Lee Hill
Electric bikes have their risks and problems. While driving an electric bike over speeding can be a risky affair. Moving faster on the road can be hazardous for anyone on the road may it be the rider or pedestrians.
About 3,075 injuries related to e-bikes out of the 245 million reported injuries during the recent research study period. To prevent such injuries from happening Electric bikes come with a speed limiter.
A limiter restricts your speed and keeps it in a safe and controlled range. Sometimes you may feel the urge or need to remove the speed limiter and test the full potential of your electric bike. This article will run you through the whole process and make it very simple for you to get rid of the device.
What Is A Speed Limiter On An E-bike?
A speed limiter is a unique device installed on electric bikes. This speed limiter does not allow the bike to go faster than the allowed or the permissible speed.
For example if the speed limit in the US is around 20mph and on the other hand in Europe it is 15 mph. These limiters are installed in the bikes by manufacturers. This is done to make all the e-bikes street legal and abide by the laws.
The American govt. legalizes only those electric bikes which don’t go over 20 mph. And as soon you reach this limit, the device turns off the engine.
However, you can run an electric bike at the desired speed on personal property or during mountain or off-road driving.
Process Of Removing A Speed Limiter From An E-bike
The method to remove the speed limiter from an electric bike is also popular as “Derestricting the bike.” You can derestrict your bike in mainly two ways, the by-hand method, and the second is using special e-bike tools.
Both methods are relatively simple and easy to execute. However, be ready to Derestrict, which we will discuss later.
The By-hand method
This method of Derestriction will only work if your electric bike allows it to work. The main objective of this method is to disturb the speed detectors in the bike. The device’s speed sensor will detect your speed and immediately turns off the bike to offer zero assistance.
It then transfers this information to the central controller of the bike. The central controller uses this information to decide the amount of assistance it should provide to the bike.
Similarly, when the bike reaches its speed limit, this controller shuts down the motor and provides zero assistance.
You need to change and modify the data reaching these sensors. These sensors use two parameters to detect the bike’s speed, one is the magnet at the rear wheel and the second is the frame’s base sensors.
If you remove the magnet from the rear wheel, the sensor will receive very low signals, which will not at all trigger the restriction of the speed.
In this method, the entire electric circuit need not be disassembled. You can as per your choice place the magnet somewhere else. Placing the magnet away from the wheel will increase the distance between the sensor and the magnet.
Due to this extra distance, very few signals will reach the magnet. This increased distance will prevent activating the speed limiter as the signals will not be able to reach the device.
Using E-bike tools
This method is a bit different than the previous. This method requires a special e-bike tool kit. This tool kit is specially built for people fed up with the 20 miles per hour speed limit restriction. Mainly two types of kits are available for removing the bike’s speed limiter. The first one requires the disassembly of the bike’s circuits. The other one, however, does not have any such requirement.
You can follow the instructions in these tool kits to remove the electric bike’s speed limiter. These kits come with detailed instructions that will teach you how to remove the speed limiter without compromising the internal electric circuit.
Dangers And Risks Of Removing The Speed Limiter From An E-bike
The significant risk of removing a speed limiter or controller from the electric bike is the extra speed you get while riding. Moving at high speed can be dangerous as you are more likely to hurt yourself. You may lose your balance, and injure yourself when moving at a faster pace.
For instance, a bike moving at a speed of 30 miles per hour will cause more four times more damage than a bike moving at 15 mph. Similarly, a bike moving at 60 miles per hour will cause 16 times the damage. Moving at a faster speed increases the risk and injury factors exponentially.
Another significant impact of moving at a fast speed is the limit on the braking distance. If you fail to correctly compute or analyze the ideal braking distance, it may lead to major injuries.
The original brakes installed are carefully placed and properly adjusted to handle speed within the range. They may stop working or be wasteful when moving at a faster speed. Removing the speed limiter from the bike will not increase its power.
It will only remove the restriction applied on your bike. It will be further allowing it to operate at a higher speed. The speed of your electric bike depends upon its built.
Every year there are plenty of reported injuries and accidents which are related to an electric bike. Mostly the patient is the person riding the bike, and in some cases, it’s the people walking on the streets or pathways. The primary reason for these accidents or crashes is the speed of an electric bike.
Conclusion
The process of getting rid of a speed limiter is easy. However, removing the speed limiter is not a safe thing to do.
You will not only put yourself at risk but also people around you. Hence, it’s better to know about the laws relating to the speed of the electric bikes in your area and only then think about removing it or not.
