I am confused about range on electric bikes and is it honest?

[Pale Rider]

I enjoyed playing with this to see what kind of range you can expect under varied conditions.

https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/service/range-assistant/

I know you can't be arsed to read the thread.

Understandable - after all, it does run to as many as three pages.

But it was only on the previous page where I linked to the range assistant.

 

[Drago]

My Cube Agree Hybrid runs the Fazua system. In standard form with, bottle cages, Cycliq lights front and back, Garmin Radar and head unit (1030), in size 56cm it weighed 15kg (checked when flying back from Spain). I have a recollection of it having a saddle bag on there as well, but I can't be sure.

Mine assists up to 25khm/15mph at which point there is a soft-ish cut off. It's not instant gone, at least to me, it's more of a roll off, all be it quite quickly over 2 to 3 seconds. The reverse happens when you fall below the limit. Although heavy by today's standards with regards to road bikes it does not feel dull without the assist running on 32mm tyres.

I currently weigh in at a small, for me, about 125kg (slowly getting smaller). Over the weight limit for the bike and wheels no doubt . But this is to show you how the bike runs for me.

I did a 75km ride with just shy of 1000m of climbing and arrived home with 40% battery. I try to only use the motor on hills I can't ride up. On the flat and upto about 6% I rarely use the assistance. I can carry a speed of >25kmh/15mph for a fair way on the flatter roads but once it starts to go up, even only 2%, that speed drops off. I can't recall exactly how much I used the motor but I only really had maybe 5-10km of road with sections higher than 6% and I only used the lowest power level I could get away with assist.

I want to get fitter and lose weight, it seems to be working , I set a PR on a 2km hill at the start of my ride without assist (the previous best was with assist ). So generally the way I use the motor is no assist for as long as I can get away with, then the lowest level I can get away with, . It doesn't make me much quicker, but it does mean I can ride for longer.

Whatever system you go for find the way it works best for you and make the most use of it, Oh and enjoy the zip along feeling

All well and good, but if, as you say, you only use the motor on the hills then large portions of your mileage will be without the motor, which makes the quoted mileage a bit questionable.

If I only use the motor on the hills i can get 200+ miles out of mine, but in no way does that means it has 200+ miles of assisted range. That'd be like claiming your torch has this wonderful battery that lasts 10 years because you never use it.

 

[CXRAndy]

I reckon the recalculated range from lowering power assist is a good feature. Or its a seat of the pants guess from experience.

My wife's bike doesn't have sufficient mileage to conclusively say what its definite range is. When we first got it setup, I fully charged the battery and she got to 90 miles before getting to dangerous level battery levels, so estimated 110 miles but we did baby the assist to see how far it would go.

This summer gone she got 46 miles from 85% charge on a total flat ride. She used assist all the time and gradually increased more assist as the ride extended. The battery went into shutdown 500 yds from home. I must admit my wife rode shotgun into lots of headwind, her bike could hold the speed. I only took over later on when she began to tire herself.

 

[Pale Rider]

All well and good, but if, as you say, you only use the motor on the hills then large portions of your mileage will be without the motor, which makes the quoted mileage a bit questionable.

If I only use the motor on the hills i can get 200+ miles out of mine, but in no way does that means it has 200+ miles of assisted range. That'd be like claiming your torch has this wonderful battery that lasts 10 years because you never use it.

Quite so.

People use their bikes as they like, which is fine.

But range quotes with the motor switched off part of the time are largely meaningless, and could mislead someone new to ebikes.

 

[Drago]

Ive been playing a new game - keep the assist switched on, but try and keep pedalling fast enough that it doesnt dip below 15.5MPH so the motor doesn't engage. Serious improvements to my fitness, its good fun, and the 'range' im managing is impressive.

 

[RichardB]

Ive been playing a new game - keep the assist switched on, but try and keep pedalling fast enough that it doesnt dip below 15.5MPH so the motor doesn't engage. Serious improvements to my fitness, its good fun, and the 'range' im managing is impressive.

It's a good game, one I played for 80% of the journey when I was commuting (the other 20% were hills where I needed all the help I could get). Basically, use the battery to get up to cruising altitude, and then pedal like **** to stop the motor kicking in. As you say, it gives you a good workout.

 

[Phil Fouracre]

Yup! It’s a great game, and, definitely trashes the ‘ebiking is no good for fitness’ argument :-)

 

[gzoom]

If you put the effort in eBikes make you just as hard as normal bike, and in some cases you end up working harder even when going up a hill!!


View: https://youtu.be/fBof7BL-mQQ

 

[ColinJ]

If you put the effort in eBikes make you just as hard as normal bike, and in some cases you end up working harder even when going up a hill!!

In the example in the video, that is because they chose an easy hill! I have seen enough ebikers on enough really hard hills (long, 20+%) to know that a motor can give a huge amount of help.

 

[Nebulous]

My wife has a cheapish Ebco front hub bike with a 320 wh battery. She has arthritis and couldn't do hills at all before we got the bike. Upper limit was about 36 miles. We did a ride around freezing one day and ran out at about 20 miles. I had to cycle back for the car and collect her. That left us with a real range anxiety, so we bought a spare 400wh battery. That is as much as we need, we've developed a slick method of changing the battery when needed and can manage 40-50 miles in any conditions with both of them.

It has made a huge difference to her. Before she got the bike she could only do flat rides - canal footpaths, old railway lines etc. Now she'll try a hilly loop, and can hold on quite well on the hills. The 15.5 mph is a bit limiting. It would be helpful if that could be increased to 20.

 

[Stul]

..the problem with increasing the speed limit of the motor up to 20 mph is that it would hammer the battery even more so your range would be reduced...probably quite significantly....

 

[Drago]

In the example in the video, that is because they chose an easy hill! I have seen enough ebikers on enough really hard hills (long, 20+%) to know that a motor can give a huge amount of help.

I'm 19 stone and a completely legal ebike makes a biiggg difference on a good solid hill. A normal mortal some 5 or 6 stones lighter will haze zero problems if I don't.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm 19 stone and a completely legal ebike makes a biiggg difference on a good solid hill. A normal mortal some 5 or 6 stones lighter will haze zero problems if I don't.

I can't remember how fast the young woman said that she was going up the hill, but it was pretty much at the speed that the motor would be cutting out, in which case you just have a heavier bike! Only top pro-cyclists can go up 'proper' hills at 25 km/hr, and even then not on the steeper stuff.

 

[RichardB]

I can't remember how fast the young woman said that she was going up the hill, but it was pretty much at the speed that the motor would be cutting out, in which case you just have a heavier bike! Only top pro-cyclists can go up 'proper' hills at 25 km/hr, and even then not on the steeper stuff.

Mine will do nowhere near its top speed up a hill (25 kph). I reckon that on hills where I can climb at 4-5 mph on a normal bike, the ebike will climb at 8-9 mph with the same effort from me. It's a big boost, obviously, but it's nothing like having a motor climbing all the hills for you.

 

[ColinJ]

Mine will do nowhere near its top speed up a hill (25 kph). I reckon that on hills where I can climb at 4-5 mph on a normal bike, the ebike will climb at 8-9 mph with the same effort from me. It's a big boost, obviously, but it's nothing like having a motor climbing all the hills for you.

That's what I was thinking... Having super-fit young riders hurtling up a modest climb is not a good test for an ebike. A much more realistic test would be to get a typical moderately fit middle-aged or elderly person riding more slowly up a steep climb!