The 101 Club

[Kingfish]

Greetings intrepid venturers

I am curious how many of you denizens have traveled 100+ miles on your electric steed.

It has been my goal to do so for quite some time – even with a regular bike.
Today I made it so. 8)

Starting in Redmond at essentially sea level , I took the Fall City-Redmond Road up past Snoqualmie Falls (where they filmed Twin Peaks), on past North Bend, and then I jumped on I-90 heading east and up to The Pass (Snoqualmie Pass), with a summit of 3022 ft (921 m).

Then I turned around and took I-90 back down into Issaquah, along the West Lake Sammamish Road, through Marymoor Park and back into Redmond for a total of 101.8 miles.

My CA Stats:
[pre]Date Length Ah Start V End V W-hr Wh-mi Regen %
05/15/10 101.8 42.38 41 36.5 1639.9 15.7 2.30%

R-Ah Fwd-Ah Amin Amax Vmin MaxS AveS Time
1.0085 43.397 -17.7 35.8 35.6 32.7 22.2 4:34:08[/pre]

EDIT: Total Elevation Climb = 4161 feet.

Interesting bits:

• I barely touched the throttle heading out; no pulsing – just for hills only. I figured I’d do my penance in the beginning when I was strong so that I could have power at the end when I’m fatigued.
• By the time I reached I-90 I had already traveled 30 miles and climbed about 500 feet. I had only used 6.6Ahs.
• Traveling on I-90 is an experience! It’s legal to take bikes on this from Seattle all the way through the Dakotas. Though I do wish they would sweep the margins more often. The grade was very easy, and I found myself going between 26 to 28 mph at WOT UP HILL.
• I made it to the summit in just over 45 miles using a little over 18Ahs. I was beside myself in Scottish glee; what thrift!
• After resting for an hour I headed back down the hill looking forward to all that Regen. Unfortunately I had a headwind all the way down – which is probably why I did so well going up (as a beneficial tailwind).
• Just before reaching Preston off I-90 my bike started acting really squirrely and I was hugely concerned that the front nuts were loosening so I pulled off in Preston and discovered I was in the midst of loosing pressure on the rear tire. Maybe it was elevation change; other than being old and slightly checked it looked fine. I put 50 lbs into it and got back on the freeway.
• With about 7 miles to go before Redmond the bike returned to the squirrely state, and by the time I got it home the tire was pretty close to flat. Doesn’t matter; I have a brand new spare.

Pictures:

The pass elevation sign is directly behind the exit sign. You can't see it in the pic but there is snow in the shade there as well. It was r e a l chilly in the slot-stream canyons heading down despite begin 69*F.

It is jaw-dropping beautiful up there! This view looks north. Alpental is just to the left in this pic.

Here's my CA display at the top of the summit. I just couldn't believe how well I did.

Going downhill though I had to get on the throttle to beat the wind. Overall, I still used less power than I had budgeted. No complaints.

Enjoy, KF

ADDENDUM: Battery pack was 10S10P LiPo.
ADDENDUM: ... using 20 Zippy's @ 5Ah each for a total of 50Ah.

 

[grindz145]

Nice Job!

I've done a few centuries on my pedal bicycle. I'm doing another one pedalling in a few weeks. Soon enough I want to get some serious distance on the Ebike too. With my Pack I should be able to do >200mi/charge. Maybe a nice trip up to Toronto to meetup with the Ebike enthusiasts there.

Great report! I really thing Ebiking makes long distance riding viable on a much more practical level. Well done!

 

[mikeross]

Excellent job, Kingfish! A century ride without stopping to recharge ! My goal is to do a century ride before turning 60 (about 1 1/2 years). I fully intend to stop and recharge, and maybe even use two different bikes. You did it with neither of those....super!

Mike

 

[Kingfish]

Gents, thank you for the accolades, truly!
<bowing low in your general direction>

Addendum #3 - Flat Tire:
Upon inspection, here’s what I pulled out of my rear tire…

I saw this one first, rather obvious that we have a problem.

Closer inspection found this one as well; it was really stuffed in-between the threads;
in this shot I have already pulled it out part way with needle-nose pliers.

Neither of these pictures displays the micro-fractures along the sidewall.
Funny – I had just noticed the cracking that morning and thought that this might be
the tire’s last ride, being original equipment and all. :?

