Does anyone actually use long range non-recreationally?
Posted by wedstrom@reddit | ebikes | View on Reddit | 36 comments
Most first time ebike purchase questions on the subreddit specify long range, sometimes wildly impractical ranges.
i vaguely remember believing I needed long range when I bought my first ebike, but for non recreational rides I mostly run errands in town, usually just a few miles at most.
Is anyone here using their ebike for actual, I need to get from a-b transportation for rides longer than say 20-30 miles?
Silly-Swimmer1706@reddit
My normal commute is 30, sometimes 40 miles, I have 24.5AH 48v battery and I can do shorter version twice if temperature isn't extremely low or wind to strong.
Ok_Cartographer_8893@reddit
That beast should handle that easily. Do you only use throttle? What speeds do you travel at?
Silly-Swimmer1706@reddit
Yes it does. Throttle only is extremely rare for me, maybe sometimes last mile to home if I already drove for hours that day and have few beers in my ass, but generally I enjoy biking and that's why I bought ebike and not moped. My top speed is about 30mph but average about 20mph. Faster is a bit uncomfortable for me on a bicycle and my input on pedals becomes negligible. Motor is bafang 750w.
gzSimulator@reddit
I think a lot of the commuter market is begging for more light-duty range, yeah
Also I’ve noticed from looking into e-motos that e-bicycles are really allowed to stretch their ranges by assuming whatever pedal assist is included. It’s insane how an emoto with 5x bigger battery (and up to 2x voltage, also bigger battery) can get less range at 25mph than a pedal assist e-bike at 25mph
AMC2Zero@reddit
Do they though? Emotos aren't that much less efficient than standard ebikes aside from acceleration and hills, the real range killer is speed and inability to pedal.
Try taking one of those ebikes and using only the throttle at max power, you'll be lucky if you can make it 20 miles.
gzSimulator@reddit
That’s why I said at 25mph
BassesNBikes@reddit
Why would that be insane? A multi kW emoto draws way more Amps than a 250-750W ebike.
_SnesGuy@reddit
Not having long range would piss me off ( have an xpedition 1.0 dual battery) and I only do 3 mile commutes (one way) I can easily work 6 days a week plus the occasional errand or grocery trip and only charge once a week with a good bit of wiggle room. When it was new I could go 2 weeks without charging if I stretched it.
esh-pmc@reddit
I don't do more than 30 miles regularly but I do 40-60+ mile errands several times a year.
Militant_Triangle@reddit
I was in downtown Chicago yesterday and all the doordash ebikers sure need range for that back and forth.
AMC2Zero@reddit
Most of them hotswap batteries at home.
RipOk3600@reddit
I use my bike for commuting, including to work. Longest I was going regularly was 50km round trip.
However I try not to let my battery ever go below 50% just in case something happens. If I get tired and need to run the extra support, or there is a head wind or climbing back up the trail or even if my phone or headlights run out of power and I have to tap into the bike battery as a backup (phone is the key to my bike)
Therefore though I could theoretically have done that whole trip on a battery charge (I have a 500W Bosch) I always charged it at work and when my boss decided that wasn’t allowed because company said “it’s not safe to charge a lithium battery” I changed to going train one direction and bike the other to ensure I stay within my safety margin.
I would like to get a higher capacity battery in the long term and then use the 500 as a backup but Bosch batteries are expensive (about $1400) so I haven’t had the money yet
Keljian52@reddit
I have done transport at 55kms, but I've made a fair few modifications to the bike since then which should extend the range a lot.
I am aiming for 100kms range (which is about 63 miles), many mods and much learning later. I am not a fast rider though, and I expect this to take about \~6 hours not including breaks.
For most rides it's about 5-10kms round trip, sometimes less, but I want flexibility.
w1ndows_98@reddit
I do 30 miles around trip and charge at work, wind switches alot here and can't ride on full assist on one battery, if i had an extender maybe, but sometimes it's a 20mph headwind for an hour.
Relative-Display-676@reddit
I've done 42 miles with 13ah battery on a 48v ebike going at a steady pas2 with me constantly pedaling at 15-17mph. I think I had about 20-25% battery left afterwards. My ass was more tired than my legs.
