Pikes Peak Bicycle Ride Aug 29, 2010 (Sunday)

[Josh K.]

Hi Folks,

Well, it was a beautiful day to climb at Pikes Peak.
Seems we had about 300 roadies show up, and 6 E bikers.

We got to do a group start, and headed up out of Manitou Springs at 7 am.
The climb started at 6,300 ft, and was a gentle start, up the highway to
the toll gate. In the first 6 miles, the E bikers had passed most of the roadies,
and we got into the hill climb.

This is a real mountain climb, for sure. Somehow, I had thought that it would
not be as bad as Mount Washington, kinda because it was 24 miles long.
Wrong-It got real steep, and fast. The hill knocked my speed down into the
8-12 mph for the duration of my attempt.

The Lifebatt battery did well, sustained a 20-22 amp draw for the first ten
miles. Basically, it was about an amp hour per mile for my BMC system.
At mile ten, I swapped out the battery connections, and started up again.

Only made it another five miles and a half miles, to about 10,500 ft, when
the BMC gave up the ghost. I thought the controller clicked off due to heat,
and kept walking for about 10 minutes, but it never came back. The lights
on the throttle indicated power, and good fuel, and every once in a while
it would squeel a little bit as I tried to get it to go again. Sigh. Roadies
passed me by with a smile, a couple of good work compliments.

Chuck from Pete's came by on his Kalkahf, says he was at 1/3 fuel left,
and the I zip had stopped at 10 miles. Then John with his E tek stopped
by, and gave in to the Guys with legs like tree sumps. John decided not
to punish his thunder sky batteries, as the E tek had a drinking problem
going on. He had gone through his first 40ah 24 volt battery at 10 miles
as well, and didn't want to run em into the ground.

So we took pictures, and slowly headed down the hill. We hear Optibike
did well, and look forward to coming back next year with our own
RC motor drive through the gears mountain climber.

Unfortunately, I spaced out in getting the stats on the hill, so my numbers
include the ride down into town...
total amp hours, 16.83
miles, 30.71
620. 97 watt hours
20.2 watt hours per mile
amp max 44.62 ?
volt min, 33.6
max speed, 40
average speed, 13
two hours, 20 min
experience, Priceless.

I will continue to gather more info on how the other E bikers did on the hill.

Peace, Josh K.

 

[es2150]

Thanks for all the write ups, sounded like a nice day.

 

[zap]

The Kalkhoff Pro Connect made it on a little over one battery?
http://www.petesebikes.com/blog/item/assault_on_the_peak_-_results_from_a_morning_of_climbing/

Starting with a fully charged battery, I lost the first of three charge indicator lights after 7.5 miles of moderate climbing. The second red light went out at 14.5 miles. The final light began to blink at 18.5 miles and the motor essentially cut out.

Fortunately, I had the forethought to pack an extra battery! I pulled off to the side of the road to switch batteries only to have the vicious winds topple me over, spent battery in hand, which of course went flying down the road. I retrieved the spent battery, loaded the fresh one and continued up the road. At mile 23.4 I saw the first riders descending from the summit, two riders in full winter ski gear on Optibikes,

 

[jmygann]

$3400

http://store.kalkhoffusa.com/pro-connect-sport-ebike-p/ka09pros.htm

the bike does not appear on the finishing list ... ?? what was the name ??

http://www.outtherecolorado.com/latest-blogs/2010-assault-on-the-peak-results.html

 

[jmygann]

Chuck Ankeny 2:59:14

so stealth unnoticed that it was assist

 

[es2150]

Pretty cool that this type of drive was in the field. Too bad a cyclone or a flyer wasn't in the group. Really appreciate the guys who got out there and did this run and did follow up.

 

[jmygann]

How efficient is the Optibike motor ?

 

[es2150]

Not sure about the motor but I think the controller and design are the elements that make opti efficient. Controller has boost type feature and speed controller.

 

[es2150]

Zap or Chuck,
I was wondering how loud your bike is and if getting the right gear is essential for its climbing. Pretty sure you were able to ride with the opti's at start and wanted to ask about comparison of the noise factor. So cool you guys did this event.

 

[zap]

es2150,
Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression but I didn't participate in the race. I wanted to enter my trailer in the race but the cost was a little too much.

I only have about 5 minutes worth of experience on the Kalkoff but I can tell you it's one heck of a nice bike. I think I rode it in power level 2 and it was pretty much silent.
Chuck rode the whole race in power level 1.

Chuck's blog about the race at Pete's Electric Bikes:
http://www.petesebikes.com/blog/item/assault_on_the_peak_-_results_from_a_morning_of_climbing/

 

[es2150]

Anyone care to speculate at what speed optis climbed at on average? is it possible to figure or does coming down make it dificult to calculate.

 

[deardancer3]

1 hr 47 minutes to do 24.5 miles

about 13.7 mph overall mph?

