Hi.

I'm trying to convince my wife to give cycling a second chance.

 

She can't handle changing gears so on her 3 speed Nexus she puts it in second and leaves it there. It's a cadence sensing esmart bike from NZ as used by their post office. Or so we were told. She finds it surges to start with and doesn't like it.

 

I think she'd prefer a crank drive bike that has a more natural feel. But I do think she needs a bike with automatic gears. She can't drive a manual car either.

 

From what I can see a Nuvinci 380 or the Shimano STePS systems offer this option.

 

Which is the best? What makes of bike offer the STePS?

 

Thanks

Volt do a steps powered bike with DI2 (electronic shifting). Gives her option of manual ( press button to shift) of fully automatic. Even manual mode it still automatically shifts to low gear when you stop, making starting off easy.

 

NB any STEPs bike with Di2 hub supports this feature.

Ridgeback Electron range?

 

Sent from here to there with computer wizardry.

Hi.

I'm trying to convince my wife to give cycling a second chance.

 

She can't handle changing gears so on her 3 speed Nexus she puts it in second and leaves it there. It's a cadence sensing esmart bike from NZ as used by their post office. Or so we were told. She finds it surges to start with and doesn't like it.

 

I think she'd prefer a crank drive bike that has a more natural feel. But I do think she needs a bike with automatic gears. She can't drive a manual car either.

 

From what I can see a Nuvinci 380 or the Shimano STePS systems offer this option.

 

Which is the best? What makes of bike offer the STePS?

 

Thanks

That's a very expensive solution to simple problem. A modern current control controller will solve that for about £60, and you'll get a nice LCD with 5 power levels. Your problem is that the present controller uses speed control, which gives full power at start. It's probably an old design with run-on after you stop pedalling too. Modern ones don't do that either.

 

She would then be able to eave it in second gear if she wants because the hub-motor gives it's torque over the full range of speeds. In practice, the hub-motor could always bale her out if she messes up a gear change or ends up in the wrong gear, so that would give her time to figure out and learn how to change gear properly if she wanted.

 

Many opinions on this forum are formed on the basis of experience -unfortunately often limited. People try a bike like hers and then compare it to a modern crank-drive. Thereafter, they pronounce that CDs and torque sensors are better. If they had tried a modern hub-motors/controller system, their opinions might be different.

If your wife does not like changing gears (trust me, the majority of my customers also don't), then my advice is to go for a large geared hub motor like the Ezee.

These motors have so much power in reserve that will flatten any hill even without much pedaling, making gear change totally (or nearly totally) unnecessary.

If your wife does not like changing gears (trust me, the majority of my customers also don't), then my advice is to go for a large geared hub motor like the Ezee.

These motors have so much power in reserve that will flatten any hill even without much pedaling, making gear change totally (or nearly totally) unnecessary.

 

Reminds me of what Thompson senior of the Thompson Stores told A to B magazine back in 2003 when they were critical of all his e-bikes at the time being single speed and very low geared.

 

He said bluntly, "My customers don't pedal, won't pedal".

 

With his five stores selling 7000 e-bikes that year, equalling all the UK competition combined, he was no fool.

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