UPDATE –I have put 136 miles total on the AC and charged the pack twice. It was fully charged when I picked it up at the Aerobic Cruiser facility in Cordova, TN. The single biggest chunk of those miles were put on Sunday when I did a test ride from home to the office and back. Was a 43 mile round trip that started with a full charge and a reset on the Cycle Analyst.

DATA for that trip shows:
40.1 volts -starting voltage approximately 12 hours after the charge completed
42.99 miles
17.952 Ah
690.16 Watt Hours
16.0 Watt Hours per Mile
32.15 Amps Max
37.6 Volts minimum
38.9 mph Max Speed (gravity is my friend and my enemy depending on which side of the hill I’m on)
17.9 mph Avg Speed
2 hours 24 minutes 00 seconds (2:24:00)
39.2 volts -Ending voltage when I stopped in my driveway. The voltage bounced up a bit after resting but I failed to write it down before I charged the pack back up.

THE BIKE
Tires where at 54psi front and 56psi rear. I did not weigh the bike before the ride but it was loaded and I was dressed for the trip much like I would be when going to the office. So I had my laptop bag bungeed on top of the tail bag and the tail bag was loaded with the charger, some tools, logbook and other miscellaneous items. Of course I also had a water bottle, keys, phone and wallet. What I DID NOT have was the locks I bought and still have to figure out the mounting for on the bike. A previous weighing on my old bathroom scale showed 42lbs front and 58lbs rear with charger in the tailbag.

THE ROUTE
For the curious who like to look at maps you can see the route here (minus the first and last mile or so) http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=105504

The elevation image is more dramatic on the trail portion than I would have thought but seems about right for the road portion. On the ride to the office the first half of it is on the Silver Comet trail from around mile 11 to the trail head near Vinnings / Smyrna, GA. From there the ride turns down Atlanta Rd (going southeast) from where it meets Cumberland Pkwy/East West Connector down to the Chattahoochee river and ends near the MARTA headquarters at the Lindbergh station just off Piedmont Rd in Atlanta. I took the same route both ways.

TME
I started at 11:48AM Eastern time and was back at the house by 3:30PM. Had a snack at the midpoint and stopped by both LBS that are along the way.

Plugs for the LBS’s (is that okay?) The Silver Comet Depot (silvercometdepot.com ) is right on the trail around mile 5 or 6 at Floyd Rd and Smyrna Bicycles is in a small strip of stores on Camp Highland Rd near the trailhead. Smyrna Bicycles does have an ebike by GIANT for rent but almost no takers.

Have not been over to my LBS in Powder Springs since they moved to their new location near the Florence Rd / Silver Comet intersection around mile 13 but, Hamlet is a good guy so I want to give them a plug as well.
NOTE: I HAVE NO FINANCIAL INTERST AND RECEIVE NO COMPENSATION FROM ANY OF THE LOCAL BIKE SHOPS MENTIONED

MY EFFORT
The ride was done with moderate to moderately hard pedaling under beautiful weather. I found I was adding from 1 to 3 mph to whatever the motor only speed was when on the Silver Comet Trail. On the road section the hills that would boost my max speed over 38mph on the return trip I was able to climb on the way to the office at 11mph at the top with full throttle and 1st gear pedaling. My max speed on the way in was a little over 34 mph on the same route. I did feel like I was able to add some pedaling assistance to gravity even at 35 mph plus. The motor assist is speed limited in the controller to 20mph but makes it a lot easier to maintain that plus a bit more with pedaling. Of course the motor also makes the uphill parts much easier. Got to love the gearing on those downhill sections from the 67 tooth front sprocket to Nexus 3 speed IGH as a mid-mounted transmission with 21 teeth in and 21 teeth out to a 20 tooth sprocket on the hub motor for the rear chain. If someone wants to calculate out the chain inches for all that feel free to post it.

THE WEATHER (PERFECT)
Temp in the low 70 degree Fahrenheit range with about 50% humidity a 7 MPH breeze and sunny skies until the last few miles when it clouded up.