 

[jmygann]

received this e-mail from Craig Taber at Optibike


On August 29, both Team Optibike riders tied for first place in the inaugural Pikes Peak bike race. Optibike truly is the King of the Mountain, as the next electric bike to summit was the German made Kalkoff- with a time of 2:29:14, a full 73 minutes behind the Optibikes who finished with a time of 1:46:59. The 3rd place winner riding a conventional bike had a time of 2:17:33, 31 minutes after Team Optibike summited.

Over 300 riders entered the inaugural event that covered 24.5 miles with a total elevation gain of 7,700 feet. Optibike CEO Jim Turner and Production Manager Kyle Hale rode up so fast that the race officials had literally just finished setting up the timing station at the summit when they arrived.

On the ascent, Jim and Kyle both rode their bikes in ECO mode (~300 watts of power) and were easily able to keep up with Cat 1 cyclists on carbon fiber road bikes. After a brief chat with them (it was a one sided conversation, as the pros seemed a bit out of breath), Jim and Kyle both dropped the 850R's into fast mode and quickly lost the pack.

The official race results can be found here:
http://www.outtherecolorado.com/latest-blogs/2010-assault-on-the-peak-results.html

 

[Josh K.]

I am reposting this E mail from Mr. John Bidwell, author of secrets of El Ninja.


Hi Everyone,

On August 29th, six electric bicycles joined the 300+ conventional bicycles for
the Pikes Peak challenge, " Assault on the Peak". The event was 24.5 miles,
with a total ascent of over 7,700 vertical feet, (then, of course, the return
was 24.5 miles of braking with 7,700 feet of descent!). The ride started in
Manitou Springs and finished at the top of Pikes Peak, elevation 14,110 feet.

Josh Kerson (Small Planet EV, Fort Collins), Chuck Ankeny (Pete's Electric Bike
Shop, Boulder), Steve (Fort Collins Recumbent Bike shop) and I left together in
the "group start" (300+ bikes all at one time) and departed Manitou Springs at 7
a.m. The ride started at elevation 6,300 ft. and was a fairly gentle grade up
the highway to the toll gate. In the first 6 miles, the E bikers had spread out
a bit and had passed most of the roadies. Then the climb got steeper...and
steeper.

Then it got really steep, but hey! we were having fun chatting with and getting
to know some very friendly "real" athletes (I talked to one guy who had ridden
with Lance Armstrong and had done the Tour de France). We were letting them draft
us since we were moving right along with plenty of power.

Then, although we had been running between 10 and 20 MPH, we hit three issues
all at once: a steeper grade, headwinds, and the pavement changed to dirt. To
keep my amp draw down, I slowed to 5 MPH, and at that point I was of no more
drafting use to the folks on 15-lb. carbon fiber bikes.

As I rounded one of the many sharp switchbacks, I saw Josh Kerson (who had
talked me into going on this ride) nursing an intermittent motor/controller
suffering from heat failure on his BMC hub motor-driven custom electric cruiser.
This was at the 15.5-mile mark with 10 more miles to go---straight up (or so it
seemed). I stopped to check on Josh, then I considered what the ride down would
be like if I used all my battery power on the uphill, with no battery on the
downhill (I had no regen, and there were a couple of uphills I didn't want to
push on the way back). So both Josh and I called it a day and headed back down
together.

Just then, Chuck Ankeny went by riding the "Kalkhoff" bike, and he said he still
had 1/3 battery left.

Ultimately, three electric bicycles made it to the top. The first two were Jim
Turner and Hale Kyle from the Optibike corporation, riding the latest Optibikes.
The Optibikes were 31 minutes ahead of the closest human-powered bicycle. Chuck
Ankeny managed to reach the summit in 22nd place. We found out later that Steve
lasted 10 miles on an Izip Express (another fixed motor ratio bike with standard
batteries) before his batteries gave out.

Kudos to the three riders and electric bikes that made it to the top!


Learnings and take-aways are:


* There is nothing like a derailer geared electric drive for efficiency on
steep hill climbs. All who made it were derailer geared, and all who didn't
weren't.

* You do need a lot of battery capacity (we all had some form of Lithium,
but the finishers had some form of high-energy density batteries).

* Big battery capacity can help, but drive efficiency and low weight reduce
the need for kilowatt-hours.



Thanks go to the sponsors (Red Noland Cadillac) and promoters (Summit Cycling
Production) of this event. The event was very professionally run and
(fortunately) electric-bike friendly.

Thanks also to my wife, Debbie, for pre-driving the hill with me, shuttling me to
and from the race, being the official photographer, and enjoying Colorado Springs
with me.

Regards,

John Bidwell

 

[jmygann]

so are you sticking with the Cyclone motor or looking at something different ?

 

[gogo]

I am reposting this E mail from Mr. John Bidwell, author of secrets of El Ninja.

Hi Everyone,

… We found out later that Steve lasted 10 miles on an Izip Express (another fixed motor ratio bike with standard batteries) before his batteries gave out. …

Regards,

John Bidwell

If this was Currie's EVO drive, its not a fixed motor ratio bike. The EVO drive is discussed on ES here: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7931