My Priority Current can take it better than I can. Today, I rode the ebike 78 miles. I'm tired and sore.
My plan was to ride from home (Carson City, NV) to Fort Churchill State Park and back, about 66 miles. The first half of the ride is along US 50, which is a designated bike route. It has very wide shoulders. Then you turn onto Fort Churchill Rd, which follows along the Carson River. That part of the ride is mostly flat, which is good.
The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley...
After a couple of miles, the Fort Churchill Rd goes from paved, to a very rough dirt road. It stayed that way for 14 miles, until just before the state park. I thought about turning around, and taking Alt 95 highway further up, but that would have added quite a few more miles. So, I pressed on. The Current did very well on the dirt road, but a mountain bike would have been better suited. At one point, the sand was so deep that I had to get off and use walk mode. Thankfully, that was short. Several times, I almost dumped the ebike, because of sand. But I managed to stay upright. Knobby tires would have helped.
When leaving Fort Churchill State Park, I didn't want to face that dirt road again, so I returned via Alt 95, which is why 66 miles became 78 miles. If I had taken Alt 95 in both directions, it would have been 90 miles.
I was pleased that when I got home, the second battery on the ebike still showed 3 of 10 bars. That's pretty good, considering that the section along US 50 is mostly very long hills that seem to go up, in both directions. On the dirt road, I stayed in assist 3 and gear 1-2 (Shimano). Returning, I did use a fair bit of assist 3-5 on the last 20 or so miles, as I was tired. Otherwise, I tried to stay in assist 1, except for just a bit on hills. Even with the assist, I certainly got a workout today.
If that road hadn't turned to dirt, I could have managed the original 66 miles much more easily. Riding 14 miles on a bad dirt road, plus the extra return mileage, made it much more difficult than I had planned. I never could have managed such a ride on a regular bike (I'm over 60).