The End of Dumb Ebikes?

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]Are you riding a dumb ebike? This is a dumb ebike and these are dumb ebike controllers. This is pretty much what we've all been using with ebike kits since the existence of electric bike kits. Now, if you ever wanted to have something programmable and actually tunable, you would have to go and get a very expensive saboton far driver and many of the other brands. And most of them are a pain in the absolute butt.

[00:00:25]and they come with these ridiculous compport wires to plug into a prehistoric laptop.

[00:00:32]It's rubbish. Up till now, there's been absolutely nothing to bridge the gap between things like these old KT controllers and even the more modern sinewave ones that fit an ebike, but have the functions of the high-end programmable controllers. The problem is most of this stuff, even the smaller ones, don't fit and look good on a bicycle. This is a conversion that I done probably about 3 or 4 years ago, and it's got an old square wave controlling. It gets the job done, but you can't tweak anything, refine anything. You can't do any of the stuff that you could on something like this.

[00:01:12]So, we are saying goodbye to the old school dumb controllers. And we have something totally new on the market.

[00:01:19]These are the latest smart controllers from Kirby Bike. And these work with a Bluetooth dongle, exactly like the more expensive bulky controllers do. But the best thing is they don't look any different to a standard regular sinewave ebike controller. This is a 35 amp controller with the old sinewave technology. And this is the brand new 60 amp smart controller from Kirby Bike.

[00:01:48]This isn't even the full product line.

[00:01:50]Kirby Bike has sent me out a 60 amp, 80 amp, and 100 amp controller, but these start off at 45 amps. And all of them come with a USB cable and a nice little ride power Bluetooth dongle, which works on Android and Apple. And I can't wait to test these out on a bike and let you guys know what they are like. So, that is exactly what I've done. I've built a 72V 4,000 W ebike, and I've done these in the past, but this one's a little bit different.

[00:02:24]Now, on the outside, it looks no different. The controller looks like a normal eBike controller like they've always looked. However, this has got the Bluetooth dongle and smart feature capability, which means we can actually fine-tune this for whatever style of riding we want. Whether we want range, hardest acceleration, I'm presuming throttle curves. I've not even tried it yet. So, without any further ado, you guys are going to experience this for the first time with me on this freshly built smart bike or smart ebike. And we're just going to take it outside and run through the app and some of the settings and see what difference it actually makes cuz we should be able to dial this thing in to absolute perfection. No matter what your style of riding is, whether you want to get more battery range, have a less jolty start off. You might want to have a less jolty start off the line. There's lots of different things that different people want. And up till now, you haven't been able to do that. Right guys, just before we get on here, I've already done the self-learning on the build video of this bike, but I'm just going to very quickly run through it again because the manufacturer who makes this controller said it is very important to show you guys because it doesn't always come programmed to the motor wheel and when we built this bike originally, it went backwards. And he says it sets up most of it to be very usable straight off the bat. So, very quickly, you don't get these with a kit, but they're just great to put the bike upside down. So, we're just going to suspend the bike upside down. I'm just going to move the power button round so we can get to it.

[00:04:05]Be careful that you don't put it on the throttle and have the throttle pressed on. So, right, we're just going to quickly flip this upside down.

[00:04:15]Gives me This will give me a chance to show you guys the app for the first time. Got a rubber cap on there. You got the USB port I've left sticking out there.

[00:04:27]Okay.

[00:04:29]So, the bike should be on. Yep. See the displays on. Right. Here's the app.

[00:04:39]Me Bluetooth's off.

[00:04:42]Scan for devices.

[00:04:45]And just going to click on it. the one that is found. Right, we've got the main screen with 83.3 volts cuz I've already used the bike a little bit. Clicking on settings.

[00:05:00]Right, self-learning in the bottom right.

[00:05:03]Right, I would hold this down sturdy cuz it will jolt when the motor fires up.

[00:05:09]I'm going to confirm that in three, two, one.

[00:05:19]Watch the pedals and crank arms cuz I believe that was going backwards. Was it not?

[00:05:26]Yeah, I think that was going backwards.

[00:05:27]It says it's going the right way or it's completed. Let's just check that is it's going backwards. Let's do run the self learning again.

[00:05:42]There we go. some reason it seems to go either forwards or backwards. This is my first time using it, but if you have a problem with it going backwards.

[00:05:54]If you have a problem with it going backwards, run the self learning one more time. I'm new to this app and this controller now. We should be all good.

