are torque limiters for real?

SusiesMopeds

Hi all, we run a moped/scooter rental business and we’re working on transitioning to fully electric vehicles. We bought 4 Ziggy (Yadea) G5 Pro scooters and we really love them. They’ve got two batteries and easily have the 60+ mile range we require for our route. However, due to the high torque of the electric motor, we can’t send these out with novice riders. Sending novice riders out on 50cc gas powered scooters is of course risky too, but the torque on these electrics is way too much for beginners. Do torque limiters/inhibitors actually exist? if so, is it possible to do this as a mod on an electric motor?

Thanks!

babblefish

I don’t know of a external torque limiter but some electronic speed controllers can be programed for soft start which basically limits the startup torque until a certain speed is reached. Perhaps your controllers are generic enough to have the firmware hacked to enable this feature.

Cattitude

I had a moped electric scooter which by law had to have a speed limiter to prevent it from going faster than 20 mph. I’m pretty sure that the speed was governed by the controller. Depending on which model of scooter you have, there’s probably a setting in the controller where you can set the maximum speed. You could check the manual or contact the manufacturer for details. I know that electric kick scooters have “P settings” which can be used to limit the speed, power and acceleration. I just got my first kick scooter and I’m still playing with the settings to slow the scooter down while I’m still practicing. With my moped style scooter I didn’t know how to access the advanced settings, and I didn’t feel the need to.

babblefish

I don’t think SusiesMopeds is asking about reducing the top speed of their scooters, rather how to reduce the startup torque which causes the scooter to lurch forward, sometimes very violently, especially in the hands of a novice rider. I had that issue with my 6000W ES19 scooter before I learned how to control it. I still have trouble reining it in on the higher power settings. Unfortunately for me, the manufacturer of my scooter disabled the P-setting for enabling slow start in the controller. Not sure why they did that considering how much power this thing has.

PaulN

I agree with Cattitude. I have my Mantis dialed up to level 5 acceleration in the P settings now but I left it at 3 on my Phantom because the keyed throttle is touchy (Known problem).
Even so on the Mantis, if you select single motor mode, “gear” one, non turbo mode, It has kids style acceleration, and it maxes out at 12kph. Very tame if you want it to be.
Maybe you can can select other setting combinations to reduce its power?