This is interesting, you might be on to something. I don’t want to do any cutting or soldering but may be able to tuck that cable into the battery base!
From Eco Cycles, it was a little over $1300. A huge chunk of that was the 19.2ah battery, and I also paid $75 for them to replace a nylon gear with a brass one (because cargo bike and fat). With a 13ah battery and the stock plastic gear you can get it closer to $900-1000
That is a monster battery. Never seen one that big before. Also, the motor looks really small compared to a Bafang. Did you weigh it at all? What watts/NM ?
Oh that’s an even better idea.
The battery is supposed to be like 12lbs, might be more, definitely weighs more than the motor, which I think was claimed to be like 10lbs. I kinda wish I had got a smaller battery but I’m going to see what the range ends up being like before I make any changes there (though I will likely not pay for another battery lol)
Okay one more TSDZ-2 post and then I think I’m done for a while.
Rode it around the neighborhood on Sunday and to work this morning. Overall I’m still pretty happy but there are a few quibbles that might just be down to expectations.
I think if you just want big stinky power, this ain’t it. I can really feel it kick in in low-effort situations, but it doesn’t seem to add much juice at higher speeds. Ultimately I think that’s fine, I want it to still be like a bike, so the extra kick at lower speeds is nice on a cargo bike.
For my commuting route, I tried to ride about as fast as practical today and I would say it saved me about 20-25% on time and about 75% on effort. It’s not going to make a huge difference in my commuting times but it really takes the edge off cargo and bad-leg mornings.
Anyway I still recommend it for anybody who is looking at kits and wants it to still ride like a bike, but if you want to blast around everywhere at 20mph+ I don’t think this is it. Have no idea how this compares to Trek and Specialized e-bikes but now I’m curious.
Wife now wants an e-bike. What’s the most appliance like thing I can get them? I think I have a deal of some sort on a Van Moof.
The New Wheel has some really thoughtful ebike review videos. If their shop experience is the same, it’d be worth a trip in to try some out.
Any specific type of ebike? I’d recommend finding a few local dealers and doing some test rides, assuming there’s anything to test ride.
Other than that, Bosch might be on the widest number of bikes and they’ve committed to something like seven years of support for their ebike stuff.
Gazelle is probably the most utilitarian. There’s a Kona e dew (diamond) / e coco (step thru), otherwise look at big bike brands for gendered aluminum bikes if that’s what you’re looking for.
Flat bar cruiser thing. We rented a Specialized Como and the wife liked it. Heavy AF though.
My 500 watt Bafang, was a real monster, soooo much more grunty than the torque sensored Giant Talon I replaced it with. But its not that natural a feel. If I was hauling goods in a cargo bike I would probably go for the Bafang, and put up with the less refined feel at lower speeds, altho apparently you can tune the power characteristics easily enough at different settings. All I ever did was make the top speed 60kmh.
OMG. My kit was originally unrestricted and topped out at 24 mph / 38 kph and that was too much for me.
Did you ever actually hit that speed?
We’ve been very happy with the Giant Talon E2. Weighed in at 23.5 kgs, before I put it one a weight-loss programe. Put on a B-17 and a dropper. She loves the dropper the most. She does use it offroad.
This is good to know. I think the folks online who like to talk about numbers are speed junkie tinkerers and they definitely prefer the Bafangs. I definitely expected a little more pop, and I think it’s really easy to get used to the extra torque because I can just pedal my normal pace (but actually be going a fuckton faster).
On my way home tonight I did a few extra miles and hit some of the hillier parts of the hood. It’s more obvious how effective it is when I check my GPS speeds. 50% faster than me alone won’t impress the Bafang guys but 50% faster with 50% less effort is pretty helpful on such a big bike.
I did, just to say that I could. I had to pedal pretty hard to get there. I think if I was just using the trigger it would top out a bit above 40 kmh. If I was generally commuting I sat on about 22-30 kmh.
One advantage to your kit is having a torque sensor which the Bafangs lack. They only do cadence last I checked. Hopefully that helps start power delivery earlier / with less crank rotations to get the power flowing.
It almost works the opposite way. With the Bafang it doles out massive gobs of power from a standstill, ( I nearly flipped mine twice) which is why they are unrideable off-road, and also at low maneuver speeds in an urban setting. The TSD2 will be much more user friendly and less of a handful, if that is important.
Some Bafang systems can and do have torque sensors at the BB. That’s the good/bad of Bafang I’m learning is folks have such a wide experience with them. The company I recently started working at has such a system and it is SO MUCH better than just having a sensor at the wheel. We of course do our own settings of the system with the way the assist ramps up progressively, etc.
Seriously I rode ours back to back with a basic thing from another manuf. and the way ours is tuned is so much more normal feeling and easy to use.
The other brand was more powerful, but was basically a safety hazard to use.
Example: you are sitting at a crosswalk and want to scootch up to reach out and smack the pedestrian cross button. Push on the pedals and creep forward, until suddenly the rear wheel sensor passes the trigger and level 10 assist launches you into the intersection. I almost crashed the damn thing trying to make a u-turn in a parking lot, I was coasting into the turn and pushed the pedals slightly to make the full turn and instead damn near crashed into a parked car.
Edit: basically what cousinmosquito said. Except that not all Bafangs are the same.
The big guys really do make excellent top-of-the-line ebikes. Integrated battery models should be not only sleeker but lighter weight. OTOH a removable battery makes the bike easier to carry if you take the battery out first, also might be a factor depending on where/how you want to store and charge it.
Yeah, we have stairs, and the idea of encouraging my wife to use an ebike is pretty fraught, as its only me that can drag it up the stairs. My bafang was about even split battery weight with motor, so that’s about 5 kgs you could detach. Even better when the whole bike was well under 19 kgs as a shitter parts bin 26er build with BB7’s. I always wanted to put my disc covers on the back and trispoke on the front for shits and giggles and see what top speed I could get out of it, but I sold all my TT rig before I got a round to it. That was when it was on the Giant TCX frame that was 700c. I was mostly worried about blowing a front tub at speed. Wouldnt be pretty.