SoapyRiley@reddit
I’m a dog walker in a very sprawling city. On a typical day, I’m riding 2-5 miles between 5 clients and walking dogs for half an hour at each stop. I’m heavy at 195 lbs. Advertised range is 50 miles for a 160 lb person on flats. I don’t live where it’s flat. The irl range for my bike at 2 years old is ~30 miles on a charge. That ends up about perfect because I can do my longest route and still ride 8 miles to my farthest clients for overnight pet sitting without needing a charge. This is not that important in winter when I need to keep moving to stay warm, but in the summer heat when it’s also very muggy so sweating just means I’m drenched in hot water, I am so grateful for that extra juice to help keep cool with low effort.
Razrgrrl@reddit
My commute tends to be 22-25ish miles round trip, sometimes more, depending on the day.
SmithKenichi@reddit
I built my ebike when I was a poor flight instructor and gas prices were going wild the last time. I designed and constructed a 14S10P 18650 pack and it ended up giving my 1500w kit just under 50mi of range. I used it all summer to commute about 36mi round trip to and from that job.
slacknsurf420@reddit
20-30 miles is already a decent trip and takes a dent out of the 32AH battery but if I was going real slow like sub 20mph I could easily do twice the range.
kukitch@reddit
My commute is ~33 mi round trip, which uses about 50% of my batteries’ capacity - depending on how ‘urgently’ I’m going… do that 3x weekly
Fanboy0550@reddit
Yup, it's my primary means of transportation. I currently don't drink and ride my ebike for about 5 miles to downtown
milee30@reddit
I use my ebike for commuting and some days are fairly long mileage - around 50 miles. Not a problem unless there's a big headwind and I'm tired so use more than the lowest assistance level. On those days I have to be a little careful. On the lowest assist level, I can get 85-90 miles out of a charge if I'm willing to run it to nothing, which I don't like to do (deep discharge is bad for battery health.) On the second to lowest assist level - which IMO is plenty even with big headwinds and a few hills - I only get 40-50 miles of range. So on the big mileage days I keep it in the lowest assist level as much as possible to preserve the range, but know if things get tough or I'm tired by the end, I still can crank it to the second assist level if I need it.
BldGlch@reddit
I read that quality batteries already have the low discharge protection so you can run them to 0. In reality idk…
gzSimulator@reddit
Better batteries do “bounce back” better from a deep discharge, but unfortunately “0-100%” doesn’t mean anything at all and the manufacturers are deciding what voltage is considered 0%. One bike’s 0% voltage could be another bike’s 5% voltage
milee30@reddit
I don’t know either and I don’t want to find out the hard way. 🙂
BassesNBikes@reddit
On paved rail trails with rolling hills, no wind, and PAS1 my 52V 18.5Ah driving a BBSHD on a hardtail mountain bike (~52lb) has over 100 miles of range. Never even needed half of that and could have had a lighter, cheaper battery in retrospect.
SousVideDeezNuts@reddit
It lets you commute longer between charges.
uprooting-systems@reddit
I only just got mine. But I got it partly to change to a \~25 mile round trip from car to bike to a few different places I go to frequently.
Longer than that? I don't currently have anything I need to travel for.
tsukipluekuroeshiba@reddit
Just recreational rides on a bike path along the lake where I am can be 20 miles one way.
i__hate__you__people@reddit
Yeah, I’m averaging about 36 miles a day. I added a second battery to keep my range up
redditorialy_retard@reddit
my ebike last 2 times back and forth getting to work.
and taking out the battery is a pain in foldable ebikes
thetonk@reddit
15Ah here and it consistently gives me around 30 miles per charge. Upgrading to a 20Ah. I blow through my 15Ah in a short afternoon on the trails/bike park but also commuting to the mall where the wife works to have lunch. I'm hoping to get my 50 mile range back when I was on a hard tail with a triangle UPP battery (20Ah).
Wind_Advertising-679@reddit
I am glad I have it, not as often as I might have originally thought, but on colder days the extra battery power has been nice.
CraziFuzzy@reddit
The bike I just got's ultimate purpose is a 20 mile daily commute through hills and some dirt trails, and while I don't need the full range of the bike to do the commute in eco mode, I will need it if the day already beats me and I want to just motor home.
No_Variety1895@reddit
A round trip that I take a couple times a week to visit a client is 17 miles so close that that. When I’m tooling around with friends on the weekends I often ride 35+ miles. One of my e-bikes has 700wh battery and my e-cargo has 2x 500wh batteries. Both bikes can easily handle my needs.
TransfemmeKay@reddit
Yup. There are some weird municipal areas I occasionally need to head into that just don’t give a shit about public transport so using an ebike ends up being the faster option and gives me the freedom to just stop at any gas station I see and get something to snack/drink.
Other long distance trips usually lead me to using public transit but in the summer I will replace those trips with biking instead.