Nice 1-Hour Juiced CCX Fitness Ride

[SirJonathan]

Took out the CCX today for a really nice ride on a portion of our Mountains to Sea trail in Orange County, California.

It was about 75F today and the bike paths and roads are very clean after a few days of storms and a few days of street/path sweeping.

Ride stats:

Miles: 23.23
Elevation Gain: 387ft (Obviously didn't start or end in the mountains!)
Moving time: 59m 46s
Average Moving Speed: 23.3mph
Maximum Speed: 31.5mph
Starting Voltage from CCX controller: 54.6v
Ending Voltage from CCX controller after 30 minute post-ride waiting period: 50.1v

These stats are from my Garmin Edge 130 on-bike GPS computer.

Couple of notes: VERY fun to ride this bike! No battery cutouts. No chain drops. No mechanical issues whatsoever.

I am going to remove the fenders. They are not needed for my riding and they make noise. They are superfluous for me.

I'm also going to swap out the seat. That gel seat might be great for some but it's too soft for me. My road bike seat is hard as nails and fits me better. I'll pop it off the Cannondale and put it on the CCX for my next ride to test out.

I've done this ride probably 500 times. I change the start and end points a lot so it's hard to pinpoint exactly the difference. I know that one time I averaged 21mph for the ride back in the day. It's highly dependent upon time of day as the wind can kill you. It's usually blowing from the ocean but on some days you can catch a tailwind both ways and some days you can catch a headwind both ways. It's taken me 90 minutes and it's taken me 70 minutes. I will say that I've never done it in under an hour like today and there was definitely a headwind the entire way up.

All in all, very successful ride. It occurred to me that I didn't take water bottles with me! Didn't need them. I'll connect my cadence sensor because I really want to know my average cadence. It was pretty high - I'd guess around 90rpm. Comfortable for me.

Speedometer and odometer on the CCX are spot-on. Negligible difference between the Edge 130 and the CCX controller for the entire trip and I checked it often while riding.

Great job Juiced!

 

[SirJonathan]

Oh, I should have mentioned that the majority of the ride was done on Assist Level 3. There's a 3-mile portion around the Back Bay that is an actual road (one-way with bike lane) and I used S mode for that so around 5-6 miles were on S mode.

The 31.5mph was achieved around the Back Bay on S mode on a flat with a tailwind. Cruising around the Back Bay on S mode at 30mph took effort but was not what I would describe as difficult. I never sweated the entire ride. None.

 

[Justin Fischer]

I never sweated the entire ride. None.

A fitness ride for you or the bike?

 

[SirJonathan]

LOL...I'm a runner...seven miles a day...used to be an avid road cyclist...around 10,000 miles a year. I meant fitness ride in the sense that it wasn't just a leisurely 13mph ride in flip flops - which my previous few CCX rides have been.

It's pretty hard for me to work up a sweat on an eBike - especially in our SoCal "winter". Now on those August days when it hits 100F things will probably change!

 

[Merc]

On my RCS today. Mainly R mode. Doing it again tomorrow morning just changing a few routes.

 

[SirJonathan]

Merc - R mode supposedly really eats the battery. Do you know the starting and ending voltages for this ride? 1827ft is a LOT more elevation than my ride - and yours was 7 miles farther than mine. I would imagine in R mode with that elevation gain that you consumed a fair amount of the battery.

I think I had three or four bars left when I finished. I should have checked more closely - it was definitely less than 50%. Then again, I started with 54.6 volts and I believe the 52V battery when fully charged is somewhere around 58V so I probably had another 3 or 4 volts of charge to be completely full before I started.

Incidentally, my left foot is cramping up like crazy tonight. I know it's from wearing running shoes and doing my ride. The soles aren't rigid enough. I would hate to switch to clipless and use my Shimano shoes but I think it would be a lot easier. Maybe I'll look into getting some riding-specific hard-soled non-clipless biking shoes. Man, that's a lot of hyphens!

 

[Merc]

I started at 58.8 and ended at 49. However, at the tail end it was blinking because it seemed to drop to 44, which is my set limit, so I cruised down to mode 3 until I got home. Where it read 49. It’s already recharged for tomorrow. The elevation is crazy and I’m trying to push it as hard as I can.

Future adventure will be taking the Los Angeles River Trail and ride through Griffith Park.

