Battery Range Experience for Specialized E-Bikes

[Stefan Mikes]

It has been a long time (like three years) during which I used pretty high assistance for my Specialized e-bikes (Vado 5.0/6.0 with three nominally 604 Wh batteries, and Vado SL with the main battery and four Range Extenders). Being equipped with so many batteries I could rotate them on my e-bikes, which allowed me participating in fast and long gravel group rides, or taking long road trips. My longest daily trip has been a 208 km road ride (Vado 6.0), and the longest trip ever was 263 km in 27 hours gross on a gravel ultramarathon (both e-bikes used and swapped as needed, with Vado SL used for the most of the trip).

Recently, I appreciate possibly light e-bike weight (I even dared to demo ride a traditional gravel bike!), so I have started riding at possibly low assistance. That has affected the battery range a lot. Several examples:

Vado 6.0 (a 45 km/h e-bike)
Summer conditions, mild wind, the elevation gain not exceeding 400 m, the best battery (less than 60 recharge cycles):

• 30/30% assistance, maximum range 106-109 km.
• 35/35% assistance, maximum range 95 km.

Vado SL 4.0 EQ (restricted to 25 km/h)
Summer conditions, mild wind, the elevation gain not exceeding 400 m, the main battery plus a single Range Extender:

• 55/55% assistance, maximum range 116 km
• 35/100% assistance, maximum range 120+ km (I could nor ride far enough to discharge both batteries down to 5% each!). This mode is more flexible, giving me a better workout and rewarding my hard pedalling with more assistance.

In comparison, my Vado 6.0 rides are faster than relevant Vado SL ones but again, the bigger e-bike has nominally a bigger initial battery charge.

I'm interested how you fare with your Specialized e-bikes re the battery range. Please specify the details such as the e-bike model/battery size, and riding conditions. Do you ever ride unassisted?

 

[Ben J]

On my Tero X I ride in Trail (which I think I have set to 70/70) a little at the start of each ride usually (big hill right at the foot of my driveway) and then a mix of eco-trail to the place I want to ride and a mix of eco/microtune-10%/off on the actual trail. Usually on the return when I reach road I go back up to eco or trail depending on conditions. Most of my rides are 30mi/50km and use about 50% of the battery. Based on the bike's estimated range remaining + actual distance travelled the total range is 60-70mi (about 100km). Typical ride is about 50% on some kind of gravel and 50% on some kind of pavement. Elevation gain about 1000'/300m.

Big caveats: I have never actually run the battery to flat. Even when I've been lazy and never gone lower than eco I've never even used more than 60% of my battery. Still working on my own endurance in the saddle to get close to the battery's endurance.

My own observation: Even though it's a short proportion of my rides, most of my battery usage is usually accounted for by trail mode. It feels like on a typical ride of 5 miles out, 20 mile loop, 5 miles back, I'll have 70%+ of my battery remaining when I reach that final road segment, and then my desire to get home and minimize time mixing with cars leads me to bump up to trail or even turbo and that last 5mi will take another 20% of the battery.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Thank you Ben! I assume yours is the 710 Wh battery?
Not sure what is your ECO setting?
The Microtune makes the things fuzzy a little bit. Do you use the Specialized App to get the actual Wh consumption per ride, so you could easily calculate the Wh/mi factor?

 

[Jim in Central CA]

Hello, Stefan. As we have discussed several times over the last couple of years, I have been riding my 2019 Vado 3 and gradually building up my endurance over the last 2 plus years. My goal was to get to the point where I was able to do longer rides (at least 20 miles) and I have reached that point. I have purchased the large 604wh battery to complement the 460wh battery my bike came with. I don't ride unassisted except when on the Coast Trail in Monterey, which is usually crowded with other riders and people walking, so you have to be very careful and can't safely ride fast. I usually do that ride twice a year, but that is the only time I ride unassisted. I do almost all of my riding in Eco, only moving to Sport or Turbo to cross a busy highway in traffic. Also, there aren't really any hills where I live so I don't need to use higher power settings for climbing except on some of my longer rides. I weigh just over 200lbs and I find that my original 460wh battery gives me about 36 miles of range and my larger 604wh battery gives me about 50 miles of range.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

my larger 604wh battery gives me about 50 miles of range.

Jim, that reminds me of my own riding in 40% assistance (if I can remember correctly). Nowadays, I tend to reduce the assistance for a longer range. I need to mention I changed my riding position to more aero, and it also might have taken some effect. Besides, I am so happy to eventually find the best chainring size for my Vado (44T). I was too slow with the 42T, and using the stock 48T ring required me to buy expensive long chains and trim them to 128 links (while a 126 link chain can be readily bought!)

 

[Ben J]

Thank you Ben! I assume yours is the 710 Wh battery?
Not sure what is your ECO setting?
The Microtune makes the things fuzzy a little bit. Do you use the Specialized App to get the actual Wh consumption per ride, so you could easily calculate the Wh/mi factor?

