mschwett
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
those things are so annoying. isn’t sound a sign of wasted energy lol.
New Turbo Creo - First Impressions
- Thread starter PassoGavia
- Start date
those things are so annoying. isn’t sound a sign of wasted energy lol.
Saratoga Dave
Well-Known Member
Can we sidestep here a bit to the matter of range on these Creos? When I bought mine about five weeks ago, I figured that the Range Extender would likely be the first thing I’d need to get for it. Now nearing 500 miles, and having gotten used to how I ride it and it’s capabilities, I am surprised to realize I might not bother getting one at all. My 30 to 40 mile rides have not yet exceeded 50% of the battery, which is still amazing to me.
After suffering constant range anxiety with my Trek XM-700 and it’s 400 watt/hr battery, followed by somewhat lesser stress with the next two bikes and their 500 size batteries, the idea that this 320 watt/hr unit would actually be useful is quite something. I know that I tend to ride a good bit without any assistance, but the part I didn‘t think about much was that the lower power output would so significantly reduce energy expended compared to the big boost I routinely got from the other bikes. I guess.
I have a 50 mile group ride coming up in a couple of weeks now with four other guys on a Tour de Cure ride - all four on analog bikes, and I have to say I’ve got no apprehension at all that I’ll have the range. We’ll be riding more slowly than I would normally do by myself, and even with a couple thousand feet of climbing involved I don’t see a real problem.
And for that matter, from an economic standpoint, if I really am concerned about making a 50 or 60 mile ride, how hard is it to just bring the charger and spend 20 minutes sitting around a convenience store or pizza joint someplace while picking up a quick 10 miles? I did that repeatedly on my trip across NYS a few years ago on that Trek and it was fine.
My second teenage grandson busted a chain on his now outgrown Walmart bike yesterday which seems to have resulted in a brand new Giant Roam sitting in the back of my car for a surprise delivery tomorrow - to go along with the one I bought last year for his older brother, and also the one I will buy next week or so for his younger sister - so while Giant and the LBS and the kids - and me - are all happy, this stuff adds up! Thank heaven the other grandkids are still small.
After suffering constant range anxiety with my Trek XM-700 and it’s 400 watt/hr battery, followed by somewhat lesser stress with the next two bikes and their 500 size batteries, the idea that this 320 watt/hr unit would actually be useful is quite something. I know that I tend to ride a good bit without any assistance, but the part I didn‘t think about much was that the lower power output would so significantly reduce energy expended compared to the big boost I routinely got from the other bikes. I guess.
I have a 50 mile group ride coming up in a couple of weeks now with four other guys on a Tour de Cure ride - all four on analog bikes, and I have to say I’ve got no apprehension at all that I’ll have the range. We’ll be riding more slowly than I would normally do by myself, and even with a couple thousand feet of climbing involved I don’t see a real problem.
And for that matter, from an economic standpoint, if I really am concerned about making a 50 or 60 mile ride, how hard is it to just bring the charger and spend 20 minutes sitting around a convenience store or pizza joint someplace while picking up a quick 10 miles? I did that repeatedly on my trip across NYS a few years ago on that Trek and it was fine.
My second teenage grandson busted a chain on his now outgrown Walmart bike yesterday which seems to have resulted in a brand new Giant Roam sitting in the back of my car for a surprise delivery tomorrow - to go along with the one I bought last year for his older brother, and also the one I will buy next week or so for his younger sister - so while Giant and the LBS and the kids - and me - are all happy, this stuff adds up! Thank heaven the other grandkids are still small.
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mschwett
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
couldn’t agree more! the “range” of a electric bicycle really is based on how fast you want to go, and how much work you’re prepared to do.
the creo has an efficient drivetrain, light tires and wheels, good aerodynamics and a reasonably aero riding position. with all that most even moderately healthy people should be able to go 15+ MPH without any assistance at all after a bit of practice. what an average person can’t do is ride up a huge hill, or into a huge headwind, or at 20+ MPH. the creo enables all those, and the range is more about how much help one wants with those things than it is about the total distance.
the bicycle is an amazing machine, as is the human body. the glycogen in your blood - without any added food - is enough to power a bicycle for over 100 miles at 15mph with no electric assist! that’s more than twice the creo’s internal baytery
Creo rider
Member
- Region
- Australia
I've been riding my Creo expert (2022) for a couple of months and now have around 2,000k (1200 miles) on the odometer. My experience has been that on a ride with an overall average climb of around 1% (so 500m (1,600ft) climb for 50kms (30 miles), 800m (2,600ft) climb for 80kms (50miles)) I use about 3.2watts/km. That's with the power setting on 50% for 85-90% of the time and 60% power setting for 10-15% of the time. Levociraptor installed. I take the RE out with me for the longer rides because its so convenient and I don't like range anxiety. Of course for rides with more climbing, or at higher assist levels (or higher speeds) I would use more battery.
It would be interesting if you could share your experience up till now with the Levociraptor on your Creo.
I'm considering to install one. Do you think it's worthwhile?
Creo rider
Member
- Region
- Australia
The Levociraptor is absolutely excellent. You wouldn't know its there, until you go over 25kph. In some of my bunch rides we have some sprint sections and without the L I'd be left miles behind. But with it, I can be a lead-out (if I want to assist) or just keep up. It takes (literally) about 2 minutes to install. Use the app once at the beginning to set your speed and that's it. The only thing is that you don't want to connect your Garmin device (or similar) to the Creo, as it will give erroneous readings for speed and distance. But you can get that info from the Garmin's GPS, and you can still connect the other bike sensors (through Ant+ I think) perfectly well, so your power, cadence, RD battery etc all work fine on the Garmin. I find the Connect IQ app "Ebike field" great for displaying the battery level and mode. The other thing I'll say is that now I've had the Creo SL for 6 months and about 4,000kms (2,500 miles) I have found that I now spend about 30-40% of most rides with the motor off (downhill, flat sections) and mostly ride in Eco (now set to 40%/40%) with Sport (60%/60%) for difficult hills and virtually never use Turbo (100%/100%) except maybe in the aforementioned sprints occasionally. Battery lasts much longer that way too of course. Honestly, one of the best bikes I've ever had.
Thanks much for your feedback! Your info is really helpful. The Creo is a splendid bike indeed.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
I'd rather recommend the PearTune 3.0 for the Creo derestriction. The Levociraptor thing (that is, I'm sure, very easy to install) is just cheating the speed sensor but is not feeding the TCU with the right information. It makes for example, the odometer getting totally wrong information. PearTune setup is more tricky but it cheats both the speed sensor and the TCU, so the speed and distance information is always correct, also in Garmin or Wahoo.
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