Bosch Smart System Mode Tuning

[Mikerb]

The recent firmware update added the ability to tune Tour + and EMTB. I set both on the slider to 5 to see what difference it made.
Today I rode a series of downhill trails in Wareham Forest, and it is a ride I do regularly which always works out at a bout 10 miles . In fact I did an almost identical ride a week ago and charged the bike to 85% ad then noted the battery use at the end of the ride.

So comparing the 2 rides I was left really impressed by the difference the tuning of those 2 modes made.................and I ended up using exactly the same a mount of battery, so there was no penalty.

So firstly, as you expect, I used Trail+ more on the second ride, and I used Turbo less ( because there was no need except for the super steep climbs). The threshold in terms of effort for selecting what mode to use was the same as I usually apply.

Less expected was the impact on trails with sections where you cannot or choose not to pedal but then need to accelerate for the next feature..drop or jump etc. Previously because the motor power only really came in with a higher cadence and more torque input the delay meant that acceleration was sometimes not enough. Now with the tuning the motor response is more instant...............in fact it feels like the sort of instant response you get in trail mode on the Brose motor!

I'm keeping it tuned this way!

 

[Mikerb]

just to add I left the second slider as standard in the a bove test. I have now increased EMTB and Tour+ by 2 stops on the second slider so see how that impacts on next ride.

 

[Uktonyb77]

Would be helpful with the smart system if you could edit the power curves or Atleast have a visual of the power curve to better understand what the sliders are affecting. Short comings of Bosch development really considering on the pre smart gen 4 systems you were able to purchase the ability to edit the power curves within the app Bosch connect or whatever it was called.

I have race mode on my motor and to be honest never use it as turbo delivers the power better unless I spin a cadence of 90 or above. Again some better development within the app giving the end user greater ability to tune things or Atleast understand what they are making changes to would be welcomed.

I was sceptical doing the update after users reporting issues on the trek’s. I’m on a mondraker crafty xr and worry incase something went wrong with the update as mondraker supoort been pretty poor so far with the simplest of questions I’d asked their technical team.

Good to know though you’ve had success in tuning the dynamic modes to your advantage out on the trail

 

[Mikerb]

I have had no problems with the Flow App except for the update before last which they messed up.The latest update is fine.
My experience of the tour+ and EMTB before I changed the first of the 2 tuning sliders to 5 was really twofold. Firstly the amount of motor power really only kicked in to a noticeable degree once cadence got over 60 and second, once more rider torque was input to the cranks.

That said, I find it difficult to determine the difference between cadence and rider torque since of course it requires an increase in rider torque to increase the cadence!!

I suspect it is mostly to do with rider torque input whilst the motor actually achieves better efficiency ( ie comparatively more power for less amps) at 65 cadence plus.
So for the moment I will settle on the theory that rider torque is the dominant factor. So, by comparison, after tuning, the amount of motor support is increased with less rider torque input. As I said, that reminded me, and it felt similar to, riding in Trail mode on my previous bike, a Levo, with Trail set in Mission Control at 50 pedal assist/100 maximum. The motor power is much more instantaneous when you start putting in pedal strokes. Incidentally I am mostly riding in the middle of the cassette on a 12 speed Eagle set up.
If you are on more level ground with a more constant cadence then the untuned EMTB is fine, but for circumstances when pedal input is on and off I much prefer the way it is now tuned.
Hope that helps.

 

[Uktonyb77]

I will certainly give it a try on my usual loop this Sunday and report back. Be great to get the real benefit out of the motor for no noticeable dip in efficiency. Usual loop for me is 26 miles 2400ft elevation mixture of 10miles to/from forest from home ( ride that in tour+ with standard settings ) , then its 16 miles give or take of single track and firetrails which I’m generally between tour+ still and emtb. With the 750w battery I’m coming back with still 60% remaining. Average loop time is around 1hr 45 mins with avg speed for ride between 14-15mph. I’m achieving average cadence of 85-90 as usually reported in the flow app so I’m not shy of pedalling and giving rider input.

From your experience as noted I can relate to the feeling of having the power as you need it when approaching certain features out on the trail whereby you need that punch so to speak.

Stupid but I feel like I’m cheating if I use turbo lol but I appreciate we all move to E bikes for different reasons. Mine was more due to the fact of all my riding friends moving to E bikes from analogue bikes and I got fed up being left behind feeling like I was impacting their rides with them waiting for me. We can all now ride together even though we are all at different levels of fitness and ages which is a massive plus in my book from the social aspect of cycling

I will try the settings as you’ve mentioned next ride and hopefully have positive results thx for sharing your findings when utilising the new tuning ability on the dynamic modes

Tony

 

[Mikerb]

Let us know how it goes!
What really sponsored me to try the tuning was watching a video of mine of our forest trails. It was my first outing with my Whyte E160 RSX so I gave my mate my Gopro to wear on a chest harness and he followed me throughout the ride. On the twisty single track and downhill runs which as I described a bove have section where you stop pedalling then get back on the gas I could see ( and hear) how quickly he was able to accelerate back up to me. He was on his Levo in trail mode. I realised I could not get the same response from my Bosch CX in such a short space. Now after tuning, I can match that and it adds to the overall speed for each run.

 

[Uktonyb77]

After trying today results definately as you’ve noted. Notably more punch out of corners in the tour+ mode when running the +5 setting. I left all over settings as default. Battery again was no better or worse on a usual loop when comparing back to back with previous rides. Did the whole ride today in tour+ start to finish which is mostly a single track xc loop with three downhill sections & only needed to go up into turbo for a steep rocky climb. Usually I would need to be in emtb or above to keep up with the other full fat Bosch bikes on tight twisty single track on exit of corners and switchbacks . Like you noted about your friend pulling away I guess before you amended settings. Good the settings did have an impact on the dynamics of the motor ; hopefully with further iterations of the flow app we will be able to maybe tune dynamics in a more advanced setup like shimano’s offering.

Next ride I think I will try +5 dynamics still but cap the NM to 50 and see if power is still readily available out of corners & maybe observe the range improvement if any. I suspect and range improvement would be quite negligible.

 

[Arminius]

Yesterday I played on a ride with the Tour and Tour+ modes. Surprisingly Tour appears to use more capacity than Tour+ (all settings Standard).

Most weird is that when arriving at home, 4km later, the estimated range at 63% battery was significantly increased, see screenshot at the end. It is a guess-o-meter.

Final status when back at home: