Mass Deduction
Active Member
I did several big e-bike rides for work this summer, some solo, and some in staff groups. All on reasonably lightweight (43-55 pound) and powerful (63-90 Nm) class-3 mid-drive e-bikes The shortest was 100km each way, with a rest day in between, from southern Vancouver Island to Bellingham Washington, by way of Anacortes. The longest was a 275 km one day round-trip from southern Vancouver Island to North Vancouver and back. I also did other trips, with Southern Vancouver Island to Whistler and back, over two days, being a standout. I have some observations I'd like to share.
I chose to carry multiple batteries, and as many chargers as I had batteries. I didn't always fully drain one battery dead before switching to a second, as I might get a recharge opportunity mid-ride. So you might want to (for example) have two batteries at 40% rather than one at 0% and the other at 80%. So how far you drain one battery before switching to the other is a key strategy.
If you have two or more people who can use the same battery, amalgamate those riders together in your battery charging strategy. Consider how drained the other people's batteries are in deciding when to swap out yours, and in how many batteries of that type that you take. So some communication is recommended here.
The other thing that I found was key was to figure out how many batteries I could get away with, and then take one more battery than that.
Talk to the people who will be at your destination in advance, to make sure you know what bike storage and recharge opportunities you'll have.
If you have the opportunity to purchase faster chargers for your e-bike, that's probably worth the investment. Ditto if you have the opportunity to invest in larger capacity batteries. Remember, you're doing this instead of driving, flying, etc., so don't be afraid to invest in it.
With ferry trips, make sure you get to the ferry early enough so that they let you on before the cars, but whenever you get on the ferry grab all your batteries and chargers and run like stink upstairs and find a base camp to plug them all in for recharging. These are ferry trips in the 1.5 to 3 hour range, for those unfamiliar with the typical length of a ferry trip from Vancouver Island to the mainland, so there's enough to put a significant amount of recharge into an e-bike battery.
Don't be afraid to seed the route with pre-charged spare batteries. Know someone who lives along the route, or have a connection with a business along the way? Ask permission to send them a pre-charged battery and a charger. Why a charger as well? So that you can leave a battery charging there for the return trip, of course!
Don't be afraid to seek out a recharge opportunity with branches of businesses that you patronize. For example, I stopped at a branch of a financial institution that I bank with along the route to Whistler. I actually needed to do some banking, but I also hung around for a long while in the lobby with my batteries recharging the whole time. I even left my bike and batteries there during the recharging and briefly hit a grocery store in the same complex. Gauge the situation and guess whether it's better to ask permission, or to just do it and beg forgiveness if necessary. Also have something to do during that time, like stretch, or read, or catch up on work in your mobile office. Make the recharging stops worthwhile rather than wasted time.
I found my average speed was nearly identical for both the solo and the group e-bike rides, and that was true no matter how hard we pushed our bikes on the group rides. But we did find that by taking drafting seriously we could significantly extend our range for the group e-bike rides.
I want to do more long distance travel by e-bike. It's been tremendously enjoyable and rewarding. Some people might find the degree of battery management I engaged in would be crazy-making, but I am a strategist at heart and I enjoyed the charge level management challenge!
In the past my solo bike touring was about 18-19 km/h (over hill and dale, it's hilly here). (A reminder that you divide by 1.61 to approximately convert from km/h to mph.) On a class-3 e-bike I was able to push my solo touring pace to about 35-39 km/h, so approximately double. So that was extremely satisfying. Still slow enough to experience things along the way better than I would if it was a car trip, but fast enough to really get somewhere in a day. My group bicycle touring pace in the past would typically average about 23-25 km/h, but group e-bike touring averaged 33-39 km/h, so closer to 50% faster than by muscle bike. Those numbers may understate the difference, as I was more physically fit in my prime muscle bike touring days, so were I as fit now as I was then I might enjoy an even bigger advantage for the e-bike riding. The solo riding was mostly in high assist, the group riding was taking full advantage of the entire range of assist from low to high, with the person sucking the headwinds usually in medium or high assist and the people drafting often doing so in low or medium.
