almost scientific range test

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
Today I finally had my e hub bike ready for the range test. Now lots of variables will come into play that I can not test for so take this with a full shaker of salt.

Engine is an ez glide 225 watt hub motor running on 24volts....

This is test one for the best battery length that i can do. I used the throttle only on inclines and long flats and only to match my pedal speed. In other words a pure pedal assist.

I ran out of steam before the batteries but I kept at it till the controller cut off the power completely to keep the batteries in chargeable condition. The bike went about 4.25 miles on a fully changed 12ah battery. The distance is suitable for my bike path exercise routine and to get me I home. I will have to work up to the full bike route though. if I pedal only on the bike path with just a tad of power I should be able to do it all and get home no sweat but I don't think I can ride it all the way with just pedal power yet.

Now I did this on a cold day and kept the throttle down to just the speed that the bike could maintain pedal grip on the chain. The next thing I want to do is to ride it as much as possible like a motor bike. Just to see how much difference there is. If it isnt a significant amount, I would prefer to ride it motor first option and pedal on the hills only.
 
I am replacing my last post on the power test with very little pedaling. I ran the bike till it ran out of power this time. Just as I did the first time. There was virtually no difference in the range. The less pedaling experience might have caused it to run out 1/4 mile sooner but I was till able to get it home with some power. Even when it dies there is sporadic power so I was able to get it home under at least a little of it's own steam.

My best guess now is that the bike will comfortably do 4miles with only moderate pedaling.
 
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Right now I'm trying to decide if I want to extend the range by adding a second set of batteries permanently or just when I know I will be going a longer distance. the additional weight will be significant.
 
Deacon, what kind of batteries are you using? SLA? LIFEPO4? NiCad? I'm wondering if one would give a better range than the others.
 
Im using sla.... Heavy lil mutha. When I buy again I might look at some of the others.
 
;) yes they are lil heavy mutha's. Lol. I used to live in the Philippines in a remote village where there was no electricity. To run a few lights at night we had some solar panels on our roof charging a couple of truck SLA's throughout the day. Those things where HUGE!

In any case I have stayed clear of the electric bicycles so far simply because the good and light batteries are too fricken expensive! Hope you get it worked out with the distance and all though. I'll keep an eye on this thread!
 
I'm glad people read my threads though it is hard for me to understand why. I'm a lot like the old Seinfeld tv show. I write about nothing important. In this case it really isn't about anything but being lost in the woods.

Where I am with the battery packs is that I have two 12ah battery packs. One of them is new and gets about 4 miles on a charge. I have a second pack that came from my grand daughter's old scooter they have been stored while drained. I haven't tested their range but expect it to be less. If this system works out I might buy another set of new batteries I don't know yet.

I have a luggage carrier, which I built, custom made for the battery packs. I have two bolts to hold it on in the rear, and a bungee cord in the front to help hold it on in the front.

I can switch out the packs in two minutes. If the second pack is good for three miles, then both packs will take me anywhere I need to go. Even more important they will get me home.

I'm going to call the new batteries the A pack and the old ones the B pack. If I want to carry them both at the same time, I will have to hook up the battery trailer for the B pack. It was made from the wheels of the grand daughter's scooter. I have other trailers if I need to transport small items.

For the battery packs to be totally interchangeable, I had to arrange universal quick change connectors. To do that I bought a few dollar household extension cords. Male end goes on the motor. This is very important because the batteries would make the prongs hot. It would short out often on the bike frame, experience tells me this. So big hole is always ground, big prong is always ground. If you remember this, you will never short the batteries.

Now to hook the packs together (untested so far) I need two male ends on one cord. I can run it from the trailer battery pack to the battery pack on the bike. That jumper will tire them both together in parallel. Which will in effect make one battery with the range of both of them. The extension cord has multiple female openings so this is not a problem.

That is how it should work. I used a battery trailers on the friction drive bikes without to much loss of power I hope that remains the same on the hub motor. I haven't tried it yet.

It is supposed to rain and snow the next couple of days so I won't get to try it for a while.

One of my advantages with Ebikes for me is unlike most guys I don't have a schedule to keep since I am retired. I rode the hub bike to the bicycle shop which is about 3 miles round trip. it did just fine. I did set my route a little longer but with smaller hills. Within the same range is the auto parts store, a grocery store, a small variety store like a jr. wally-mart, called Dollar General, several restaurants and fast food joints, and best of all my daughter and her family are not inside that range. If they wanted to see me, they would have to come here, not likely to ever happen.

Very few things would be outside the combined battery range.
 
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I rode the bike with trailer as opposed to the batteries on the bike again. I have decided that it is more efficient in the trailer than on the bike.

I have also decided that I need to build that pusher trailer if it is as efficient as this seems, it might be the cheap drive I'm looking for.
 
this morning it was real world three miles and the trailer battery pack read 12.8 when I returned. 6miles would be a breeze im sure. Probably more.

I must include that the only battery conservation I did was to get completely off the throttle when going down hill. I let the bike freewheel and it probably did some regenerative charging of the batteries. Otherwise it was wide open throttle all the way.

What really does a number on the bike is "BIKE KILLER HILL". BKH is a long hill about a 6blocks long. It is also the steepest hill on any of my routes. After that hill the bike alert is on amber light most of the time, but it never ran out of juice. It is just the alert light which I'm beginning to think is just a warning to ride more carefully. Do more assist pedaling rather than an indication of dangerously low storage in the battery.
 
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