Weak leg on ebike

[PAB855]

If a rider had a weak leg and a strong leg, would an ebike with sensors which responded to pedal pressure, give a smooth ride or a lumpy ride?

[thatsnotmyname]

Depends on the bike, how pedal input is detected and how much of an imbalance you actually have. Most people have a left/right imbalance of some sort. Few, if any people have a perfect 50/50.

[PAB855]

There could be quite a significant difference as a result of MS . Riding a bike without e assist is limited to short distances on fairly flat routes. If overambitious, the left leg is simply being rotated by the action of the right leg. In other words at the beginning of a run, there's little difference, but depending on distance, the difference increases.

[foxyrider]

My left leg is significantly less strong than my right for various reasons (It probably has about 50% of the strength of the good leg, seems its the one that gets all the bad Karma, DVT, broken Patellap and i seem to land on ot every time i come a cropper!), i don't generally but when tired i have a distinct limp. Most of the time on the bike you wouldn't know but sometimes it makes itself felt climbing or even just setting off on any kind of up gradient. Despite this i have a pretty smooth pedaling action 99% of the time, adding E to the equation would and does, make no difference to that, if anything E will, if you let it, give your strong leg some respite.

All that said, i will put off purchasing my own E assist machine for as long as i can, there's nothing wrong with my heart and lungs at present, the fact that the Doctors were all for registering me disabled over 30 years ago seems a bit silly - in all honesty i couldn't take that route as i've never voluntarily had more than a a couple of weeks since when i haven't been riding.

[offroader]

I don't know this for a fact but I would imagine that an averaging function is applied in the more expensive torque sensing systems.
Motors prefer constant drive but pedal input is far from smooth. If I was designing the system I would certainly average over a 360 crank rotation. Probably dealer switchable to a 180 revolution for unileggers

Anecdotal evidence from a few videos suggests that motor power engagement is not instant and I've heard reference to using the brief motor input after you stop pedalling. Both these lead me to believe averaging is in operation as there's no other reason why motor output wouldn't mirror pedal input.

I would certainly discuss it with a dealer if it affected me

[skelo]

I have an imbalance of roughly 90-10 right to left leg, done about 5000 miles to date on e-trike with a bottom bracket torque sensor. haven't noticed any imbalance Other than my own). it may be different on two wheels.

[PAB855]

All very encouraging comments, thanks everyone