So, when I originally electrified my velomobile, I simply installed a Cyclone motor, a battery and a throttle. It worked but it was hardly legal, and that concerned me - especially considering the new, tougher law on overpowered e-bikes that recently went into effect in my country.
Then I thought: maybe there's a device that could limit the power *and* the maximum speed my bike can reach, without taking apart the motor or controller. Two minutes of googling and a couple emails to the manufacturer revealed that, yes, indeed the Cycle Analyst can do all that. Great! I ordered a CA, installed it, worked out the technical problems and hey presto, I had a legal bike.
But then I thought: the maximum speed regulation isn't very stable. I wish I could adjust the governor's parameters so it reached 25 kph and stayed there, instead of oscillating around the target speed. Well, the CA lets you do that! A couple of miles and a few adjustments later, the speed limiter worked perfectly.
Then I thought: my throttle isn't very progressive. I wonder if my CA could "widen" the throttle voltage band artificially. Why yes, yes it can do that. Slick!
Then I thought: maybe I can selectively disable the legal bull. Sure the CA does it too: enable a "legal" and "unlimited" preset, and with a couple of key presses, I can make my bike legal or illegal at will. Neat!
And then I thought: maybe I could set it so it's legal by default, and only switches to the illegal preset when I do it on purpose. Sure, you can set the CA to do that. Alright!
And then I thought: it'd be neat if I could have some hidden reed switch and a discreet magnet in front of it to select the illegal preset. See the fuzz? Rip off the magnet and it immediately switch back to the legal preset. Why, sure the CA can do that too! I installed a reed switch disguised as a filtering capacitor on the pot aux entry, visited the setup menu, and voila! Hidden legal/illegal switch.
And then I thought: what if, by some incredible stroke of bad luck, whoever inspects the bike to determine its legality (cop not very likely, but insurance expert more likely) visits the setup menu and realizes there are 2 presets that are externally selectable. This is starting to look very unlikely, but it's possible, right? So I wondered: would there be a way to hide the aux pot setup menu from the main setup menu, so that nobody knows it's possible to select a preset with that fake capacitor that's connected to the aux entry? Well guess what: sure the CA does that too!
Set up the way it is now, anybody who inspects my bike to determine whether there's anything fishy with the electric motor installation would have to be very familiar with the CA, and have a CA<->PC cable and setup utility installed. Short of willingly killing someone with my bike, I can't imagine anyone going to all that trouble to figure out the tricks involved to disable the legal preset.
How great is the CA hey? What a wondeful, cleverly-designed little device! Well worth the money if you ask me...
Then I thought: maybe there's a device that could limit the power *and* the maximum speed my bike can reach, without taking apart the motor or controller. Two minutes of googling and a couple emails to the manufacturer revealed that, yes, indeed the Cycle Analyst can do all that. Great! I ordered a CA, installed it, worked out the technical problems and hey presto, I had a legal bike.
But then I thought: the maximum speed regulation isn't very stable. I wish I could adjust the governor's parameters so it reached 25 kph and stayed there, instead of oscillating around the target speed. Well, the CA lets you do that! A couple of miles and a few adjustments later, the speed limiter worked perfectly.
Then I thought: my throttle isn't very progressive. I wonder if my CA could "widen" the throttle voltage band artificially. Why yes, yes it can do that. Slick!
Then I thought: maybe I can selectively disable the legal bull. Sure the CA does it too: enable a "legal" and "unlimited" preset, and with a couple of key presses, I can make my bike legal or illegal at will. Neat!
And then I thought: maybe I could set it so it's legal by default, and only switches to the illegal preset when I do it on purpose. Sure, you can set the CA to do that. Alright!
And then I thought: it'd be neat if I could have some hidden reed switch and a discreet magnet in front of it to select the illegal preset. See the fuzz? Rip off the magnet and it immediately switch back to the legal preset. Why, sure the CA can do that too! I installed a reed switch disguised as a filtering capacitor on the pot aux entry, visited the setup menu, and voila! Hidden legal/illegal switch.
And then I thought: what if, by some incredible stroke of bad luck, whoever inspects the bike to determine its legality (cop not very likely, but insurance expert more likely) visits the setup menu and realizes there are 2 presets that are externally selectable. This is starting to look very unlikely, but it's possible, right? So I wondered: would there be a way to hide the aux pot setup menu from the main setup menu, so that nobody knows it's possible to select a preset with that fake capacitor that's connected to the aux entry? Well guess what: sure the CA does that too!
Set up the way it is now, anybody who inspects my bike to determine whether there's anything fishy with the electric motor installation would have to be very familiar with the CA, and have a CA<->PC cable and setup utility installed. Short of willingly killing someone with my bike, I can't imagine anyone going to all that trouble to figure out the tricks involved to disable the legal preset.
How great is the CA hey? What a wondeful, cleverly-designed little device! Well worth the money if you ask me...