Distance Per Battery Charge!

[TomAllyn]

Yesterday, I took the bike out and really road it for the first time. Man, do I love that BBSHD it has power to spare even a 240lbs rider. I was very surprised, assuming I'm reading the Luna Full Color Display correctly, that after riding 14 miles I almost still had a full charge on the 52v 14a shark pack. My average speed was 8 mph my max speed was 31 mph which by the way was plenty fast for me. I made a lot of stops during the ride as I was riding on city surface streets with a lot of lights and stop signs. When riding I kept my speed around 20 mph most of the time.

I road for approximately 1.5 hours. Does having nearly a full charge on a 52v 14a battery make sense after riding 14 miles?

[Louis]

I don't trust the display. I get much more accurate numbers using a multimeter, or BattMan.

[Louis]

BUT the BBSHD can be a sipper, not a gulper, and very efficient.

[TomAllyn]

I just road an 18 mile round trip from my house to Old Sacramento and back and still had battery when I arrived home. Holy cow I'll be able to easily ride commute to work and back home. Especially if I charge my battery at work. I'm going to ride to work tomorrow for the first time. I'm very excited!

[Project240]

I have the exact same battery as you and weigh a couple lbs more than you... I always pedal moderately hard and have been getting about 120kms/charge (that is usually with 10-15% battery life remaining)

[marjamar]

Andy and I went on a paved bike path shortly after completing our builds. We both have the BBSHD mid drive and 13.5 ah Shark Pack. I have the Shimano Alfine 8 IGH and Andy has a Shimano Deore, 27 speed. The trail had some smaller grades, but most was pretty flat. Lots of tight turns (fun) and smooth concrete. It was about 22 miles one way from end to end. We rode non-stop there, had lunch and then back. Andy had a pinch flat on his rear tire and then went flat again after about an hour as the patch would not hold the larger cut in the tube. So, trip back had a couple of 15 minute pauses. The battery indicator graphic is all wrong, but the volts should be right. We finished with around 46-47 standing volts and about 45 or so under power. That's a 44 mile trip and we rode with an average of around 17 MPH. Almost all on Assist level 1, but did do some crazy stuff on the way back and hit over 30 a few times. I know I would get right around 50 miles on a charge on semi-level hard surfaces the way I normally ride (level 1 almost exclusively). I will be doing some longer rides, but I will be loaded up to about 550 lbs. with camping stuff and a BOB Ibex trailer in tow. I am curious to see what kind of range I will get per charge. I will be carrying a 19 lb. generator, so I will have extended range capability.

[Rix Ryds]

Very impressive mileage numbers! But, I think you will find, that if you use the throttle, do more hills or pull a load that those numbers will drop like a fat man falling out of a tree!
Most agree that watt/hours are the most accurate way to judge ebike mileage across all battery voltages and capacities. A 52v 14 Ah battery gives you 52 x 14 = 728 Whs. Project240 is getting 120kms or 74.52 miles. which gives an average of 9.77 Wh's per mile. Very impressive indeed! Marjamar is getting 52 x 13.5 = 702whs/ 44miles = 15.95 Wh's per mile. Again very impressive numbers! When I ride on level ground, nice and easy with no throttle, I get about 15Wh's per mile. When I'm pulling a trailer and running in the hills, I get about half of that, or about 30Wh's per mile. I guess what I'm getting at here is this; do not judge your range by the easy ride, or you will find out what range anxiety is! I always base my estimated range on LOTS of throttle and high speeds. Better to get home with battery remaining than to have it go dead 2 miles from home! Or 20!

[CraigAustin]

You are right about that. Speed (both PAS and throttle use) and load are range killers.

[marjamar]

Yeah, don't know your guide, but know what we did. For those in this area, perhaps you may have ridden the Poudre River Trail, this is what we rode. Went from end to end and a bit more as we rode into the park (next to the Greeley Stamped Stadium) to eat lunch. So, mileage is pretty accurate. Only had the one charge on the batteries, so nothing there to account for seemingly better watt-hours. What is left is speed, which I guessed a bit at, so I am looking at my tracks history for that ride. What is says is we rode 26.494 miles and had an average speed of 17.5. We climbed 581 feet and went down 792 feet. Elevation was 5,067.2 to 4,769.3 feet. And a bunch of other stuff I don't know about. So, I think perhaps Andy and I got a pretty good matched set of cells and we slow charge, which from my RC racing days proves the best charge. As to the real world distances, too many other variables to say with any degree of certainty what I will get loaded with the trailer. I do like pumping my legs though, so I am hoping to see something more then 30 miles per charge most of the time. Time will tell.

[marjamar]

Yeah, don't know your guide, but know what we did. For those in this area, perhaps you may have ridden the Poudre River Trail, this is what we rode. Went from end to end and a bit more as we rode into the park (next to the Greeley Stamped Stadium) to eat lunch. So, mileage is pretty accurate. Only had the one charge on the batteries, so nothing there to account for seemingly better watt-hours. What is left is speed, which I guessed a bit at, so I am looking at my tracks history for that ride. What is says is we rode 26.494 miles and had an average speed of 17.5. We climbed 581 feet and went down 792 feet. Elevation was 5,067.2 to 4,769.3 feet. And a bunch of other stuff I don't know about. So, I think perhaps Andy and I got a pretty good matched set of cells and we slow charge, which from my RC racing days proves the best charge. As to the real world distances, too many other variables to say with any degree of certainty what I will get loaded with the trailer. I do like pumping my legs though, so I am hoping to see something more then 30 miles per charge most of the time. Time will tell.