 

[Merc]

I’ve been wearing Nike Air Force 1’s. My favorite sneaks. But for me they’re seriously comfortable and have thick soles. Been wearing jeans and long sleeve mock neck zip up shirts and a down vest. It’s chilly in the morning and riding an ebike I’m going fast and not exerting strenuously so I like the coverage. Best thing I bought was a helmet with a visor. Kask Lifestyle. I noticed in NYC, every other bike was an ebike and they were using full face visors.

Hear you on the fenders. First thing I took off when I got the bike.

 

[Bruce Arnold]

Incidentally, my left foot is cramping up like crazy tonight. I know it's from wearing running shoes and doing my ride. The soles aren't rigid enough. I would hate to switch to clipless and use my Shimano shoes but I think it would be a lot easier. Maybe I'll look into getting some riding-specific hard-soled non-clipless biking shoes. Man, that's a lot of hyphens!

I had the same problem. These shoes fixed it for me. Just a suggestion.

I have a question about Race mode. My understanding from reading the website was that it was the same as Sport, but would keep providing pedal assist above the 28 mph cut-out for Sport. Not more boost, just keeps working at any speed. Is that what you've found, or is there more to it than that?

 

[Merc]

I haven’t tested the difference between R and S. I’m just usually on R. On R I can maintain speeds of 28-30 on a nice easy cadence. It’s hard to get above that on the RCS unless you’re going down hill.

 

[SirJonathan]

Did another ride last night and only slightly modified the route. It was 80F around 4pm and I got my first taste of just how fun this bike is going to be this spring and summer! Wow. I really was going to go out and do a 20 minute ride and ended up doing the ride to the coast again. It's just simply fun to bike again!

Miles: 24.87
Elevation Gain: 341ft
Moving time: 1hr 4 min
Average Moving Speed: 23.0mph
Maximum Speed: 30.0mph
Starting Voltage from CCX controller: 57.8v (fully charged)
Ending Voltage from CCX controller after 30 minute post-ride waiting period: 49.9v

There was quite a bit more wind on this ride and I noticed it really seemed to eat up the battery more. I used 4.5V last time I did this ride and nearly 8V this time while I added only around 1.5 miles to the route. I did put it in R mode around the road portion of this ride instead of S. Most of the ride was done in Assist Level 3. I also turned on the headlight for the last 30 minutes which I never did the last ride.

I chalk up the difference to wind resistance and R mode. With my battery low voltage cutoff set to 45V I wouldn't have too many miles left before being throttled down which surprised me coming from a fully charged battery. This is why I like Merc's tests - he's putting it in R and pushing it hard to deliver maximum worst-case range numbers. These numbers will help potential buyers in determining what they can get out of this battery and motor.

 

[SirJonathan]

I had the same problem. These shoes fixed it for me. Just a suggestion.

I have a question about Race mode. My understanding from reading the website was that it was the same as Sport, but would keep providing pedal assist above the 28 mph cut-out for Sport. Not more boost, just keeps working at any speed. Is that what you've found, or is there more to it than that?

I tested this out last night on my ride. When you're in R mode you keep feeling the assist. I don't get much above 30mph when I use it. But when you're going 30mph and you switch from R to S mode you will feel a significant reduction in assist. You can literally feel the power drop and the bike slowing down. Almost feels like regeneration, although obviously it's not.

I do know when I was in R mode last night I was in gear 7 out of 9 and was pedaling pretty quickly - probably a cadence of 95-100. I could have put it into the highest gear and probably eked out another 2-3mph but at the expense of my knees.

 

[Bruce Arnold]

Thanks for the update!

 

[MJ_Sharma]

I tested this out last night on my ride. When you're in R mode you keep feeling the assist. I don't get much above 30mph when I use it. But when you're going 30mph and you switch from R to S mode you will feel a significant reduction in assist. You can literally feel the power drop and the bike slowing down. Almost feels like regeneration, although obviously it's not.

I do know when I was in R mode last night I was in gear 7 out of 9 and was pedaling pretty quickly - probably a cadence of 95-100. I could have put it into the highest gear and probably eked out another 2-3mph but at the expense of my knees.

I also tried the R mode last week on a flat road and was able to feel the assist till 33 mph. on uphills there is not difference in the power between S & R