i live just outside of Guelph and there are tons of hills etc. I know ebikes are limited to going about 32 km/h however, mine was going well past that down some hills today. Last thing I need is some bored OPP officer to pull me over for speeding or something. The maximum speed I've seen this thing go at is 55 km/h in a 50 zone. I guess I'm still getting used to this especially after just getting this thing on Saturday. Is there a special trick to only allowing it to go to the max legal speed? Or are driving down hills different? Once i'm off the hill it goes down to about 30-40. I bought this ebike (or e-scooter) used, even on the speedometer it says it can go up to 60 however anything past 50 is in red which I unfortunately have hit several times. I don't want to get pulled over for this. What should I do?

Patrick,

Just let go of the throttle and gently apply your brakes. Since you bought your scooter used I suggest checking that the brakes work properly. The brake levers should instantly cut power to the motor. To test this just put the bike on it's center stand and hold the throttle half way and don't let go and then pull the brake gently and let go. Try this for both sides, the motor should stop. If it doesn't you need new levers.

-Vic

Joshua,

Really it's magnets? Maybe on the newer bikes. The killswitches in my levers look like momentary push buttons. So mine isn't magnets. Maybe Ken can clear this up for us because I really have no idea here.

-Vic

The law reads that the bike cannot exceed 32km/h under its own power and on a flat surface, it does not say anything about gravity assistance....however, I would caution you not to exceed the posted max speed, but in theory, if you are going down a hill and you are under the speed limit, there is nothing they can do.

I know that my bike (motorino) has a check that if you exceed 32km/h, your motor automatically cuts out...resumes when you hit 32... Same with brakes as already mentioned, it will cut out the motor, but it should already be cut out if you are over the 32 km/h max.... but of course, they will slow you down :)

andrea

Most E-Bike use a momentary normally open push switch inside the left and right brake lever to tell the controller to cut power to the motor when the brakes are applied. The magnet and hall sensor is built into the twist throttle to tell the controller how far the throttle is twisted and how fast to spin the motor.

Ken Finch

Well I service our scooter style E-bikes daily.The brake handles have a momentary Normally Open push switch in them and the throttles have a magnet and hall sensor to detect the magnets strength and position of the throttle handle to determine the required speed. Come to the store and I can physically prove it by showing the stock brake handles and throttles. Remember bicycle style E-bike designs maybe different from the scooter style designs. A normally open momentary push switch is more reliable then a magnet and simple transistor circuit (less expensive as well). A magnet and hall sensor for the throttle is great because it is fairly accurate and very reliable, all the circuits to read the hall sensor are inside the E-Bikes controller. Only the older less expensive designs use a potentiometer or a magnet and simple transistor. They are not as reliable (water can affect the potentiometer) and the simple transistor can only detect the magnet, not its strength or position. Hall sensors do this on a daily bases in hub motors so they are also perfect for the throttle as well.

Ken Finch

Thanks Joshua. Yes add on hub motor kits are a great technology to convert an ordinary dull bicycle into a very efficient bicycle style E-Bike and are also a great product. Other then the brushless controller and the brushless hub motor the rest of the kits components are a completely different technology then what the scooter style E-Bike technology is. I will say neither technology is better then the other. They are both very good technologies for their own specific purposes.

Ken Finch


P.S.

I have not been around for the last while last week because my 4 year old MSI Wind U100 Netbook had fineally died and I had to wait till my last paycheck to arrive to get a replacement. My replacement is a Acer aspire One AO532h-2807 I bought for $299 at The Source. The MSI Wind U100 cost me $499 4 years ago at Canada Computers. And for $299 the Acer Aspire One has a faster CPU, larger hard drive (160GB instead of the MSIs 80GB) and Wireless N networking where the MSI only had Wireless G networking built in.