Tong Sheng TSDZ2 Owner Survey

[bikes4two]

Intro

• A bit of a long-ish read, but bear with me if you will – this is all about dispelling urban myth in favour of more factual experiences.
• I am a TSDZ2 user (of around 5 months now and almost 3,000Km) as is my wife and two friends (and I installed all their kits).
• Prior to buying the TSDZ2 I read and watched a lot of comment on the motor and took careful note of the problems that people had had with it.
• Reports of overheating, blue gear failure, sprag clutch problems and axle breakages are numerous but of course forums rarely attract reports of ‘I’ve had a great day/year/experience’ but rather along the lines of ‘something is wrong/broken, how do I fix it’.
• Further, it is often not possible to deduce what type of usage a motor has had e.g. was it a lower powered 36v 250w version taken to the High Street a couple of times a week, or one of the higher powered options with a 52v battery powering along at 750w+ in sub tropical conditions, to say nothing of the rider weight, riding style and terrain.
• Anyway, at a price point of under £300 I didn’t expect precision engineering and in any case, most problems seemed to be fixable by a competent person plus a good level of availability of spares, and forums such as this and Youtube for guidance.

The Survey
My own TSDZ2 experience has been very positive but I am keen to hear of other’s direct (not here-say) experiences with this motor. So to kick off, here’s my input:
• I have had no problems with the motor and neither have the other 3 TSDZ2 users. I’ve done 2,900Km at the time of writing (May 2022) whilst the other users have done, 1,600Km, 1,000Km and 400Km respectively – so no great mileages here and during the winter months of 2021/22!
• I am the only one running Open Source Firmware (OSF) and I’ve only experienced one peculiarity with it in that occasionally the motor ‘drives itself’ i.e. the motor keeps turning without any crank rotation, albeit very slowly and with little power behind it. As I have not fitted ebrakes to my bike (or to any of the others), applying the brakes lightly is enough to stop bike movement and a power on/off resolves the issue. Interestingly, two of the other ‘fits’ occasionally experience the same thing and they are running stock firmware.
• Mechanicals – I like many others, experienced the cranks loosening. I resolved this by buying a torque wrench and properly tightening (as opposed to guessing) to 40Nm. I do re-check for tightness on all motor fixing points and the cranks around every 1000Km – sometimes a bit of tightening is required but not to a degree that you’d say something has coming loose.
• And a comment on chain wear as some owners have commented that mid-drive motors lead to excessive chain wear. After 2,900Km my KMC chain has of course some wear but well within acceptable tolerance and not requiring changing as yet. However, on the 1,600Km bike, I had to change the ‘no name’ chain at around 1,400Km and whilst our riding styles and terrain are similar, I generally use assist level ECO whilst my freind generally uses the next level up - draw your own conclusions!

NB. For chain wear I use a simple 2-wear level go/no-go gauge (0.7% and 1.0%) which from experience is as accurate as measurement with a steel rule and far more convenient.

Phantom Problems
• What are these you might ask? Well, these are problems that I may have initially thought were down to the motor but turned out not to be, e.g. the loose crank issue as mentioned above.
• Another one was the motor suddenly and randomly powering down. This took a while to resolve and it turned out to be a dodgy BMS in the bottle battery.
• And yet another one was an annoying creak that despite my prolonged efforts, persisted, until that was, I re-greased the headset bearings and peace reigned again.

Over to You
It would be really useful to know of other’s direct experiences with their TSDZ2 (or those of a friend to which they can testify to credible accuracy). So if you’ve had any problems, what were they, how were they resolved and most importantly, what motor spec, type of riding (style and terrain) was the motor used for.
And of course if you’ve had a positive experience, then please share that on here too.
Thanks for sharing and happy e-biking

[wicki]

Hi, cant belive the lack of response.

had mine two weeks its a tsdz2b stock firmware 36v 250w 20ah bat.

no problems (so far) exept loosening of all bolts, I think locktite is a must.