OOPS! Read the wrong track log. OK, the log just above this one is the one I should have posted. Here's a screen grab from the app.

[Rix Ryds]

702Whs/ 42.5 miles = 16.5 Whs per mile. Those are very good numbers, about what one would expect from mostly flat terrain and a relaxed pace. 20Whs per mile is a good rule of thumb, but there are of course, lots of variables. I would love to post those kind of numbers, but I got too many hills around here! :)

[CraigAustin]

Awesome! I appreciate the invitation and will make a trip for that. My mtb doesn't have a motor but I'll come for the trails.

[Rix Ryds]

If your a good tech rider, you'll have more fun without a motor, and with suspension! Since I put a BBSHD on my hardtail, big jumps and shelves are more than I can handle. Of course my artless riding style and age have also caused me to take more 'B' lines!

[CraigAustin]

I just got back into mtn biking after many years away, but enjoying the trails around here. Unfortunately most of them are too technical for ebikes. Will PM you to figure something out.

[HarryS]

I also use an inexpensive wattmeter. My BBS02 equipped bike draws about 15 WH/mile at 18 mph, throttle only. That was just a 2 mile run and motor got relatively hot, maybe 120-140 F. Normally, I'll pedal and don't go that fast, I've measured 8-10 WH/mile in pAS 1 at 12 mph, All relative, My meter could be calibrated wrong,

[TomAllyn]

On Tuesday I commuted for the first time 24 miles round trip to work loved it, but when I got to my office I recharged the battery - it may not have needed it. I've ordered a inexpensive watt meter so I can know for sure when it needs a recharge. In the morning I mostly road surface streets, but going home I road Jedediah Smith Memorial Bike Trail most of the way home. It added a couple miles to the trip, but it it was a much better ride without all the road debris and stupid motorists, plus I didn't have to stop at any stop signs. On my ride to work I mostly petaled and had the bike on level 5 at about 25 miles per hour. Going home I don't want to say how fast, but I'll just say the speed limit on the trail is 15mph, but there were pedal only road bikes going much faster than 15mph. The last two days, because of forest fires in Northern CA. and horrible ozone the last 2 days I've had to drive to work, because I have asthma was having difficulty without riding the bike.

[CPG]

Yesterday I rode a very steep dirt bike trail up 3500', very steep and rocky. Hard to walk up steep! 1 st gear with the BBSHD/30T Mini chain ring, on the Sturgis Bullet fat bike with less then 10 lbs of air in the tires, I used throttle mostly, as I had to stand on the pedals and really lean forward to keep the front wheel on the ground. I didn't go fast, too windy of a trail. In other words, about a worst case example of a battery sucking climb with almost constant very steep grades. I got to the summit and my amp meter and my display showed I had traveled 9 miles and consumed 9.91 AH, in a bit over an hour, about 1.5 hrs.

So, about 57 watts per mile. As I now have a 17 AH triangle battery, this was good news! In the worst trail riding I'll ever do (it was a fight for survival most of the time, but I had it in my head to make that summit, but I wouldn't choose to do it again...) I still have a solid 15 miles, probably 2 hrs +, of steep, standing on the pedals, trials bike type riding, range. Or to put it another way, 5K vert of climbing using almost only throttle, should be achievable,not bad really! By the time I got back to the bottom, I was down to 49 volts, while showing a usage of 11.5 amps. I'm amazed at the amount of "push you up that steep hill" power in these batteries, no complaints here.

[MsCynthia]

I did the initial shakedown ride on my DIY build a couple of weeks ago. (I'm a 150-pound person using the Luna 52-volt Mighty Mini on a 40-pound bike with a BBS02.)

I spent a Sunday afternoon tooling around Golden Gate Park when much of the park is closed to cars. It's mostly flat but has some mild uphill grades.

I was in pedal assist mode at varying levels between 1 and 4. After 20 miles, the battery meter on my handlebars was still displaying "full," but the meter on the battery itself was down to one bar. I decided to play it safe and ride the few blocks home. Note: I did this ride with clipless pedals.

I have since switched back to the stock platform pedals for commuting. I don't want to have to clip in and out all the time while playing in crazy city traffic and don't want to have to carry around an extra pair of shoes for the office. I can commute 14 miles roundtrip on a single charge without any troubles.

(There is a bit of hill on my commute, but we mostly ride around it via The Wiggle. I don't commute on those brutal San Francisco hills where the tourists go. None of us can afford to live there.)

I figure I can extend battery life by changing the original knobby tires to some slicks and by riding more to get my flabby self in better shape. :)

[CraigAustin]

Try www.powergrips.com pedals. They work great for me. Work shoes are no problem. The strap gives you a lot of confidence that your feet won't slip off the pedals, especially at high speeds or rough streets. They're not as easy to hook in as clips but way easier to get out. REI and Amazon carry them for $45 fully assembled.

[Rix Ryds]

Thanks to JP Labs! I have been using Karl's 'kickpashd1.el' controller file since I got my BBSHD. I have been very happy with it, but recently I have been doing testing of JP labs 'Relaxed_Pas' controller settings, as I need something more relaxed for my wife. One of the things I have been finding and have confirmed through several iterations of the same test, is that my miles per charge has gone WAY up with the new controller settings! I used to get 18 miles to my shark pack (52v 11.5Ah PF), sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, now on several runs I have gotten a whopping 32 miles! That's a 77% increase in mileage! The stock PAS settings are just way too fast, and leave you pedaling along at 20 mph in PAS 1. The 'relaxed' settings bring the speed down and save energy like crazy! I have been using PAS 2 or 3 with throttle on the hills as usual. I love these new settings! Thanks JP!