[00:06:04]There we go. Right. Don't do what I did in a previous setup of a controller and stand near these pedals cuz when the motor runs backwards, this will not freewheel and it'll smash into your leg.

[00:06:17]So, you could remove the pedals to make it a bit less dangerous, but just stand without the way of the pedals is what I'm saying.

[00:06:26]All right, it's saying Bluetooth disconnected. I don't know why. Let's connect again. Maybe it disconnects after selfarning.

[00:06:35]Right now, let's go into settings.

[00:06:39]And we have got which one's the important ones? Let's go through a couple of ones that would jump out straight away to me. Acceleration strength. That is on level three and you've got one to five. I feel like that needs to be fettled with.

[00:06:58]You can self set the pedal assist, but I don't know. Obviously, you're already getting the pedal assist levels on a normal bike. You just can't always adjust the amount of power it gives.

[00:07:10]Regen braking. Limit mode. No limit.

[00:07:15]Limit one, two, and three.

[00:07:19]Oh, you can export data down the bottom.

[00:07:21]Import data. You can download.

[00:07:24]Interesting.

[00:07:26]Right. So, what should we do? Should we try a level three that it's on there now and have a little have a little mess with the um acceleration strength?

[00:07:36]Also, pedal assist. I wonder if it works like normal pedal assist on a there's anything for adjusting the throttle curve or anything. I thought this had throttle curve in it, but acceleration strength is probably the main one because that's most likely going to be amps. So, let's try it as standard. Let me just come out of it and go back in and see if it's stuck on level one because a lot of controllers I have, you have to save the setting. No, it's stuck on level one. There's no save button.

[00:08:06]Right. Acceleration level one out of five. Throttle only. This is the slowest it will go. Well, the slowest acceleration setting.

[00:08:16]Obviously, we're in level five, but let's try that.

[00:08:25]Yeah, it's still it's still pretty damn quick to be fair. It's just got a bit that that initial bite isn't going to like jolt you all over the place. Right, this has turned out to be nothing quite like I expected. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's some interesting things that I've discovered about this. First thing was um you have to click download to save the settings which on most controllers I use normally you press save and download is for downloading that tune and that map. It's not quite the case on this. So first thing was we wasn't saving the settings.

[00:09:00]Second thing is let me just go into it.

[00:09:03]Right. So RI power app we're going to connect. So we connected yesterday all fine but I don't think we were saving the settings for number one. the same.

[00:09:12]There's some other bits I found out as well that are quite interesting. So, I'm going to go into settings.

[00:09:18]Now, the most interesting one look like acceleration strength. My thoughts were this will just give you a range of different amps from the controller and I've spoken to the manufacturer or the supplier and that is kind of true, but I think the biggest thing they've concentrated on is level five. Now to put this in context, the normal 60 amp 4 kilowatt controller this size without the smart settings throws out 170 phase amps and 60 continuous amps. Now with this, it's more like a base map. When you go to level five, it gives you 60 continuous amps and 210 phase amps.

[00:10:06]quite a bit more of a kick than a standard controller.

[00:10:11]And I think from level one to four, he said it's running 165 phase amps. I don't know whether that's a different throttle curve. So, what you're actually getting in acceleration strength is pre-made combos from the manufacturer of probably both battery amps, most certainly phase amps and throttle curve.

[00:10:32]So, I would look at acceleration strength field as base maps with level five being the most brutal and quicker than a standard 60 amp controller. So, we're going to leave it in that.

[00:10:48]Um, but interestingly, at the bottom of this screen, this limited mode, no limit one, two, and three, has some very interesting functions. I'm going to set it to limited two and explain those in a minute.

[00:11:03]Um, but now I'm just going to click download in the bottom left and confirm.

[00:11:10]Download successful.

[00:11:14]So, that doesn't mean it's doesn't mean it's downloaded to the phone. It means it's I guess uploaded it from the phone to the controller. And that should be it. It should be in highest power mode.

[00:11:26]And let me just check something.

[00:11:30]Right. All right, it should be in highest power mode, level five, actually locked this time. We're going to see if this thing's a little bit quicker than the standard 4 kW. WA!

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[00:12:40]Wow.

[00:12:44]Yeah, that is that is pretty darn quick.

[00:12:58]It's almost front wheel lifting without actually pulling it. That is a little bit more punchy. And that's going to come from level five boosting the standard 60 amp with 170 phase to 210 phase. And that will give you more punch and not ask much more of the battery. So that is awesome.

[00:13:18]But the other feature where I showed you the limit mode is where it gets interesting. If you come over here and look, I'm going to hold the plus button for two seconds. See what it shows on the screen.

