Beach Cruiser Ebiker

[eBeachCruiser]

Hello everyone,
I live in central Europe but I am originally from west coast USA. I love my beach cruiser ebike and its one of the best things in life! I love just cruising using the thumb throttle and kicking back as a cruise along or standing up tall and getting the breeze on my face.
I have been riding my ebike for about 4 years. Before getting the beach cruiser ebike I had a local bike shop convert an older mountain bike I had with a mid drive pedal assist motor, but its only pedal assist without any throttle. So in all I have been riding ebikes for about 6 or 7 years.

I have a 48v 13ah battery and a bafang 500w hub motor. Top speed is 16mph which is fine. I ride up a mile long hill with grades of 12 percent. In those steep parts the bike slows down to a crawl. Will a 1000w hub motor with higher capacity battery make it up the hill way better, or do I need something like 1500w or bigger? I dont need much higher top speed than what I already have, but for my preference I want to stick with thumb throttle.(I mean I understand maybe a mid drive pedal assist would have the best torque for steep hills, but I am more interested in thumb throttle and not having to pedal up the hill, dont get me wrong I am athletic, in good shape and can pedal up the hill, but I have so much fun with just using the thumb throttle, so that is what I am looking to accomplish with my ebike, going up hills without much slow down.)

 

[eBeachCruiser]

Can the controller or computer of a 500w hub motor be tweaked(hacked) to output more power on a steep hill?

 

[HumanPerson]

Hey, Welcome to the forums!

 

[addertooth]

Often, this would involve entirely switching out the motor controller module. The Field Effect Transistors (FETs) in your existing controller were not engineered to deliver twice the current. The most likely outcome if you "tweaked it to TRY to produce 1KW of power", would be smoke.

Lower power Hub motors (such as 250 to 500 Watts), often have Nylon internal gears. They are not robust enough to have long-term reliability at higher power levels.

So, either consider a "fork truck upgrade" (swapping out battery, controller, and motor), or just buy a more powerful eBike (assuming your country allows you to import it).

 

[eBeachCruiser]

Often, this would involve entirely switching out the motor controller module. The Field Effect Transistors (FETs) in your existing controller were not engineered to deliver twice the current. The most likely outcome if you "tweaked it to TRY to produce 1KW of power", would be smoke.

Lower power Hub motors (such as 250 to 500 Watts), often have Nylon internal gears. They are not robust enough to have long-term reliability at higher power levels.

So, either consider a "fork truck upgrade" (swapping out battery, controller, and motor), or just buy a more powerful eBike (assuming your country allows you to import it).

Ahh, ok thank you! Good to know!