Maybe this is old hat and discussed to death here, but in case there's something interesting there I thought I'd post it.
I chose to carry multiple batteries, and as many chargers as I had batteries. I didn't always fully drain one battery dead before switching to a second, as I might get a recharge opportunity mid-ride. So you might want to (for example) have two batteries at 40% rather than one at 0% and the other at 80%. So how far you drain one battery before switching to the other is a key strategy.
If you have two or more people who can use the same battery, amalgamate those riders together in your battery charging strategy. Consider how drained the other people's batteries are in deciding when to swap out yours, and in how many batteries of that type that you take. So some communication is recommended here.
The other thing that I found was key was to figure out how many batteries I could get away with, and then take one more battery than that.
Talk to the people who will be at your destination in advance, to make sure you know what bike storage and recharge opportunities you'll have.
If you have the opportunity to purchase faster chargers for your e-bike, that's probably worth the investment. Ditto if you have the opportunity to invest in larger capacity batteries. Remember, you're doing this instead of driving, flying, etc., so don't be afraid to invest in it.
With ferry trips, make sure you get to the ferry early enough so that they let you on before the cars, but whenever you get on the ferry grab all your batteries and chargers and run like stink upstairs and find a base camp to plug them all in for recharging. These are ferry trips in the 1.5 to 3 hour range, for those unfamiliar with the typical length of a ferry trip from Vancouver Island to the mainland, so there's enough to put a significant amount of recharge into an e-bike battery.
Don't be afraid to seed the route with pre-charged spare batteries. Know someone who lives along the route, or have a connection with a business along the way? Ask permission to send them a pre-charged battery and a charger. Why a charger as well? So that you can leave a battery charging there for the return trip, of course!
Don't be afraid to seek out a recharge opportunity with branches of businesses that you patronize. For example, I stopped at a branch of a financial institution that I bank with along the route to Whistler. I actually needed to do some banking, but I also hung around for a long while in the lobby with my batteries recharging the whole time. I even left my bike and batteries there during the recharging and briefly hit a grocery store in the same complex. Gauge the situation and guess whether it's better to ask permission, or to just do it and beg forgiveness if necessary. Also have something to do during that time, like stretch, or read, or catch up on work in your mobile office. Make the recharging stops worthwhile rather than wasted time.
I found my average speed was nearly identical for both the solo and the group e-bike rides, and that was true no matter how hard we pushed our bikes on the group rides. But we did find that by taking drafting seriously we could significantly extend our range for the group e-bike rides.
I want to do more long distance travel by e-bike. It's been tremendously enjoyable and rewarding. Some people might find the degree of battery management I engaged in would be crazy-making, but I am a strategist at heart and I enjoyed the charge level management challenge!
In the past my solo bike touring was about 18-19 km/h (over hill and dale, it's hilly here). (A reminder that you divide by 1.61 to approximately convert from km/h to mph.) On a class-3 e-bike I was able to push my solo touring pace to about 35-39 km/h, so approximately double. So that was extremely satisfying. Still slow enough to experience things along the way better than I would if it was a car trip, but fast enough to really get somewhere in a day. My group bicycle touring pace in the past would typically average about 23-25 km/h, but group e-bike touring averaged 33-39 km/h, so closer to 50% faster than by muscle bike. Those numbers may understate the difference, as I was more physically fit in my prime muscle bike touring days, so were I as fit now as I was then I might enjoy an even bigger advantage for the e-bike riding. The solo riding was mostly in high assist, the group riding was taking full advantage of the entire range of assist from low to high, with the person sucking the headwinds usually in medium or high assist and the people drafting often doing so in low or medium.
Maybe this is old hat and discussed to death here, but in case there's something interesting there I thought I'd post it.
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