Hi Jason,
I have just purchased a 2015 elite which will be delivered on 11-feb. How are you liking yours so far, what is the top speed and range? Any wisdom to share with a fellow new owner?
Regards,
Eugene
First, congrats! You're really going to love it. I actually miss the days where I cannot ride mine for one reason or another (right now I have a slight cold, not enough to keep me from work, but wise enough not to ride in 40 degree wet weather).
Top speed I've hit is 25mph going downhill. I have a nearly 4 mile Class 1 Bikeway for my 5.5 one-way commute to work and I keep it pretty steady at the high-end of 22mph (peaking at 23mph here and there). I have to slow on the narrower turns and when peds don't yield to the right (they like to bunch up and hog the whole trail). I have my route to work down to less than 20 minutes, and that's dealing with 4 traffic lights and 3 stops signs when I hit downtown. It's actually faster than driving in to work because of the amount of signals I avoid vs. via automobile, plus I get 20 minutes of exercise twice a day (and 45 minutes two evenings a week).
Range, well that depends. If I store the battery in the bike in the garage, I know I am not getting as much out of it (typically 5% less) vs. if I take it out to charge in the house for the night. But it's not practical to store my bike indoors, and I don't feel like removing the battery on non-charging nights as I'm already carrying in my Racktime bag and the mail for the day. Wind really hurts as well, both in speed (18mph instead of 22mph) and battery drain, but it is so much better than without an electric motor.
I can round-trip the 11 miles to/from work using 40% of the battery. This means I only have to recharge every two days. However, I have two nights a week where I have some church classes Tuesday and Wednesday nights. For those days, I need to ride a total of 20 miles. The bike is totally capable of doing 20 miles, but it doesn't fit the way I need to recharge to do at night at home, and I always ride in Power mode (uses the most power and drains the battery the fastest). I picked up a spare charger for work from someone on the forum here who had purchased many for a cross-country trip. This is how I've been doing it:
Full charge Friday night and battery stored inside
100% charge starting Monday morning
60% and no charge Monday night (11 miles ridden)
40% arriving at work Tuesday morning and a full charge at work (16.5 miles on that Friday night charge)
100% charge leaving work Tuesday evening, 80% at church (5 miles), then another 10 miles back home
40% and no charge Tuesday night (15.5 miles ridden)
20% arriving at work Wednesday morning and a full charge at work (20.5 miles since Tuesday morning charge)
100% charge leaving work Wednesday evening, 80% at church (5 miles), then another 10 miles back home
40% and no charge Wednesday night (15.5 miles ridden)
20% arriving at work Thursday morning and a full charge at work (20.5 miles since Wednesday morning charge)
100% charge leaving work Thursday evening heading home
80% and no charge Thursday night (5.5 miles ridden)
40% at the end of Friday night (16.5 miles ridden since Thursday morning charge)
Cycle starts back over with a full charge Friday night
4 charges per week, 16.5mi + 20.5mi + 20.5mi + 16.5mi = 74 miles per week.
A few things to note: don't try to charge the bike a little and ride it when you first get it. Charge it a full 4 hours before you go ride it. The bike won't operate at 10% or below battery power, and it's a pain to peddle home when it runs out. Don't forget to allow for windy days. It's a little dicey those days that I let it get to 20% before I recharge, and a few times I've done a partial charge for a hour before I left when I woke up and saw the wind was bad.
Some folks here say to charge it every time you ride it. This doesn't make any sense to me from a battery use/recharge standpoint. The warranty only covers 1000 charges. I would never let it get down to 20% and not charge it, and I understand that's not good for the battery, but I don't think letting it sit overnight at 40% is bad. I'm planning to buy the 14ah battery in 3 years and rotate it in for the longer days and use the 11ah battery for the shorter days until it won't cover 11 miles.
I really like my wind breaker and have ridden every day, even in the rain. If the rain is really bad, I have shoe covers in my bag and a spare rain pants. I bike to/from work in my work slacks and dress shirt (I leave work shoes at work). I immediately unzip the wind breaker as I'm arriving and as soon as I get off the bike I strip it off, and I've never had a sweat or odor problem. I'm very much out of shape as well, and while my heart rate does get up there for 20 minutes to work (or 45 minutes on the ride home from church classes), I've never had to shower after. We'll see how this goes in the summer, but I have a shower at work if I need to. Here are two Amazon products I picked up:
Wind breaker
Sports pants and
shoe covers or really bad rain days
As I said earlier, I picked up a Racktime bag and love how fast it attaches and detaches and I'm on the go. At first I was dealing with 3 bungee cords and a lunch bag and it took a bit go get it on the rack (not hard, just not the two seconds the Racktime takes). I really like the look of the Racktime bag I purchased, and I've kept my bike 100% black (no orange reflectors) and love the way it looks.
Racktime WorkIt Pro Commuter Pannier
Did you get the ST1? I purchased the City Kit (half off) and glad I did, for both the really bright light, the fenders, and the rack. I understand the ST2 just comes with these as standard.
Also, if you purchased the ST1, I would get one of these caps for the power plug, especially if you'll ever be riding in the weather:
https://www.shapeways.com/product/X99HWKQUS/stromer-st1-plug-cap
Oh, and don't forget to lube up the chain and sprockets, especially after any weather. This product was recommended to me years ago by a local bike shop, and I've been using it on the Stromer after any rainy rides or at least once a week:
Boeshield T-9 Waterproof Lubrication
Hope you enjoy yours as much as I have.