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RedDragon's avatar
RedDragon
Casual Commenter
12 days ago
Solved

Resistance when pedaling over e-bike speed limit

Question to Jess​, Lyft_Omar​: Is any active resistance applied when manually pedaling an e-bike past the configured speed limit?

  • No, this is just what it feels like to ride an extremely heavy bike without electric assist. 

    For reference, I've biked these bikes a bunch when the battery is below assist level (mostly when recovering lost bikes) and they feel the same then as when trying to accelerate beyond 15 mph (generally I take it slow under those conditions and avoid uphills at all cost).

    Although there was that one time that I decided to risk trying to get home with an ebike that truly didn't have enough range and I ran out of battery at the bulge out before the apex of the Manhattan bridge. I was deeply tempted to turn around but ended up sweating it out to the highest point because there were no ebikes in the station behind me.

4 Replies

  • Remco's avatar
    Remco
    Bike Angels Team

    No, this is just what it feels like to ride an extremely heavy bike without electric assist. 

    For reference, I've biked these bikes a bunch when the battery is below assist level (mostly when recovering lost bikes) and they feel the same then as when trying to accelerate beyond 15 mph (generally I take it slow under those conditions and avoid uphills at all cost).

    Although there was that one time that I decided to risk trying to get home with an ebike that truly didn't have enough range and I ran out of battery at the bulge out before the apex of the Manhattan bridge. I was deeply tempted to turn around but ended up sweating it out to the highest point because there were no ebikes in the station behind me.

    • Gaffano's avatar
      Gaffano
      Casual Commenter

      Remco, since you have the inside knowledge and we are all just Bike Angels here, how about telling us how to hack the bikes to go above 15MPH......? :)

      • Remco's avatar
        Remco
        Bike Angels Team

        There's a real simple hack: ride in Jersey City or Hoboken. 😉

  • Gaffano's avatar
    Gaffano
    Casual Commenter

    Interested to hear. From my experience over the last week, mostly on flat bike paths is that the  bike might get a little above 15, like 16, but then sets itself to throttle back at 15MPH limit for rest of ride. I've gotten to like 15.5MPH.