LesMcLuffAlot

Ok. I'm just about to leave,

Riding out to our family cottage to help my dad pile wood. It's 96.4km from my house. My bike has a BionX PL-350 system. It's a light weight hardtail mtb with 1.5 inch slicks, that I just pumped up to 95psi. I was supposed to leave 2 hours ago, but at 9am it was still -6C. It's still a degree or 2 below freezing but I have to leave soon.

I will try and ride there on level 1 assist. In theory you could get 90km on that setting. There are some very large hills to climb but also some very long fast downhills, so I will use regen mode on those. I have ridden out to camp on my road bike in 3 hours and 10mins before. So I hope to beat that by 10 mins or more as long as the battery doesn't die before I get there. If it does die it will suck. The biggest uphill on the ride is only 5km from the cottage and it is a gravel climb that is usually loose or all stutter bumps. Riding up that on a 40 pound bike with no assist will suck big time.

Wish me luck. I will submit my report on Sunday evening when I get back. I may ride home tomorrow.

Yours in cycling, electric or otherwise,

LesMcLuffAlot



I've switched back to clipless on this bike for awhile now. Not riding 100km with platforms.

misslexi

Look forward to your numbers. I just clicked of another 24km in the pouring rain here in Seattle (can you imagine it raining in Seattle), burned through 6.2AH on the Ecospeed-equipped Sun EZ Sport 'bent. At least it wasn't cold.

wernmax

Was able to squeak 25 miles out of my TidalForce 750 one time. I thought it decent for an out of shape 50 Y/O and not being too awful careful on the juice.

It'll be real interesting to see your report.

LesMcLuffAlot

Ok I'm home.

Here are the details. The temp was 0C when I started and 5C out at our cottage. Not a warm day. I weigh 165lbs plus a camelbak full of water and some power gels and a mini pump and a tube and a tire lever and some ID and a set of keys. Not to boast, but would consider myself in above average cardio condition. I was dressed as aerodynamically as possible and was maybe abit underdressed. Very slight headwind and cross headwind, never a tailwind.

The trip distance on the BionX controller read 98.5km. The total time via my polar heartrate monitor stopwatch was 2 hours 56 mins and 14 seconds. That is an average speed of 33.53509kph. My average heartrate was 137bpm for the ride. That is the high end of my endurance zone. Peak heartrate was 156bpm up one of the many hills. I wasn't pushing super hard. It was the usual intensity I would do to ride out to our cottage. Not bad for a mountain bike with slicks and a top gear of 44*13. It was almost 15mins faster then my best time on a light weight roadbike on a warm summer day. Oh I did stop once to take a leak, it was my only stop. Took less then a minute.

I kept the BionX system on level one assist which allowed me to cruise on the flats at 35-37kph. Uphill, level one assist doesn't do much, it feels like it doesn't even compensate for the extra weight of the system so I worked harder then I wanted to. I used the regen feature at every opportunity. Mostly levels 1 and 2 occasionally 3 on the really steep downhill bits.

The charge indicator read completely empty just before I got to the last big hill but it was still providing power assistance. As I rode up the final gravel hill which was freshly resurfaced the narrow rear high pressure tire sunk in and I lost almost all momentum. In an act of desperation I hit the throttle and low and behold it helped get me up the hill. This is a steep ***** of a climb.

I got to the top elated to still have battery power, only 5km left to camp and it flattens out the rest of the way. I put it in level 4 assist, the only time I used anything over level 1 assist and I could still feel it assisting at 35kph. Not giving the same amount of juice it does fully charged but still helping plenty.

So there you have it. 98.5km and still providing assistance. So either it has great range or the regen feature really helps boost range.

Yours in cycling, electric or otherwise,

LesMcLuffAlot

PS. My unit has the speed limiter disabled.

no1mad 

So, if my math is correct, that means a range of roughly 60 miles and an avg. speed of 20 mph? Not too shabby.

LesMcLuffAlot

Yes, but it's not a free ride. 137 bpm average heartrate is definately a sweating zone, and after 3 hours of it is definately a fatigued zone. Plus the 1.5 litres of water I drank, a mouthful every 15mins and 3 power gels I ate to be able to maintain that pace.

I have done a range test at level 2 assist and discussed it in PM with someone. Let me find it and post that info too.

LesMcLuffAlot

LesMcLuffAlot

Ok here it is. This is part of a pm discussion I had.

I did do a ride last weekend on it to see how much range I could get out of the battery. It is considered a pedal assist system. It has a torque sensor in the hub that senses how much power you are putting into the pedals and then gives varying levels of assistance depending on the level set. There are 4 assistance levels.