I have since replaced the tire to match exactly what I have mounted in the front:

• Continental Contact Reflex 47-559, with Stop-Flats 2 liner, and a Specialized Desert Protection Tube.

We ain’t gonna have no mo flats, no Sir. :wink:

PS - Please write to your representatives about sweeping our highways clean of debris :|

 

[drewdiller]

Awesome! I really like this.

I want to do the same thing when I have some cash to burn -- not going to happen this year. Instead of 50Ah, I plan on 40Ah, since my motor is tiny and only manages 17mph flat land cruising, but sips instead of guzzles.

 

[nuvola]

I plan to reach 100 miles in June.
my ebike has to be finally completed in some days.

Here in Italy, the goal is to reach 100km tour (I did it 130km, about 80miles)
my 60ah battery should permit a 130 miles tour

 

[dogman dan]

I assume you mean in one day?

I began a ride from El Paso on the south end of New Mexico last year, hopscotching around as I could do it to connect a complete ride to Colorado. Made it as far north as Santa Fe, but am still missing about 80 miles just south of Albuquerque. So about 220 miles of it ridden, and 180 or so left. At least half of it ridden both directions to get back to the car. 60 miles per day was the norm.

 

[nuvola]

Of course milage was made in just one day.

 

[dogman dan]

Just wanted to clarify that. The OP doesn't exactly say 100 in one day, but I was assuming that is what he meant.

I have plenty of range now for a 100 mile ride, but have been busy with racing,watching racing , and roofing my house this spring. No chance yet to finish my ride to colorado.

I did a nice 60 miler a few weeks ago though, over a 3000 foot vertical climb up a 8000' tall mountan pass twice. Too nice to be able to carry two pings on a nice touring day. Another ride I want to do this summer, is to do the Gila Monster stage of the Tour of the Gila. See the T of the G website for the route. More than 100 miles over lots of tall hills.

 

[Kingfish]

...The OP doesn't exactly say 100 in one day...

I did the whole event in one day leaving about 12:45PM and taking time getting to the top of the summit, wary to not over-do it. Experience taught me that frequent stops to rest, eat, drink about every 15 to 20 miles really helps me to go the distance and reduce fatigue. One problem I have been experiencing is numbness in the hands; there is no cruise control on this bike (P0), though the next one has it.

The summit was reached at about quarter to 4PM. Chatted with the local minimart owner for an hour; he was chock-full of adventuring tidbits. I think I have made a friend and convert. High clouds started rolling in and I bugged out about quarter to 5PM, and made it home before 8PM, though I was very tired from not having enough breaks on the ride down, trying to beat the moon. My other big problem is starting out early enough; I get up early but I end up piddling about fretting over little things, making small repairs, and sorting out what not. Paint me a procrastinator; I’ll be late for me funeral.

Dogman, I dig that part of NM you are talking about. Wouldn’t mind at all taking a couple weeks to do bike-equivalent to a walkabout down there. Found this link to be useful: Tour of the Gila Preview – with maps

I have another ride in the works, but I'm not tellin' just yet :wink:

Oh one thing I wanted to bring up: Anyone try that Muscle Milk? It has 25g of protein and other various minerals. Bought the Choco version at the minimart, took one sip and exclaimed “It tastes like Ensure!” That had the owner rolling for a laugh. I swear to you – that’s what the stuff is made of. Next time I was in Safeway I got to looking at Ensure checking out the ingredients, but more importantly calculating the price per ounce. Hmmm – you can’t survive on that stuff.

BTW – my latest nutritional discover is green coconut. Good idea for a thread…
ADDENDUM: Wot’s in yer Blender?

 

[dequinox]

Nice ride! I really want to do a tour this summer, but I've got to get a lith pack of some kind first. I'm considering buying some premade packs from realforce or foxx to get that 1.5kWh I need to do 100mi on a charge.

 

[dogman dan]

Yeah, I found hand fatigue to be one of the big problems too. A half throttle helped me, along with taller handlebars. For a real long uninterupted ride, I may remove the plastic washer between the throttle and the grip and jam the grip up against the throttle for "cruise controll" I'll set the throttle and then change the bikes gears as needed for hills and flats. Then I ride with open palms on the bars, instead of grabbing anything. Just rest the fingertips on the brake handles.

