Kalkhoff impulse vs bosch active line plus

Theblackspot

Finding my (electric) wheels
Jun 21, 2018
9
2
50
Any thoughts?
Came across this article

https://www.50cycles.com/blog/kalkhoff-impulse-and-bosch-electric-bike-comparison/

Which is firmly on the side of Kalkhoff, but it is from 3 years ago.

I know Kalkhoff use their own motors and Bosch as they see fit for the bike but...
Is there a winner?

I have been on the Bosch site using the range calculator and with the active line plus could, theoretically, get huge distances.
Though some weight loss on my part might help...

https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/service/range-assistant/

Would welcome your thoughts.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,848
30,402
Thanks Fleck, what a lot of broken Kalkhoff motors...
The Impulse 1 was quite a good motor and gave very little trouble. It actually isn't Kalkhoff's, it's the Daum motor which was Germany's first crank unit, long before the Bosch. Kalkhoff adopted it for their bikes and gave it the Impulse name.

It was later when competing with Bosch that the power was upped to create the Impulse 2 that the troubles started. It seems that Bosch beating power was enough to break itself. Since then there were further changes including the unit name becoming Impulse Evo, but with trust damaged question marks remain.
.
 

Gringo

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 18, 2013
1,334
835
Northampton
Any thoughts?
Came across this article

https://www.50cycles.com/blog/kalkhoff-impulse-and-bosch-electric-bike-comparison/

Which is firmly on the side of Kalkhoff, but it is from 3 years ago.

I know Kalkhoff use their own motors and Bosch as they see fit for the bike but...
Is there a winner?

I have been on the Bosch site using the range calculator and with the active line plus could, theoretically, get huge distances.
Though some weight loss on my part might help...

https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/service/range-assistant/

Would welcome your thoughts.
Forget the 3 year old comparison, the Bosch motor in question is an older active 1st generation,
E bike technology is moving on real fast these days, Bosch are now on there 3rd generation motor, still called active line & active line plus but totaly different animals.
 

Danidl

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2016
8,611
12,256
73
Ireland
The bosch calculator is pretty good, for fthe things it can measure but in one regard,... the range of a e bike is critically dependent on the wind direction. Power usage as a function of speed increases as the CUBE of the speed relative to the air. So say you were travelling at 10 mph with the wind and then crossways to the wind and then into the wind. If the wind speed were 10 mph The relative wind power losses would be.
Zero, X watts, and 8X watts... X would depend on your cross section, and the size of your jacket and whether you were in an upright or racing streamlined posture..
 

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