[Closed] Emtb ; do you turn battery off when descending?

No. Motor only draws power when pedalling.

Nope. Balls up a corner and a couple of pedal strokes gets your momentum back, particularly handy when you need to clear something

No need as the motor doesn't use any power when not pedalling

Nope, never even heard this be mentioned until the recent thread.

Nope. Balls up a corner and a couple of pedal strokes gets your momentum back, particularly handy when you need to clear something

This.

I don’t know what other ebikes are like but the Levo has two buttons right by your left thumb to change mode; off, eco, trail or turbo. Sometimes I want to ride it like a full power turbo thingy and sometimes I want to ride it like a normal MTB. Sometimes I hardly touch those buttons, sometimes I use them loads.

Generally I think I ride better if I have the power off on descents, I think further ahead, carry more speed around turns. If I’m worried about a jump I might switch to turbo to give me a burst of acceleration but by the time I hit it I’ll usually be over the limiter.

I know people think ebikes are impossible to pedal without a motor helping but once you’re up to speed there’s very little in it and when accelerating vs a normal bike it only takes about 10% more power from your legs.

So do you use auto mode or trail and leave it on that or do you constantly keep changing it? I have a Haibike iwth px2 motor and it comes with an auto mode.

Eco normally, trail if I feel crap, turbo for long boring fireroads

Generally leave mine in EMTB (Bosch) that will adjust assistance depending on pedalling power.
I'll use eco if I'm out with people on normal bikes, or for the first climb to warm up.

Sometimes i start with the motor off to stop that jolt you get when the power goes on, but that's very rare and trail dependent, i.e. starting with a chute or drop in, i learnt this by nearly being bucked at the start of Y2K in FoD.

Reality is you'll learn when and what level to use the power, if you're doing twisty tight stuff then being in turbo might not be great if it pulls you off line all the time, same with being in eco if you're going to hit a jump that requires a lot of speed to be built up.

Short answer though is it all depends what you're riding.

If I know I'm doing a long ride where I want to absolutely maximise range I will sometimes turn the motor off on descents, or turn it down to eco. I think it makes a small difference to the range over a long ride just by not using the motor to go from 0-15mph , using gravity/pedal power alone .

On a long ride I typically constantly vary the assistance between off and turbo (very infrequently use turbo), but if I know I'm not going to be pushing the range I'll just leave it in emtb mode and let it do its thing.

I'll typically do the first uphill with the motor off as a warm up.

I've not ridden an E-MTB, so excuse the lack of knowledge but - why don't the manufacturers include a charging mechanism so when you are going downhill, you can make the motor work as a dynamo and charge the battery back up?

Is this possible?

you don't get energy for free, that's why.

why don’t the manufacturers include a charging mechanism so when you are going downhill, you can make the motor work as a dynamo and charge the battery back up?

would add too much drag when you want to be freewheeling, it would be like riding downhill with the brakes on.

next question : why not recover energy only when you would be braking? presumably the technology needed to do this is far too complicated/heavy/expensive/large.

I never turn it off on my Levo SL. I have it by default on Trail, and will occasionally toggle up to Turbo if my HR is getting a bit high on steep sections.

If I'm riding with folk on non ebikes I use Eco mainly.

next question : why not recover energy only when you would be braking? presumably the technology needed to do this is far too complicated/heavy/expensive/large.

Freewheel stops the motor from being turned when you stop pedalling.

You'd need a front wheel hub motor for regen braking to work effectively.

On technical downhills I've seen people riding an ebike who aren't experienced on them fall off. They've forgotten it's an ebike and shifted the pedals round for balance and off it's gone and shunted them off a technical drop they were just eyeing up.

This is why some of them now turn off the motor for tricky downhills.

Perhaps newer emtbs don't do this anymore?

I sometimes stick mine in turbo on descents for the kick it can give you out of slower sections/bends/. Though normaly eco on climbs unless I'm riding up a DH section.
The motor over run can also be a very useful tool on flatter rocky sections where you can't geta full pedal stroke in.
Have my Kenov set up with the power as sharp as possible as I had years of riding moto enduros at British/Euro/World Champs and I'm used of bikes trying to rip my arms off and kill me dead.
Mrs stu has hers set up totaly the opposite as she wants it to feels smooth with no sudden kick.

That's the great thing about Eebs, there is no right or wrong way to ride them.
Just do what feels good to you.

On technical downhills I’ve seen people riding [s]an ebike[/s] a bike who aren’t experienced on them fall off.

No way would I switch it off! I've been told if I switch the motor off the power steering and air con will stop working too.

I would be more concerned that it turned of the heated grips and seat 😉

.... and the traction control... pretty essential I find 😜

So long as the smug sense of superiority still works when the bike is powered down, who cares?

I turn mine off on really fast descents (such as Spooky Woods at Glentress) as I keep hitting the limiter and you get a draggy feeling - prefer to just pedal through the 15mph barrier.
I do activate the motor again a couple of times for some of the bits wear it's good to get back up to speed and it's not steep.

Leaving it in Turbo is good too - I normally freewheel down descents as I try to concentrate on being smooth and carrying momentum but it's nice to have that kick if you want just do a couple of pedal strokes to add some speed

I sometimes stick mine in turbo on descents for the kick it can give you out of slower sections/bends/. Though normaly eco on climbs unless I’m riding up a DH section.

When I was still riding mine this is how I rode it too. Except for steep nadgery stuff, turned it off for that.

TW makes a good point too.
My sound system stops working when I turn the motor off.
I know how much random stranger appreciate me playing a bit of techno while riding so do them a favour and keep it on.