hillbilly
10 W
My main interest in ebikes is related to climbing the steep logging roads in the mountains surrounding our cabin. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of miles of these unpaved roads, many of which offer wonderful scenery and excellent wildlife viewing. To reduce poaching, log piracy and illegal dumping, many of the best road systems are closed to the public by heavy steel gates. You can slide a bike under some gates but others are full barriers, so if you can't find a way to maneuver your bike around them your only hope is to lift the bike over the gate.
My goal is to find the perfect combination of e-motor and cargo bike for these roads. In the meantime, I'm riding a Trek 700c with a BMC v1 rear hub and 36v Ping. This bike is wonderful on paved roads but even though it probably isn't designed for it, the lure of the hills keeps pulling me onto the logging roads. I've only ridden about 50 miles so far on logging roads and though that isn't much, it has definitely taught this ebike noobie quite a lot.
Today, for example, I decided to push beyond my comfort zone by riding the bike into a maze of logging roads that might (or might not) connect to a paved road to the south of us, creating a long and very interesting loop trip. I've tried to map this route using Google Earth and topos but the coverage is so poor in that area that I finally decided to just "wing it". My main concerns were getting seriously lost and having to find my way out in the dark and/or having a break down -- there's no cell phone coverage and no way out other than a very long walk.
If you've read the review I did of this bike you know that I recently changed from a 20 amp to a 35 amp controller. The larger controller gave such a dramatic increase in power that I figured I had at least a 50-50 chance of climbing most of the grades I might run into on this route. Well... maybe 40-60
Starting at the gate, the first hill is 7% and just under a mile long. (I measured all of the hills both going and returning with a good GPS.) The bike sailed up this hill with moderate pedaling. In fact, I had to hold the speed down to 8-10 mph because of the rough surface.
Once I was on top there was an unexpected (and very beautiful) 3 mile stretch of nearly level road through a narrow canyon and then a "real" hill, an 11.7% climb for just over half a mile. I was quite pleased that we also went right up this hill. (The internal temp of the controller reached 115F). I was pedaling comfortably in a mid-low gear and had to keep a steady hand on the throttle to avoid goosing the speed on loose gravel. ( I'm still learning how to handle the bike. A couple of times I've been distracted and come close to going over the edge. Also... all of this ride was done seated. I never stand on the pedals as I don't yet trust my balance.)
At the top of this second hill the road divided into 3 branches. I was deep into the woods by now, the light was starting to turn and I couldn't make heads or tails of the roads shown on my GPS. It was obviously time to turn back. I decided instead to take the road that pointed more-or-less in the direction I wanted to go to complete the loop.
This road traversed a recent logging cut on a very steep hill. In other words, it was wetter, muddier, and even rougher than the roads I'd already traveled. As I rode the brakes downhill I knew that the worst case scenario would be to hit a dead-end and face the ordeal of pushing the bike back up.
The worst-case scenario was just beyond the bottom of the hill -- last winter's epic storms had blown out the creek, washed away the road and buried other parts under an avalanche. As I turned the bike around I knew just how grim it was going to be to push the bike up that long mushy hill. Unable to face the pain, I shifted instead into the lowest gear and gave it full throttle. In for a penny, in for a pound....
The hill turned out to be almost 14% for .6 miles. I probably should have given up before I reached the top but as the motor was still turning I risked a coronary and actually made the top, albeit with a dizzying pulse rate. (The controller temp was 160F, the motor just warm to the touch.)
I've found quite a lot of conjecture on ES about the hill climbing potential of various ebikes, with many references to ebike simulators. Based on everything I've read here, I really wouldn't have expected my bike to perform as well as it did today, especially on a hill with such a varied and difficult surface. What this experience tells me, I guess, is that there's nothing quite like personal experience -- and for those of us who don't have access to a lot of different bikes, this experience usually has to be earned the hard way, by building up an ebike and putting it to a personal test. Then again, sharing the details of our rides can be an important supplement to the many excellent accounts of ebike conversions here.
