Creo - long climb range?

[JonFox]

Hello, new to this forum. Very interested in the Creo. I have several long steady climbs (5,000 feet @ 5-6%) that I do. Climb takes a couple of hours. Possible to do this on Turbo all the way? Do any of you have experience with long climbs on the Creo? I know rider weight impacts the equation - I'm 170 lbs.
Thanks and would love to hear your real-world experiences with rides like this.

 

[NBS]

Hello, new to this forum. Very interested in the Creo. I have several long steady climbs (5,000 feet @ 5-6%) that I do. Climb takes a couple of hours. Possible to do this on Turbo all the way? Do any of you have experience with long climbs on the Creo? I know rider weight impacts the equation - I'm 170 lbs.
Thanks and would love to hear your real-world experiences with rides like this.

 

[NBS]

We have a number of climbs comparable to this where I live. I mostly do them in some
combination of eco and sport (with sport set to 55% assist). I can do a 2 hour climb keeping it in sport about 70% of the time and end up with about 35%-40% battery at the top. I’ve never tried it in turbo, guessing you could do it as long as you don’t need much motor assist for the way back. If it’s just a downhill cruise back to the start you could probably get away with it, esp if you tune your turbo setting to something a bit lower than 100%.

 

[StmbtDave]

My longest climb was up Mt Lemmon, outside Tucson, Arizona. It's a 22 mile climb with 6,500 ft elevation gain. I can't say what power levels I used as I was switching back and forth as required. I had 10% battery at the top so fortunately it was 22 miles of downhill back to my vehicle. Keep in mind I'm 73 and 180 lbs so I'm not in the shape I had in my younger years.

 

[JonFox]

My longest climb was up Mt Lemmon, outside Tucson, Arizona. It's a 22 mile climb with 6,500 ft elevation gain. I can't say what power levels I used as I was switching back and forth as required. I had 10% battery at the top so fortunately it was 22 miles of downhill back to my vehicle. Keep in mind I'm 73 and 180 lbs so I'm not in the shape I had in my younger years.

Thanks for the reply and that is an awesome ride! Follow-up questions - did you have the range extender battery, and about how long did it take you to get to the top?

 

[jodi2]

I'm unfortunately at 230 lbs at the moment and I can climb 5000 feet just with the main battery mostly in Level2, which is quite a lot. "Mostly" means Level1 is always on (I switch the Creo to zero only if I pass young attractive girls on road bikes without motors...), Level2 in longer&steeper hills and Level3 very rarely in very uphills to prevent me from walking.
With 170 lbs you should be able only with the main battery of at least 7000 feet mostly Level2 and at least 12.000 feet in Level1 (which is already a good help/more than a bike without motor).

 

[StmbtDave]

Thanks for the reply and that is an awesome ride! Follow-up questions - did you have the range extender battery, and about how long did it take you to get to the top?

I don't have the Range Extender so the climb was all on the main battery. I can't say how long it took as I stopped at Windy Point (about 1/2 way up) for a lunch break.

 

[JonFox]

Update: I rode a Creo demo bike up Mt. Baker here in Washington state. 4,500 feet of climbing, most of it in the last 10 miles of a 24 mile ascent. Two bars remaining at the top, sport mode the last 10 miles. 295 wh used, 61.8% avg support level and it reported 238 watts power avg to Strava. The bike performed very well. Can I tell from the 61.8 avg support level and 238 watts avg the amount of my contribution to power?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

If your ride data include true kcal burnt (the ones measured by the torque sensor of the bike) then multiply them by 1.622 (kcal to Wh) and then divide by 4 (25% human body efficiency) = you will get your Wh contribution calculated. Now, divide the last figure by net ride time (in hours) and you will get your average leg power input.

 

[Marci jo]

Update: I rode a Creo demo bike up Mt. Baker here in Washington state. 4,500 feet of climbing, most of it in the last 10 miles of a 24 mile ascent. Two bars remaining at the top, sport mode the last 10 miles. 295 wh used, 61.8% avg support level and it reported 238 watts power avg to Strava. The bike performed very well. Can I tell from the 61.8 avg support level and 238 watts avg the amount of my contribution to power?

That’s a fabulous ride JonFox.

Wish we had mountains like that here in the Upper Midwest. I would love to try my Vado 6 on something like that. It would be a good challenge for the battery, motor, and my legs.

You said the Creo was a demo. Did you end up getting it?

 

[jodi2]

I'm unfortunately at 230 lbs at the moment and I can climb 5000 feet just with the main battery mostly in Level2, which is quite a lot. "Mostly" means Level1 is always on (I switch the Creo to zero only if I pass young attractive girls on road bikes without motors...), Level2 in longer&steeper hills and Level3 very rarely in very uphills to prevent me from walking.
With 170 lbs you should be able only with the main battery of at least 7000 feet mostly Level2 and at least 12.000 feet in Level1 (which is already a good help/more than a bike without motor).

