Ebike Range (Distance)

[PaulSB]

Health issues mean I cannot cycle at present. I may be able to convert to riding an ebike. I have this at 50/50 at present. I'm feeling rather low over the thought of not being able to cycle. I've decided researching ebikes may help overcome this.

I've checked thread titles back to September '18 but can't see anything specifically relating to battery range.

My understanding is battery range is around 85 miles. The terrain must influence this but I also wonder is this 85 miles of constant battery drive at 15mph or at a lower speed?

Are there particular brands or models with good range?

I should add I'm a good club rider capable of averaging 16-17mph over 80/85 miles. 64 years old.

 

[welsh dragon]

The range you can expect depends on rider weight, where you live, how much or how little you use the battery. Saying you can get a certain mileage is based on ideal conditions to be honest and in the real world are very difficult to attain. The size of the battery is also a factor.

@Pale Rider and others can be of more help to you Paul.

 

[derrick]

Health issues mean I cannot cycle at present. I may be able to convert to riding an ebike. I have this at 50/50 at present. I'm feeling rather low over the thought of not being able to cycle. I've decided researching ebikes may help overcome this.

I've checked thread titles back to September '18 but can't see anything specifically relating to battery range.

My understanding is battery range is around 85 miles. The terrain must influence this but I also wonder is this 85 miles of constant battery drive at 15mph or at a lower speed?

Are there particular brands or models with good range?

I should add I'm a good club rider capable of averaging 16-17mph over 80/85 miles. 64 years old.

A mate of mine has recently got one of these https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-endurance-sl-e/ He uses it for longer rides, but only uses the motor up hill on the way to where ever we are going, then when he gets tired on the way back, he has covered two 80 mile rides with it, not much battery left when he got home though.

 

[Pale Rider]

As the Dragon says, there are lots of variables.

In your favour is your good club rider fitness.

The route, particularly hills, has a big impact, also head winds.

Most legal ebikes will offer about the same range if all other conditions are the same.

The motor is off over 15.5mph, so if you are cycling above that speed the range would be infinite.

Roadie style ebikes tend to be more economical than flat bar hybrid style ebikes, even though the motors may be from the same maker.

Most batteries are 500 watt hour (wh) capacity, although some of the roadie ebikes have 250wh batteries - half the capacity, but also half the weight and size.

 

[classic33]

Enquired about trialling/demoing one from two local shops.

Sixty to eighty miles is what I was quoted for distance. The greater distance with using it only when needed, with the lowest setting used.

 

[ericmark]

With the Bosch crank motor on my wife's bike there are two options 300 Wh and 400 Wh she has the 400 Wh version, I am heavy 22 stone, normally using a standard bike Shotton to Bryn-y-baal (mothers house to my house) takes me 1 hour 20 minutes, with the ebike it took 45 minutes, I can cycle the incline but not sustain the rate on normal bike so have to take a rest. Electric bike showed I had used 25% of the charge over around 6 miles.

However I then rode to Chester around 14 miles and the gauge hardly moved, over 16 MPH they can't give any assistance, and going down hill was doing 35 MPH could not possibly peddle that fast just free wheeling.

From Shotton to the Wirral with my wife we did 25 mile return and she used around 40% of the available battery.

There are 4 levels of assistance Eco, Standard, Sports, and Boost, the Wirral run my wife was with me so not in any hurry as I was on a standard bike, where on the up hill ride I was pushing it as much as I could, wanted to see what it could do, return Bryn-y-baal to Shotton around 20 minutes.

On the flat following river Dee the motor allowed me to raise speed from 8 MPH to 12 to 14 MPH without draining the battery that much, but the uphill run normal around 3 MPH boost to 8 MPH did as one may expect use a lot of battery.

With the 400 Wh battery I would expect 50 miles round trip without running out of battery, although may use double up hill it is zero down hill, official range is more which if using Eco only then maybe you will get 80 miles, however I find peddling without being switched on is not much harder than with a non electric bike, so even if you do completely discharge battery it's not too bad.

 

[Neo2]

As others have said there are so many variables its very difficult to answer the question what is an ebikes range. I have two e-bikes, a e-mtb and a road e-bike. They both have a Bosch 500wh battery, but I get a much bigger range from the road bike than I do from the e-mtb for the following reasons. The e-mtb is a lot heavier, it has much higher rolling resistance with its off road tyres and it has a much more powerful motor (75 Nm compared to 50 Nm on the road bike). Doing the same 50 mile ride on each with around 2000 ft of climbing I will have about 20% battery left on the e-mtb and nearly 60% battery on the road bike.

I tend to ride a lot of the time above cut off speed, now its much easier to get above cut off on the road bike than on the e-mtb,, so that too helps to explain why I get much better range from the road bike than the e-mtb.

If you can still get somewhere near that 16-17 mph for 85 miles that you used to do lets say 14 to 15 mph, then you are going to have plenty of battery left after that ride.

 

[fossyant]

Crap, @PaulSB - is this a long term issue ? The main problem might be if you aren't allowed to push your heart too hard, as it's ruddy hilly oop where we live.

Ribble have a new set of e-road bikes coming out. Assistance is upto 15 MPH as with most. What do you need it to do ?

 

[PaulSB]

@fossyant in January I had subarrachnoid haemorrage - this is a bleed on the brain. I can tell everyone when you need the NHS by God they are there in time. Six minute blue light response!! I was fortunate to realise something was badly wrong and called for an ambulance while still able to.