I'll end this with a question... my Data Logger showed the initial peak battery voltage as 39.93 volts. At the end of the ride, the peak voltage was 38.91 volts. I don't understand what this might tell me about the condition of the battery. (I'd covered almost 16 miles and used a total of 8112 mah from the Ping 36v 15ah battery.)
thanks!
Carl
My goal is to find the perfect combination of e-motor and cargo bike for these roads. In the meantime, I'm riding a Trek 700c with a BMC v1 rear hub and 36v Ping. This bike is wonderful on paved roads but even though it probably isn't designed for it, the lure of the hills keeps pulling me onto the logging roads. I've only ridden about 50 miles so far on logging roads and though that isn't much, it has definitely taught this ebike noobie quite a lot.
Today, for example, I decided to push beyond my comfort zone by riding the bike into a maze of logging roads that might (or might not) connect to a paved road to the south of us, creating a long and very interesting loop trip. I've tried to map this route using Google Earth and topos but the coverage is so poor in that area that I finally decided to just "wing it". My main concerns were getting seriously lost and having to find my way out in the dark and/or having a break down -- there's no cell phone coverage and no way out other than a very long walk.
If you've read the review I did of this bike you know that I recently changed from a 20 amp to a 35 amp controller. The larger controller gave such a dramatic increase in power that I figured I had at least a 50-50 chance of climbing most of the grades I might run into on this route. Well... maybe 40-60
Starting at the gate, the first hill is 7% and just under a mile long. (I measured all of the hills both going and returning with a good GPS.) The bike sailed up this hill with moderate pedaling. In fact, I had to hold the speed down to 8-10 mph because of the rough surface.
Once I was on top there was an unexpected (and very beautiful) 3 mile stretch of nearly level road through a narrow canyon and then a "real" hill, an 11.7% climb for just over half a mile. I was quite pleased that we also went right up this hill. (The internal temp of the controller reached 115F). I was pedaling comfortably in a mid-low gear and had to keep a steady hand on the throttle to avoid goosing the speed on loose gravel. ( I'm still learning how to handle the bike. A couple of times I've been distracted and come close to going over the edge. Also... all of this ride was done seated. I never stand on the pedals as I don't yet trust my balance.)
At the top of this second hill the road divided into 3 branches. I was deep into the woods by now, the light was starting to turn and I couldn't make heads or tails of the roads shown on my GPS. It was obviously time to turn back. I decided instead to take the road that pointed more-or-less in the direction I wanted to go to complete the loop.
This road traversed a recent logging cut on a very steep hill. In other words, it was wetter, muddier, and even rougher than the roads I'd already traveled. As I rode the brakes downhill I knew that the worst case scenario would be to hit a dead-end and face the ordeal of pushing the bike back up.
The worst-case scenario was just beyond the bottom of the hill -- last winter's epic storms had blown out the creek, washed away the road and buried other parts under an avalanche. As I turned the bike around I knew just how grim it was going to be to push the bike up that long mushy hill. Unable to face the pain, I shifted instead into the lowest gear and gave it full throttle. In for a penny, in for a pound....
The hill turned out to be almost 14% for .6 miles. I probably should have given up before I reached the top but as the motor was still turning I risked a coronary and actually made the top, albeit with a dizzying pulse rate. (The controller temp was 160F, the motor just warm to the touch.)
I've found quite a lot of conjecture on ES about the hill climbing potential of various ebikes, with many references to ebike simulators. Based on everything I've read here, I really wouldn't have expected my bike to perform as well as it did today, especially on a hill with such a varied and difficult surface. What this experience tells me, I guess, is that there's nothing quite like personal experience -- and for those of us who don't have access to a lot of different bikes, this experience usually has to be earned the hard way, by building up an ebike and putting it to a personal test. Then again, sharing the details of our rides can be an important supplement to the many excellent accounts of ebike conversions here.
I'll end this with a question... my Data Logger showed the initial peak battery voltage as 39.93 volts. At the end of the ride, the peak voltage was 38.91 volts. I don't understand what this might tell me about the condition of the battery. (I'd covered almost 16 miles and used a total of 8112 mah from the Ping 36v 15ah battery.)
thanks!
Carl
