How do electric bikes work on hills

Climbing uphill with the help of your e-bike can be challenging, and most riders don’t do proper research before getting a new one for them. So, In this article, I will tell you where I faced the problem while climbing uphill and what steps I followed to overcome those.

A couple of years before, I worked in the corporate sector and decided to purchase an e-bike to go to work. I was a tenant living approximately 2.5 miles away from my office. Before reaching my office, I had to tackle a steep hill. So, I already kept in mind that when I purchase an e-bike, I will check whether it can climb up hills pretty well.

I was connected with my e-bike friends group because the company in which I used to work always organized charity events to raise funds for social work, so there I got a chance to test different classifications of e-bikes like class 1, class 2, and class 3.  Some of the e-bikes were equipped with gearless, and some of them were direct-drive motors (gearless).

Sharing my bang-on experience of uphill riding:

In the early days of my company’s organized events, they were held in a region with mostly flat surfaces, so I became a fan of direct-drive motors. I liked them very well because they were gearless; therefore, I need not worry about looking at the LED screen to see which gear number I am actually running my e-bike on. Also, these motors made less noise while running.

As soon as the event area was shifted to areas in hilly regions, and during that event, I was experiencing my gearless drive motor starting to struggle to perform. I saw that the e-bikes of some riders were performing well in that event, and in spite of the hilly regions, their e-bike’s motors were not as struggling as our motors. I was really surprised, and that intrigued my mind. After a lengthy discussion with my e-bike rider friends, I came to know that the ones who were not struggling with uphill rides were the e-bikes equipped with geared hub motors.

From that incident, I got to know that gearless motors perform well only in flattish areas. If I want to have a ride in certain uphill areas, I will struggle to climb my e-bike.

 

My experience after upgrading my E-Bike to a geared motor:

I knew that such a situation might arise sometimes, and I had to go on hills. Therefore, I didn’t want my e-bike to struggle to climb the hilly regions. Therefore, I upgraded my e-bike and purchased Aventure.2 Step-Through E-Bike. This e-bike was equipped with a 750-watt rear hub geared motor. This e-bike also offered me 4-inch fat tires, which helped me in climbing hilly regions with good traction control and better balance. I always carried e-bike equipment and other miscellaneous equipment with me, so the fat tires also helped me increase my weight capacity.

But I forgot to mention that an e-bike equipped with a geared motor provides a good amount of torque at a lower speed, so hill climbing becomes very easy for an e-bike. The good torque makes it easy to tackle with slope or incline roads. Apart from this, I also experienced better battery life than my previous gearless e-bike. I was also happy because of the compact design of my current geared e-bike. The reason was because geared hub motors are in general smaller in size.

Below I’m sharing a hill climb test video to get a rough idea. Please feel free to check this out.

Let’s understand Geared-Hub Motor vs Direct-Drive Motor:

The direct-drive motor is much larger and also heavier. It is made in such a way that it can easily handle more power. They are more reliable due to fewer moving parts fitted inside the motor. Also, they are gearless motors, so they are not quickly overheated. On the other hand, geared motors are heated rapidly.

Let’s dive into the properties of direct-drive (Gearless) motors:

Because they are gearless motors, they are highly less prone to failure.

• The geared hub motor is bigger and has more magnets inside it. Because of this reason, it can handle more power without heating too much.
• Because it is a gearless motor, it operates silently. This helps the rider enjoy a peaceful ride without any disturbance.
• Direct drive motor is also known as speed motor because it gives you great speed.
• These motors are more efficient when your e-bikes gain momentum but less efficient when you stop and start from zero.
• The RBS, which is known as a Regenerative Braking System, only works with direct-drive motors. It helps recharge the e-bike battery when brakes are applied, thus increasing its total range.
• They are less efficient for hill climbing, and the reasons are as follows.
  • These motors are of higher weight, thus making the rider apply extra effort.
  •  These are low-torque motors and thus make it difficult to commute for hilly reasons.

Let’s dive into the properties of the Geared-Hub motor:

• There is no problem with speed when you start and stop your e-bike equipped with geared hub motor.
• They are much better at climbing hills.
• Due to gears, the motor gets an equal amount of energy than it is required; therefore, a very minimum amount of energy is wasted. As a result, it increases the range of the electric bike.
• Due to overheating, they can’t handle a lot of power for a long time. This is why the manufacturers are not making motors with a maximum power of up to 750 watts.
• Due to the gears being inside the hub motor, they make some noise.
• They are more reliable, but the gears inside the motors make them more prone to failure.
• These are more expensive than direct-drive motors.

PLEASE NOTE:

• For uphill climbing, you should prefer a mid-driver geared motor-equipped e-bike.
• Although geared motors are noisy compared to gearless motors (direct drive), nowadays, manufacturers are able to innovate modern geared motors that make almost less noise.
• The Bafang G060 500W used in this simulation has about 33% more torque, so its performance on hills will exceed.
• Climbing uphill requires a lot of extra power from the battery and therefore you have to compromise with your overall range.

I hope this article helped you a lot and that I was able to provide you with information. If not, please feel free to leave a comment, and I will try to help you fix your issue. Thank you so much for your trust and time. And yeah, please remember ebikeleague and come back again if you face any difficulty with your electric bike.

WITH LOVE,

Keep pedaling your e-bike