Do you use more than one battery on your rides?

[Captain Slow]

I've seen some R&M fans of dual battery capacity, and some Trek models have the ability to use dual batteries as well. I'm sure there are other brands as well.

I have been wondering, who uses more than one battery, either in dual configuration or just carrying an extra one in a bag with them while they ride.

If you use more than one battery on your rides I'm curious to know what distance you're travelling, average speed, elevation, etc .......

I'm curious because with my Creo I consistently use around 2 wh/km, implying a range of roughly 160 km's. Recently a friend rode my Juiced CCS on a ride with us and we travelled 86 km's with 950 metres of elevation gain. The battery had 2 bars left when we got home.

So it got me curious who uses a range extender, or an extra battery and what are the specifics on your use.

 

[6zfshdb]

I think everyone is different in this respect. There are all kinds of bikers out there and all have their own way of enjoying the sport. My philosophy is this:

When on a trip, my rides average 50+ miles. My longest so far is 68. A single battery lasts between 25 and 50 miles on average depending on rider input, trail surface, elevation, cargo weight, etc. With my hips and knees, I have to be prepared and have sufficient energy to get back on battery alone should I have a joint issue. That's why I usually carry a spare.

I sometimes like to challenge myself and see how far I can go on a single battery. So far, my record is 57 miles. I get by with one battery on most rides but switch to my spare occasionally. Sometimes, I like to pedal gently and let the bike do most of the work while I enjoy the scenery.

I'm past the point in life where I feel the need to "prove" myself. These days, I cycle for mild exercise but mostly for pleasure. Carrying a spare battery in one of my panniers lets me do both without worrying about running out of "gas".

 

[Stefan Mikes]

That really depends, Captain. You ride Creo and your rides' description tells me you're a healthy person. My legs need quite a lot of motor assistance and I love riding fast and far. Especially in the wintertime, I need to complete my pretty long ride possibly fast before my feet freeze out. On long rides (or ones implying significant elevation gain), I don't want to experience anxiety range (had to return on pedals couple of times). So yes, I usually take a spare battery with me.

However, I had a group ride with a traditional cyclist yesterday. I found I could do on a single battery even for quite a long distance if I rode slowly (average speed of 18 km/h). Now I'm torn. I like fast rides (and taking long rests between ride segments). However, not taking the spare battery means slow but lightweight riding.

Don't know what to do, really.

P.S. To answer your question better: I often use 50/65 setting on my fast & long rides meaning "it's 1.6 x You and not more than 338 W of assistance". That makes the ride at speeds of 32-34 km/h on my S-Vado 5.0 with average speed between 24-28 km/h depending on ride conditions. The battery is to be swapped at some 57th km. Riding in 45/45 yields 80 km range with the 604 Wh battery. Turbo mode 100/100 gets me for 40 km on the same battery. It happened to me ride in 45/45 until the battery got at 5% (80 km), swapped it and continued for 42 km in 70/100 then 100/100 to get home fast when I was really tired. The 122 km was my longest ride so far.

But I know I would make 120 km with the single battery if I rode in 25/25 setting.

 

[opimax]

3 per ride

 

[harryS]

2 WH/km = 3.2 WH/mile. That's very low, relative to most ebikes and their riders. I track our usage occasionally. I believe experienced bike shops will quote 15 WH/mile as typical, a conservative enough number that should cover most of their customers.

Personally, my wife is around 7 wh/mile and I'm at 9 wh/mile, but we ride pretty slow. One time, I got 62 miles out of a 300WH pack, but I was rubbing the battery with woolen socks to to get some charge.

Anyway, when we go on a longer ride, I know our range, and can throw some spare packs as needed in my saddlebag. Our bikes don't need any specific form factors for batteries, so it's pretty flexible, Usually, we knock off for lunch and never go as far as planned.

 

[AleksR]

I bought Supercharger 2 because it has two 500Wh batteries. I wanted to avoid range anxiety, especially in the hilly Bay area. I have found Bosch range calculator to be excellent in guesstimating how far you will travel. In the ECO mode I can easily get over 100 miles, but riding in Eco mode is challenging with steep hills. I usually get 80-100 miles on my bike, where half of the ride is Eco and the rest is a mixture of Tour, Speed and Turbo depending on the situation, my level of exhaustion and hills.

 

[Dallant]

I’m fixing to next year on some longer touring rides as I just ordered a second battery for my Allant+7. Guess I need to figure a good way to carry a spare 20” battery with me!

 

[Captain Slow]

2 WH/km = 3.2 WH/mile. That's very low, relative to most ebikes and their riders. I track our usage occasionally. I believe experienced bike shops will quote 15 WH/mile as typical, a conservative enough number that should cover most of their customers.

Personally, my wife is around 7 wh/mile and I'm at 9 wh/mile, but we ride pretty slow. One time, I got 62 miles out of a 300WH pack, but I was rubbing the battery with woolen socks to to get some charge.

Anyway, when we go on a longer ride, I know our range, and can throw some spare packs as needed in my saddlebag. Our bikes don't need any specific form factors for batteries, so it's pretty flexible, Usually, we knock off for lunch and never go as far as planned.

I think a large part of the reason it's low is because the Creo is a light bike without drag on the motor. It's easy to ride with little or even no power. I think the other reason that my power usage is low is that I ride slower than most on here. I mean that's my name, right ..................

My group is pretty social and we generally just talk and ride casually. We typically average between 20 and 21 km/hr. - If I ride solo then my average speed is more like 25 to 29 km/hr. and power usage goes up significantly.

Today we plodded along at an average speed of 20.3 km/hr. - I rode 54.5 km's with 411 metres of elevation gain and that used 15% of my battery or 48 watt hours. So in this case it was less than 1 wh/km. But again it's a slow ride and we're just chatting most of the time.

