What You Must Know About Riding an EBike How Electric Bicycles Work

eBike

June 21, 2019

Hey, guys. Dustin here, CEO of Six Three Zero. Today I'm going to talk about how to ride an EBike or how to operate an EBike. Riding an EBike can be a super fun endeavor. It's very similar to riding a normal bicycle, but there are some elements that are different, some elements that are the same. It's important I think for anyone at home who's considered buying an EBike understands exactly how to ride an electric bicycle. So, we have our Every Journey 250 watt, pedal assist, full throttle EBike here. When I talk about EBikes, there are two ways EBikes can function. Number one, they can function as a pedal assist, meaning when you pedal, the motor kicks on and basically just gives you some assistance, or there's full throttle, which is like right here we have a throttle. If you trigger that with your thumb, it's just going to take off. You don't need to pedal at all. So, two ways that EBikes come about, two ways they can be ridden.

So, how to operate an EBike. Well, number one, you have a battery on the back here. So, in most cases on batteries ... The cool thing about EBikes is you can just pop this off. I can get this. There we go. There's a key you can take off your battery. The reason for that is because if you store your battery somewhere, you may want to charge it somewhere else. So, where you plus the charger in is on here. It's actually right up here. You can plug that anywhere you want. I'm sorry. I take that back. The charger hole is right here. So, you're going to charge it. You can charge it upstairs, leave your bike in the garage. Then you have a switch. So, in order for your bike to actually work most of the batteries are going to have a switch to turn them on and off. So, you're going to have to make sure you have that in the on position, and then you're going to want to make sure that the battery is flush here. There you go, and then lock that back on. So, that's your battery.
Now, there are two types of motors. In the case of Six Three Zero we use what's called a rear hub motor. You can see it's basically a big hub in the back. The motor is contained in there. It's pretty nice, because you can't even really tell that that's a motor. There are some other ones that have what's called a mid drive motor. Those are mounted right down here below the bottom bracket. Both are good for different reasons. I actually have another video talking about that. If you want to understand the mid drive and hub motors, that's on a separate video. We'll put a link to that in the description. So, that's it. You want to make sure that your battery's plugged in. The battery's fully in. Everything's turned on.
Now, on all EBikes you're going to have some kind of display here. You guys probably can't see, but I'll go ahead and just turn this on. Okay. Now, if it's on, what you're going to do is you're going to have ... If it's a full throttle bike ... Let's see if I can ... there we go. If it's a full throttle bike, what you're going to have on this screen, you're going to have a speedometer, and it's also going to tell you how much your battery is charged. Again, this screen can look different across all types of EBikes. Some are larger. Some are smaller. We went with a small one, because we really want to keep our bikes incognito. We want to keep it looking as much like a bicycle as possible, because we think the design is a little bit nicer. But you're going to have ... In our case you have a plus and a minus. So, there are two ways this works.
Basically, you have a setting one through five. The first setting gives you the least amount of power. The fifth setting gives you the most amount of power. If you're doing pedal assist, basically when you start pedaling, this motor will automatically kick in and start assisting you as you ride. If you have it on level one, it's going to give you the least amount of power. If you have it on level two, the most, up to five. So, if you're pedaling and this is turned on on your EBike, you're going to be getting assistance. Now, how do you operate, how do you ride it? It's really up to you. So, riding an EBike can be just like riding a normal bike, other than you're going to be getting help.
My suggestion is if you just want a little bit of help, stay in first or second, because if you crank this thing up the five, it's really going to be pushing you, and most likely the motor will be pushing you faster than your feet are pedaling. If you keep in about a one or a two, you're still producing a lot of the power. You're just getting assistance from the motor. So, it kind of depends on where you're riding, how long you're riding. If you want to get exercise still, just keep it in a one, and you're still going to be doing most of the work, but it's going to help you get up hills, allow you to go a little bit longer distances, things like that.
So, you can basically be adjusting that as you go too. You can take your thumb here and say. "I want a little but more power." Plus it up. Minus it down. Then the minute you stop pedaling, the motor will cut out. So, the other thing is that you can turn this off at any point. Actually, one more thing. If it's turned on, you can actually go down to zero. If you go down to zero, you can pedal the bike like a normal bike, but you can still get the benefits of using the speedometer here. So, there are two options. One, you could turn it off completely, which is a good idea if you're not going to use the motor, because it's gonna preserve the energy of the battery. But if you just decide for a little while, "Heck. I'll leave it on. I'm just going to move it to a zero," it's not going to give you any assistance, at which point you're just riding it like a normal bike.
So, riding an EBike, operating an EBike is very similar to riding a normal bike, other than you have this little piece of equipment here that's dictating the output of the motor. Now, the other piece is this little throttle here. Now, not all EBikes have this. This is a feature on our bike. Some have it, some don't. In this case this acts as a throttle. So, basically if you decide to use this, you don't have to really worry about the plus and minus on the screen. That only applies to if you're in the pedal assist. So, in this case you can just push this down a little bit, and the motor will start going, regardless of if you're pedaling. Actually, if you are pedaling, this won't work. The throttle will be shut off, because the motor will be responding to your pedal, not to the throttle.
So, if you're going to use the throttle, don't pedal at all. Just give it a little but of juice, and the bike will take off. Again, be careful, ease into it, and just make sure not to over accelerate on the throttle if you've never used a throttle before. You're just going to grip the handlebars like normal. If you want to use the throttle, just come here. Give it a little but of juice. Let off. Do whatever you want, things like that. One other thing too, and I have seen this happen on EBikes before, if you get onto an EBike, and your driving it, and all of a sudden you realize that the motor is just going, and you can't stop it, there are two things you can do. One, you can apply the brakes, and it'll stop the bike regardless.
Two, you can quickly turn off the controller. So, if you quickly turn off the controller, it'll cut the motor completely. I just say that for safety precautions. These are electric. There are things that can go wrong, but if you cut the motor, everything will stop, and everything will be fine. If the motor's going, let's say you click the throttle, and something gets stuck, and you notice you're still going, I would apply the brakes quickly and just fold down in our case it's the M button, but there's an on and off switch I'm sure on other peoples. Hold it down. Wait until that turns off. You'll be totally fine.
So, in summery, operating an EBike is very, very similar to operating a normal bike, especially pedal assist EBikes. It's almost the same, other than you just have to use this screen to determine how much power you want or don't want from the motor. But if you have any other questions, please reach out to us, TheTeam@SixThreeZero.com, or call us by phone, (310)982-2877. Please, check out our electric bikes. On the top navigation of our website there's an EBikes section, and you can also take a body fit quiz on our website, the top up there. Click it. It says the Body Fit Tool. It's going to help find the right bike for you. And we have a 365 day return policy. If you buy a bike, buy an EBike, and you don't love it, you can send it back within 365 days, no questions asked. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the ride.