kids bike: minimal assist lightweight pedelec option?

I want my kid to be able to go on longer rides with me but still have enough energy left at the end of the ride so that she will still be having fun.

I think what I'm looking for is:

A.) something tunable to less than 100w, maybe with 200w available later as she grows.
B.) No throttle. Needs to have a pedelec at least as good as the 36 pole bafang with the bbshd controller (not awesome, but tunable to i.) give a near instant throttle cut when pedaling stops, ii.) give some taper on when pedaling starts and iii.) ability to taper off assist at higher cadence.
C.) as light weight as possible.


I put her on a fat bike with a BBSHD (default programming) to try out the concept. This was the only bike available small enough to accommodate her.

Issues:

1.) The bike is so heavy she can't lift it if she falls and the weight negatively affects handling.

2.) Assist level one (100W input power?) is a tiny bit too much assist at this time. If I monkeyed with the programming, I could make it better, but this is clearly not the right setup anyway.

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=110887&p=1625482#p1625482

motomech said:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=110887&p=1625482#p1625482

Click to expand...

Thank you. I did see that. I wasn't sure whether to add on there or make my own topic. This is a bit different in that the control needs to work for off road, not just neighborhood use. I guess I should have added either tiny mid drive, or cassette freehub and disc brake, as well (I'm not a fan of the off road handling of front driving.)

I guess I'll update this, in case anyone else comes along who is interested.

I did a trial with a 20" wheeled "adult sized" ebike (long chainstays, long seatpost.) The bike has a 350w 48v hub motor with 6 assist settings. With it set to setting 0, assist is so vigorous from a stop that it is terrifying for the kid. Holding the brake lever slightly to kill the motor until the bike is pedaled up to a little higher speed made it ridable. It provided so much assist that there was no exercise. 18 miles on a dirt bike path took the 480w battery from 49.2v to 48.7v.

Too expensive for what you receive, but you might take a look at the Leeds 24V kit and duplicate. Weight with 5.2 ah battery < 10 pounds AFAICT, and can be built into any feasible sized wheel.

https://bmsbattery.com/ebike/568-16163-q75-36v200w-front-v-brake-e-bike-kit-with-lcd-display-ebike-kit.html

The hub motor weighs only 1.2kg.

If the kit won't run without the throttle plugged in (like some I've set up), then tuck the throttle into the battery bag.

Alternately, you could get the hub or wheel by itself, and set up a controller whose programming works just the way you want.