Yes, Turbo Tero X 6.0, 710Wh.

I think my ECO is default (35/35). If I messed with anything it's trail, it might be 70/100 instead of 70/70? I will check when I'm back at the bike.

For a ride on Sunday (32mi, 1033'): The average motor power * moving time = 267Wh, and 710 * battery used = 277Wh. So I will choose to trust battery percent (because it's easy) making that ride 8.7 Wh/mi.

If I average my last several rides (155mi total, about 2 full charge cycle equivalents) I get 9.6Wh/mi, so that's in line with the higher end of my estimate above (70mi range).

 

[Sefutau2020]

My '22 Vado 4 yielded roughly 90 miles in the ECO setting 35/35. I configured SPORT at 40/100 and this would routinely give me 50 miles, maybe 52 before the battery completely died. These are GREAT ranges. My second Vado 4 is being assembled at the LBS and I will be picking it up this week. I returned my Vado 5 IGH, as it did not meet my performance expectations.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

So I will choose to trust battery percent (because it's easy) making that ride 8.7 Wh/mi.

Bear in mind the battery will degrade over the time so the initial battery charge will be lower and lower. Does not Mastermind or Specialized app record the average Wh/mi or Wh consumed? (I am able to use the BLEvo app as my system is non-Mastermind).

9.6Wh/mi,

You cannot use the battery when it is discharged below the 5%. I use the 0.95 correction factor on the maximum range estimate. Your Mastermind gives you an accurate remaining Range estimate and the Range trend I think?

Your battery consumption factor is not bad at all. My factor for good riding conditions and no hills at 30/30% assistance is around 7.5 Wh/mi but I do not ride very fast

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I configured SPORT at 100/40 and this would routinely give me 50 miles,

Meaning, you were riding at basically constant motor assistance. I rather prefer the opposite such as 25/100%: Whenever I pedal casually, I ride slow. Hard pedalling is for climbing the hills or a faster ride (that's why I call that setup "The Workout Mode")

 

[Sefutau2020]

Nice...yes sir, I ride fast, mostly because of the paved trail in my neighborhood, and folks in spandex and riding the racing bikes. It is fun riding with them at times and drafting for 5 to 10 miles. Most of my rides are in all ECO at 35/35, and occasionally I will use Sport when coming home if I am exhausted. Never use Turbo much....just not needed. Happy Trails...

 

[Avg_Joe]

Bike: 2022 Vado 3.0, 504wh battery, 50nm motor. Stock gearing, riding on 27.5x2.25" Schwalbe Hurricane tires inflated to 42psi rear, 37psi front. ~2300 mi now on the bike.

Eco: Set to 10/35
Sport: Set to 40/70
Turbo: Set to 80/100
(I have decided to just leave the settings like this, they suit me fine. I do not use MicroControl nor SmartAssist.)

I ride our suburban area with small hills (400-500ft elevation gain), primarily street (75%) but some very easy dirt/gravel (25%) during the week for 12-15mi, and take longer rides on the weekend.

The bike stays in Eco now for ~98% of my riding. The other 2% is assist off, Sport, or Turbo. Weekday rides, Sport and Turbo do not register 1% of my riding time, so it is primarily Eco and off.

By about 60 miles of riding, I'm down to roughly 35% battery, so I recharge. (504wh X .65) / 60 = 5.46wh per mile comes out to a range of roughly 90mi if I ran the battery down.

Every time I see an SL, I want one. 33lb instead of 55lb, virtually same power as my 3.0.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Never use Turbo much....just not needed.

A good excuse for my using the full power Turbo is when I occasionally block the traffic (and especially when there's a big truck behind me). Accelerating to 40 km/h (25 mph) allows me getting onto a wider road segment where I can be safely overtaken by trucks and cars! For that reason, I usually do not manipulate the Turbo setting, keeping it for the emergency situations.

Eco: Set to 10/35

A very low assistance and a tremendous range!

Every time I see an SL, I want one. 33lb instead of 55lb, virtually same power as my 3.0.

Oh yes! You certainly deserve it! My experience tells me you would start riding an SL at 20/100% assistance (as the SL motor needs to give you something) and then you could probably adjust it a little bit. What I noticed was the SL motor with too low an assistance worked poorly. So it could be 35/35% or 20/100%, or, riding unassisted

@BioWheel: How do you actually ride your Vado SL?

 

[Avg_Joe]

Oh yes! You certainly deserve it! My experience tells me you would start riding an SL at 20/100% assistance (as the SL motor needs to give you something) and then you could probably adjust it a little bit. What I noticed was the SL motor with too low an assistance worked poorly. So it could be 35/35% or 20/100%, or, riding unassisted

Eh, not going to get an SL. I am riding my new hybrid human-only powered bike more and more and really enjoying that (Kona Dew Plus).

