Saturday, December 18, 2021

Finally, an All-Out Battery Test on the Electric Bike

I've been meaning to do this for quite some time, but various things kept me from it. The goal: To find out how far my Nakto Camel F electric bicycle will go on battery alone.

The answer, given the conditions of the ride, is: 14.8 miles before the battery taps out.

Those conditions:

I rode from my house to a grocery store about 5.5 miles away, over slightly rolling terrain -- no major hills, this is Florida, but IIRC a net elevation change one way of about ten feet.

At the grocery store, the bike rested, battery disconnected, for 10-15 minutes.

Then I rode back, but instead of stopping at home, I rode around the neighborhood until the battery gave up the ghost.

The only pedaling I did was to get up to reasonable speed at the beginning and after stops.

For most of the trip, I kept it mostly at full throttle, probably averaging 17-18 miles per hour (as low as 15 on an uphill grade, as high as 21 on a downhill grade). For obvious reasons I slowed down when approaching street crossings or approaching turns.

I've made 30-mile trips, probably doing far more work than I've had to. My guess is I could get 35-40 miles out of a battery doing anything resembling a reasonable amount of pedaling, using the throttle or "assist" mode mostly on uphill grades. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that with two batteries, I could do 100 miles without killing myself. Maybe more -- keeping the battery discharging constantly like that probably drains it faster.

Now I'm just waiting for Bitcoin to hit $70k, at which point I'll probably buy that second battery.

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