Uncorking the Turbo Levo motor.

[Tori]

Well . . . today I felt the urge to move the motor-cutout limit slider from 25kmph .... to the maximum of 75kmph.

Wow . . . just wow. Not quite Stealth B52 speed . . . but I was sustaining 45-50 kph on the flats. Limitation is the gearing.

Phew. I shouldn't have let the genie out of the bottle . . .

 

[Blackbird]

Yeah, the thing is you can tell yourself you are only gonna do it sometimes, or 25 km/h is fast enough but the truth is now you know how your, and every other ebike, should feel, riding with the limiter on is never gonna feel the same.

 

[Tori]

Yeah, the thing is you can tell yourself you are only gonna do it sometimes, or 25 km/h is fast enough but the truth is now you know how your, and every other ebike, should feel, riding with the limiter on is never gonna feel the same.

Limiter? What's this limiter you speak of? *scratches head*

 

[Doomanic]

Now try it on some tight singletrack...

 

[Tori]

Now try it on some tight singletrack...

I plan on doing a video about it at some point; but on a part of the farm - we have plenty of riding areas here on private property so I won't be incriminating myself.

 

[Doomanic]

I wasn't having a dig, I think it would be awesome. When I did my blast round the FoD in Boost a couple of weeks ago I could have done with a bit more speed in places. I wonder who we have to bother to get the limit raised to 20mph?

 

[poppy]

Hey Tori, so with running the bike deristricted, how did the battery go charge wise? Did you ride it long enough to see a usage difference or get any sort of comparison? Does it change torque characteristics as well?

 

[Tori]

Hey Tori, so with running the bike deristricted, how did the battery go charge wise? Did you ride it long enough to see a usage difference or get any sort of comparison? Does it change torque characteristics as well?

Here is a link to the Strava from the de-restricted ride :

<iframe height='405' width='590' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' scrolling='no' src='Wallaby Rocks | Strava'></iframe>

Almost 65 kilometres . . . the battery died in the last 500 metres. I made very liberal use of Turbo as you can see from my average speed. I think this is pretty damn good mileage considering it was de-restricted.

Didn't notice a change in torque; it feels linear past the 25kmph. Bike is limited in speed by gearing, but I could ride 45 km/h on the flats pretty easily. A lot of this ride (above) was steep climbing, which brought average speed down a lot.

 

[Blackbird]

The only thing derestricting does is removing the artificial 25 km/h limit. Therefore it cannot produce more torque. If you ride above 25 km/h wind resistance becomes a much bigger factor so the motor is working like it would on a mild incline. Since these are crank driven motors it does not make a difference if the outputshaft of the motor is spinning at 70 rpm on a incline while in 2nd lowest gear or it is spinning at 70 rpm in the highest gear going 45 km/h. The torque and wattage will be the same. (Rpm numbers and speed are guessed)

 

[DEADMEAT]

Just found this thread, i posted this earlier today on another thread, might be helpful.

Years ago i settled on 40 - 11 (3.64/1 Ratio) as my perfect hardest gear, ensuring i never run out of cadence on any of the fastest tracks i ride.
38 - 11 (3:45/1) left me a little short but improved my climbing gears when the largest rear cog available was a 36t, so i usually ran that.

The kenevo stock gearing of 32 - 11 (2.91/1) is an absolute joke, and the largest front sprocket you can get away with is a 36t, so i fitted one straight away. But with a highest ratio of only 3.27/1, it still leaves you spinning out if you try to pedal at high speed. Fitting a 10 toothed cassette in conjunction with the 36t sprocket gets me as close as i can to the optimum 40 - 11 configuration as possible at 3.6/1, and is as hard as you can go without resorting the the overpriced and apparently unreliable (not tried it myself) E-Thirteen 9 toothed cassette, the benefit though if you do choose that cassette is that you then have the option of running smaller front sprockets again, improving the chain/suspension interaction problems that are possibly created by using a 36t front sprocket.

Any effect using a 36t on the front has on the lower gears would be solved by fitting, for example, a Hope 10 - 48 cassette, the stock GX mech is designed to shift up to a 48t.

Lowest stock gearing at 32 - 42 gives you a 1.31/1 ratio, fitting the Hope 10 - 48 cassette with a 36t front sprocket gives a 1.33/1 lowest gear, so almost totally eliminating the problem of gearing up the whole system by fitting a 36t sprocket.

I hope that's clear enough, basically i totally recommend a 36t front with a 10 - 48 rear if you want a normal, adult range of gears, rather than one from a kids bike.

 

[Allysnell]

Just found this thread, i posted this earlier today on another thread, might be helpful.

Years ago i settled on 40 - 11 (3.64/1 Ratio) as my perfect hardest gear, ensuring i never run out of cadence on any of the fastest tracks i ride.
38 - 11 (3:45/1) left me a little short but improved my climbing gears when the largest rear cog available was a 36t, so i usually ran that.

