How much drag above 15.5 mph on your crank drive ebike?

[Andy-Mat]

My Haibike Trekking suddenly feels heavy when I go over 15.5 mph. I do regularly cruise at 20/25 or so mph, but going faster and keeping that speed up means changing down a gear. Nothing to do with drag, it feels more like I am peddling over wet grass instead of tarmac. I struggle to get to 30mph on the flat. My bike has the Yamaha motor.

That sounds as though your bike motor has no "free wheel" function built in. I thought they all did, but I am obviously wrong!
Perhaps another member could comment about the free wheel function?
regards
Andy

 

[Slartibartfast]

Slartiblartfast,
Is this your machine with the Yamaha PW motor:
https://ebiketips.road.cc/content/reviews/electric-city-bikes/haibike-sduro-trekking-40-1698 ?

Yep, that’s the one.

 

[Slartibartfast]

That sounds as though your bike motor has no "free wheel" function built in. I thought they all did, but I am obviously wrong!
Perhaps another member could comment about the free wheel function?
regards
Andy

I suspect, as sjpt said, it is the fact that I had power before15.5mph, but not after, and the contrast is noticable. I forget the acceleration is higher than a non powered bike, and I am still belting along and I try and maintain the higher speed. Flat roads in cars are hilly on a bike!

My wife’s Bosch motored Carrera Crosspath does not feel as abrupt though.

 

[Eagle]

Does anybody have experience of a Giant Explore (+1 or +2) with the Yamaha motor?
Thanks.

 

[Poolepete]

I have the Activeline Plus on my Motus Grand Tour. I do not feel anything when the motor cuts off. I believe the Bosch controller reduces the power feed between 15.5 and 16.5 mph so there is no instant shut down. The motor being so quiet, you're given no clues that you are riding on your own steam when you get to speed. I often look down at the speedo to see that I am doing 18/19mph, blissfully unaware that I am in effect no longer riding an e-bike

 

[Andy McNish]

I have the Activeline Plus on my Motus Grand Tour. I do not feel anything when the motor cuts off. I believe the Bosch controller reduces the power feed between 15.5 and 16.5 mph so there is no instant shut down. The motor being so quiet, you're given no clues that you are riding on your own steam when you get to speed. I often look down at the speedo to see that I am doing 18/19mph, blissfully unaware that I am in effect no longer riding an e-bike

I'd agree exactly in respect of the ActiveLine Plus on my Cube. But the bikes are quite heavy so you're unlikely to get over 30kph out of them easily on the flat.

That said I think there is a good case for saying that the Activeline Plus 2018 model was a gamechanger for Bosch powered Touring bikes in terms of practical range.

Not only is it basically silent and with 30% better range per W/hr than the Performance Line models, but it's effective range is huge whenever you are on the flat (at least on a decent surface) as true zero resist means there is no need to use the motor at all.

As I said I did a 35 mile ride on Sunday. I doubt I used 10% of the battery (and that mostly just to keep up with a guy on a road bike for the last few miles as we left the rest of the club having tea because we needed to get back home).

You can almost just look at the total elevation to work out the likely range and ignore distance.
I'm doing a Spring tour on a 100km circuit with 4500 feet of climb (Half Tour de Manc), so that should give me a good idea of total range. I'm sure the Cube will manage it comfortably.