My wife and I love riding our conventional bicycles. Where we live the city has many hike and bike trails and parks. These are all concrete or crushed granite, and all city maintained. There is a 62 mile loop that has 40-60% dirt that runs along a creek. The city maintains only a portion of this particular area. Since my wife and I want to spend more time out on the trails, ( we are both older), would it be more advantageous to have (2) standard range batteries (run one ,carry one spare ) v/s (1) long range battery each. I say this because if we start running the first regular battery low we each would have a back up. I can last longer pedaling than my petite wife, but I’d rather not run out of steam either. We could literally take a picnic lunch and spend the entire day out from time to time. We are considering the Lectric XP 3.0 step through model e-bikes. I know I could transport both our e-bike close to one of the farther areas and ride- but why ? Many of these hike and bike trails interconnect, and many can be connected riding streets ( many of these have bicycle lanes) short distances. Your opinions, thoughts, suggestions. Thanks for your time.
(2) standard (OEM) batteries or (1) long range battery
- Thread starter Santa
- Start date
Johny Rocket
Active Member
- Region
- USA
How many hours at most do you think you'll be riding on a single trip or how many miles? With that information I can give a real answer.
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Probably around 30 mile +/- typical and farther on occasion. My wife will probably use the battery sooner as she’s smaller and now she will be piloting a 65 lb bike instead of a 15-20 lb bike. It’s mostly flat around all the hike and bike trails. But there is usually wind 8-12 mph. So sometimes into, sometimes at our back.
Johny Rocket
Active Member
- Region
- USA
On my XP standard battery on PAS 2 then PAS 3 as the battery ran down some I was able to get comfortably 35 miles in range. The bike would run at about 14 mph throughout on the flats with very little effort peddling. If you don't run above PAS 3 the range is pretty good but as you push past 14 mph the air resistance is a battery killer.
I would suggest you get the larger battery just to avoid range anxiety and keep your speed down on longer rides. The XP battery is a bit of a pain to exchange as you first unfold the bike, then kinda hold the battery in place while unlocking the battery and removing the key, then slide the battery out. The key is under the top tube so you can't see to insert it back in after you slide the replacement battery back in, so it's a bit of a challenge to get everything going again
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I would suggest you get the larger battery just to avoid range anxiety and keep your speed down on longer rides. The XP battery is a bit of a pain to exchange as you first unfold the bike, then kinda hold the battery in place while unlocking the battery and removing the key, then slide the battery out. The key is under the top tube so you can't see to insert it back in after you slide the replacement battery back in, so it's a bit of a challenge to get everything going again
.If I keep my XP at 15mph max it will go pretty far with easy/minimum effort from the pedals. I stay at 13mph most of the time so I can use the speed when needed and not worry about running out of battery. Note this about the XP 3.0. If you have it in PAS 3 the speed is around 14ish mph and the throttle will also top out at 14mph. The throttle responds to the PAS levels. I stay in PAS 3 and jump up to 5 as I come to an intersection, blast off and drop back down to PAS 3.
Oh, about the battery options. Just like a car, there's no replacement for displacement. Buy the long range battery model and get a regular battery if you want to carry a spare. I don't have a spare myself and I missed that blow-out sale on the non-UL rated batteries Lectric ran awhile ago. And yes, the battery is kinda a hassle to remove. You'll get used to it though. I bought the little key guides from etsy. Also, my non-UL battery has been thru everything and it's never missed a beat. I've dropped it a few times, left it outside in a light rain, it's been below freezing and in a hot garage at 110 degrees and I sometimes forget to unplug it after charging it and it sits on the charger all night. Don't gamble like me though! I've gotten better with battery care.
And, if you go with a Portola go with the long-range battery as well. Both are great ebikes for the price.
Oh, about the battery options. Just like a car, there's no replacement for displacement. Buy the long range battery model and get a regular battery if you want to carry a spare. I don't have a spare myself and I missed that blow-out sale on the non-UL rated batteries Lectric ran awhile ago. And yes, the battery is kinda a hassle to remove. You'll get used to it though. I bought the little key guides from etsy. Also, my non-UL battery has been thru everything and it's never missed a beat. I've dropped it a few times, left it outside in a light rain, it's been below freezing and in a hot garage at 110 degrees and I sometimes forget to unplug it after charging it and it sits on the charger all night. Don't gamble like me though! I've gotten better with battery care.
And, if you go with a Portola go with the long-range battery as well. Both are great ebikes for the price.
kevinmccune
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
as i age and get over my need for speed,i would say plan carefully and keep bike weight down,however if you are going to venture into the outback get a larghish battery( compared to the stock one) and run the small battery down first that way you will have plenty of juice to get home later after you are getting tired otherwise go with the stock size to keep weight down.Some of these long range stock bikes are getting ridicously heavy a beast to load almost impossible to pedal,oth if you are on the fence about it and not concerned about pedaling get a larger battery to begin with,i know this sounds a bit ambigous but different strokes for different folks and there sure is some nice much lighter ebikes coming on the market,for moderate inclines and mostly level look at the "propella" series ,if you are climbing mtns and are a speedy person,go ahead and up the power in the motor dept and grab as many ahs as you can comfortably tolerate, imo.
myers830
Active Member
I hope Lectric is listening (again) when I say this....but the XP3 and XP Lite2 need to be redesigned to have "EASY in-EASY out" batteries such as on the Ride1up Portola. The Portola is proof that you can design a light weight, strong FOLDING eBike which literally takes 5 seconds to take out or put in the battery...yet still have a sleek, "hidden" battery design. Lectric owners have had enough of the crazy battery-key placement issues associated with that original design. Others have shown it can be done on a folding eBike. Yes, I get the security thing that Lectric talks about (i.e. let's make it really hard to steal the battery)...but seriously Lectric, it's time to remove the one LAST remaining thing that ALL Lectric XP owners hate if truth be told.
il Munduato
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
Also possibly allowing for less 100% charges and/or full battery drains which can decrease cycle life. A big battery makes it easier to stay in the more/less happy 30% to 80% range, especially if you do a lot of shorter trips.
Downside is weight..
myers830
Active Member
I hope I live long enough to see the current Lithion batteries go the way of the dinosaurs. Imagine a solid state battery 1/4 of the weight, charges in 15 minutes, and has 10x the range of the current batteries we have to struggle with. Its already happening in experimental EVs and it can't come soon enough for eBikes, but in time, it will. Yes, initially they will cost more but I for one would gladly pay for it.
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PCeBiker
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
I have three 48 Volt batteries, a 19ah, 21ah, and a 25ah.
I charge them all to 52.6 Volts. I have two with me for my rides, and cycle through the batteries.
If I'm going on a short ride, I'll top up one of the batteries before the ride, and just take one battery.
My battery case design is soon to become extinct, so I bought a new e-bike that uses the batteries before e-bikes with Reention style batteries are also unavailable.
Yeah, my e-bike is close to 100 pounds with the two batteries, but it doesn't matter much with all the range I've got.
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