motor will run for a few seconds after pedalling stops so if you brake you will be trying to stall the motor and the battery will not thank you for it, also I have to share cycle paths with pedestrians, the only way to run at low speed (walking kind of speed) is to lightly hold the brake levers so the motor does not run, 15 mph doesn’t sound fast but in tight situations it feels like doing 90!

On my bike I have cut the brake levers down to the size of the standard 2 finger levers and added some little winglets to the ends as per the standard levers after flying over the handle bars from using the naff full size levers. I use mechanical brakes so this won’t help you much.

 

[Bluefang]

Update your details so people can help you better.

For a low powered system having non cut off brakes with not be too much of a issue, specially if they are good hydraulics.

If you want to change your brakes into cut-offs the easiest option is just putting a micro reed switch on you current brakes triggered when the brake lever gets moved. Depends on how electrically minded you are and if you are going to bin the current ones smash them apart as they will probably have a nice tiny micro switch in them.

 

[dogman dan]

Safe to run a throttle based e bike without them.

 

[greggers89]

Hi all, thanks for the responses.

RustyKipper - My kit comes with a twist grip throttle and pedal sensor, and it should work even if one of them is not connected. I will make sure not to hook up the pedal sensor until I get the brake cutoffs figured out. My brakes are mechanical disk brakes, but the sensor is just a little thing that tapes onto the bottom of the brakes as an add-on, and is called the hydraulic brake sensor. It really should come as an option to replace the original brake levers.

Bluefang - I am pretty electrically minded, but my tooling is limited. It looks like their $50 add-on is basically as you describe, a small switch that tapes under the brake, with a magnet installed above it to sense when it is pulled. Perhaps I will try to tear up the brakes that come with it and look for the switch, and if that doesn't work I can always order the add-on.

dogman dan - Thanks, I will use it in throttle mode until I get the cutoffs figured out. I was hoping to use the pedal assist because I've read that it's quite a bit more efficient than using the throttle, even if I pedal while using the throttle (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[FLBikeDude]

I would NOT disconnect the electronic brake.. Or a better way of putting it, is to have at least ONE brake/power cutoff..
It doesn't happen very often, but if the ground wire gets cut off from the throttle or get shorted out in someway, the bike/motor will want to go full throttle the entire time and without that cut off, that can be very dangerous.
(It's happened to me twice in the past).

 

[leelorr]

I rode my newly built E-bike around for a couple of weeks without the E-brake cut outs because I had hydraulic brakes and the kit included mechanical brake cut out levers. At the time I thought not having them was OK, until I got a little out of shape on a sandy surface and the extra half a second of power caused me to fall. I decided that I really like manual disc bakes better than hydraulics, so I converted my bike to Avid BB7 brakes and installed the kit Ebrake levers for a while.
Now that I have the cut outs installed, I can see more benefits from them:

1. The safety factor if you have a throttle or wiring problem that has already been mentioned.
2. When using PAS. and you need to maneuver at slow speed, like turning around in a small space, or winding through pedestrian traffic. You can hold a small amount of brake and use the bike without the fear of the PAS kicking in right when you need to balance at slow speeds.
3. You can cut the power immediately when something causes you to need to slow or stop immediately, or when you have a loss of control because of trail conditions.

I bought a couple of different types of E-Brake levers, then finally ended up installing a magnet and reed switch on my Avid BB7 levers. I think that you would probably be happiest doing this to your stock levers that you like. I used the magnet and cable kit from Paul at EM3EV. You would probably have to change the connectors on the magnet cables if you did this unless Dillenger sells something themselves.
Good Luck !
Lorrin

 

[nutnspecial]

For throttle or pas, they are just the best natural safety. Ca and some controllers have throttle protections, but at least a killswitch of some type is a great safety precaution, and although I have a keyd and button kill/ignition, I know the brake would be the first thing I'd reach for in emergency situations.

This is the sensor I'll be using. Very simple, but make sure it gets hooked up to 5v on the red wire, not pack voltage. http://www.ebay.com/itm/E-bike-Cut-off-brake-Sensor-fits-Bafang-8fun-mid-drive-crank-motor-BBS01-BBS02-/271733911006
you could get it from bmsbattery, but the shipping is so high, and will take 7-10 days longer to get it.

 

[RustyKipper]

These are the Chinese levers that came with my kit, for the time being I have cut them down, they work pretty well but they rattle like mad, it does however let people hear me aproching behind them, I too have installed a front BB7 whith a 203mm disc, its just now bedding in after 100 or so miles. Liking the idea of buying the cheap cycle computers to use the reed switches.