The kenevo stock gearing of 32 - 11 (2.91/1) is an absolute joke, and the largest front sprocket you can get away with is a 36t, so i fitted one straight away. But with a highest ratio of only 3.27/1, it still leaves you spinning out if you try to pedal at high speed. Fitting a 10 toothed cassette in conjunction with the 36t sprocket gets me as close as i can to the optimum 40 - 11 configuration as possible at 3.6/1, and is as hard as you can go without resorting the the overpriced and apparently unreliable (not tried it myself) E-Thirteen 9 toothed cassette, the benefit though if you do choose that cassette is that you then have the option of running smaller front sprockets again, improving the chain/suspension interaction problems that are possibly created by using a 36t front sprocket.

Any effect using a 36t on the front has on the lower gears would be solved by fitting, for example, a Hope 10 - 48 cassette, the stock GX mech is designed to shift up to a 48t.

Lowest stock gearing at 32 - 42 gives you a 1.31/1 ratio, fitting the Hope 10 - 48 cassette with a 36t front sprocket gives a 1.33/1 lowest gear, so almost totally eliminating the problem of gearing up the whole system by fitting a 36t sprocket.

I hope that's clear enough, basically i totally recommend a 36t front with a 10 - 48 rear if you want a normal, adult range of gears, rather than one from a kids bike.

I've been finding the same problem with my kenevo, that at a fairly sedate pace my legs are spinning out, which tbh is slightly annoying. Think I will have a fiddle and follow your advice.

 

[DEADMEAT]

I've been finding the same problem with my kenevo, that at a fairly sedate pace my legs are spinning out, which tbh is slightly annoying. Think I will have a fiddle and follow your advice.

I think shorter cranks will help too, not only because it'll improve ground clearance, which is an issue, but because it is easier to spin shorter cranks faster.
Even when you do get your gearing right you'll be spinning faster, more regularly than you would on a normal bike, that's just ebiking for you So fitting a shorter crank, on top of sorting the gearing, and using Blevo will make your bike so much better you'll never stop smiling

 

[Allysnell]

I think shorter cranks will help too, not only because it'll improve ground clearance, which is an issue, but because it is easier to spin shorter cranks faster.
Even when you do get your gearing right you'll be spinning faster, more regularly than you would on a normal bike, that's just ebiking for you So fitting a shorter crank, on top of sorting the gearing, and using Blevo will make your bike so much better you'll never stop smiling

Ok that's some cool advice, excuse my ignorance but what's blevo?

 

[DEADMEAT]

Ok that's some cool advice, excuse my ignorance but what's blevo?

It's an app, like Mission Control, but with some actual control. Check it out

 

[Mike Smith]

Just found this thread, i posted this earlier today on another thread, might be helpful.

Years ago i settled on 40 - 11 (3.64/1 Ratio) as my perfect hardest gear, ensuring i never run out of cadence on any of the fastest tracks i ride.
38 - 11 (3:45/1) left me a little short but improved my climbing gears when the largest rear cog available was a 36t, so i usually ran that.

The kenevo stock gearing of 32 - 11 (2.91/1) is an absolute joke, and the largest front sprocket you can get away with is a 36t, so i fitted one straight away. But with a highest ratio of only 3.27/1, it still leaves you spinning out if you try to pedal at high speed. Fitting a 10 toothed cassette in conjunction with the 36t sprocket gets me as close as i can to the optimum 40 - 11 configuration as possible at 3.6/1, and is as hard as you can go without resorting the the overpriced and apparently unreliable (not tried it myself) E-Thirteen 9 toothed cassette, the benefit though if you do choose that cassette is that you then have the option of running smaller front sprockets again, improving the chain/suspension interaction problems that are possibly created by using a 36t front sprocket.

Any effect using a 36t on the front has on the lower gears would be solved by fitting, for example, a Hope 10 - 48 cassette, the stock GX mech is designed to shift up to a 48t.

Lowest stock gearing at 32 - 42 gives you a 1.31/1 ratio, fitting the Hope 10 - 48 cassette with a 36t front sprocket gives a 1.33/1 lowest gear, so almost totally eliminating the problem of gearing up the whole system by fitting a 36t sprocket.

I hope that's clear enough, basically i totally recommend a 36t front with a 10 - 48 rear if you want a normal, adult range of gears, rather than one from a kids bike.

Deadmeat, Does the rear freewheel need to be changed out to get a 10T on?

 

[DEADMEAT]

Deadmeat, Does the rear freewheel need to be changed out to get a 10T on?

I'm afraid so, you'll need to be able to fit either an XD driver, or Hopes own driver if you want to use their cassette, which is what i would recommend

 

[Mike Smith]

Cheers my friend