Motor Skills for the e-bike

Choosing a motor for the Rodriguez e-bike was no easy task.

In the turbulent world of e-bikes, it's hard to pin down just who's responsible for making sure your experience is a good one. New manufacturers are popping up every time you blink, and many go out of business shortly thereafter. Over the last several years, we've tried to work with several companies to supply systems for our electric assist bikes. We found that most of them will not stand behind their products or even respond to customer service issues. The one company we worked with who did stand behind their product with good customer service, went out of business. That's a pretty common theme in the e-bike world.

The question we had to answer was this: Who will stand behind your e-bike, motor or battery if one of them doesn't perform properly? For our customers, the answer is: we will. We learned that, just like a conventional bike, we are the ultimate service department for any motor system we put on a Rodriguez. This means we had to find a system that was reliable, effective, and easy to operate. We didn’t want anything less than that for our bikes or our eBike customers.

After using several different systems and suppliers, we believe we found one that meets our requirements. The TSDZ2 750 watt mid drive motor (we call it the TS750 for short). Tong Sheng has been making electric bike motors since 1998, making them one of the most experienced in the industry. The controller is very easy to use, and has big, easy to read display characters. It's reasonably priced, very powerful, easy to operate, proven reliable, and comes with an award winning torque sensing device that make's riding a Rodriguez eBike have the most natural cycling feel possible. It can take you up to the legal eBike speed limit very quickly.

We pair it with a powerful 48v battery. For step through models, the battery is mounted into a rear rack, and on traditional frame geometry, we mount it directly to the down tube where a water bottle would normally be.

This motor has also allowed us to keep one of the best aspects of Rodriguez eBikes: versatility. We attach the motor and battery system in a way that allows them to be removed and replaced with something else if necessary. Many eBike companies make it difficult or impossible to replace or swap components. Motors and batteries are custom shaped to fit into the frame, wiring connections are proprietary, and even batteries can be specific to just one model of bike. While these integrated systems might look clean, they prevent any other parts from being used and can be problematic for future repairs or upgrades. Parts availability can also be a problem if the company changes the design or ceases production (engineered obsolescence). I know personally of an eBike that is only 5 years old that is now obsolete because it needs a new custom fit battery and the bike manufacturer has gone out of business. With the Rodriguez design, the bike is compatible with any number of batteries and motors on the market today. In the future, if a better design becomes available, you will be able to easily upgrade.

For years now, our motto has been: "Why buy a bike when you can buy a whole bike shop?" We take that sentiment seriously and we mean it. In the era of the e-bike, this is more important than ever.