now we all have those days where our e-bikes feel a little bit slower
or maybe just a bit more effort to ride or maybe they're just using a
little bit more battery than usual here's a few things you might want to take a look at
now first off now this one might sound a little bit crazy but let's
not forget that our e-bikes are going to be limited to their assisted top speed
that meaning 25 kilometers per hour here in the uk and europe and 32 kilometers per
hour in the us and canada and it might just be that you're riding in some different terrain
and working above that speed limiter but let's look at some of the less common possibilities
now most big name manufacturers will have an app which allows you to connect your bike to your
phone and adjust the motor settings you'll be able to get in there and adjust things such as how much
assist the motor will provide you with how fast it accelerates and the peak power that the motor
supplies it could be that someone has got in there and tinkered with and lowered your settings in
that instance go back to the factory settings as a benchmark and work up from there peak power is how
much juice the battery is supplying the motor and adjusting the slider lower or higher will affect
your ride massively think of more power as a bigger tube and less power is a thinner tube
acceleration is pretty self-explanatory and this will affect the speed that the bike gain speed
from any given point motors that might have had their presets altered involves all of those which
are adjustable the new bosch cx motor all evos and knivos shimano ep8 motor and epa rs yamaha for zoo
and panasonic you just need to check with your local dealer if you need more information on this
and if you need more explanation of support and peak power we've done two videos on these
something else that's becoming increasingly more popular is manufacturers offering presets
to their bikes for example on the shimano ep8 bike you have two presets one for more range
and less power and one for more power with less range however some bike brands choose
to have their own custom presets for example newt proof tune down the level of assist in trail mode
so if you've never connected your bike to the app that connects to it you're definitely missing out
on a load of customization that you can do from the comfort of your own home perhaps even in your
armchair now when it comes to adjusting speed and the power that you're taking from your bike
you definitely don't want to go crazy because the more you take out the more that battery is going
to get drained down super quick when it comes to factory presets we kind of stick around and we
might tweak them up a little bit but if you just want to be safe stick to those factory presets
now tire choice is a massive subject when it comes to re-mounting biking and they can definitely
really affect the way that your bike rides and it handles and it can affect its performance too one
of those biggest things is going to be rolling resistance now if you've got a big heavy thick
uh sidewall tire that weighs a ton and gives you a load of grip yep it will grip loads but it's also
going to roll really slowly now this can affect the speed that you roll at and also how much
range that you get from your battery so if you've recently swapped out tires and have noticed a loss
in speed and a loss in range that you're getting from your battery then these are likely to be your
culprits and something that's just as important as tire choice is going to be tire pressures now
if your tires are excessively low say under 20 psi then you're going to have a massive contact patch
on the ground and again that is going to be really slow rolling so you need to increase that pressure
slightly uh just make sure you've got less contact patch and therefore a faster rolling tire
but don't go crazy on this one if you pump them up too hard you can have a tiny contact patch and
that is really going to amplify all the vibrations that you get through from the trail back up to you
now we all know brakes slow us down so anytime that your disc brake pads are
in contact with your rotor is going to cause a slower turning wheel and there's a few reasons
your brakes might be rubbing now it could be a misaligned caliper meaning that one side of
your brake pads is continually rubbing on your disc rotor and causing that slower turning wheel
so it's a really easy job all you need to do is undo your brake caliper mounting bolts
hold the lever in give the caliper a little wiggle then keep that lever squeezed in whilst
you re-tension the caliper and that should see that that caliper is nice and centered and you've
got a free spinning wheel the other thing that it could be is a bent disc rotor now this is normally
you're going to spin your wheel and you'll hear that brake disc just going on and off robin
as it goes around now you need to look down into the caliper itself and find out which way the disc
is bent now there's plenty of tools on the market you can straighten and realign that disc easy
enough and sometimes you can actually do this with your fingers just go careful as to where you're
pushing on that disc another reason it could be rubbing is maybe you've been transporting your
bike say in your car without the wheels in and the lever's got knocked and it squeezes down the pad
distance meaning you could have a rub and break that way or sometimes brakes actually have a bike
point adjustment now this might have been wound in too much and therefore you've got that rubbing pad
your e-mountain bike has the most power from its battery when it's fully charged to 100
and it's quite normal for a battery when it starts getting down to its reserve levels
to start lowering the assistance particularly if you're in boost or turbo mode when you're running
really low on that battery and you're into your reserve battery maybe your red light's flashing
or you're down to your last 10 it's quite normal for that battery to tell the motors to switch
down to its least powerful power mode probably going to be eco mode the idea behind this is that
it's the most economical way and hopefully going to get you home and not damage your battery too
much a neglected and uncared drivetrain is going to lose massive amounts of efficiency
compared to one that is properly lubed up and cleaned before every single ride not to
mention the uncared for drivetrain is literally going to eat all those components super quick
in fact dodi over on gmbn tech has done a video where he compared a dirty chain compared to that
nice clean lube chain and found it to be 17 less efficient than a properly care for chain
and that's not including gunked up jockey wheels and bearings and things like that that's probably
going to be about 25 less efficient and that's a big chunk of efficiency to be losing from your
e-bike now the best way to keep on top of things is to keep it nice and clean and lubed up properly
now last but not least is the issue of overheating your motor
now this is a lot more common on the hub drive bikes rather than mid-drive bikes these days
but if you are putting your e-bike under a load of stress
on a very hot day up a very long climb then you might notice a little bit of a drop in performance
coming from your motor now if this happens to you all you need to do is pull over chill enjoy the
view for five or ten minutes let that motor cool down and then get back on and smash that climb
so there you go a bunch of reasons your e-mountain bike might be running
slow or maybe using a bit more battery than it used to get involved in the comments box
let us know if your mates messed around with your motor settings or maybe you swapped out
for some tires and lost a load of battery range give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed
it make sure you subscribe to us here on enbn and i shall see you in the next one