Creo ride report

[Captain Slow]

I was certain I started a thread about this when I went for my first group ride but I can't find it now. So my apologies for a new thread. Some have said they were interested in my ride reports and real life experience with the Creo E5 so here's the latest.

Generally I'm riding with others and riding socially and not hard, or commuting to and from work and the data from those rides isn't as useful.

Yesterday for the first time I rode the bike hard and by myself. To put the figures in context I am 54 years old, and not a fast rider as you can tell by my user name, after all I'm Captain Slow. I weigh 163 lbs. these days.

So the stats from the ride were

16.85 km's in 34:46 for an average speed of 29.0 km/hr.
154 metres of elevation gain which means 154 metres of elevation loss as I rode a loop by my house and I started and ended in the same spot.
I was minimally impacted by lights and traffic as due to Corona virus there are not many cars on the road.

60 watt hours used which works out to 3.56 wh/km travelled - works out to 90 km's on the internal battery. I was in Sport mode for almost the entire ride. I had Sport set to be 40% assistance and peak at 100%.

To give you an idea of how hard I was working the data from my Garmin watch was
Average power - 154 watts
Maximum power - 643 watts
Max Avg. (20 min) power - 165 watts
Normalized power - 179 watts
Training stress score - 41.1
Max HR - 166 bpm
Avg HR - 136 bpm
Garmin Aerobic training effect - 3.3
Garmin Anaerobic training effect - 1.0

So I was working fairly hard, but there was certainly room to work harder. Fwiw - given that I was using 40% assistance for almost the entire ride and then turbo for the last 2-3 km's I think the range was pretty good.

I'm finding that as the bike is an Endurance fit that I'm sitting more upright than I would like. I will likely get a new stem. On that is maybe 10-20 mm longer and with a negative rise. So it will change my position a bit, but not a radical change. I think that would make a slight difference, but not a big one.

 

[NBS]

I was quite interested to see this. I did a big ride yesterday - 75 miles/4,700 ft of climbing (those of you on metric can do the math yourselves) I have Eco set to 40% support/65% peak power and have found that at around 55 miles riding almost entirely in Eco my battery is depleted. So I bought the range extender battery, and used it yesterday. I was in Eco most of the ride (at 40%) and in Sport (60%/65% peak) for perhaps 15 miles into the wind and up a stiff 5 mile climb at the end of the ride. My range extender battery lasted about 28 miles (Eco all the way) and I ended the ride with only 18% left on the regular battery. These numbers are far from what Specialized claims for the batteries - 80 miles for the built in and another 40 for the extender and don't bode well for the longer/climbier rides I have been hoping to do. Certainly I can set Eco to a lower assist mode (especially on flatter rides) and just go slower (or work harder)...but if I want to keep up with my faster ride companions that would just have me going into Sport more often, which seems to me would defeat the purpose.

 

[StmbtDave]

...These numbers are far from what Specialized claims for the batteries - 80 miles for the built in and another 40 for the extender and don't bode well for the longer/climbier rides I have been hoping to do.

That's the problem with any range estimates put out by manufacturers or even other riders; there are too many variables. Yesterday I rode 40 miles out and back. I had a fierce headwind going out and I had used 34% of the battery at the 20 mile turnaround. This was riding at 35/35. My average speed into the wind was only 10mph. It was a wonderful tailwind all the way home and at the same settings I averaged 20mph and ended the ride with 64% battery so only used 2% more at the higher speed.

 

[Captain Slow]

NBS your data is very similar to mine. I estimated that if I continued my ride that it would equate to 90 km's of range. Your 55 miles converts to 88 km's so very similar except that I think you did more climbing. My sport was set to about the same level of assist as your Eco.

I am finding the same thing with regards to speed and riding companions. One group I ride with is slower and I end up having huge battery range, but then again I don't need the motor with that group. I can just ride my Cervelo with that group and it's still not hard to keep up. With the faster group I'd have to use a lot more power from the battery and then the range isn't really there. Now that group tends to always stop for coffee during the ride so I could bring the charger along and charge while we're stopped. Now that we're older there's less interest in hammering hard for 5-6 hours and covering huge distance so bringing the charger (possibly with owning the range extender) might be enough to allow me to finish the ride using significant motor.

Not that I can really find out now since we can't go on big group rides.

Dave so you used 34% of the battery going out, but only 2% of the battery on the way back? Wow, that is a night and day difference. I guess a pretty wicked headwind as you were only doing 10 mph going out and 20 mph coming back.

 

[Oberst]

I was quite interested to see this. I did a big ride yesterday - 75 miles/4,700 ft of climbing (those of you on metric can do the math yourselves) I have Eco set to 40% support/65% peak power and have found that at around 55 miles riding almost entirely in Eco my battery is depleted. So I bought the range extender battery, and used it yesterday. I was in Eco most of the ride (at 40%) and in Sport (60%/65% peak) for perhaps 15 miles into the wind and up a stiff 5 mile climb at the end of the ride. My range extender battery lasted about 28 miles (Eco all the way) and I ended the ride with only 18% left on the regular battery. These numbers are far from what Specialized claims for the batteries - 80 miles for the built in and another 40 for the extender and don't bode well for the longer/climbier rides I have been hoping to do. Certainly I can set Eco to a lower assist mode (especially on flatter rides) and just go slower (or work harder)...but if I want to keep up with my faster ride companions that would just have me going into Sport more often, which seems to me would defeat the purpose.

That is a good amount of climbing! Not far off some Alps stages in the Tour!

 

[NBS]

LOL but at nowhere near the same speed - even with the motor I was pretty happy to end at 16 mph without having put myself in the grave to do it. I LOVE this bike! I used to hate climbing - and where I live it's mandatory