Lessons from first 50 mile commute

[wheelbender6]

Lessons from my first 50 mile round trip commute to work:

My battery powered tail lights eventually stop working when clipped directly to the bike
from the shock of hitting bumps. Clip them on a canvas rack bag or backpack to absorb
some of the shock. I plan to hard-mount a 6volt, white wire powered tail light.

The throttle cable is more likely to stick on long commutes. Apply dry lube and fine-tune
the routing of the cable. Be sure that your kill switch is working.

An adequate headlight for the suburbs is inadequate on rural roads. However, my 6 volt,
white wire powered headlight was totally reliable.

My calculated average speed was 14.3 mph. I maintained the 20mph Arizona speed along
suburban roads and had to slow to 10mph at times on rural areas due to narrow roads
with irregular edges and darkness, sometimes riding on the dirt shoulder. The average
speed includes time spent on stops for inspection/repair/adjustment. There was a traffic
light or stop sign at almost every mile along the route.

[Rockenstein]

I'm interested to hear how much fuel was consumed on your 50 mile trip as 50 miles works out to about 80k which is about how far my longest country ride last summer on a pedal bike was. I'm seriously thinking about building a powered bike so when I decided to make a country trip again this year I'll have some assistance

[wheelbender6]

I started out with 3/4 gallon of premix. After 50 miles, I had far more than 1/4 gallon in the tank, so I got over 100 miles to the gallon. Not bad for a 200 lbs rider on a motor from EBay. My longest pedal ride was 46 miles, a few weeks ago. Cheers