For those wondering about the 7.8 ah battery range and/or the performance of the CC, I thought I'd add my experiences so far to this long, informative thread.
When I selected the group of (essentially road) ebikes I wanted to test ride, I used the same simple approach I've used when picking past cruising sailboats, my little airplane and the last several cars. 1) What's the most demanding mission I have? 2) What is my budget? 3) Based on 2, what's the best value purchase that is likely to accomplish 1. My missions were pretty basic: recreational riding, replacing a 2nd car for local grocery/big box store runs, and getting to the airport. That last one demands the most from the bike: a 10 mile ride with modest elevation change that leaves me feeling fresh enough that a several hour flight doesn't leave me fatigued, followed by another 10 mile ride home.
Yesterday I did the first such airport run (plus flight & return ride) since buying the bike. I averaged 21 mph going and, after the flight, both the bike and I had enough oomph to do the return trip at 18 mph. I'd like to avoid
needing to charge the bike's battery while at the hangar (tho' that's always an option if I bring the charger with me) so that's how I did this trip - no mid-ride charging. I used '1' power level ~85% of the time, with ~5% on 'Eco' and ~10% on '2'. It was a 70+F sunny day with variable, light winds. In total the bike + I probably weighed 240#. The ride, mostly through farmland, was extremely enjoyable, ridden at a pace which for me was physically demanding, and certainly validated the CC choice. At the end of the ride, the battery had enough power left to sustain 'Sport' power and, powering on level '1' was showing 4 LEDs, on '2' was showing '3' LEDs. (See below for how pitiful this kind of 'data' really is).
I'm very pleased with the bike tho' it does present itself with a few quibbles IMO:
-- The power meter (5 LEDs at the top of the 'display') is truly inadequate. It simply reports battery voltage (on some undefined scale) and battery voltage is highly dependent on the load it's seeing. At no load, with the battery at ambient, the power LEDs may represent 'something' (again, no defined scale) that is repeatable & accurate. But that's not how we ride our bikes. I plan to send Tora my Santa's List, at the top of which is some kind of retro'd interface magic that provides CC owners with a way to add a smart battery display. Alas, probably not in the cards for these Gen 1 bikes, ever. Will my 7.8 ah battery make this round trip with temps 30F lower and more typical Montana winds to deal with? My hopeful hunch is 'yes' with winds <15 mph...but wouldn't it be nice to
know where I stand when I'm on that last (naturally, uphill) 4 miles?
-- No owner's manual came with the bike, nor is one released yet that I know of. My impression is that's because Tora was responding more to the white-hot interest in the CC and trying to get us on our rides sooner, and dealing with the manual later. That was certainly my preference. And perhaps, Tora being the clever guy we know him to be, is documenting the lessons learned and details surfacing (e.g. tools needed to work on the bike, like that 18mm box end wrench, and how to fit a recommended rear rack) and will produce a truly useful manual. That would icing on the cake for future buyers.
-- Mind the lead of the derailleur cable from its last tie-down point, past the gears and to the derailleur. My cable physically conflicted with the chain when the highest gear (smallest cog) was selected and would have caused chafe fairly quickly. Also be careful about adding another wire-tie just aft of the tie-down point, to avoid that chafe, as you can put too tight a bend on the lead of the cable itself.
-- Had I not asked the bike store to install the rear rack, I would probably still be wondering just what my best option is. Clearly, rack mounting was not put on the CC design brief.
That's an impressively short set of nits to pick for a Gen 1 product. And let me add two positive comments I don't see mentioned enough.
-- Riding the CC is enjoyable without power. Just before I began test riding ebikes in order to choose one, I was advised here to be sure to ride them all with the power turned off as a) it would reveal the nature of the bike itself, and b) you may want to ride without power earlier in a ride to have power left for a tough part later. It was good advice because - surprise, surprise - not all the bikes I rode did equally well even tho’ they all weighed within a few pounds of one another and had similar if not better gear sets.
-- At lower power levels it really impresses me as one of the more quiet ebikes to ride. That makes every trip just a bit better.
I found I had to
fly some distance - in my case, Madison WI - in order to include the CC in my test riding. I'm very glad I chose to do that.
Jack