I weight 165lbs. My bike has 1.5" slicks with 80psi in them. The bike is just under 40 pounds. On my test ride I set it at level 2. This gives you an assistance level of 75% more torque then you are putting out on the 350watt motor. Level 2 allows me to ride at 32-35kph pretty comfortably. I rode around a park that has a paved loop around a lake that is 5km's around, with 4 short steep climbs along with some fairly fast downhill sections. I did use the regen feature on the downhills, it also has 4 levels. I used 1 and 2. At just over 60km's I was on my second to last slash on the battery gauge, so I stared to ride home. I did notice at the bottom of the charge the battery wasn't giving as much power to the motor and I slowed abit.

This is getting wordy. Anyways. I got home. One slash still left on the battery. The trip computer on the controller said 67.3km's and my stop watch said 1hour 59 mins and 4 seconds. That works out to an average speed of 33.90428kph. That would be a fast ride for my nice light crossbike! The BionX manual says you should get about 60km's on level 2 assistance for the 350watt motor with the 36volt Li-mn battery. So its in the ball park. Here BionX's estimates for the PL350, they are based on a 150lb rider. From my experience they are maybe even modest.

Level1 35% 90km
Level2 75% 60km
Level3 150% 45km
Level4 300% 35km

Hope it is helpful,

LesMcLuffAlot

kbdog

Les, thanks for the invaluable practical experience you have shared here.

crackerdog

If I read this correctly, over a 3 hour bike ride, you were 15 minutes faster? Hardly worth all that money, is it? (I do use electric for hauling loads, etc, so I am not a purist). How would you compare the rides, with and without electric assist? thanks for the info

LesMcLuffAlot

Hello,

If I had continued riding at 33.53509kph for that extra 15mins I would have traveled an additional 8.38377 kilometers further then I did on my non electric road bike. That is not an insignificant gain distance and or time.

The system wasn't purchased for this type of riding. It was simply an experiment to see how much range I could get out of the battery. It was purchased for a 10km one way commute to and from work. In that capacity I think it excels. At the level 4 assist(limiter disabled) on the PL-350 system, it allows me to ride at about 10kph faster on the flats for the same light endurance effort then I could on the same bike before the conversion. That is a serious boost in speed for the same effort. The faster you try and go, the benefit trails off quickly though.

In that respect it was more then worth the money to me. It has made a very rarely bike commuter into a regular bike commuter. I look forward to riding it every morning. Since I bought the system I have commuted with it every work day now for 6 weeks straight. Rain or shine, below freezing or not. I don't want winter to come.

Yours in cycling, electric or otherwise,

LesMcLuffAlot

crackerdog

Thanks for your additional info. I too love my electric bike and use any excuse to go out for a ride or an errand.

JerryTheSpinner

I commute 20 to 30 miles each day. I was intrested in the BionX system. Can you tell me how long the battery should last or how many time it can be charged.

Llamero

I rode a century this fall on my BionX Xtracycle over hilly terrain (over 7,000' climbing total). By using the regen on every down-hill, and using the battery to push up hills fast, I was able to squeeze 96.6 miles out of the battery before it finally quit (the computer started glitching so I shut it down). As long as you keep the bike running at its most efficient speed (17+ MPH) you'll have excellent range. If you stay below 15, then there's not enough back emf to keep excess current from being dumped into the motor, which leads to very low efficiency and poor range.

You'll also loose efficiency if you try and ride over 20 MPH as the power from the battery will just be used to combat the back emf and won't help you much at all, past 22-23 MPH, the back emf voltage is greater than the peak voltage of the battery, and you'll actually be pedalling harder than necessary to both push the bike forward and turn the motor.

So, the point is, stay at around 18 MPH both on the uphills and downhills, and use the assist and regen settings to maintain that speed. Also, be sure to pedal downhill on regen to get the most out of each hill.

Good luck!

morph999 

I seem to get about 3.2 miles for each 2 AH that I use on my 5303 hub motor. That's probably not very efficient. Is it? I got good acceleration, though.

dgk

That's interesting. My average speed (non-electric) is something like 11mph for a 15 mile commute. Which is one reason I want an ebike. But you say that I can't just bump along at 13 or 14, but have to hit 15+.

What happens when I shut it off completely? I plan to do that for some fairly long flat stretches - as long as I don't have killer headwinds. I'm guessing it completely disengages?

Llamero

There's no need to keep the motor at peak efficiency if you don't want ridiculous range. If you kept the bike in a steady level 1 at 11MPH, I'd bet you could go around 40-50 miles (depending on how hard you're pedaling to keep the bike at said speed, and wind resistance). However, although BionX doesn't publish the efficiency curves for their motors, I'd imagine you would be able to us level 2 at a higher speed, and still have battery to spare after 30 miles round trip. Level 3 and 4 are useless unless on a very steep hill of a strong headwind, as on the flats the bike just surges in my experiences.

And yes, the motor completely disengages when turned off (or at level 0), which is great for pedaling fast downhill (pedalling faster that 22MPH with the motor engaged will actually put resistance on the wheel).