[00:13:31]Two seconds holding it. Says 25 mph.

[00:13:34]What do you reckon that does?

[00:13:37]So, if you come and look at the speedo, I'm going to pick the back wheel up.

[00:13:43]Ah, there's no throttle at all. But depends which mode you're in. Let me just read this out. So the limit mode has got three modes. All of them limit limit it to 15 m an hour like 2 seconds on the fly. You can be rolling along and when you press the button again come over. When you press it again it unlocks it to normal whatever it is 60 mph whatever the limit is. So, let's just get up the instructions because this I find this quite interesting. This bit, this is where this Oh, let's come out the wind. Sick.

[00:14:24]So, three of the different modes do three different things with the throttle. One kills the throttle whatsoever. So, it just doesn't work.

[00:14:34]One gives you the full throttle and another one gives you I think it's four or six miles an hour throttle cut off in line with the law, which is quite interesting. And I'll just double check which is which. Right, default is limit mode free. So when you plug this in for the first time, it's in mode three.

[00:14:51]Limit mode one means you can long press the up button. Throttle and pedaling will be 25 kmh. So that will be kind of technically illegal on the road cuz it gives you 15 on the throttle. Limit two, all of them. This will make it easier.

[00:15:10]All the limit modes of 1, two, and three all limited to 15 mph pedal assist. But I think the only difference is the throttle, right? So the limit mode, which is really interesting, limited mode one means you can up press a button for 2 seconds. The throttle and the pedal assist will be limited to 15 mph.

[00:15:30]Limited mode two, which is what we was just in, long press the up button for 2 seconds. The throttle is invalid and the pedal assist would be 15 miles an hour.

[00:15:41]So that was the mode I was just in and hence why the throttle didn't work.

[00:15:46]Limit mode free means you can long press the up button and enter 250 W mode. The throttle speed is 6 kmh and the pedal assist will be 15. So limit mode free is by speed terms like the legal mode.

[00:16:05]So, we're going to quickly go into it if the bike's still on. Oh, I'm going into the uh going into the Far Drive app. Let me just Right, we're going back into the ride power app and we're going to try and put this and demonstrate this now.

[00:16:23]Um what it can do with the limiting mode.

[00:16:28]All right, so here we go. We're in which mode did I say it was limit free, wasn't it?

[00:16:34]So obviously you got the option there as well of no limit. So that'll be just full speed ped assist and throttle. So we're going to try limit free and press download to save it.

[00:16:49]Successful. Right. So it toggles between limited and not limited. All you got to do is press the up button for says two seconds.

[00:16:58]So I don't know if that's kilometers an hour or miles an hour. and it's just getting kh and miles per hour mixed up.

[00:17:06]I think it is the case.

[00:17:09]So even though it says 25 mph, that should be 25 kmh 15 mph. So if you ever needed to put it in road, if you needed to put this in legal mode on the fly, you should be able to pick the back wheel up and when police test it, they'll lift the back wheel up and it should cut out at 15. Even if it rolls quicker than that. Come and look at the speedo.

[00:17:37]Let's try putting it in full power mode.

[00:17:41]Wow. That's brutal. Look at that. In full.

[00:17:45]What? That That speedo's got to be not set right.

[00:17:53]Let's just double check we got the right wheel size in here before we do this. Um thought wheel size would be on the first screen.

[00:18:02]Obviously not.

[00:18:04]All right. 1801 I think is the code.

[00:18:09]Usually is on these right 20. Not quite right, is it? It's 20. Uh 29, isn't it?

[00:18:25]We just set it as 29. And it went far out. Speed limit.

[00:18:30]Maybe we'll go up a bit more than that.

[00:18:36]Don't know if it'll go up to that, but Right. Okay.

[00:18:42]I don't know whe to put this in miles an hour or KMH, whether that affects it.

[00:18:49]Right. Let's just try it again. Right.

[00:18:51]So, we're going to go along That seems a bit extreme, but right. So now we press the up button for 2 seconds.

[00:19:07]See 25 flash up.

[00:19:11]Oh, no. That is right, isn't it?

[00:19:16]I need to try it actually sitting on the bike.

[00:19:20]The throttle should work up to about what 4 miles an hour something like that in this mode. Showing five k 5 miles an hour.

[00:19:30]Showing seven, but I don't know if it's just rolling that extra 2 m an hour.

[00:19:35]It's really hard to tell whether you cuz this bike seems to freewheel nice. Once a motor cuts out, it tends to keep going.

