Firmware Update Ignites the Boost for the Fazua Ride 50

Many of you probably associate Fazua directly with the Ride 60, even though the drive system had a predecessor. The manufacturer has been present with the Fazua Evation since 2015. This is now officially called the Ride 50 Evation. More importantly, however: Ride 50 gets new firmware. And this raises the Ride 50 Evation, Ride 50 Trail and Ride 50 Street to an identical technical level.

In autumn 2021, Ride 50 replaced the system previously known solely as Evation. A single solution became a trio, with the Ride 50 Trail and Ride 50 Street specialists for use on e-mountainbikes and e-gravel bikes on the one hand and urban ebikes on the other. However, the latter two had advantages over the Ride 50 Evation. Fazua is now eliminating this inequality with the update. The manufacturer has summarised new firmware for the motor – version 2.50 – and for the control units – version 2.40 – under the abbreviation .029. It contains a large number of major and minor changes.

The extra kick for everyone

In this process, the Ride 50 Evation now also receives the boost function. Some of you may already be familiar with it from the Ride 50 Trail or Ride 50 Street. With its help, you can call up the maximum motor power of 350 watts for a few seconds at the touch of a button. The additional thrust allows you to master challenging passages where the last ounce has been missing until now.

To activate the boost, press and hold the upper button on the ebike’s control unit for about two seconds while riding. It doesn’t matter whether you have selected Breeze, River or Rocket as the riding mode. In Boost mode, the LEDs on the Remote rX, Remote fX or Remote bX flash in the colour of the current support level. Normally, the fun ends after exactly twelve seconds. However, the boost can be extended. To do this, press and hold the upper button on the control unit again to start another twelve-second interval. In theory, you can boost through the entire tour in this way. However, you probably won’t always have one hand free to press the button. In addition, this costs valuable watt hours.

Remote b, Remote bX, Remote fX and Remote rX control units for the Fazua Ride 50

The boost function can even be switched on from a standstill. However, the time span is then reduced to four seconds. The feature is nothing new for the Ride 50 Trail and Ride 50 Street. However, Fazua speaks of a more sensitive response behaviour and a more even distribution of the extra boost. In this respect, the experience would not be comparable with the past.

The boost function can be extended again and again during the ride.

Better synchronisation between man and machine

While the boost function increases the riding fun for a limited time, the next improvement affects the entire ride. According to Fazua, the torque sensor will react much faster to your pedalling in future. We are talking about a 75 per cent reduction in deceleration. This allows the ebike system to adapt its support more precisely to the power you apply to the pedals. This should be particularly noticeable when the pedalling effort changes, i.e. when you are riding more dynamically and sometimes invest more in order to then take it easy again. One small drawback is the higher energy consumption that can result.

More efficiency

Fittingly, innovation number three of the firmware update helps you to save battery power. The manufacturer has succeeded in drastically reducing the standby time of the Ride 50’s batteries. Previously, this was between eight hours and ten hours. Now it is between one hour and three hours. The standby time is crucial for the energy content of the batteries because the sensors remain active during this period and draw power from the energy storage unit even though the system is basically switched off.

The time you can expect for your ebike depends on the specification. Systems in which the battery can be switched on and off via the control unit thanks to the wake-up function will make do with around one hour. This applies to one of the following combinations:

• Battery: Battery 250X
• Control unit: Remote fX, Remote rX or Remote bX

The aforementioned three hours are required for the batteries without the wake-up function. With these, you remove the drive pack from the drive and activate the battery directly by pressing a button on the battery itself. However, this is only necessary for the older systems with the Battery 250 and the Remote b control unit.

Please note: The times mentioned only apply if the battery is in the drive pack and the drive pack is in the ebike.

Due to the now shorter standby time, you can actually use more of the battery’s energy for riding. This may also result in a longer range.

More light, please

The final change is likely to have less of an impact on your riding experience. This concerns the LEDs on the control units, which signal which riding mode you have currently selected and how the battery capacity is doing. With the help of a sensor, these LEDs react to the ambient light. Fazua has been able to increase both the brightness of the LEDs and the speed at which they adapt to the ambient light conditions. The difference should be particularly noticeable when you are out and about and the sun is shining brightly. The only exception is the Remote rX. Here, the thickness of the LED cover sets a certain limit to the brightness of the light.

The LEDs on the Fazua Remote b, Fazua Remote bX and Fazua Remote fX control units should shine brighter in future and therefore be easier to recognise.

Pictures: Porsche eBike Performance GmbH