[rjb]

Have had ours on the Tandem now for 3 years. I'm using different cranks as I have a crossover drive fitted on the right side. Pulled the crank bolts up by hand and no issues with them loosening. On the tandem I don't need the brace as it's restrained from turning by the frame shape but was aware that bolts can come loose. Getting on for 10k miles now. Running with the settings supplied straight from the box. Only issue has been the battery needed a BMS reset after a few weeks of initial fitting. The motor sounded like a bag of nails so was taken back when the BMS reset cleared it. Not noticed excess chain wear. Very pleased with it.

[francovendee]

36V 250 W 18ah battery;
Overall very pleased. Great value and very grateful I chose a toque sensor system.
Under 1500 miles in 18 months, mostly country roads and fairly flat.
Range is very good and I mostly leave the setting at 2;
What is annoying is the lever of mechanical noise. Compared to other ebikes I've ridden it's very noisy.
A facebook group offered some suggestions to reduce it but none worked.

If the noise was less it would be perfect and I'd ride it more often.

[I_love_my_ebike]

250W 36v Tongsheng TSDZ2b
Hi all,
I've had an e-bike for 9 years or so with a Bosch power train, the bike is a Berig 1000. Trouble is that it weighs a ton, and since a back injury, I'm having problems lifting it onto the bike rack on my motor home.
In the UK we're limited to 250W, and the engine must cut out at speeds over 15.5mph. So all that reinforcing on the Berig frame is completely unnecessary for the road cycling that I do, as the bike will be exposed only to normal levels of strain and stress.
So last month I got a second hand bike in decent nick, and fitted the motor kit mentioned above.
Very nice it is, too.
It performs almost as well as the Bosch, but with a little more noise, and a bit less smoothly.
The gear graunching that I discovered came from the fact that the previous owner had a 7 gear cartridge at the back, and an 8 speed changer at the front!

Occasionally, if I am not careful with timing between my foot pressure and my gear change, I can get some mangling sounds from a gear change, but mostly gear changing is very smooth.

My opinion is based on only 200 [EDIT now 550] miles of cycling, but already the crank nut and the anti-rotation bolt have come loose. I noticed a small creak on putting pressure on the pedals and had a look to see what it was. As I say, both had loosened.
I did not measure the torque on either when I placed them, but I nearly died tightening the crank nut!
I put a bit of loctite on it when I last tightened it, and it hasn't moved at all since.
Loving the torque-driven drive train - it's very like the Bosch system - and the bike is miles lighter.
If I take the rather over-spec battery off, loading the bike onto the bike carrier is very simple now.
The interval between charges is about 120 miles, but I try not to use a lot of assistance if I can avoid it.
I had a post viral thing some years ago, and really struggled to get anywhere; now I can cycle quite a way, with confidence that I'll be able to get back!

My bike doesn't get heavy use, but over the 550 miles, I have had no further problems.

I also get the occasional instance low level motor pushing forward when I'm not moving (Stock hardware). This seems to involve a slightly pulsed pressure; it's never smooth. But when I've tried, I can reproduce it with tiny movements of the pedals when some weight is being applied.

Also, occasionally, on starting a trip, the assistance seems to be unusually poor, and on investigation, that happens when I put weight on the pedal before the boot sequence has finished. I have learned that it is a complete no no to apply pressure to the pedals before the bike is ready for it.
Switching off and on again solves the problem (sounds like Windows!)

I'm amazed how few replies have come through as well - There mush be thousands of users around.

[bikes4two]

.............................. but already the crank nut and the anti-rotation bolt have come loose. .............. I did not measure the torque on either when I placed them, but I nearly died tightening the crank nut!............................

The crank bolts need to be tightened to 40nm which is a lot. I origanlly guessed the torque and like you, the cranks loosened up so I got myself a torque wrench and was very suprised at how tight 40nm is and certainly more than I'd been applying.

The lock ring (that requires the special, supplied tool) needs to be tight too, again 40nm - many, including me, give the tool a few taps with a mallet for that extra bit of tightness.

The anti-rotation fixing that bolts around the chain stays is awkward to get to and I use a cut down allen key with a tommy bar on the end.

Loving the torque-driven drive train - just like the Bosch system - and the bike is miles lighter.

Yup, me too - this is the best feature for me and I'll put up with minor niggles in favour of getting torque assist at such an affordable price.