I'm going to be off the bike for 3-4 weeks (or more) following an upcoming surgery, so I took the opportunity this weekend to get in a couple of decent rides. Saturday was my regular commute, but I had a table tennis club board meeting about 8 miles away. So I rode to that as well. Google Maps was a great help in scouting the route. The total trip length was 48 miles. That was my longest trip without recharging to date. My battery is 7 of those 36 volt 4.4 AH LG battery packs I got from ebay.
My calculations and ending voltage showed I had plenty of reserve, so I decided to take a slightly longer scenic ride on Sunday that would include more hills. The plan was to ride from Fountain Hills to the Saguaro Lake Marina and then back home. But I didn't want to return by the same route. I wanted to take the Bush Highway east and circle around the Salt River. The problem was in how to get back across the Salt River and onto the Beeline Highway (SR 87). There aren't a lot of public bridges in the area. So back to Google Maps. They showed a nice way back that was only about 30 miles. The trip up was about 20. So fifty miles total. No problem.
I left at 1:30P, taking Shea Blvd to the Beeline Hwy. The Beeline has a wide shoulder that is almost as wide as a full car lane. That makes up a bit for the cars whizzing by at 65-70 mph. But there weren't a lot of cars. People were already getting their Super Bowl parties underway. I had the DVR set to record the game for later viewing and was expecting largely empty streets on my return ride home since that would be when the game was well under way.
The ride to Saguaro Lake was nice and uneventful. I cruised the marina a bit. Rested. Had a snack. Took a few photos. And headed out to circle back home on the 30 mile leg.
It was nice when I finally hit Spook Hill. I'd last ridden up that hill 20 some years ago at about the 90 mile mark of a century ride on my good ol' Trek 1400 (no motor, of course). That was a tough climb back then after riding 90 miles or so. With the e-bike, I cruised up at 10 mph with minimal effort. Nice.
It turned out that the crossover road Google was sending me down was actually a private road that went through the Salt River Pima Sand and Gravel operations. About a mile into it, it became clear that they really didn't want any non-construction vehicles trespassers going through their operations. I decided it was best not to test their promise to prosecute. The alternate route was going to add about six miles to my trip. With my two mile detour down the sand and gravel road , my route was now about eight miles longer than planned. But I figured I should still have plenty of battery.
So using a now corrected Google Map route, I finally got back to Fountain Hills a little after 5PM. I stopped for a snack (tea and cookies) at the Circle K and headed home feeling pretty good - probably a bit too good. Heading home it was like riding through a ghost town. The streets were empty. But I did hear a loud cheer as I rode past the All American Sports Grill. I figured I still had plenty of battery and cruised pretty fast on the empty but mostly uphill streets home. That was a minor mistake. My batteries ran out about a half mile from home. The BMS's on the packs did their jobs and stopped the batteries dead. They wouldn't let the packs discharge beyond 31 volts or so. The last half mile was all human bean power ... uphill.
In the end, the trip was about 58 miles. I think this was the first time I had ever completely discharged this battery as a group of seven packs. The full recharge consumed 28.5 AH of charge - a bit less than the calculated 30.8 AH. If I use an AH capacity based on the recharge, my average WH/mile was 17.87. My typical traveling speed on the first leg was steady at around 20 mph. But I rode between 20 and 25 mph most of the time on the last part of the trip home. I'm pretty sure I used a lot more battery power per mile on the last part of the trip home - especially after the Circle K stop. So if I take my time and limit my speed to less than 25 mph, the battery as configured has about a 60 mile range or about 7.5 miles per pack.
Links to the SportsTrackLive tracks of the trip:
http://www.sportstracklive.com/track/detail/wturber/e-bike/long-ride/ebike/2406281
http://www.sportstracklive.com/track/detail/wturber/e-bike/long-ride/ebike/2406282
http://www.sportstracklive.com/track/detail/wturber/e-bike/long-ride/ebike/2406284