THE RIDE AND OTHER THOUGHTS
The trail was busy as you might expect on such a beautiful day which means paying extra attention, especially around kids and unsteady riders of any age. Several of the under 6 crowd pointed at the AC and commented with great enthusiasm. Also had a few other positive comments and conversations from riders and walkers. The bike definitely gets noticed as recumbents are still a minority of the bikes out there and this one is a bit different than the others on top of that. There were also a lot of walkers/joggers on the trail who I always try to give plenty of room; especially when they have earbuds blocking out the sounds around them. Traffic on the roads was light but the twin mirrors the bike comes with makes it easier to keep on eye on approaching vehicles. Of course the other big hazard is vehicles turning directly across your travel path. So I also had the Cat-eye reflector lights going front and rear. While I have additional lighting on my bag for the rear, a better headlight for the front is on order. The only glitches I had with the bike was one self-induced but scary moment when the cranks felt like they had locked up. The motor was still able to power the bike along. Luckily the issue was caused by my having moved the twist-shift part way between 2nd and 3rd gear and that had caused the Nexus 3 speed IGH used as a transmission to bind up.until I moved the shifter into a proper selection. I did that one other time shortly after I got the bike.
The other glitch was when the rear chain jumped off on the return trip home. It happened near the start of the Silver Comet trail just after the downhill section from Smyrna Bicycles but before you get to the Mavell Road parking area. I was able to slip it back on, wipe my hands on a rag I had brought along and pedaled / motored along without problem the remaining 11 miles home. It did re-enforce that I need to put a better chain guide / tensioner on the rear chain. Even though my redneck retrofit tensioner made out of a section of 4 inch pvc pipe has been working ok for the last 90 miles or so; at least until this happened. I already have an idea to use an old derailleur cut down to act as a guide/tensioner based on some of the DIY examples I have seen on single speed setups. I have thought about using a half link and shortening it up and even adjusting the position of the motor/axle. I may still do the half link but want to keep the motor firmly buried at the full depth of the rear fork dropouts to minimize any chances of axle spinout. I did check and tighten up both axle nuts just a bit before this ride. Probably over torqued them just a bit but better that than a little under torqued. As a side note the drop outs measure 0.375 inches wide using my dial-caliper. Except for those two instances the bike performed wonderfully. My legs where tired the next day and would not have wanted to tackle the ride again but, I finished up my afternoon at the house climbing up and down a ladder to clean gutters and removing dead tree limbs that were hanging over the deck. I had previously noticed that riding this recumbent style bike does work some different muscles than a regular diamond frame (DF) bike and that was re-enforced the next day. There was some mild soreness in the hamstrings and glutes but just enough to let me know I had done a bit more than usual. If I had tried this on a non-ebike I probably would have had to come home and flop on the couch for the rest of the day and then not been able to walk the next day. At fortysomething I don’t bounce back like I used to. One of the reasons I selected this bike was the desire to have a big enough battery pack to do my commute without needing to charge at work because I do not have a place I can charge on the bike without risking the charger going missing. If you go by the information given on the Aerobic Cruiser web site. the 690 Watt Hours used would be 69% of the 1,000 Watt hours claimed for the battery pack. So this means I can do my commute with a little less effort and still stay below the 80% Depth of Discharge (DoD) that is supposed to help the LiFePo4 pack live longer. I believe the pack has even more capacity than that and at some point I will do a full discharge test with assistance from Chris. Chris is my dealicaler of EV grins when a stock factory ebike or kit wiring is just not good enough. Yes, that is a shameless plug but, he has let me ride 2 of his high performance builds and I may need another EV grin fix soon. Plus I have plans to modify mine and am already familiar with the quality of his work so I feel comfortable plugging his site.
Once I sort out mounting the locks on the bike I plan on doing the commute during the week and enjoying the excitement of bicycling with Atlanta traffic.

Enough for now; more later.

I HAVE NO FINANCIAL ASSOCIATION WITH AEROBIC CRUISER BEYOND HAVING PURCHASED A BIKE AND HOPING THEY SELL ALL THEY HAVE. The financial backing of the company is provided by Charles McVean and my only association or knowledge of him is from what I have seen on the web.


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