Crazy Stupid Commute

[Chris Hammond]

Seriously? You’ve done the right thing by marking them as ebike rides. Don’t do the wrong thing by putting down cyclists who take them seriously. It’s disrespectful to a portion of the cycling community and does nothing to help the image of ebikers.

Sorry if I was misunderstood. I'm not trying to put anyone down. I just thought it was amusing that people take Strava data seriously enough to compete over. That's my bias, and doesn't in any way belittle what others do. If you or anyone else wants to do that, go for it and have fun. I have also told people they can try to draft from me if they want. Unless I am in Eco or 1 assist level, they get dropped.

 

[ebubar]

https://www.juicedbikes.com/products/crosscurrent-s?variant=4417415381015

Its now listed as in stock. Perhaps it'll be shipping soon for me...

 

[highpockets]

https://www.juicedbikes.com/products/crosscurrent-s?variant=4417415381015

Its now listed as in stock. Perhaps it'll be shipping soon for me...

I hope so. Your probably finding out that the wait is a killer.

 

[Citycrosser]

Sorry if I was misunderstood. I'm not trying to put anyone down. I just thought it was amusing that people take Strava data seriously enough to compete over. That's my bias, and doesn't in any way belittle what others do. If you or anyone else wants to do that, go for it and have fun. I have also told people they can try to draft from me if they want. Unless I am in Eco or 1 assist level, they get dropped.

No worries. I find the cycling KOM's curious too as most are set while riding in a group ride so drafting is aiding the time. Races are the test.

And I do track my runs on a steno pad still and also feel that races are where one competes, not training. I do still like owning a few CR's around my house though...

 

[Acey]

Called around to some shops and found a place to test a Stromer ST2S. They're trying to clear stock, so have priced it at $6599. I had my max price at $5K (and hoping for more like $2-3K - thus the Raleigh Redux iE), but 30% off an ST2S is an attractive price. The roughly 1000 Wh battery would easily handle my 28 miles in, recharge at work, then 28 miles home. Could cruise at higher pedal assist speeds too without fear of battery drain (especially in winter). Might try to further bargain to get a rack thrown in as well as an upgrade to the Omni system. I saw somewhere that buying an ST2S at this time of year makes one eligible for a free or reduced upgrade?

Wait. $6,600 AND you have to pay extra for a rack? I had no idea. Rode one at Interbike last year and it was fully equipped. It inspired me to redesign my bikes and add bottom bracket torque sensors. I just couldn't shake the feeling of how nice the ride was... So ultimately it cost me far more than it will cost you. LOL. The only thing I didn't like was the display mounted in the frame. Had to take my eyes off the track to see and almost rear-ended an adult-sized electric big wheel. Nice brakes though!

 

[christob]

I call "cheater" on them when they go by me on their $10K aero bikes like i'm supposed to be impressed while i'm on my 25 lbs of commuting adventure bike. Then I REALLY call cheater when they run red lights and stop signs to keep their average speed up.

25 pounds?! What about 54lbs!
The last "Cheater!" someone yelled at me was as they flew past (I was actually sitting on a bench, resting after a challenging ride!) He was on a super-light bike, in full tuck & spandex...
Of course, he had no way to know at that moment, since his rude insult was driven from a place of ignorance, that my motor was actually 100% dead that entire day (electrical malfunction) and I'd actually done 12 miles (on my ~50 pound bike without the battery mounted) entirely as a manual 10-speed...
This was on the same path I use to commute to work... and yes, I tend to notice the 'racing/training' type cyclists are more likely to disregard traffic lights and stop signs. (Although in all honesty, there are 2 stop signs on my commute which I only slow down for -- they're in a vast shopping mall's road system, which generally has no visitors during my commute in.)

 

[ebubar]

25 pounds?! What about 54lbs!
The last "Cheater!" someone yelled at me was as they flew past (I was actually sitting on a bench, resting after a challenging ride!) He was on a super-light bike, in full tuck & spandex...
Of course, he had no way to know at that moment, since his rude insult was driven from a place of ignorance, that my motor was actually 100% dead that entire day (electrical malfunction) and I'd actually done 12 miles (on my ~50 pound bike without the battery mounted) entirely as a manual 10-speed...
This was on the same path I use to commute to work... and yes, I tend to notice the 'racing/training' type cyclists are more likely to disregard traffic lights and stop signs. (Although in all honesty, there are 2 stop signs on my commute which I only slow down for -- they're in a vast shopping mall's road system, which generally has no visitors during my commute in.)

I've got at least a dozen stops going straight through Washington DC (blah). I've taken to making jokes and apologizing to nearby cars when racy guys blow through stop signs and red lights. Doing my part to make cyclists look better!

 

[ebubar]

Bike arrived today (ordered June 29, received July 17). Got it all assembled. It looks quite nice. Its heavy (of course) but seems well built. The rear fender needed a little bit of tweaking and the rear derailleur feels a little off. I think it might need a slight adjustment. I got a five mile ride in to test it and it feels just as good as the Stromer ST2S I rode. Didn't recognize too much difference, frankly. Definitely not enough difference to justify the price difference. The CCS actually had a better set of assist levels imo. More variation amongst the levels whereas the Stromer just seemed to have level 1 (which was essentially useless for me), 2 which can be programmed and 3 which was turbo. I got the bike home and realized they did not include the adapter for DC to 3 pin charging. I have submitted a ticket like a good Juiced customer. I won't be testing on my full commute until I can get the charger working and get everything topped up. Will report back once I have time to run proper tests.