 

[GuruUno]

Normally, I put the Vado 5.0 into 'Smart Control', set it for 25 to 50 miles depending on my desire, weather, patience, wind, commitments, etc., and for the most part, as long as Smart Control remains active and connected, I usually finish the ride with expectation being achieved.

For maximum distances, normally I don't exceed 50 mile rides and usually return with 15% to 30% of battery remaining, so overall I'd say on the best of the best days I could theoretically get 80 miles to a full charge. However, when cold and windy, I'd say max is 50-60 miles.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Normally, I put the Vado 5.0 into 'Smart Control', set it for 25 to 50 miles depending on my desire, weather, patience, wind, commitments, etc., and for the most part, as long as Smart Control remains active and connected, I usually finish the ride with expectation being achieved.

For maximum distances, normally I don't exceed 50 mile rides and usually return with 15% to 30% of battery remaining, so overall I'd say on the best of the best days I could theoretically get 80 miles to a full charge. However, when cold and windy, I'd say max is 50-60 miles.

As long as Smart Control could be extremely useful, there is one of scenarios it is a no-go technique. It is a group ride, especially in rough terrain. Let us say I know a single battery should be good and offer unrestricted power for 70 km (so I could swap it for the fresh one for the next 70 km segment). If that were a solo road ride, I would just set the distance, predicted elevation gain and -- say -- 10% of the battery remaining for Smart Control.

Now, the e-bike would be too strong for the rough terrain segments (such as a singletrack) but too weak to keep up with the group on the pavement!

Based on my experience, I would set:

• ECO 35/35% for the slower part of the ride
• SPORT 45/45% whenever I would see the group disappearing at a distance on fire-roads
• TURBO 60/60% if the group would start riding very fast on the pavement.

If you were in my position, you would simply manipulate the MicroTune, observing the Range and Range Trend fields on your Mastermind (which I do not have!)

 

[JeffC57]

I just finished a 79 mile ride on my Creo SL carbon. It was all on paved roads. Fairly flat 3300 ft elevation gain with moderate winds. It was a charity ride to support MS research. I used the main battery plus one rage extender. According to BLevo, I used 217 Whrs main battery, 100 Whrs range extender, so about 1/3 capacity remaining. I have never gone that far on the Creo so I kept it in Eco (default settings) probably about 75% of the ride except for the last 10 miles in Sport when I knew I had plenty of battery left (and I was ready to get off the bike). So I know the Creo could do a century if my legs and butt can take it.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Do you know what is the default ECO assistance on your Creo?

 

[JeffC57]

Do you know what is the default ECO assistance on your Creo?

35/35

 

[Creo rider]

Stefan,

Creo SL Expert. Assistance modes set at Eco-40/40, Sport-60/60 and Turbo-100/100.

As you know battery consumption varies enormously depending on climbing, headwind, speed and assistance level used. I've collected data on all 265 rides I've had on my Creo and when using both batteries (internal + RE) I would say the maximum range is around 200+kms (125 miles) - but I've never actually ridden that far on the Creo. As an example, yesterday I rode 105 kms (65 miles) with 1,300m (4,265 ft) climbing and used 50% (of both batteries). Average speed was 25kph (15.5mph). Half the ride there was a strong headwind, and I was in Eco for 47% of the time, Sport for 10% of the time and Off for 42%. I virtually never use Turbo mode.
I've also checked the actually remaining battery wattage (using the Specialized app - original one). That shows for the main battery the capacity is now at 293Whr which is 92% (if I assume it started at 320Whr). That is after 237 actual charges which is the equivalent of 121 full 'charge cycles'. For the RE battery that is now at 145Whr (91% of original if I assume 160 Whr) after 114 actual charges which is the equivalent of 76 full charge cycles

 

[Stefan Mikes]

It looks you have tons of your ride statistics @Creo rider, thank you!

It looks that the SL batteries age rather well. Regarding the range, we should exclude your Off mode riding percentage, as the battery range refers to assisted rides only. I would say the 40/40% assistance would allow 130-140 km range with the Range Extender with the assistance constantly in use. (Again, the presence of the hills makes the picture fuzzy a little bit as you probably use more assistance to climb but perhaps no assistance to descend?)

Whatever: SL e-bikes can be very economic if there is a substantial contribution of the human into the ride

I'm to take part in a 100+ km gravel race next year (not to get a place but just to finish it as e-bikes are not taken into the classification). My brother encourages me to rebuild my Vado SL EQ into the "unequipped" version and stop using the pannier on my rides. That would mean riding with a single Range Extender only. It would not be possible for me to ride a 230-250 km race without more Range Extenders (I made it: 4 Range Extenders and a charger) but a distance of say 130 km looks doable!