Comedian wrote:
Anyway, I just want to make it clear.. not everyone removes the limiter so they can sit on 50. Our bike sits comfortably at 28-32 which just makes the long commute a little quicker than the previous maximum of 25.
No meaning to criticize, but everytime I hear about people with Pedelecs ( I assume that's a Bosch ) talk about those kinds of speeds, I have to laugh - that bicycle is technically a motorcycle and is illegal. There's no way to sit comfortably on 28-32 kph within the law in Australia - the legal standard for that pedelec as a test is that, with the rear wheel off the ground and the pedal turned lightly by hand, the wheel cannot turn faster than 25 kph. And it's expected to only be around 19 kph when the test is performed, as was the compliant Pedelec they used in the NSW tests.
If the motor produces ANY power, including turning the armature, over 25 kph, it's an
instant failure. Even if you take into account the allowances for measurement error, 28 kph is still an instant failure.
This is exactly why we need people to push on the laws so they fix them. In the mean time, you're clearly ( and you have admitted to ) riding an unlicensed motorcycle and it's probably never occurred to you that it's not even legal to fit a Bosch kit to a bicycle in Australia, because the kit laws only allow 200W. Pedelec status is ONLY for factory made bicycles, manufactured entirely overseas, and tested on the bicycle they are fitted to.
Of course, you may have a 200W PAPC, but I'm pretty sure BOSCH doesn't yet have the technology to make a 200W PAPC go around 28~32 kph. So the only way you're going to do that speed on a legal pedelec is with the motor turned off, and you doing ALL the pedaling.
So it's actually in your own personal interest than that people do challenge and push for law reform with respect to electric bicycles. If you were in a crash, even not at fault, it would be relatively trivial for a lawyer to demonstrate you had contributory negligence for riding an unlicensed motorcycle. It's not something I'd wish to see anyone from this forum face.
As for how much power you can get from a BOSCH motor? Sure, the cut-off speed is often set to 50 kph... But even this can be bypassed and in some cases a Bosch equipped bike could go faster on motor alone!
The only thing that will determine the top speed under tuning is the back-EMF on the motor and the power supply voltage. Nothing else determines top-speed in an e-bike. This being the case, and Bosch being mid-drive systems, I'm pretty sure 50kph is quite a reasonable claim for a Bosch..... But hey, people are talking about it online - Not just theory, but actually riding at those kinds of speeds -
There seems to be a solid theme here of denying the possibility that the bicycles everyone loves and thought would replace the frankenbikes are, in fact, frankenbikes in the thin disguise of detuned bicycles that are easily reverted to their monster form. Given the Bosch is a mid-drive, and so can take advantage of the gearing capabilities of the bicycle, I'd suggest we've found Frankbikes' monster. Might the NSW police one day start to notice, I'm pretty sure the anti-frankenbike squads that were once encouraged to kill the petrol monsters might take up their pitchforks against the e-bikes that are so easily tuned to high speeds.
Pretending that these new generation frankenbikes can't possibly exist isn't going to stop that - Convincing the villagers that the monsters they once feared are actually friendly and will harm no-one is the only way.
But, as an engineer, if I had a Bosch mid-drive and I was asked to modify it, I'm reasonably confident I could exceed 50 kph.
I know I could do it on a cheap chinese 250W bicycle, and people actually do achieve this.... I doubt very much that the engineering on a Bosch is in any way inferior to these cheap chinese knockoffs.