Specialized Levo SL EBike Powermeter

ChrisA

@pilleus Something I was always wondering about, whenever I saw e-bikes was, if E-Bikes compute how much effort comes from the driver and how much from the motor - so that’s really possible? I ask because I always wondered how people would see how much effort they put into biking when they mix the use of e-bikes and normal bikes in their training routine (other than by HR and calories spent)

pilleus

@ChrisA

If an ebike has a torque sensor for determing the power input of the rider to add the predefined power of the motor. So the power of the driver is known and can be determined. Today most ebikes have a torque sensor, only some wheel motors (bafang and other chinese motors) do not have one.

If connected as power meter to a Suunto watch, the power of the rider can be displayed, the cadence too. No problem.

The heart rate is the key to calculate the effort of the rider and the value is different on different bikes. So a ebike ride with low effort will give low results in training data and other (VO2max and so on).

For me it is not important, because rides with the ebike are rare and on days where I did long runs. Another move after a hard training just to be outside and enjoy the nature.

ChrisA

@pilleus thanks for your detailed explanation . That’s quite interesting. My employer is offering financial support for using an E-Bike as company E-Bikes, so I am thinking about using one for commuting to work (as long as the weather allows it).

pilleus

@ChrisA said in Specialized Levo SL EBike Powermeter:

commuting to work (as long as the weather allows it)

I cycled to work for 35 years until my retirement four years ago. One hour to work, often longer back home. Here sometimes we have snow and even icy roads in winter, but that was no reason not to use the bike. Tires with studs and warm clothes and you do not have any problem. Health and fitness are the result.

pilleus

Here the collected power and cadence data of an ebike (Focus Raven2 9.8 with Fazua Ride 50), connected via BLE as power pod to the Suunto Vertical. On the Vertical I have a custom sport profile with two additional fields “cadence” and “power-10s-average”. So I can check both data and hold my power in a desired area. It is a ride up and down, the cadence and power is low on downhills and high on uphills. It was my rest day, therefore I wanted to limit the power to about 180 W. I didn’t check the power permanently, was pedaling more by feeling. But if it must be accurate, with the 10 second average on the Vertical and the live data it is no problem to stay in a desired area all the time.

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ChrisA

@pilleus great ! Thanks for posting

Vylli

@pilleus this is great. I will try it with my Bosch CX.

Still no e-bike mode on Vertical after the update

John Doe

@Vylli Don’t think Bosch will ever support that (external access to the torque and power metrics).

Vylli

@John-Doe Aah okay. That’s a shame.

pilleus

@Vylli

May be your system is able to connect to Cobi … https://www.bosch-ebike.com/us/products/cobibike-app

John Doe

@pilleus Cobi is quite outdated. In the Smart system, we have the flow app, which offers all the relevant metrics. However, it’s a completely different situation, and there’s a catch—the flow app tends to be quite taxing on the phone’s battery.