The butt is another issue, that all the roadie tricks work good on, saddle choice especially, bike shorts or a chamonix sewn into cargo pants, vaseline, etc. I find I really want off about mile 40, but by mile 45 I stop feeling anything and can keep going after that. Breaks evey hour for about 10 min really help. Stop and take pics, or a short hike up a trail, whatever gets you off that bike for 10.

 

[amberwolf]

On that last part, the 'bent types like CrazyBike2 really help. Riding a lawn chair around has it's advantages.

 

[nuvola]

Tuesday 154km done alias 96miles, made cycling for 9 hours!!
to make more mileage I need to change my ass

 

[icecube57]

The most ive done is 65 miles. Its not that i couldnt go further its just that my ass bothers me. The first 20-30 miles is easy then you start doing one cheek riding. The you start stopping every 10 miles. Then you stop pedaling. Next thing you know you are burning up AHs trying to get back to the car. But you guys have these large packs is it really necessary. If the area is flat and you are going 15-17mph. I average any where between 9-15wh a mile and have a 120 mile range if its flat on a 72-20ah pack. But i would suppose it equates to 36v 40AH which is not to far from what you guys have.

 

[nuvola]

Kingfish I was reading your data to match our ride and I found a big difference between them:
you made an average speed of 22 mph (about 34km/h), mine average is about 13mph 20km/h (I've done some miles on hill at 5-7 mph)
I've 60ah pack, you have 50ah pack.
Ok, I think to still have about 15 ah to use, but with your average speed I could use more than 15ah left power.

Again I see you work on 36V against mine 48V, which is your top speed on flat?
mine is near 25mph.

finally how much-strong do you pedal to get that speed and mileage?

 

[Kingfish]

...
Again I see you work on 36V against mine 48V, which is your top speed on flat?
mine is near 25mph.

finally how much-strong do you pedal to get that speed and mileage?

Top speed on a flat without wind, fresh and hot is about 29 to 30 mph depending on how rested I am. When I'm beat after a long ride and the battery is drained, it drops to about 24 mph.

I pedal strongly and with gusto, like a mofo! Daylight is burning!! Get the frack outta my way dammit!!!

Rare is the moment when I am not pedally except when I am goig too fast to keep up, or I just need a 10-second break for blood to return to the legs.

When I commute, I am on the throttle pretty much the whole way through everything except downhills, and I am pedalling hard the whole time. I'm not quite fast enough to race cars between lights, but getting there :wink:

...next bike!

 

[liveforphysics]

You should come down to visit sometime. I can rapid charge you back up to full when you get here.

 

[Kingfish]

The most ive done is 65 miles. Its not that i couldnt go further its just that my ass bothers me...

I completely understand. I took the seat off P1 and put it on P0; made a big difference
Not 100% satisfied, but much better regardless.

You should come down to visit sometime. I can rapid charge you back up to full when you get here.

Whoa, that’s just a tiny trip ~ I’d barely cracked a sweat :wink:
Sounds like a plan: How about I catch you when I loop Bainbridge Island on our next sun-break?

I am trying to plan all my long trips to be over 100 miles now as I train for the mega-voyage, each one going a little farther out… If I can get comfortable with 125 miles in a single day and have a quick recovery then I should not have any issues when I upgrade to P1.

BTW - I upgraded my fork on P1 to Marzocchi 888 RC3 EVO which arrived a couple of days ago. After doing the Sno-Pass run, I was heading down back into the Sound, I thought the front tire was getting loose (it turned out it was the rear going flat) I looked down and saw how much my front fork was flexing. I was only going about 28-30mph but it got me thinking real hard about the Marzocchi Bomber 44 with only one bracket for support. So I decided to go with the 888 DH fork. What a monstor!

L-R: Marzocchi 888 RC3 EVO DH Fork, P1 w/ Marzocchi Bomber 44, P0 w/ 1991 1st-Gen RockShox

Look at it! The 888 is nearly twice as high! If I go any taller I'll need wings and a tail

There is a lot of room for compression though. It's going to be real interesting carrying a 100 lb. battery-load. I discussed the weight with the frame manufacturer and he told me I should be able to go as high as 325 lb.s ~ not that I will get that close; I'm pretty fly.

But definitely this is the shock for the road trip 8)

 

[Kingfish]

Well, I’ve done it again: Another spectacular century-ride. This time I went 103.8 miles in one day on a single charge. The challenge: The Cascade Bike Club – 2010 Flying Wheels Summer Century.

