Bosch Active Line Plus versus Suntour Hesc

[MikeS]

.... And the Bosch wins. Two weeks ago I rode the 28 miles around Kielder reservoir on my Carrera Crossfire (Suntour Hesc Hub drive 400wh battery). Today I rode exactly the same route (actually 2 miles more because I had to backtrack to collect a forgotten pump) on the Carrera Crossfuse which Halfords kindly let me exchange the faulty Crossfire for. The Crossfuse has the Bosch Active Line PLus, central crank motor and the 400wh battery - which btw is much lighter than the Suntour battery.
It's not immediately obvious, because its described as the Lakeside route, but there is actually 3000ft of climb in the circuit, and this meant that at the end of the trip on the Crossfire (Suntour) there was just 23% left in the battery. But today the Bosch system in the Crossfuse had 50% of battery left and was giving me a range of another 31 miles if I stayed in eco mode.
Mike

 

[mike killay]

This is interesting. Does a hub drive use more electricity Than a centre drive?

 

[danielrlee]

Do you have any stats of the total energy used with both bikes?

 

[Artstu]

But today the Bosch system in the Crossfuse had 50% of battery left and was giving me a range of another 31 miles if I stayed in eco mode.
Mike

I take it you did the ride in eco? also I take it the Carrera crossfire was in the lowest setting too? I also wonder what the average speed was for the ride?

 

[MikeS]

Good points Artstu.
This was of course a very unscientific test so here are some further thoughts:
The variables that were the same were the distance, the ground (gravel), the weather and temperature (dry and hot), tyres, pressures and rider.

Variables that probably affect the comparability:

• Main one was that on the Bosch I rode round slower because I was with a mate on a non electric bike.
• On the Bosch I was able to put it into 'off' mode whereas if I did so on the Suntoour it was like pedalling through treacle - this is a known fault with some of the Crossfire bikes.

Now here's the thing about which mode and remaining range. The Suntour doesn't try to estimate your remaining range but does attempt to give you a very precise figure for battery remaining. The Bosch is the other way round,
At first I thought the Bosch was being really clever and working out my pattern of usage (off,eco,tour etc) and predicting the range based on a similar usage pattern. But I don't think it does - it just does a simple calc of % remaining multiplied by Bosch's estimate of miles per each mode. So if I had 31 miles left in eco mode then flicked it into turbo mode it might show 23 say. But the 50% of battery that I had used was a mixture of all modes including the most power hungry sport mode. So I think actually I could have gone around the circuit again using a similar pattern of modes rather than Bosch's probably conservative suggestion of having to use eco mode. BTW I could easily have gone round again from a physical point of view whereas my mate was totally finished

Couple of other points of interest. First one about ebikes generally. They don't skid !! Following my mate his back wheel was skidding and sliding and he was on more of a mountain bike than mine, and it had fatter chunkier tyres. I think the difference is that I was always seated with my weight over the back wheel and he was often having to stand on the pedals.
A minor gripe about the Bosch system is that its input is directly related to cadence (so I understand). This means that if you stop in the wrong gear on a steepish hill it's quite difficult to start off again whereas with the Suntour there was an instant surge of power as soon as you press the pedals.
Mike

 

[Neily71]

We've got 2 Carrera x ebikes, mines a Vulcan with the Suntour motor and my sons is the Vengeance with the Bafang motor. Considering both have got the same supposed output the Bafang motor on the Vengeance absolutely monsters the Suntour motor. Acceleration and pulling power up hills with that Bafang is awseome, The Suntour motor is sooooo weak in comparison. I have to put much more effort in. When I ride his Vengeance it just destroys any hill you show it with ease.

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