Cycling UK Forum

I’ve just bought a Pendleton Somerby electric bike and am really pleased with it. Quick query about charging. Should the light on the charger itself show green when it’s charging? I was told whilst charging it should be red.
I’m down to just under 80% and want to top it up but not sure if the charger is working properly ... the manual is rubbish and doesn’t explain much.

Almost all chargers show red while charging and turn green when charged. (don't leave on on green too long too often).

Some batteries have a switch which must be on to allow charging. With such a battery on off the charger would show green at once. I'm not sure if that applies to your bike though, but worth checking.

When the charger goes Green it usually indicates the battery is charged but may still be balancing and this is carried out using only about 50ma , there are lots of myths saying you shouldn't leave it but in reality the BMS will shut off the charge current so there is little chance of over charging. An hour or two won't hurt, one will do more harm by charging to full and not using it as you run the risk over time of causing internal cell resistance adding to earlier cell ageing decreasing the cycle life. Internal cell resistance leads to more voltage sag, decrease in capacity, less range and ultimately battery cut outs as a higher load is asked of it..

We have the eSomerby - I can confirm it is RED whilst charging and goes GREEN when charged.

I should have added that the eSomerby has a Speed controller rather than a torque controller - if you want to greatly improve the riding experience of the eSomerby, have a look at the pedelec posting about this.
https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/thread ... ost-572370

Speed controllers are quite awful you get about half the range from a battery then a bike that uses current control.
Any controller draws the max set current at low speeds then as you get nearer the cut off speed the current drops off.

A speed controller usually has three or 5 speed /assist levels, the current is the same in each assist level so max's out, each level though has a set speed so vary from 8mph graduating up to 15.5mph. The power isn't negotiable so you get the power surge/ gig shove in the back in all levels with no control over the acceleration.

A current /torque control controller is the opposite, they give max speed if you pedal hard enough in each assist level, but the big difference is the current available is graduated varying in how they are programmed. The KT models give approx. 13% current in PAS 1, 20% in PAS 2, 33% in PAS 3, 50% in PAS 4 and 100% in PAS 5 this gives a much smoother controlled ride.
Woosh programmes their Luishi controllers different and the range is approx. 40%, 50%, 60%, 80% & 100%.

Well described Hemo - on our Somerby the speeds were 1 - 6.5MPH, 2 - 11.5MPH and 3 - 15.5MPH

The speed controller arrangement made it nigh on impossible for the rider to hold a steady pace with another cyclist other than those three set speeds - such an abomination!

Just to clarify one detail of Hemo's excellent post.
Current controllers can be used with torque sensors or with cadence sensors.
Mentioning 'current /torque control controller' might have inadvertently confused some readers.

There are pros and cons of torque and cadence sensors depending how you ride;
there are no pros of speed controllers for a normal rider (other than price).