The only thing I changed this time was that I slightly raised the output of my charger from 41.1V to 41.6V to map with the new 4.0 BMS HVC from TPPacks and friends. (The charger is not precisely dialed in; one pack was slightly over-target and the other under, so in the starting voltage below averaged to 41.7)

My CA Stats:
[pre]Date Length Ah Start V End V W-hr Wh-mi Regen %
06/12/10 103.8 45.21 41.7 36.5 1759.5 16.7 2.6%

R-Ah Fwd-Ah Amin Amax Vmin MaxS AveS Time
1.2082 46.421 -22.5 34.59 15.0* 38.3 21.9 4:40:12[/pre]
EDIT: Total Elevation Climb = 3263 feet.

*Note: I have problems with my AAP connections coming apart momentarily; more on this in new thread.
EDIT: Cable Shielding & connectors

One small detail: This technically was not a true century; both my CA and MapPoint say the trek was just a whisker less than 100 miles. However I live about two miles from the park, and if you factor that in… well, it’s a century-plus.

I left Marymoor Park after picking up my bib about 8:20AM. See the map below for the key to further descriptions.

At #2, we hit our first hill, and it was mega-steep. The light was red just before I got there. Some gal at the stop says out loud pointing, “Look at you with those FAT tires!” (They are Continental Contact Reflex 47-559; about 1.85” wide) I just looked at her… and right then the light turned green so I hit WOT and roasted past everyone all the way to the top. First big hill, done. 8)

At #3, we dropped down and merged onto Fall City-Redmond Road/SR-203 for a short distance before taking a left onto Ames Lake Road. This is one big long monstor climb. Cars were practically stalled behind clumps of bikers with their heads up their arse taking over the entire width of the lane and choking off flow. I said to myself “FTS” (I’ll leave it to you to figure out that acronym) and I passed left, weaved right till I could wiggle up past the car(s), cut back in front of them and motored right on up to the top.

I don’t know what I dislike more: Poser-Lycras, or dipshits that cain’t git out of the way. Unfortunately I kept meeting these people over and over again in the middle of the lane. But – this is where I perfected my technique of passing cars and bikes that were going too slow, and I used it again and again later in the day.

At #4, we had our first full-on rest stop with free food, fruit, electrolyte drink, and Honey-Buckets. This is about 14 miles from the Start. Weather was cool; I had thought of bringing a windscreen, but I didn’t need it; pedal two miles and yer warm; perfect really. Sun wasn’t out; kinda worried about that. Been chucking down cats and dogs for two weeks, and I was beginning to wonder what it was that makes the sky brighter during the day. Fueled up, we headed onward…

Rest Stop at Milepost 14 (outbound) and 69 (inbound).

At #5. The planned route is goofy here: Honestly I don’t know who lays these things out, but let me try to explain. There are three possible trips a person could take: 25 miles, 65 miles, or the Century. If doing the Century or 65, we need to turn left, though those doing 25 would turn right. It gets more complicated later…

At #6, Kelly Road is a long easy climb up, up, up. Seems like we’re always going up. Clouds were thinning, and the little hamlets we past looked so inviting. Dropped quickly into Duvall, hung a reggie onto W-D Road, crossed over the Snoqualmie River, heading towards…

 

[Kingfish]

Junction/Quick Stop

#7. Hung another reggie , heading north onto West Snoqualmie Valley Road (name changed to High Bridge Road after crossing the county line). I stopped oh so briefly to fetch a drink and jumped back on, but before I could get up to full steam, someTEAM-lycras passed me and a woman exclaims “oh he’s sitting high on THAT bike”. Yeah, well... I laided and waited for the next hill just so I could smoke past her

Years ago I used to live off this road. The dairies along this route are extremely RIPE with manure and other fermentables, providing a full-farm sensory extravaganza replete with purdy Moo-Eyed ladies batting lashes at passer-bys. I said mooo back at them 8)

At #15 (briefly jumping out of order), we head forward; no turns. Here the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie run together to become… the Snohomish River. It’s really pretty farmland, with apple orchards, corn rows, and fast-growing alders and cottonwoods for paper pulp.

