Do Leccy Bikes Really Need Gears?

[Yorick]

Pal just popped round with his posh leccy bike. It's got 17 gears and he says he's broken the derailleur twice.
All that shit gets in the way. He goes proper extreme

I thought the motor could emulate gears or even negate the need for them?

20230108_140859.jpg (1.79 MiB) Viewed 412 times

20230108_140909.jpg (1.29 MiB) Viewed 412 times

[Couchy]

Leccy bikes don’t need gears but thats leccy assist, if you don’t pedal the motor doesn’t work. So gears still needed. Also needed a fair bit of mech sympathy if you want the cassette and chain to last, no changing under load etc.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

You still need gears, you could make one that adds power to get around the need for gears, but it would go through a charge very quickly, mine has 11 gears, and I probably only use the middle 5, but where I ride there are no big hills, and because it's still restricted I never use the high gears.

[MingtheMerciless]

That’s a 12 speed rear cassette and mech with either 3 or 4 levels of electrical assist depending on the motor and being EU spec that will mean up to 250W and 65 odd Nm of torque in full beans mode with an assist cut out at 16mph (if it’s not had a “naught black box” fitted).

[Yorick]

That’s a 12 speed rear cassette and mech with either 3 or 4 levels of electrical assist depending on the motor and being EU spec that will mean up to 250W and 65 odd Nm of torque in full beans mode with an assist cut out at 16mph (if it’s not had a “naught black box” fitted).

It's got 750w and 100 Nm. Cut out 25 KPH


It's got more NM than my GSXR

[ChrisW]

...got more NM than my GSXR

Yes, but at what rpm?

[Couchy]

That’s a 12 speed rear cassette and mech with either 3 or 4 levels of electrical assist depending on the motor and being EU spec that will mean up to 250W and 65 odd Nm of torque in full beans mode with an assist cut out at 16mph (if it’s not had a “naught black box” fitted).

It's got 750w and 100 Nm. Cut out 25 KPH


It's got more NM than my GSXR

It’s a 700 battery and the nominal power is 250watts same as all eassist bikes. Also 85nm…..they’re great fun but you need to pedal to go real fast and that’s the fun of them

[Yorick]

That’s a 12 speed rear cassette and mech with either 3 or 4 levels of electrical assist depending on the motor and being EU spec that will mean up to 250W and 65 odd Nm of torque in full beans mode with an assist cut out at 16mph (if it’s not had a “naught black box” fitted).

It's got 750w and 100 Nm. Cut out 25 KPH


It's got more NM than my GSXR

It’s a 700 battery and the nominal power is 250watts same as all eassist bikes. Also 85nm…..they’re great fun but you need to pedal to go real fast and that’s the fun of them

My pal is crazy fit and complained lots about the speed limiter.
He says he'll bypass it when the 2 year warranty runs out. Already had a new battery free, so doesn't want to rock the boat.

[MingtheMerciless]

The motor wattage thing is a bit of a red herring as apparently they can go past the 250W limit as that's 250W over a set time period so peak short term wattage can be a fair bit higher higher. As for limiters the speedbox systems come highly recommended (so much so I've just got one for my Evil as that 16mph cutout is a complete pain)
https://www.twowheelsempire.com/collections/speedbox

[Mussels]

I've had both types and if you pedal hard it makes little difference, if you rely more on the motor the the geared version will get you up steeper hills.
I'm more bothered about having rwd over fwd, it's still not a huge deal.