We now have around 1400 miles on the 750 watt BBS02. It is installed on the captain's crank position on our Organic Engines Troika tandem trike. With the massive tandem, our gear, water bottles, motor, two riders and 48v 20ah battery, we are probably pushing about 450 pounds down the road. I have a 38 tooth chain ring on the motor going back to a 42 tooth on the stoker's crank for a small reduction in stoker's cadence and gearing. We typically ride around 16-17 mph. The max speed with the low gearing combined with the 20" rear wheel is around 23 mph. We mainly ride rail trails but occasionally ride on the road. I have had to do almost nothing to the BBS02 other than initial setup and getting the mounting bolts properly torqued to prevent the unit rotating in the BB shell. That happened early on and was never a problem afterwards. We frequently ride 40 miles on a charge and could easily get 45 miles if needed. We normally start out the ride in PAS level 3 (of 9) and I change over to level 4 during the 2nd half of the ride to maintain our average speed. It took a little while to get used to shifting. With an single bike it was easy but with the tandem I had to figure out a way to shift without a lot of clunking and clattering. The first thing I tried was just a light touch of the brake handle, kind of like using a clutch. That worked fine but I didn't like the delay in power. I found that a little throttle kicked off the PAS just enough to get a shift done before power kicked back in and that is what I do now. When I have used the mid-drive on my single bikes it really doesn't need the delay for smooth shifting. Over all I would say I am very pleased with the performance of the BBS02. It has all the power we need and all the range I had hoped for. We can climb hills without fear and cruise fast enough to ride with friends on road bikes. Despite stories of poor reliability, we have had no issues.
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1400 miles with a BBS02 on a tandem recumbent trike
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