Ribble Endurance ALe Sport for commuting - Part 5 -Battery Range, between 30 and 120 miles on the same route!

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

Last week I felt wide awake on the Monday commute, it took and hour and one minute and used 15% of the battery charge, I really hate that, the sub hour always feels better.

But buy Wednesday the very heavy rain arrrived along with a strongish crosswind and the same ride took about 85 minutes and used 60% of the battery charge. I wear glasses and most of the ride is on unlit country lanes where the edge of the road has been broken up by the creeping of grass and mud onto the surface. So whenever a car approaches with headlights on it is hard to see the edge of the road, meaning a lot of slowing down and speeding up.

In both cases I started off on the mid setting and never bothered to change it. Whilst there was no need to be in the mid setting, the low setting would have been just as effective I nevertheless was using it and what could easily be thought of as I am not going very fast so won't be draining the battery actually turned out to be untrue. Had I needed full assist at the end of the ride I would not have had it available as the ride home the day before had taken about 20% out of the battery so I was just entering the 25% full assist cut of area. (@kingrollo)

What does surprise me is how often I am chosing to do the ride with the power off completely, which defeats the purpose of the buying the bike. The primary reason is a concern that if I do a gentle ride home I am going to end up losing fitness as too much of the effort will be coming from the motor.

Which brings me back to the iWoc controller, even a Sturmey Archer three speed trigger shifter (altered to 4 speed) would be an improvement . There are seperate buttons, like those Di2 Sprint thingies, called eShifters but sadly Ribble don't seem interested in any of the addons for the X35 system, again another £80-£100. As they are X35 parts not Ribble parts there should be no difficulty in buying them elsewhere, should be is often a phrase hiding a myriad of problems though, Sorry sir you need a firmware upgrde.

Doing this makes battery use even less predictable so another charger at around £75-£100 could be on the agenda if I decide to have one at home and one at work.

Bye

Ian
For clarity I have finally gotten around to Stravaing (new verb?) the ride.

 

[albion]

If you have an old smartphone, might be best to mount that and use its buttons.
My bike has a single gear shifter with the power level buttons mouthed almost on they left grips.

The 5 power levels certainly change the feel. Longer rides they do get used a lot to save battery.
I guess there, a mid drive would reduce the need fire button pressing, though not gear changing.

My bike, I think I can connect a power bank, upped to 42 volts to supplement my ride. A cheap 20AH bank might add 40 to 50 watts, yet 5 banks it could be a useful 200 +.
That range extender might in fact work in parallel with your main battery, that sounding more likely.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Once your hand/fingers know where the iWoc button is on the top tube it's not too difficult. no more than down tube gear levers were in the 'good old days'. As I said earlier, and Albion advises above a smartphone works, but tricky in cold weather. A range extender is an obvious option for you, but they are ludicrously expensive.

 

[albion]

In this era of pothole and car watch, I prefer my hands on the bars 100% of the time.
Yes, not difficult. But not convenient enough.

 

[kingrollo]

Maybe I'm missing something but I thought the assist kicked in at below 15mph + cuts out above it.

I'm not seeing the need to be a mathematics expert to be able to ride it.

A guy in our club rides an x35 Ribble - on a 35 mile loop he drops most of us on the hills - but struggles on the flat. He has plenty of battery left at the end of the ride.

 

[biggs682]

In this era of pothole and car watch, I prefer my hands on the bars 100% of the time.
Yes, not difficult. But not convenient enough.

Roads are a nightmare whilst out yesterday I moved left to avoid a pot hole and ended up on the rough edge of a road that was mud strewn , in the end I found it safer to stop and re position the bike and set off again.

 

[fossyant]

@IanSmithCSE - Check your employer's policy on recharging electric bikes at work. Mine has told everyone "no" due to fire risks, but they are looking at safe charging facilities.