Electronic Anemometer

[6zfshdb]

Use the wind to your advantage

Seriously though, I use weather forecasts and current local conditions when planning any ride. The idea is to have the wind at your back on the way home. Unfortunately, the routes I travel are usually serpentine and wind direction often changes unpredictably during the day.

I'm a weather spotter for the National Weather Service and always carry my Kestrel wherever I go:

Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter with LiNK | Kestrel Instruments

Know where your bullet will hit before you pull the trigger. The Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter measures wind, altitude, and all critical weather and ballistic variables to calculate an accurate aim point for long-range shooting. No more DOPE cards, re-zeroing, or guessing at the wind...

kestrelballistics.com

Expensive yes, but it produces the accurate data necessary for remote weather reporting. Probably not practical for the average biker to carry though.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Gionni: Interested to hear about your battery consumption to ride into a strong headwind. Please also tell me how you actually did your ride. I assume you use the throttle to adjust the cruising speed but are still pedalling?

I'm sorry Stefan... I had a bit of a hectic morning with not much sleep and when I had a moment to charge my battery early this morning I totally forgot about this thread and didn't reset the wh counter or take note of the wh start number on my charging station... thus I have no way now to calculate accurately wh used on the windy ride.
Lately I've been averaging about 8.25wh/mile on the same course and I thought it would be interesting to see what that number increased by on a windy day.
To add to my perfect day... Today being one of the nicer weather days so far this Spring, I was only able to squeeze a quick 10mi/45 minute ride in between my other responsibilities :-(

Is your question on throttle and how I ride for real?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

hus I have no way now to calculate accurately wh used on the windy ride.

Thank you for your effort Gionni! You can surely try again the next time.
8.25 Wh/mi or 5.12 Wh/km is a very reasonable consumption factor!

Is your question on throttle and how I ride for real?

Yes, it is!

 

[Gionnirocket]

Thank you for your effort Gionni! You can surely try again the next time.
8.25 Wh/mi or 5.12 Wh/km is a very reasonable consumption factor!

Yes, it is!

No wonder you are so anti_throttle.
The BBS* works as any other PAS sensor ebike thus provides assistance based on cadence.
The lower/further my cadence is from the current PAS setting, the more it will assist me in reaching that setting. As I approach and maintain the PAS setting cadence, the motor starts to taper off assistance. I usually choose a PAS and gear combo that allows me to maintain a comfortable cadence and with the motor providing 0-100w on a flat and up to 250w on a slight incline or headwind. On steeper, longer hill climbs I start to see numbers more around 400w and above
So as an example only.. when set to PAS 5 of 9 it will help me reach and maintain a cadence of approximately 80rmp
The throttle never enters in to my ride at all and for all intensive purposes could be left disconnected. As stated elsewhere this is how I ride 99.98% of the time.

Now this is how I do use the throttle which is set to provide a variable 0 - 100% motor speed and current.
For 1-2 seconds to get the bike rolling when starting up hill and /or over bumpy terrain . A blessing to my knees.

As I approach a busy street to cross. If in a steady cadence, instead of adjusting PAS up I can add 1-2 seconds of throttle to quickly cross and then resume exactly as before. Or to cross from a dead stop very quickly.

For 1-2 seconds when riding over bumps (e.g. 30 feet of washboarding) when the rest of the trail is smooth. This allows me to raise off the seat with bent knees and ride over the bumpy section without losing any speed. Again a blessing to my knees and actually quite exhilarating.

And that's all I got to say about that

 

[Stefan Mikes]

No wonder you are so anti_throttle.
The BBS* works as any other PAS sensor ebike thus provides assistance based on cadence.
The lower/further my cadence is from the current PAS setting, the more it will assist me in reaching that setting. As I approach and maintain the PAS setting cadence, the motor starts to taper off assistance. I usually choose a PAS and gear combo that allows me to maintain a comfortable cadence and with the motor providing 0-100w on a flat and up to 250w on a slight incline or headwind. On steeper, longer hill climbs I start to see numbers more around 400w and above
So as an example only.. when set to PAS 5 of 9 it will help me reach and maintain a cadence of approximately 80rmp
The throttle never enters in to my ride at all and for all intensive purposes could be left disconnected. As stated elsewhere this is how I ride 99.98% of the time.

Now this is how I do use the throttle which is set to provide a variable 0 - 100% motor speed and current.
For 1-2 seconds to get the bike rolling when starting up hill and /or over bumpy terrain . A blessing to my knees.

As I approach a busy street to cross. If in a steady cadence, instead of adjusting PAS up I can add 1-2 seconds of throttle to quickly cross and then resume exactly as before. Or to cross from a dead stop very quickly.

For 1-2 seconds when riding over bumps (e.g. 30 feet of washboarding) when the rest of the trail is smooth. This allows me to raise off the seat with bent knees and ride over the bumpy section without losing any speed. Again a blessing to my knees and actually quite exhilarating.

And that's all I got to say about that

Thank you!

The main difference to my hub-drive motor e-bike is that there is no throttle in mine, so the performance is equivalent to 100% throttle all the time there, and there are PAS levels 0 through 5 in my e-bike. I use the derailleur intensively on all my e-bikes. That is, while approaching a junction (or any planned stop), I stronly downshift (Shimano shifters on my mid-drive e-bikes allow 3 gears down with a single click), so I have no issue to effortlessly start from a dead stop. (My legs are the throttle on the mid-drives).

 

[Gionnirocket]

Thank you!

