Just rented our first demo E-bike
 

We just rented (for 24 hours) an e-bike:


https://www.specialized.com/us/en/me...=239500-154384

It is a full-suspension mountain bike, but we are playing with it both on and off road. Our bike commute home from work involves about 2000 ft of climbing in 10 miles, which I find hard and my wife finds off-putting. (The first 2 or 3 miles are steep fire-roads, and the rest is a lot of on-road climbing.)

This is mainly for my wife to try out, but it is also the first time I have ever put my leg over one. It is very different from what i had expected. (I think this one is quite a bit pricier than anything we would likely buy -- it is almost as much as my custom road bike.)

Any comments or suggestions on what to try? (I know absolutely nothing about e-bikes.)

Where are you... in the bay area?
If so go to Motostrano in Redwood city.
https://www.motostrano.com
Check out Haibike Sduro with yamaha motor
Or with Bosch motor.
They are all a bit different.

Thanks.

We got about 25 miles out of one battery charge (lots of climbing). So at the moment we are a wee bit disappointed, considering this is a higher-end option.

When I returned the rental today, I got an earful for running the battery down. Is this really a problem?

No. I happened to do this once or twice.. all the way to Zero. Charged up fine.
If it's a quality battery it won't hurt once in a while.
The batteries like to sit about 50% if you are not riding.
If you were riding half the time on asphalt, you can get better mileage with different tires, and lowering the assist.....actual have to pedal these things like a bike.
What's worse is having to ride a 50 pounder with dirt tires without assist.

We live at the top of a 1700 ft climb, so running out along the way would tend to suck.

I live on top of a 300' climb, and when I built my first ebike out of my wife's step-through, I used a 864 W*Hr battery pack and a 1000W rear wheel. so far I've not run it below 50% on test rides. 1000W is insane fast, but it overheats too fast, then becomes 300W, which is plenty. I'm going to try and limit it to 300W and see if its smoother to ride. Using a motorcycle style throttle for now. crude, but effective.

you need a spare fully charged battery pack. ride the heck out of it, then slap the fresh pack in so you can zoom up your grade in comfort ;D charge both.

wait.

Location: The Timbers of Fennario (CL77)


only CL77 I can think of, is the Bonny Doon Village Airport right here in S'Cruz County... which is at 2000' elevation, but both Empire Grade and Felton-Empire, are about 1700 from the bottom to the top.

Where we live is near the school, at 1700 ft. But we like to ride up Smith Grade to avoid getting splattered on the road, so it is a bit more net climbing.

She had a ~65% charge when she started back up the hill. On a full charge, it wouldn't have been an issue. I looked on the website and the newer ebikes Specialized has have an app that allows you to input the required distance and it regulates power consumption to ensure you don't consume all the charge. Also, this was a heavy full-suspension bike with 27.5+ 3.0" knobby tires, which would be a huge slog-fest on any hilly road.

I'm interested to hear more about this. (Edit: Sorry, I just found and read your thread.)

We've got a few bikes we could potentially modify, especially if the main change is just a new rear wheel. (The $7.5K price tag on the bike she demoed is a wee bit out of our discretionary spending budget.) Could your bike make it up to (for example) the fire station at EmpireGrade / Felton-Empire ?

Sheesh! The store should not have had any problem with you using the battery until it ran out.

As suggested earlier, look at the Yamaha powered Haibike. Great bike with what I think is better range than the Specialized.

-SP

the rear wheel motor is heavy as heck, and 1000W is stupidly way more power than you need. Ditto the 48V 18AH (865 watt*hour) battery pack I used is quite heavy.

I'd take a lighter weight bike, like that navy blue 700c hybrid I think I showed later in the thread, and use a TSDZ2 torque sensitive middrive. These are available as 350W and 750/500W (750 at 48V, or 500 at 36V). I'd be inclined to get the 350W version, and a big 36V battery pack, like at least 13 AH (470 watt*hour). The XH18 display/control goes on the left grip and is a lot more discrete than most, although I'm not sure I could squeeze a front trigger shifter on there too. I'd probably gear the bike 48T single in front, and a 13-26 8 speed in rear (or maybe an even wider 9 speed). the twist grip on that controller sets the power assist level, so if you leave it on low power for your flatlanding, you should have plenty of reserve for the hill climb.

here's the TSDZ2 at a random e-store, Tongsheng TSDZ2 Mid Drive Motor Conversion ebike Kit,Torque Sensor 36V 350W XH18 Display High Speed Electric Bike Motor - Re-Cycles E-bikes


ok, here's the hybrid I'm thinking of doing this to...

https://photos.smugmug.com/By-Date/2...SCN0547-X3.jpg

+1 with Speedy's advice. Either you'll have an enormous, expensive motor/battery system or burn up a smaller motor on a 1700' climb. My 2017 Haibike SDURO will climb a 15 mile route with 2000' of climbing and use about 40% of a 36V, 11 ah (396 wh) battery and the newer models have 20% larger batteries AFAIK.

I would check out another forum: https://www.emtbforums.com/community/

You don't drain an e-bike battery, it's lithium, you only use a fraction of it. And then it says it's flat. It's not flat, it's lying.

See, a 48v battery charges to around 54v, and you use it down to about 42v. There it switches off. The battery level shows empty. That's how it went back to the hire shop.

It does this to protect itself. It's perfectly safe.

I can adjust mine. If i want range, i can adjust it to go down to 40v, but doing so is bad for the battery. Instead i have it set to 45v, for long term health. I still never run out as i have regen and a 30ah pack, it lasts a few days sometimes (i'll be out all day today).
The point is, if the hire shop are being fickle about you affecting the battery's health, then the 'Hire Bike' should be set-up to run out at a safe voltage! Of course it's flat! You're not spending hire time charging a battery! Tell them to get lost. They should have batteries on charge in the shop all the time, so they can send out fully charged bikes and accept flat ones back in.

The 48v 18ah pack I used for my kit ebike weighs like 12 lbs, I hate to think how heavy a 30AH must be