Long story short I have made a full recovery though some final routine checks remain outstanding. I am very fortunate to still be a fully functional person.

The registrar told me two weeks ago easy cycling was OK - this 10-20 minutes on the flat. The outcome of remaining tests will determine where I go next. The aneurysm, weakness in the arterial wall, is precisely where the choroidal artery arises - without this artery there is, quote, "no human life" as the registrar cheerfuily informed me.

For the monent I'm off the road and it's made me feel extremely miserable.

One real possibility is an ebike and am therefore researching this so if the consultant says "yes" I'm ready to go! For the moment it's a question of sitting it out and mentally preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.

As for what I need it to do? If I get permission to ride or given a set of circumstances in which I can chose to ride I need to keep blood pressure low. Therefore I need to get up our Lancashire hills with assistance. At the same time I need to avoid a bike which is too heavy and creates an issue on the flat.

I told the registrar I had started cycling again averaging 42 miles, 14.5avg and 114 avg HR. That I thought pretty controlled - he didn't!!

Many thanks to everyone who has replied so far. It's a big help to me both practically and mentally.

 

[PaulSB]

No advice but best wishes.

Thank you

 

[Pale Rider]

@fossyant in January I had subarrachnoid haemorrage - this is a bleed on the brain. I can tell everyone when you need the NHS by God they are there in time. Six minute blue light response!! I was fortunate to realise something was badly wrong and called for an ambulance while still able to.

Long story short I have made a full recovery though some final routine checks remain outstanding. I am very fortunate to still be a fully functional person.

The registrar told me two weeks ago easy cycling was OK - this 10-20 minutes on the flat. The outcome of remaining tests will determine where I go next. The aneurysm, weakness in the arterial wall, is precisely where the choroidal artery arises - without this artery there is, quote, "no human life" as the registrar cheerfuily informed me.

For the monent I'm off the road and it's made me feel extremely miserable.

One real possibility is an ebike and am therefore researching this so if the consultant says "yes" I'm ready to go! For the moment it's a question of sitting it out and mentally preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.

As for what I need it to do? If I get permission to ride or given a set of circumstances in which I can chose to ride I need to keep blood pressure low. Therefore I need to get up our Lancashire hills with assistance. At the same time I need to avoid a bike which is too heavy and creates an issue on the flat.

I told the registrar I had started cycling again averaging 42 miles, 14.5avg and 114 avg HR. That I thought pretty controlled - he didn't!!

Many thanks to everyone who has replied so far. It's a big help to me both practically and mentally.

It would be a good idea to try a couple of ebikes to get an idea of the effort required.

Most legal ones offer about the same amount of grunt, although the lighter weight roadie style ebikes tend to have weaker motors.

Whatever you buy, the really steep stuff will still require a fair bit of effort from you.

 

[Zanelad]

I can only vouch for my ebike, a Giant Fastroad e+1. It's a flat bar version with a 500wh battery. Using levels 2 and 3 out of 5, with the odd burst of 5 for the steeper hills, i get a little under 100 miles from a charge. When going at 17mph, my average speed, according to the computer, the battery drain is very small, but not zero. If you select the higher levels for any length of time the range drops quickly. If you opted for maximum assist all the time I'd be lucky to see more than about 55 miles. It does make it easy to get up to speed though. Once there, you dont really notice the motor cutting out. It's the sudden quietness that's the biggest giveaway. On the way home yesterday, into a stiffish headwind (using maximum assistance) I tried to keep my speed at 16mph, when I can feel the assistance cutting in. That takes concentration. I reckon by doing so, i used close to 20% of the battery as opposed to 12% on the usual setting for the journey.

 

[CXRAndy]

@fossyant in January I had subarrachnoid haemorrage - this is a bleed on the brain. I can tell everyone when you need the NHS by God they are there in time. Six minute blue light response!! I was fortunate to realise something was badly wrong and called for an ambulance while still able to.

Long story short I have made a full recovery though some final routine checks remain outstanding. I am very fortunate to still be a fully functional person.

The registrar told me two weeks ago easy cycling was OK - this 10-20 minutes on the flat. The outcome of remaining tests will determine where I go next. The aneurysm, weakness in the arterial wall, is precisely where the choroidal artery arises - without this artery there is, quote, "no human life" as the registrar cheerfuily informed me.

For the monent I'm off the road and it's made me feel extremely miserable.

One real possibility is an ebike and am therefore researching this so if the consultant says "yes" I'm ready to go! For the moment it's a question of sitting it out and mentally preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.

As for what I need it to do? If I get permission to ride or given a set of circumstances in which I can chose to ride I need to keep blood pressure low. Therefore I need to get up our Lancashire hills with assistance. At the same time I need to avoid a bike which is too heavy and creates an issue on the flat.

I told the registrar I had started cycling again averaging 42 miles, 14.5avg and 114 avg HR. That I thought pretty controlled - he didn't!!

Many thanks to everyone who has replied so far. It's a big help to me both practically and mentally.

There was another guy on CC who I think had a brain bleed. He gave up cycling for a couple of years whilst letting his symptoms settle. He has started cycling keeping his HR below a certain figure. I think he is toying with the idea of an ebike for the future.

My Genesis Day One SS by the looks of it, is an ideal base to fit a Bafang conversion. Im going to get 750/1000W version with assist upto 22mph. If its successful I will convert my wifes bike to the same so she can join me on longer rides touring rides.