I've ridden my CCS with the 17.4 Ah battery/default tires around 700 miles now, almost all commuting 28.8 mi round trip (1h35m riding time) along 80% beach path/protected bike path and 20% paved roads with no recharge from work. Observations.
Good:
- My coworkers are still amazed that I commute 4 out of 5 days a week such a distance on a bike.
- Overall feeling of the bike is very solid and controllable. My wife who is not very confident on bikes in general was able to ride a mile at 18 MPH with confidence, probably due to the increased weight and low center of mass of the bike.
- About half a mile of my commute is along a 40 MPH speed limit car street with a couple stop lights. At assist level 3/S with some effort or if I unlock the top speed, I'm able to cruise at 30 MPH which is high enough that car traffic hasn't gotten annoyed at yet for taking a lane.
- When I'm tired riding home, I just go ahead and turn on the cruise control on the bike at a low speed (15-18 MPH) for a couple miles to relax.
- It rained on Thursday and the fenders did a good job of keeping the water/dirt off of me.
- Being on the beach path/protected bike lanes for most of my ride is a great commute, because a) it's really pretty and b) there are few enough other riders/pedestrians so I can wear headphones and listen to music, which wasn't the case on my previous city street bike commute. Also, very few people ride the beach path after 8:30PM, probably due to lack of power/lights, so I can take my time and just relax. Occasionally I see some wildlife!
Neutral:
- In assist, I'm probably at 15% eco, 35% level 1, 35% level 2, 8% level 3, 7% level S usage.
- I'm averaging somewhere between 15-20 Wh/mi depending on how eco I go (~19 MPH for the 15 Wh/mi, ~24 MPH for the 20 Wh/mi). If I'm using 80% of my pack at 20 Wh/mi, my theoretical range is 33 mi or so.
- I think I need a bike fitting, as my hands sometimes cramp up and I sometimes lose sensation in my nether regions for a while after riding. I'm wearing gloves/bike shorts, so it must be my riding position or something.
- I'm pumping the tires up about once a week to 60 psi. They're only probably losing 3-4 psi per week so I could probably wait longer. No flats so far!
Bad:
- Range anxiety is real. Problem with the 33 mi range is that I have some steep hills at the end of my ride home so I like to save some voltage for them. Higher voltage = better: at 700 watts on these hills, I'm huffing and puffing at 8 MPH, but at 900 watts, it's smooth sailing at 10 MPH. I also didn't realize that I often go out with coworkers after work so I put in an order with Juiced for an extra charger for work so I can roll to whatever restaurant/house we're going to instead of taking Lyft. Unfortunately they're sold out of regular chargers but customer service was able to place a special order for me.
- Out of the box the front disk brake needed adjustment as did the derailleur. I've also got some unevenly pitched motor sound that happens about 50% of the time that I engage the motor. Not sure what's going on there.
- At about 500 mi, I started getting front disk brake squeal (very loud) that comes and goes and some play in the chain (I think I need to regrease it).
- It's unfortunate that the electric motor has to be turned on in order for you to use the front light of the bike. I know Tora said that he'd rather people always use the electric assist of the bike because otherwise it feels like a heavy bike, but if this is your only vehicle and you're trying to eke out some extra battery life for a later event (hills, event later that day), it's unsafe to ride with the bike off at night as you can't use the front light. Please add a "Mode 0" to the bike, even if it's disabled by default (have to turn it on in the options)!
Overall I'm very happy with the bike. I would've put about $375 into my car (at IRS rates) plus $144 of parking at this point, so the bike is about 25% done paying for itself, excluding the exercise I'm getting
.
If I were building a future perfect commuter bike for myself, I would use a totally internally geared + protected chain system to reduce the maintenance burden of the bike. If I could somehow protect the brakes too, that would be ideal.
