My Archon Range

[Ayl]

1. How would you guys characterise the bikes capacity to be used as an exercise bike?
2. Is riding without the motor just not realistic?
3. If not, is riding on eco 1 give you decent level of exercise?
4. If no to all, then would it be fair to say that bulk of the use with the new motor is for commuting and touring?

Here are my subjective thoughts on these questions:
1. Regarding this study, and my own personal experience the UC is without a doubt an exercise bike. Even though I'm on an ebike, I'm outside and getting exercise. One part of the summation of the study is, "...this data suggests that e-bike use leads to substantial increases in physical activity in ebikers switching from private motorized vehicle and public transport, while net losses in physical activity in e-bikers switching from cycling were much less due to increases in overall travel distance."

2. No, I don't think so. Whether you ride for desired extra effort, or the battery is drained, an ebike can be ridden without a motor.

3. Yes. I may have to provide less effort, but I'm staying out longer, and I'm still pedaling.

4. I guess this question is "NA" since I didn't have a "no" to any question. If the goal is to increase the effort on an Ultimate Commuter so it's closer to a regular bicycle, I imagine creating a profile to limit the assist would be a good way to go.

 

[TomD]

Life with stock controller

Life with Archon X1

 

[TomD]

I as able to replicate @Ayl's observation that current is limited when controller thinks battery is low. In may case it's a bigger deal because I was sent a controller calibrated for 52V by mistake (my battery is 48V) so it starts limiting far too soon. No biggie as this will be resolved once I get my programming cable to calibrate it for 48V. Also, I noticed my gear sensor not working so well at PAS 5. I never have it in PAS 5 but since I was testing PAS at low battery it was in 5 and I noticed I was getting a lot more gear mashing. Seems the controller kicks in faster at PAS 5 and gives less time for changing gear. May not be an issue for WW bikes as I not sure if they use gear sensor but for those of use with chains and cassette it's something to consider.

 

[vincent]

Ayl What size is your battery?

 

[Ayl]

Ayl What size is your battery?

It's a 52v 17.5ah battery.
I should have mentioned that in the beginning. Thanks for the reminder @vincent .

 

[vincent]

are you riding more pavement or off road? thinking you ride much faster than i do

i ride off road 90% of the time, bike loaded to 100-105 lbs with stuff/extra battery, probably average 8-10mph and do much better than that with the stock controller on a 14ah battery..
am usually in green 2 or 3
most rides minimum 1500 elevation gain and lots 2300-2500 gain
almost always get 35 miles to a 14ah battery which to me is way bad but better than 25 miles to a 17ah...
get 40-45 miles if the bike is not loaded and only 700-800 elevation gain

today i did 22 miles, 1000 elev gain with a rear bag and front bag- light for me - used less than 5.70 ah according to the satiator

hoping to get 90-100 miles using 2-14 ah batteries once the new controller is put in
fingers crossed


side note my batteries are 52 and display is set correctly to 52volt and my display always shows 1 volt lower than it is ....

 

[Ayl]

are you riding more pavement or off road? thinking you ride much faster than i do
side note my batteries are 52 and display is set correctly to 52volt and my display always shows 1 volt lower than it is ....

I'm riding on pavement predominantly. I've also noticed the slight volt difference between my bike display and the satiator.

 

[TomW]

We're in the same boat @TomD. Before the Archon upgrade, and using the stock controller, even running on only 750W, my range was limited to around 25 miles. The bulk of places I wanted to get to were over 15 miles away, so I typically charged at the location or knew of a park nearby with an outlet. With the Archon controller, I'm not worrying about charging, just what I can do to keep my buttkis from complaining about the mileage.




I have to concur.

Thats at least 3 of us in that boat then. I used to take my charger to work just to make sure I could get home, now if really lazy I can basicly let the bike do all the work both directions if I want.