Power surge problems

[alimck]

I'm a 67-year-old female with newly-arthritic knees. I've been riding a flat-bar hybrid on the road, with occasional off-road sorties on a heavier trail bike. I recently bought an electric offroad/hybrid bike. I test-rode several at the NEC Cycle Show. On my bike's first outing the four power surges worked fine (Eco, Tour, EMTB, Turbo). On subsequent rides I'm finding there's no apparent power-surge from Tour to EMTB. The shop where I ordered it say this is because I need to pedal harder to get the EMTB power surge -- but on all the bikes I tested I did not have to do this, nor on mine the first time out, and anyway, I got this bike specifically so that I would not have to pedal harder!! The shop plugged it into their computer but say it is fine. Any ideas or advice?

[Vetus Ossa]

I have an ebike that has four power modes like yours, so guess it has a Bosch motor.
When I took it in for its first service it came back with updated software, the third mode had changed from what was called sport to EMTB. Nobody mentioned this when I picked the bike up and to be honest I thought they had just changed the name of the mode.
I did some internet searching and discovered that it varies the assist from tour to turbo, depending on as you say how much pressure you put on the pedals.
I am myself 70 and bought the ebike due to poor health and not being able to ride my road bikes anymore. I am not capable of pressing hard on the pedals even if I wanted to, but I have found in EMTB mode I don’t have to, it just changes the assist without having to keep switching between tour, sport and turbo modes when I have to. The pedal pressure required to change mode I have found unnoticeable in EMTB mode to be honest, and use it now if I don’t intend to cover more than 40 miles or so as it will obviously drain the battery quicker.
Persevere with it, I’m sure you will come to love it as I have.

[alimck]

That's interesting, thanks! I've just recharged the battery and now it gives me extra assist on EMTB when I switch to it WITHOUT me having to pedal harder to get it. This is how it behaved when I first had it, so I wonder if the full battery helps? It shouldn't be the case though.
Until I recharged it, no matter how hard I pedalled (like you, not easy) I didn't seem to get the assist although the man in the shop tried riding it and was telling me harder pedalling was the answer. You seem to be saying that if you keep it on EMTB it will switch up and down by itself so I'll try that.

[Vetus Ossa]

alimck

This is probably worth reading, it's where I got my info from and it explains it far better than I can.

http://ebike-mtb.com/en/emtb-mode-bosch-cx-review/