Hi I have a battery assisted hand cycle. It’s made with an ezee kit. Occasionally, when rolling downhill, the motor restricts the bike to 13mph (power level 4 selected). Most of the time it freewheels fine, I’m guessing a sensor is present to stop providing assistance at a given speed, could that be the cause? Any help appreciated.

I'm not to sure what you're saying. when free-wheeling, it should be free. If it has resistance when free-wheeling, the clutch is sticking.

 

If it is stuck all the time, you can free it by giving the tyre a good whack in the forward direction with a lump hammer. if that doesn't work, you need to disconnect the three motor phase wires from the controller, then short them together somehow. That will lock the motor. You can then twist the wheel in the forward direction to free off the clutch.

 

If it keeps sticking, you'll need a new clutch, which you can get from Em3ev.com and from ebikes.ca. count the grear teeth just to be sure:

https://ebikes.ca/ezeegear.html

Hi thanks very much for your reply. So yes occasionally when freewheeling there is resistance, but it usually it frees itself. Will it eventually seize? I know it’s a nightmare to get inside as spokes need to come off should I need new clutch ... The hub is only 1000 miles old.

Hi thanks very much for your reply. So yes occasionally when freewheeling there is resistance, but it usually it frees itself. Will it eventually seize? I know it’s a nightmare to get inside as spokes need to come off should I need new clutch ... The hub is only 1000 miles old.

Spokes don't need to come off. Everything comes out from the side.

 

Whether it'll get better or worse depends on the cause. Some clutches stick a bit when new, then free off. Others stick through lack of use, and others get sticky from rust.

Show us the hub wheel on the bike because if the motor cable exits incorrectly thrn your issue may be rust due to water ingress.

My Ezee motor (now with some 12k on it) did suffer a bearing problem early in it's life. The bearing in the motor casing was really gritty and had to be replaced. The symptoms were a sort of grinding/raspy noise and vibration through the handlebars.

As Vfr says, the motor does come apart fairly easily, just a matter of taking out the casing screws and the rotor case slides off exposing the planetry gears.