[00:19:47]Five miles an hour.

[00:19:51]Right, that's full throttle. We seem to be getting about five or six miles an hour in limited mode three. And I haven't got pedal assist connected to this bike. But you can see that is about walking speed. That is full throttle.

[00:20:09]And then I hold the up button for two seconds. Flashes up 120 kph or something.

[00:20:16]Whoa.

[00:20:20]And you've got the full brutal level five 210 phase amps. And then you can just I'll do it on the fly. So this is full power.

[00:20:34]Yeah, that's pretty brutal. So I'll come down the road. You flag me down with your low like you're a policeman. I'm going to turn around on the way back.

[00:20:43]Just wave me down.

[00:20:50]Oh yeah, that's a leg.

[00:20:53]>> Oh yeah, of course it is, mate. It's uh walking speed. Look, full throttle.

[00:20:58]Totally in line with the law. Is that all right?

[00:21:00]>> Got pedal assist. And um we'll pretend it's got pedal assist. Can I be on my way then, officer?

[00:21:06]>> Yeah.

[00:21:07]>> Cool. Lers.

[00:21:14]This thing is definitely a bit more brutal than a standard 4 kW. What's up, officer?

[00:21:20]>> Is this legal?

[00:21:21]>> Of course it's legal. It's 250 W. I mean, you can twist the throttle if you want and see that it's walking speed.

[00:21:40]Oh, see that front wheel popping a bit.

[00:21:46]Yeah, this is definitely got a bit of grunt to uh get the front wheel popping off the floor.

[00:21:59]Yeah, it's good. Right. So, are these new controllers a smart controller? And are they better than the old dumb controllers? I would say they are. Even though they've not quite got the full pro the programmability, I really thought that these would be able to do all of the functions that the more custom controllers behind me can do. However, saying that, I still think they're pretty smart. It's like the manufacturer has taken probably the best base map up to level five of hard throttle response phase amps and combined it all for you.

[00:22:38]So, it's kind of more user friendly and having to test like in-depth throttle curves and different amp settings and not knowing whether your battery can handle it and stuff like that. So I think these have surprised me in the end by being more interesting than I expected them to be in different areas.

[00:22:59]So obviously with a full range of these, these will be going from 45 amps up to 100 amps. I think I've got I think I've got everything here apart from the uh 45.

[00:23:13]And I think there's some really interesting builds to be had, which let me know in the comments what you'd like to see me try out with these cuz I'm I'm completely new to this and you've seen all of my errors and things as it happens in this video. Going forwards, I'm going to be using these on more builds. And I think there's some interesting builds to make. One, something like a 2,000 W kit, which I think comes with a 40 amp, maybe 40 amp.

[00:23:43]I don't know if I've got one in the drawer. Got more Sabatons and things.

[00:23:48]Yeah, I'm not sure your bike's the old 2000 W on it. I've got a 2000 on my chopper. Anyway, it doesn't matter too much whether the standard 2000 W kit is 35 40 45 because if it's pushing higher phase amps, then it's going to potentially perform better anyway. And if they're tuning in throttle curves into the maps from level one to five, then this could be interesting to find out the figures of all the different range. I think it'd be good to get the figures out the manufacturer for all each individual model. Another interesting build is um I think I should do like a stealth legal build that's kind of a 250 W nominal hub but pushing more power and where you've got that stealth 15 mph mode for switching between onroad and off-road on the fly which isn't easily detectable if the police don't know about it. So bit of a gray area but I'd be fully willing to go down that route.

[00:24:56]Let me know if you'd like to see me, I know, upgrade a standard two or 3 kW kit or well 4 kW kits what we've just done.

[00:25:06]So let me know if you want to see those builds a stealth DIY kit moving forwards what you'd like to see or know more about these controllers cuz I'm completely new to it like you guys are.

[00:25:19]But I do think it's interesting. Are they smart controllers and less dumb than old controllers? I think 100% but just not in the way that I expected.

[00:25:28]Anyway, hope you enjoyed this video, guys. There'll be more builds coming up and I've got all these bad boys to test out on a future build. I will say though, I think with either the 80 or the 100 amp controllers. I don't think there's a battery in the Kirby bike range just yet that can power those.

[00:25:48]Although they are telling me they're looking into having a battery in the setup that can run the power of those.

[00:25:57]Potentially I could do a build with 100 amp on one of my own batteries. But let me know what you think in the comments.

[00:26:03]Hope you enjoyed this one guys and I will see you in a video again soon. Take it easy.