I was a little bit to optimistic here but not much. Saturday I rode an organized trip with 84 other gravel bikes (no one else with motor), 68 miles with 6300 feet and at the end 11% left, so overall 7000 feet would have been possible.
Support level was mostly "1", so a light rider with 170lbs should be able of 10.000 feet with level 1.
If you ride alone, level 1 may not appear much. But if you are with others and faster ones, you realize how much it already helps. I was able to stay the whole day within a group of far better (and lighter) riders, only with 30-35% motor and at the end when we all were tired 25% was enough to stay equal. So even 10-20% support of the Creo will be enough to help you and to ride with better ones. Below 10% the support is too low and will only equal the extra weight.
When I used (very rarely) level 2 with only 50-60% I was already the fastest uphill of our group and maybe of all 85 riders. While I'm maybe among the last/slowest 20 ones without motor... But my goal was not to be equal or pass better riders but to be able to finish a long tour like this. Without motor I would have given up during the tour or simply done the shorter one which had 4000 feet.

 

[JonFox]

That’s a fabulous ride JonFox.

Wish we had mountains like that here in the Upper Midwest. I would love to try my Vado 6 on something like that. It would be a good challenge for the battery, motor, and my legs.

You said the Creo was a demo. Did you end up getting it?

Going to get that bike. Waiting on next year's models, which will have a "remote" on the handlebars so you can change assist without pushing the button on the top tube.

 

[JonFox]

If your ride data include true kcal burnt (the ones measured by the torque sensor of the bike) then multiply them by 1.622 (kcal to Wh) and then divide by 4 (25% human body efficiency) = you will get your Wh contribution calculated. Now, divide the last figure by net ride time (in hours) and you will get your average leg power input.

Thanks, I'm going to try that. However what I would really like is to see rider contribution in watts in one field on the Garmin, and bike contribution in watts in the other, so that I can track whether my watt output is increasing over time (as I hope it would!). Hopefully there is a way to do that.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

OK, I don't know how it works for you. The TCD - for Creo, Levo, Kenevo, Levo SL and Vado SL (and TCD-W for Vado and Como) displays show the rider's power during the ride.

 

[JonFox]

I like using the Garmin to record all my rides, so I'll need to figure out how to have it display/record rider power vs. bike power. I know the Creo power meter connects via ANT so it is possible. May be it is dealt with elsewhere in this forum...

 

[Nubnub]

Thanks, I'm going to try that. However what I would really like is to see rider contribution in watts in one field on the Garmin, and bike contribution in watts in the other, so that I can track whether my watt output is increasing over time (as I hope it would!). Hopefully there is a way to do that.

Mission control can be configured to show bike and motor power side by side. But if you are going to use your phone anyway, check out Blevo. You can still use your garmin to record your rides. Take a look at this thread which includes a graph of rider/motor power/altitude over distance. There are also many other data fields that can be configured as well.

Mission Control - Creo rider power vs motor power

I am a smiling owner of a new Creo SL. I’ve read comments where Mission Control can show rider power vs motor power. I’ve seen screenshots of this for a Levo. After my first recorded ride, I cannot find the same screen in my ride history. I was searching Mission Control to see if I can...

electricbikereview.com

 

[JonFox]

Mission control can be configured to show bike and motor power side by side. But if you are going to use your phone anyway, check out Blevo. You can still use your garmin to record your rides. Take a look at this thread which includes a graph of rider/motor power/altitude over distance. There are also many other data fields that can be configured as well.

Mission Control - Creo rider power vs motor power

I am a smiling owner of a new Creo SL. I’ve read comments where Mission Control can show rider power vs motor power. I’ve seen screenshots of this for a Levo. After my first recorded ride, I cannot find the same screen in my ride history. I was searching Mission Control to see if I can...

electricbikereview.com

Thanks much, I'll check BLEVO out!

 

[Alaskan]

I did the same ride as @JonFox back in August, Glacier to Artist Point and back. I was on my Trek Allant 9.9s My buddy was riding his Turbo Creo SL Expert. He weighs in around 150 lbs. and was once a pro rider, now a very fit 60. He had the range extender along and used the first two levels of assist for the whole ride, 2nd assist level most of the way up and first level coming back down. He had about 25% of his total battery power remaining at the end of the ride.

 

[JonFox]

@Alaskan, thanks for the info and nice photo! I did not have a range extender and the last bar was "in the red" on my return to Glacier. I was getting range anxiety on the last 1/4 of the ride up to Artist Pt. . How long did you guys take, Glacier to Artist Point?

 

[Alaskan]

@Alaskan, thanks for the info and nice photo! I did not have a range extender and the last bar was "in the red" on my return to Glacier. I was getting range anxiety on the last 1/4 of the ride up to Artist Pt. . How long did you guys take, Glacier to Artist Point?

This is a screen shot from my Bosch Ebike Connect ride record page.