Walk mode on TQ motor powered e-bikes?

It's a bit flaky, but if you put the bike into a higher gear it works better, somewhere in the middle of the cassette, gear 7/8 ish

Sorry, no help on the actual question but a question for you if you dont mind. What sort of range do you get from the Neat? I am tempted by one but wondering if it is too light weight and I am better off going for something with a bigger battery and more power. Also curious how easy it is to remove the battery, would it be an option to take a 2nd battery for big days out.

What sort of range do you get from the Neat?

I dont have a neat - but have a trek fuel exe, but in this case the bikes are similar enough to not be a determining factor in the range you would get.

Its a tricky question to answer, as the range I get is potentially going to be very different to the range you would get, but about 2800 feet of climbing over about 14 miles is doable (for me) from the main battery with a fair amount of assistance from the motor, ie using the middle mode mostly. If you really want to get more range you can, and I have had 5000+ feet of climbing out of it when I really wanted to, by turning it off on the flats and downhill, and only using eco mode on the climbs - but doing this is V hard work, it didnt feel much easier than a similar day on a regular bike.

The range extender will add approx 44% onto the above numbers.

It varies so much (not just on the TQ, but any ebike) based on the following:-

- The speed you ride at
- The power you put in (the more power you put in the more power the motor puts out) - this is related to how fast you go
- The configuration you choose for each assist mode
- Your weight
- your terrain - if its straight up and then straight back down again with little riding along the flat then you'll get more vertical feet/metres out of it - if thats your measure of range, or conversely, if you want more miles, then flat will get more miles than up/down.
- your cadence - spinning faster give a little more range - not a big factor though
- The conditions - cold is worse for range, thick mud is worse for range etc.
- To a lesser extent the tyres you use, slow rolling tyres suck more juice - but this is not as big a factor as you might think

Thanks for the info @julians. I realise it is a hard question to answer and the answer is normally "it depends" but that gives me an idea.

@hooli: I own a range extender, but I’ve never had to use it yet. If I have what is a big day out for me, which is about 3 hours, about 15-20k and about 800m of climbing, then I tend to have around 30% left - without using the extender.

But I need to add that I tend to ride differently than many folks I see on full fat bikes. My entire ride is typically spent in eco mode, except for short , intense technical climbs, when I switch to medium mode. Normally on a ride, I almost never use the top mode.

Ive noticed that most “normal” e-bikes fly past me on the climbs. But this is part of the appeal for me - I ride my Neat as if I was riding a normal bike. It feels just like a normal bike imo, but it just feels like I have super-powered legs. Where my typical lunchtime ride on a normal bike would be 4-5km with maybe 250m of climbing, now my normal weekday ride would be 8-9km with 600-700m of climbing. I’ve found myself riding down hills purely to ride another technical climb back up.

Your last question - about removing the battery. It’s really not difficult - undo two hex bolts and slide the battery out. I used to do this to charge the battery before I got leccy installed in my garage. So I did this after every ride. But I’d say that two range extenders is a better plan than an extra battery. You can put two extenders onto the frame, and they’re a doddle to use. Fidlock mounts.

Thanks @johnhe. Sounds like just what I am after.

What I don't like about the walk mode is how tiring it is to hold the button down, and how easy it is to depressure it momentarily which stops the walk.

The battery is pretty easy to take out, just add a little cable tie into a little rectangular hole at the bottom to use as a pulling loop. The most awkward thing is lining up the bolt holes when you put it back in - there's no guide rail, and the bolts go into brass (so soft) inserts on the battery which require care not to cross thread.

Walk mode in my EXE is practically useless, tried different gears, backwards roll of bike etc... nothing seems to work.... 

What I don't like about the walk mode is how tiring it is to hold the button down

Thanks for the lols.

^As funny as it sounds it is true though! I have an SL bike so never really use walk mode, but I've used it on a Levo going up into the alpine on a steep incline for quite a while, and holding the button down was pretty tiring ha ha. It's not so much the physical force needed to push a little button, it's the location of the button.

I guess the rules dictate that one has to hold down a button, otherwise it is a 'throttle', but it would be good if the button was designed in such a way that you could put something along the lines of a clothes peg on it to hold it down 😀 

Posted by: walleater

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could put something along the lines of a clothes peg on it to hold it down 😀 

Maybe somebody could 3d print a special clamp! 😉

I guess the rules dictate that one has to hold down a button, otherwise it is a 'throttle'

I think it would still be classed as a throttle, which is why I assume the power is so weak, so that it can't be used for anything other than walking. I have a brose motor but the walk function is useful for short, sharp climbs that are unrideable. It needs a bit of gravity to activate it. Anything else it doesn't do much. 

The advice from @julians really helped. I actually used the walk mode in the alps when I was at the end of my rope on a shockingly steep singletrack climb. Putting the bike into a higher gear made all the difference. Actually, if the gear was too high, I couldn’t walk fast enough to keep up, so had to change back down to something like 4th gear.