The main difference to my hub-drive motor e-bike is that there is no throttle in mine, so the performance is equivalent to 100% throttle all the time there, and there are PAS levels 0 through 5 in my e-bike. I use the derailleur intensively on all my e-bikes. That is, while approaching a junction (or any planned stop), I stronly downshift (Shimano shifters on my mid-drive e-bikes allow 3 gears down with a single click), so I have no issue to effortlessly start from a dead stop. (My legs are the throttle on the mid-drives).

Honesty I believe you would need to try it to appreciate it.

I too use my derailleur frequently, the same as I did on a conventional bike and my Microshift lever can drop 3 gears down with one click as well. I opted for 9 PAS (not the norm) settings as I like the ability to fine tune my cadence selection as well as having the increase between them minimal for a very gentle transition.... so you see we don't ride much differently. Being able to customize the details of how it works really is the allure of the BBS motors. The variable PAS works very well and I can see wattage increase into a headwind and then drop back automatically as the wind dies off.
And I do the same as you on planed stops and can do (have) as you do often. But there are occasions where a two second slight twist of throttle is much easier, efficient and much better for my knees that don't appreciate the force needed to get rolling on hilly rough terrain as they did when I was younger. This was part of the reason I rode less before getting an ebike as once inflamed they were a bother the rest of the ride and for possibly days later.

And then believe me my last example of throttle use is so much fun and so much better then slowing in such situations.
So again we are talking about a total of <15 seconds of throttle use on hours long rides.... so the cycling experience is not diminish in any way... In fact I think it improved upon.
So stop sounding like those spandex traditional cyclists who have never tried an ebike but condemn them on some ridiculous utopian principle.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Honesty I believe you would need to try it to appreciate it.

I too use my derailleur frequently, the same as I did on a conventional bike and my Microshift lever can drop 3 gears down with one click as well. I opted for 9 PAS (not the norm) settings as I like the ability to fine tune my cadence selection as well as having the increase between them minimal for a very gentle transition.... so you see we don't ride much differently. Being able to customize the details of how it works really is the allure of the BBS motors. The variable PAS works very well and I can see wattage increase into a headwind and then drop back automatically as the wind dies off.
And I do the same as you on planed stops and can do (have) as you do often. But there are occasions where a two second slight twist of throttle is much easier, efficient and much better for my knees that don't appreciate the force needed to get rolling on hilly rough terrain as they did when I was younger. This was part of the reason I rode less before getting an ebike as once inflamed they were a bother the rest of the ride and for possibly days later.

And then believe me my last example of throttle use is so much fun and so much better then slowing in such situations.
So again we are talking about a total of <15 seconds of throttle use on hours long rides.... so the cycling experience is not diminish in any way... In fact I think it improved upon.
So stop sounding like those spandex traditional cyclists who have never tried an ebike but condemn them on some ridiculous utopian principle.

I really appreciate your detailed explanations Gionni. However...

...I and my brother rode for 66.8 miles today. He rode a Vado SL (a low power, small battery, lightweight mid-drive motor e-bike) and I rode Vado 5.0.

For me, the ultimate test of e-bike value is how people ride it. Did I mention I hardly can walk because of arteriosclerosis? Yet I can pedal.

 

[Gionnirocket]

I really appreciate your detailed explanations Gionni. However...
View attachment 121035
View attachment 121036
...I and my brother rode for 66.8 miles today. He rode a Vado SL (a low power, small battery, lightweight mid-drive motor e-bike) and I rode Vado 5.0.

For me, the ultimate test of e-bike value is how people ride it. Did I mention I hardly can walk because of arteriosclerosis? Yet I can pedal.

I thought this was a discussion about needing to know wind speed??
But as usual.. it's just another thread where you find a way to pat yourself on the back while you Strava stroke with the other hand.
I only explained how my bike works because..
1. you asked
and 2... your assumption as usual were all wrong.
So how does the value of an ebike matter here? I can do the same with my bike at 20% of the cost... what's your point?
But since you like posting details... Post some real pertinent information.
What was the total trip time? Was this dragged out over 8 hours or even days?
What was your wh/mile?
Did you use multiple batteries? Recharge Batteries?
Cause you know... anyone can ghost pedal any distance and produce bullshit.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The anemometer was unnecessary on the Saturday ride as the wind was exceptionally mild.

What was the total trip time? Was this dragged out over 8 hours or even days?

It was a 6 h 50 minutes trip devoted to discovering our ancestry.

What was your wh/mile?

Cannot tell you as that was a rare weekend when my smartphone went bananas because of not restarting it for many months. Will provide details for another super long trip in a while.

Did you use multiple batteries? Recharge Batteries?

Two batteries, each about 500 Wh now. Not discharged totally.

My brother was riding my Vado SL, with 480 Wh onboard. He completed the same route with 17% battery left, as we were making the last 30 km in Turbo mode.
-----------------------------
The details for my longest ride ever (Vado 5.0):

• Distance: 168 km (104.4 mi)
• Elevation gain: 588 m (1,929 ft)
• Moving time: 7 h 20 min
• Elapsed time: 11 hours 1 minute
• Wh/km: 6.05. Wh/mi: 9.73.
• 1061 Wh consumed from two batteries
• 70 F, no wind.

---------------
The details for my most intensive mountain ride:

• Distance: 125 km (77.7 mi)
• Elevation gain: 1543 m (5,062 ft)
• Max grade: 19%
• Moving time: 5 h 51 min
• Elapsed time: 11 hours 12 minutes
• Wh/km: 7.85. Wh/mi: 12.6.
• 981 Wh consumed from two batteries
• 50 F, mild wind.

So Gionni, could you match it on your e-bike that you claim cost 1/5th of mine? How do you know what my Vado cost?