 

[Chris Hammond]

Juiced seems to be catching up on production and orders. 3 weeks is not a very long wait compared to what it was. Congrats on the bike. Interesting to hear your initial comparison with the Stromer. I'll be very curious to hear a more detailed comparison after you can get some more time on the bike.

 

[Bruce Arnold]

Glad your bike arrived. Like Chris Hammond said, it sounds like they are getting the distribution problems in hand.

Someone else on the forum said that the 4 pin adapter hadn't arrived. Seems as though a batch of batteries made it through quality control without them; hard to imagine that there were only two, within days of each other. Looking forward to hearing more about your experience with the CCS when you're up and running.

 

[ebubar]

Glad your bike arrived. Like Chris Hammond said, it sounds like they are getting the distribution problems in hand.

Someone else on the forum said that the 4 pin adapter hadn't arrived. Seems as though a batch of batteries made it through quality control without them; hard to imagine that there were only two, within days of each other. Looking forward to hearing more about your experience with the CCS when you're up and running.

Agreed. I suspect it was just a batch that made it through. I spoke with online chat who looked up the support ticket and immediately filled out an order for the adapter to be sent out of the warehouse today. Not ideal to not receive the part with the original shipment but service has been quick and helpful so far. Not sure I can complain when the bike is well assembled, has worked well for my brief test ride and was a relatively low cost compared to the market.

Should also mention that Juiced is going to give me the 7 day return period starting with when I receive the charging adapter so they're doing everything right in my book.

 

[ebubar]

Got my first commute in. A question for the experts on here, as I think I either have a bad/wrong battery, or started with it not fully charged. I got the super extended battery upgrade to 48 V and 19.2 Ah (didn't go 52 V as they're not available). Short story: the battery died at 12 Ah and 550 Wh. Either the battery wasn't fully charged when I started or I don't have the right capacity battery. Does anyone on here know how to check the battery, short of running it until it dies again (i've got it plugged into the charger at the moment. The adapter arrived today, just two days after I informed Juiced that it wasn't in the original package)?

Long story: I used the menu on the CCS that has the extra info during my ride to monitor my amp hours and watt hours to make sure I wouldn't run out of power on the 50 mile roundtrip. To get to work, I stayed mostly in Eco with some jumps up to level 1 of assist on some slight hills. I went through 6 Ah of current on top of 2 Ah that I did on my first test ride. This brought me to using 8 Ah of the battery. I figured I'd have roughly 11 Ah to get home, if I wanted to drain the battery completely, which would be PLENTY. My math and research seemed to payoff!

Then, on the ride home the bike got sluggish around 11 Ah. Noticed the Watts really dropping until eventually there was nothing coming from the motor. It cutout at 12 Ah and 550 Wh (with 8 miles left to peddle home on a 60 pound bike). This suggests to me that I have a 48 V 13 Ah battery instead of the 19 Ah.

 

[Chris Hammond]

Interesting problem. Unfortunately with the standard "dumb" charger, you don't get any voltage info from the battery. My suggestion would be to fully charge, test the battery with a volt meter, then go for a ride where you use ~9.5 Ah, then retest the voltage in the pack. Here's a chart to verify the ~ capacity based on the voltage readings. If you have the 19 Ah pack you should be ~ 46.5 V

 

[ebubar]

Interesting idea. It seems I can perhaps test more quickly if I have the 13 Ah hour by riding a little shorter ~6.5 Ah. If I have the 13 Ah battery, my voltage should be at 50% (~46.5 V) and if I have the 19 Ah battery, my voltage should only be around 33% (~49.9 V). Yes?

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Either the battery wasn't fully charged when I started or I don't have the right capacity battery.

Most batteries are not shipped fully charged. That's like sending a drunk, horny 18yr old to a sorority house, not a good idea! ?
Did you charge the battery before riding?
I think you should wait until you get the connector, charge it and monitor the whr consumption on the display on your commute.

 

[ebubar]

Most batteries are not shipped fully charged. That's like sending a drunk, horny 18yr old to a sorority house, not a good idea! ?
Did you charge the battery before riding?
I think you should wait until you get the connector, charge it and monitor the whr consumption on the display on your commute.

I wasn't able to fully charge before the commute due to not having the adapter. I suspect its most likely that the battery had perhaps 75 percent-ish charge when I started the ride. I would have gotten an extra 20-30 miles with that additional charge to easily cover my commute in Eco and 1 levels of assist. Digging on the Juiced site it seems the 48V 13 Ah battery isn't really an option on to order on the CCS so that's most likely not the issue. Just me being impatient to test-ride to work!

I've got voltmeters at work, so I can test when I bike into work and extrapolate the percentage drop in Wh to percent in voltage drop using that handy chart. Its supposed to rain all week here so i'm hesitant to keep testing in rain as I don't want to beat up the bike until i'm 100% sure on keeping it. The bike certainly performed as expected and cut about 30 minutes off my commute without me having to push at all. I imagine for the same level of effort on my regular bike, I could cut even more time down. I'm quite impressed with the bike. $2K isn't exactly cheap, though, so I want to make sure I understand everything going on before i'm out of the test period! Of course, with the money saved on this bike, I can conceivably add a nice carbon fiber road bike to my stable...n+1...!

 

[michael mitchell]

I believe the 13 and 19.2 are different weights, so you could just put the battery on a scale. That info was somewhere on the juiced site.

 

[Citycrosser]

Then you’re really not going to be happy when I get my Pedego e-jogger suit and start laying waste to those Strava running segments.

View attachment 24262

Oh, that suit is pretty amazing. Steal all my CR's you want, just let me try it out!