patrick_mahoney
100 W
It was a hot day in Fort Collins and I wanted to do something fun... so I decided to take a long-ish trip on my electric bicycle. I packed some water, charged the e-bike battery pack to close-to-full, I added new batteries to my GPS and reset the trip statistics and headed out.
I kept the pace fairly light (it was around 100F/37C in the shade) and followed mostly along Fort Collins excellent bicycle trail system. There are several "No motor vehicles" signs along the trails, but I was riding at about 10-15mph and decided that no one would care that I had a little motor assistance. Besides, there weren't many out bicycling around noon on a somewhat humid 100F day.
I pedaled pretty much the whole time - in fact, I would probably say that I did about half the work on the trip - although in the steeper sections, the motor helped more. IT was definitely nice having electric assist though. Among other things, it was really hot... I wouldn't have considered such a long trip on a day like today on my road bike (I'm a hot weather wimp).
I followed the river once I headed north out of town and discovered where everyone in the city was... sitting in rafts, inner-tubes, kayaks, canoes and just swimming in the river. I could have ridden across the river on my (70lbs) bike without getting wet just crossing on all the floatational devices out there today. Apparently the thing to do on a hot July Sunday in Fort Collins is to sit on an inner-tube and float down the Cache la Poudre river through town. I never knew.
The map shows my route - the purple was the trip there, then I went back a different way indicated in red. I got lost a couple of times (no maps on my GPS) and I stopped at a coffee shop for iced coffee at one point so there's a couple of side-trips.
I took a picture at the lake at the turn-around point of the trip - up at the top of the map, at Watson Lake near Bellvue, Colorado . If I'd been thinking, I'd have made a photo diary of the trip... but I'm one of those people who forgets they have a camera unless they see something really cool... like the lake at the turn-around.
The details (from Garmin Foretrex 101 GPS):
Max. speed: 29.8mph (I cut loose on a road at one point to keep up with traffic).
Trip odometer: 35.0 miles
Moving avg. speed: 13.2mph
Moving time: 2hrs. 39min.
Battery details:
Start resting voltage: 50.02V (50.2V would be full...)
End resting voltage: 44.72V (~36V would be totally empty)
Total charge back in the battery: 12.23Ah
Temperature:
Ambient air temperature: 99.1F/37.3C
Battery temp at turn-around: 100.6F/38.1C (measured from a probe in center of pack)
Motor case temp at turn-around: warm to the touch - around ambient
I kept the pace fairly light (it was around 100F/37C in the shade) and followed mostly along Fort Collins excellent bicycle trail system. There are several "No motor vehicles" signs along the trails, but I was riding at about 10-15mph and decided that no one would care that I had a little motor assistance. Besides, there weren't many out bicycling around noon on a somewhat humid 100F day.
I pedaled pretty much the whole time - in fact, I would probably say that I did about half the work on the trip - although in the steeper sections, the motor helped more. IT was definitely nice having electric assist though. Among other things, it was really hot... I wouldn't have considered such a long trip on a day like today on my road bike (I'm a hot weather wimp).
I followed the river once I headed north out of town and discovered where everyone in the city was... sitting in rafts, inner-tubes, kayaks, canoes and just swimming in the river. I could have ridden across the river on my (70lbs) bike without getting wet just crossing on all the floatational devices out there today. Apparently the thing to do on a hot July Sunday in Fort Collins is to sit on an inner-tube and float down the Cache la Poudre river through town. I never knew.
The map shows my route - the purple was the trip there, then I went back a different way indicated in red. I got lost a couple of times (no maps on my GPS) and I stopped at a coffee shop for iced coffee at one point so there's a couple of side-trips.
I took a picture at the lake at the turn-around point of the trip - up at the top of the map, at Watson Lake near Bellvue, Colorado . If I'd been thinking, I'd have made a photo diary of the trip... but I'm one of those people who forgets they have a camera unless they see something really cool... like the lake at the turn-around.
The details (from Garmin Foretrex 101 GPS):
Max. speed: 29.8mph (I cut loose on a road at one point to keep up with traffic).
Trip odometer: 35.0 miles
Moving avg. speed: 13.2mph
Moving time: 2hrs. 39min.
Battery details:
Start resting voltage: 50.02V (50.2V would be full...)
End resting voltage: 44.72V (~36V would be totally empty)
Total charge back in the battery: 12.23Ah
Temperature:
Ambient air temperature: 99.1F/37.3C
Battery temp at turn-around: 100.6F/38.1C (measured from a probe in center of pack)
Motor case temp at turn-around: warm to the touch - around ambient
