~o~
Saturday 27th 40F/4C. A dry day is promised. Slightly spoilt by a fresh, westerly wind. Most bike/trike rides involve returning westward. I am not far from the west coast by road. Leaving most of the island of Fyn to my east. While the e-bike provides enough power to overcome any normal wind. It is still unpleasant to fight the gusts. It also means much reduced range. Particularly in winter when batteries lose efficiency at lower temperatures.
Using Turbo mode, to overcome a headwind, eats up battery reserves. There is no free lunch with an e-bike. The rider must still apply their own effort to the pedals. Hopefully battery chemistry will bring benefits to e-bikes. Which assumes that Bosch does not abandon its legacy batteries on older machines. A doubling of capacity in the same format would save having to carry a spare 625aH battery at 3.5kg.
The claimed range of 90km would suggest a very slow ride. In a low gear. On a warm day in summer. In windless conditions. Using a low assistance mode. From frequent, longer rides, my own experience shows 70km is a far better average. In summer using mostly Sport mode as I do.
Tour mode is only useful if duration is ignored in favour of range. Sport mode makes hills fairly effortless. Tour mode makes the rider work much harder for the same average speed. I only use Tour mode to extended battery range on flat roads or downhill. Because I like to limit ride duration. By riding at a higher, average speed. Which means the twin benefits of less tiredness and [hopefully] fewer saddle problems.
I always have panniers fitted on any ride. Which adds considerably to the overall weight of an already heavy machine. Plus the inevitable drag. My '45kph" [28mph] model also uses more power in all modes. Because it's higher speeds present much higher wind resistance. Which is by far the greatest load on the motor and/or bike rider. Only a fit racing cyclist on a lightweight racing bike could manage my average speeds. Turbo speeds of a '45'. [28mph] is equivalent to fast riders in a training group. While their teeth chatter on bumps. The e-bike provides almost effortless comfort, suspension and superb braking power on wide, grippy tires.
8.40. Going for a walk despite the gloom.
9.15 Returning from my usual walk. Looping along the old and new drives. The westerly wind was unpleasantly cold. The grey skies offered no sign of the promised sunshine. A ragged chevron of geese went over noisily. Stove lit. Now what?
13.00 43F/6C. Overcast and windy. Returned from a 36km/22 mile ride. The new Brooks B67 was already forcing me to lift off repeatedly after 15km. Beyond that point it just got much worse!
I had tipped the nose up slightly and that helped to start with. I was wearing a pair of thin thermal long-johns under DHB padded racing shorts. It was lucky I hadn't decided to go further afield. I had two breaks in the shops. Average speed 26km/hr in 1h30m moving time. Top speed 44km/hr. [Downhill] It felt like a cold headwind regardless of my direction of travel. I wore the Sorel boots and found they limited my pedalling speed. My foot would lift off the right pedal as I approached 90rpm. Fortunately they made up for it in comfort and warmth.
My hands were beginning to freeze in GripGrab's warmest [fingered] winter gloves. I should have taken a pair of their split mitts. Of which I have several pairs. The difference in warmth is night and day. The battery dropped from 85% to 31%. 66% in Sport Mode. The rest in Turbo. Motor assistance 79%.
Dinner was mackerel on toast. You know what that looks like. So you don't need pictures. Which really means I forgot to take any. I am too honest to borrow earlier images and pretend.
~o~
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