Reading these replies I think the main reason others use more than one battery is that they're riding faster than me, and they're riding bigger, heavier bikes that consume more battery. So I think I have my answer. If I ever start riding faster average speeds then maybe I'll get a range extender, but other than that I'm good with the internal battery.

 

[ruffruff]

No but I tend to ride loop trail systems. Usually about 12-13 mile loops.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I’m fixing to next year on some longer touring rides as I just ordered a second battery for my Allant+7. Guess I need to figure a good way to carry a spare 20” battery with me!

I found the Ortlieb Bike-Packer pannier with the Ortlieb Commuter Insert would fit an 18" battery. Not sure about 20". Shall I do a measurement for you?

 

[Dallant]

I found the Ortlieb Bike-Packer pannier with the Ortlieb Commuter Insert would fit an 18" battery. Not sure about 20". Shall I do a measurement for you?

I was just throwing out a guess. It’s actually closer to 17.25“. I am still looking at alternative transport ideas so appreciate your suggestion.
Been pondering a small trailer like the Burley Nomad for tent and stuff.

 

[Captain Slow]

I think a small trailer would be quite useful for grocery getting and other small errands. What do you like about the Burley relative to other trailers?

 

[Dallant]

I think a small trailer would be quite useful for grocery getting and other small errands. What do you like about the Burley relative to other trailers?

Nothing other than my daughter has a Burley product and I like it. Haven’t really examined this category very well yet. Really, I just throw these ideas out and hope that knowledgeable folks will tell me if my thinking is making any sense at all.

 

[rdowns]

I’m fixing to next year on some longer touring rides as I just ordered a second battery for my Allant+7. Guess I need to figure a good way to carry a spare 20” battery with me!

I'm ordering one next year, I look forward to hearing how you decide to carry yours. So far I haven't come close to running out but I find I really love the idea of going farther and farther. Today I rode 25 miles and my longest ride has been 45 miles

 

[JuicePower]

I bought e-bike August 2019. 200 dollar additional battery Feb 2020. Back pack. So I bought a mountain bike same brand 2 weeks ago. I have 3 batteries. (250w power) 2019 street bike had busted spokes so they owed me a new rear wheel under warranty. They could not produce a rear wheel so now I have 3 bikes and 4 batteries. They sent me a new replacement bike. I will run with 4 batteries for a week until I ship the bad bike back.

This is far beyond my sore butt & saddle sores range.

 

[JuicePower]

I found the Ortlieb Bike-Packer pannier with the Ortlieb Commuter Insert would fit an 18" battery. Not sure about 20". Shall I do a measurement for you?

I ride with an Eddie Bauer cooler/backpack. It holds 1 or 2 batteries and a thermos bottle.

 

[Explorer-1]

I often carry 2-3 batteries (rated 625Wh ) on my DJ-Bike, typically range though for a trip was only about 65 km, so sometimes I just used the second battery to get home very fast (better speed and power on a fresh battery), I used 3 batteries on trips over 80km, with the farthest I've made it on that bike is 116km or so, but with battery to spare. While my long range bike is waiting repairs, I've started carrying two batteries on the RCS, one 19.2Ah, and one 13Ah battery, and it now holds my distance record at 169km or so with power to spare. My goal for my next bike is to have a true 1500Wh or more capacity on the bike, but I'd like it in 2 batteries, and I'd like the bike to use the first battery before switching to the second battery, and I don't mind if I have to manually switch it as that may even be preferable. The batteries should still be easily removable from the bike. It's possible before the end of fall I will go on a ride packing more than 3 batteries or over 2kWh of rated capacity.

 

[Captain Slow]

For those who are using 2 and 3 batteries per ride, you must be going awfully fast. What's your average speed? 35 km/hr?

 

[Explorer-1]

For those who are using 2 and 3 batteries per ride, you must be going awfully fast. What's your average speed? 35 km/hr?

For me i'm not going fast, my GPS app does not report average moving speed, but whenever i've tracked it or calculated it based on time and distant i'm between 18 and 24 km/h. I will have some time at 35km but it is usually pretty short, usually when i'm on my way home, or just leaving. Often i ride trails, and once i get off the asphalt i'm typically between 15-25km/h depending on terrain or the scenery. On my longest trip i did about 40km without battery, on my second longest trip i did a lot at 12-15 km because of the terrain. The bike performance get worse after about 50km on my 625Wh batteries so if i can i switch batteries shortly afterwards or so depending on weight and terrain. Going on a long trip, water, batteries, and other things can add quite a bit of weight. My usage is not too typical however.

 

[JuicePower]

For me i'm not going fast, my GPS app does not report average moving speed, but whenever i've tracked it or calculated it based on time and distant i'm between 18 and 24 km/h. I will have some time at 35km but it is usually pretty short, usually when i'm on my way home, or just leaving. Often i ride trails, and once i get off the asphalt i'm typically between 15-25km/h depending on terrain or the scenery. On my longest trip i did about 40km without battery, on my second longest trip i did a lot at 12-15 km because of the terrain. The bike performance get worse after about 50km on my 625Wh batteries so if i can i switch batteries shortly afterwards or so depending on weight and terrain. Going on a long trip, water, batteries, and other things can add quite a bit of weight. My usage is not too typical however.

My Garmin shows grade and average speed. I carried a 2nd battery a couple weeks ago and forgot to bring my key to unlock and swap batteries. So I slowed down and vastly increased my distance under lower power. My biggest power loss comes when I have a few miles upwind. I have 2 Eddie Bauer lunch bags hanging from my handlebars. One with tools, extra lights, spare tube and pump. The other insulated bag has water bottles.

I am not happy that my e-bike has no welded on nuts to install bottle cages.