French
10 mW
Hi everyone,
I live in southern California, and I sometimes find it difficult to determine whether I have enough power to make it on a trip because of the impact hills have on mileage. What I'm about to share may be a bit overboard, but if you like numbers, I think you'll enjoy it (I'm assuming most people on this board enjoy numbers as much as I do). I have prepared an excel spreadsheet to help determine whether or not you'll have enough juice to finish your ride. Note that I have setup the spreadsheet for miles/feet/mph. You'll need to modify the cells if you want km/h / etc. Basic tools are:
1) http://www.ebikes.ca/simulator/, or your own knowledge of your speed for a segment and watt-hours / mile.
2) http://www.toporoute.com/cgi-bin/bicycle.cgi I find this website useful to calculate elevation, but as long as you have the mile markers and elevation data points, you're set. (If anyone knows of a better site, please let me know)
3) Your battery voltage and ah-rating.
4) My spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8Zds4kdHHl3MTg5MjFiMzQtZDY0OC00ZDczLWI4ZDUtMzkzM2Q2NDQxN2Vm Click File, then Download Original.
Steps:
a) Determine your route and compile some mile markers with the corresponding elevation. With the toporoute website, plot the course and then under the "Action" menu hit "Elev. data file". Save the file and you will have a *.csv file with the mile mark and elevation in feet. You can see in my spreadsheet I have about 5-10 segments per route. The csv will give you more lines of data than are really useful for this purpose, so just delete the chunks where the elevation gain/loss is low enough to have much impact on the calculations.
b) Open the provided spreadsheet and input your battery voltage and ah capacity (Cells A2 and A3). Note that I have highlighted all cells that require input. Everything else is auto-calculated. (I have included a few of my rides for reference)
c) Go to the ebike.ca website and choose the appropriate parameters for your bike. Use the grade and whatever throttle you believe you'll be applying for that particular segment. Keep the spreadsheet open and use the speed and wh/mi values that spit-out for that line on the spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet will then provide AH used, time in minutes, cumulative wh/mi, etc. It will also show you your depth of discharge as a percentage of total capacity.
It may not be perfect and it may be a little cumbersome at first, but it's actually pretty fun and I've found it to be pretty darn close to reality. Obviously, the amount you pedal, weather/wind, tire pressure, etc will affect it.
Enjoy, and please provide feedback for improvements!
-Jeff
I live in southern California, and I sometimes find it difficult to determine whether I have enough power to make it on a trip because of the impact hills have on mileage. What I'm about to share may be a bit overboard, but if you like numbers, I think you'll enjoy it (I'm assuming most people on this board enjoy numbers as much as I do). I have prepared an excel spreadsheet to help determine whether or not you'll have enough juice to finish your ride. Note that I have setup the spreadsheet for miles/feet/mph. You'll need to modify the cells if you want km/h / etc. Basic tools are:
1) http://www.ebikes.ca/simulator/, or your own knowledge of your speed for a segment and watt-hours / mile.
2) http://www.toporoute.com/cgi-bin/bicycle.cgi I find this website useful to calculate elevation, but as long as you have the mile markers and elevation data points, you're set. (If anyone knows of a better site, please let me know)
3) Your battery voltage and ah-rating.
4) My spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8Zds4kdHHl3MTg5MjFiMzQtZDY0OC00ZDczLWI4ZDUtMzkzM2Q2NDQxN2Vm Click File, then Download Original.
Steps:
a) Determine your route and compile some mile markers with the corresponding elevation. With the toporoute website, plot the course and then under the "Action" menu hit "Elev. data file". Save the file and you will have a *.csv file with the mile mark and elevation in feet. You can see in my spreadsheet I have about 5-10 segments per route. The csv will give you more lines of data than are really useful for this purpose, so just delete the chunks where the elevation gain/loss is low enough to have much impact on the calculations.
b) Open the provided spreadsheet and input your battery voltage and ah capacity (Cells A2 and A3). Note that I have highlighted all cells that require input. Everything else is auto-calculated. (I have included a few of my rides for reference)
c) Go to the ebike.ca website and choose the appropriate parameters for your bike. Use the grade and whatever throttle you believe you'll be applying for that particular segment. Keep the spreadsheet open and use the speed and wh/mi values that spit-out for that line on the spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet will then provide AH used, time in minutes, cumulative wh/mi, etc. It will also show you your depth of discharge as a percentage of total capacity.
It may not be perfect and it may be a little cumbersome at first, but it's actually pretty fun and I've found it to be pretty darn close to reality. Obviously, the amount you pedal, weather/wind, tire pressure, etc will affect it.
Enjoy, and please provide feedback for improvements!
-Jeff