At #8, we turn right, but the best view of the entire trip is at…

#9. Panoramic of High Cascades, Mount Baker volcano, the mountains above Stevens Pass, White Horse Mountain, and then the Snohomish Valley below. I’m kicking myself for not stopping to take a photie. :x

At #10 we pulled in to Snohomish for a rest stop. A road “Referee” pulls in and encourages us to push on for another 8 miles to Monroe which has full-on services. I am starving so I wolf down a protein bar, and got to going.

#11 is where I hit 50 miles on the CA. Stopped and took note of the specs. Interesting: This is almost the same stats that I had when I reached the top of the Snoqualmie Pass last month. Doing the math, I realized I could afford to be less judicious with my wattage, and decided to open up the throttle more and more.

The View... (EDIT: This is a wide image & for some reason I do not see scrollbars;
expand the width of the browser if you can, or link to full image here)

The Stats...

Fueling Station Monroe

At #13, I fueled up again to be safe; it was a wise move. Heading south, we took a cutoff road back to High Bridge Road, at #15 and turned left, doubling back. Just below #7, some dickhead in a mini-car yields not for any cyclists as we are all nearly shoved off the road. What a POS! :x

#16. Look familiar? Same rest stop as #4. Fueled up, and headed out. BTW – a bit of trivia here: As we head towards the town of Carnation, we pass by the old Nestlé Carnation Dairy Farm that was used for research to produce better products. So if you ever wondered where the milk came from… (actually Carnation Evaporated Milk was first produced in Kent, WA).

At #17 (also #5), we hang a reggie into Carnation, and after crossing the Tolt River Bridge, we hang a right then a left onto an idyllic path between mountains, rivers, and roads, passing by two serene golf courses near #18; beautiful countryside :wink:

Crossing the Redmond-Fall City Road/SR-202 we begin the last great hill climb and it is a winding crushing pursuit through deeply forested canopy almost all the way to #20. I dropped gear to help the motor climb as I could feel the controller becoming quite warm. :|

At #20, this was my last pit stop; 86 miles, 14 to go… I just wanted to git’er done. Leaving though was a death march as it was steep, narrow, with heavy traffic, and tired bikers clogging up the works all the way to just before the dog-leg decent at #22. Once at the bottom, near the lake, we had 8 miles to go. I poured coal onto the fire and it was WOT the rest of the way back. The Race Is ON: Passed everyone; no survivors.

Finish Line: CA says 100.4 miles. Lots of free drinks, but food we had to pay for. There was a beer garden; being only 2PM, I didn’t bother; played good old rock-n-roll though. Wandered, ate, drank, ate, drank, stretched, drank, ate some more, slept in the sun, drank some more; headed for the barn.

WYSIWYG (EDIT: This is a wide image & for some reason I do not see scrollbars;
expand the width of the browser if you can, or link to full image here)

Da Stats...

P0: Champion... and chimp

 

[GrayKard]

Very enjoyable read, thanks for posting it. Looks like it was a lot of fun too.

My butt is done after about 20 miles so I can hardly imagine doing 100 in a day.

Gary

 

[Lock]

Best day on a pedal-only bike, 160 miles... through 3" of rain headed up the lower St. John River valley (New Brunswick.)
Butt this was on a specially trained ass
I have a 480Wh pack now, but no plans for any long-distance again. Just gettin' around town...
Lock

 

[Kingfish]

ADDENDUM:
Speaking of the posterior, I forgot to add that after my rear-altering alignment from the first 101 ride I stole the seat from P1 and put it on P0; I needed to test the seat anyway to see if it was a good match. Though a bit firmer and more narrow, affording a fit that allows the pelvis to rest on the “sit” bones, I still had issues.

Original 19-yo Specialized seat above, replacement below.

In addition, between Mile 30 and 35 I had cramping in my left calf. Explaining the cramp problem to a fellow rider at the rest stop in Snohomish, he said that it was caused by lack of circulation from the SEAT. I had thought cramping was due to depletion of phosphorous. My resolve was to eat more bananas, and from about that time forward I was frequently lifting off my seat to reduce the fatigue.

I guess I’m on the hunt again for another. At least this one is good enough to replace the original equipment for commuting.
~KF

 

[Lock]

I read once (can't find it now off hand) that something like 94% of all pedal bikes are not properly adjusted for the riders body shape... with attendent problems as a result. Since I discovered foot bikes (aka kick scooters) seat/adjustment concerns have gone away
Lock