110km daily commute - on an ebike..?

[rastapasta]

Lads is it possible to do this 2/3 days a week?

Ive seen now that some ebikes can do 45km ph. My commute would be 50% through towns and then over hills and dales. Im torn between punting £5,000 on an ebike and keeping the 15 year old Toyota on the road or just getting a new Hybrid car. Ill still need the car maybe 2-3 days a week and more in winter. It would save a fair bit of money in running costs and outlay however. Im fairly fit from running cycling etc so that wouldn't be an issue and despite the 350w battery I would still probably maintain this or even get fitter with the ebike.

Or what do you all think?? doable or fantasy?

Edited by rastapasta on Tuesday 27th August 09:51

[Sheetmaself]

My first thought is that there is no way any e-bike that i am aware of will do both 45km/h and 115km.

Please also be aware that if you are UK based, although i presume not, that in order to get it to do 45km/h you will need to chip the bike to remove the speed limiter which could put you on dodgy grounds should something occur.

To be clear i ride an e-bike and mine is chipped.

[Sebo]

I do a 96km round trip (48km each way) commute on a normal (non e-bike) 2 days a week (I was going to say "2 or 3 days a week" but being honest, I have only ever done 2 days in a week).

I am not particularly fit and it takes me 1hr 50 mins each way at the moment, not jumping red lights etc. I am pretty sure i could knock 10 - 15 mins off that if i was fitter and better at climbing.

You pose an interesting question RE: eBikes doing this distance as I pulled up to the lights last week and a guy pulled up next to me on a Giant hardtail e-MTB with slick tyres. He had a rear rack and panniers on and looked pretty well weighed down! My ego told me I'd piss him off the lights but honestly, he was gone. This thing was clearly modified as the scooter that was just behind us couldn't keep up, I st you not!

I obviously have no idea what distance this chap needed to cover for his journey or what the range of his bike would be based on it being modified (perhaps the poster above has some experience with the range on modified eBikes?) but it really appealed as a way to make the cycle commute a bit easier and therefore a way to do it more often.

[Sebo]

Sheetmaself said:

To be clear i ride an e-bike and mine is chipped.

Do you have a view on how fast it can go and what impact that has on range etc?

[kingston12]

Sheetmaself said:

My first thought is that there is no way any e-bike that i am aware of will do both 45km/h and 115km.

I thought that too. I'm assuming that the 115km is the round trip and he'd only need to do half af that between charges, but that 45km/h must really drain the battery.

I use mine on 'Eco' mode most of the time, and it tops out a 25km/h. I reckon I could get that type of distance out of it, but if I chipped it to assist until 45km/h that would go down drastically.

It also depends on the terrain. I often switch into 'Turbo' mode to go up steep hills and that really affects the battery as well.

Running costs would be tiny overall, but charging the battery twice a day would probably mean you'd need a new one each year and they are about £1,000 for the larger capacity ones.

[Sheetmaself]

Sebo said:

Do you have a view on how fast it can go and what impact that has on range etc?

I believe that mine halves the speed so as opposed to giving up at 15mph mine will go up to 30mph. This is theoretical though as the gearing means that i start bouncing in the saddle around 26mph and have never through pedalling got it over 28mph.

I have only recently got mine chipped and then i snapped the chain so not ridden more than one charge.

I always ride in turbo or off as i use mine to get to work with no shower required and to get back as a bit of a workout. The problem with chipping them is that the battery is always in use unless turned off so distance i would suggest with my limited experience is less than half of normal.

Edited by Sheetmaself on Tuesday 27th August 11:44

[Sebo]

Sheetmaself said:

Sebo said:

Do you have a view on how fast it can go and what impact that has on range etc?

I believe that mine halves the speed so as opposed to giving up at 15mph mine will go up to 30mph. This is theoretical though as the gearing means that i start bouncing in the saddle around 26mph and have never through pedalling got it over 28mph.

I have only recently got mine chipped and then i snapped the chain so not ridden more than one charge.

I always ride in turbo or off as i use mine to get to work with no shower required and to get back as a bit of a workout. The problem with chipping them is that the battery is always in use unless turned off so distance i would suggest with my limited experience is less than half of normal.

Edited by Sheetmaself on Tuesday 27th August 11:44

Cheers

[rastapasta]

Sheetmaself said:

My first thought is that there is no way any e-bike that i am aware of will do both 45km/h and 115km.

Please also be aware that if you are UK based, although i presume not, that in order to get it to do 45km/h you will need to chip the bike to remove the speed limiter which could put you on dodgy grounds should something occur.

To be clear i ride an e-bike and mine is chipped.

Thank you all for the input. Here (switzerland sorry) the battery is 350w and quoted at 45kmph but these ones have to display a number plate. Personally Im not so sure it make sense at such a distance. it starts flat and then climbs up over 600 meters and then flattens out and then there a big descent right before the town I work in. The other posters point that the battery could diminish quite quickly is also something to consider.

[kingston12]

rastapasta said:

Thank you all for the input. Here (switzerland sorry) the battery is 350w and quoted at 45kmph but these ones have to display a number plate. Personally Im not so sure it make sense at such a distance. it starts flat and then climbs up over 600 meters and then flattens out and then there a big descent right before the town I work in. The other posters point that the battery could diminish quite quickly is also something to consider.

I think it will be the motor that is 350W rather than the battery. The capacity of the battery is normally quoted in watt-hours (Wh).

My bike has a 250W motor and a 400Wh battery. It's definitely understandable that a bike with a higher speed limit would do better with a 350W motor, but this will come at the expense of higher battery drain.

I'd definitely try to find out what capacity the battery is. You could do with as big a capacity as possible given your planned usage.

[Sheetmaself]

To give you an indication my battery is 500kWH the bike is an eMTB with big treaded 27.5 plus tyres. My route is quite hilly and i was getting about 70 mile out of the battery before it was chipped but as before this meant that any flat or downhill would have me going to quick for the battery to be at work.

[MaxFromage]

If that's a return journey, then you could do that on a chipped bike with a 500wh or higher battery. But you'll need to charge at work and it really does depend on the terrain and how hard you work. I found chipping roughly halves the range.

[louiebaby]

Would something like the latest road offering from Specialized work? They have booster pods you can swap out as well as the main battery:

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/turbo-creo-sl-ex...

Realistically, you're looking at a couple of hours each way right? 35 miles each way?

[Donbot]

If you want to be on two wheels a motorbike would make a lot more sense. A 125 with a decent size tank has about 250 miles range and will do 65 mph while costing hardly anything to run.

I can't see how an e-bike is viable either from a cost perspective, range or the amount of time the commute would take.

[z4RRSchris]

pointless with a bike, a scooter would be much better over that distance.

true you can weave through thick traffic, but the speed of a scooter would more than make up for it.

[Foliage]

Their is currently a loophole with electric motorbikes that are equivalent to 11kw/125cc

A 125cc ICE motorbike with a 'sustained' (That's important later) 11kw has circa 12-15Nm of torque

An Electric motorbike with a 'sustained' 11kw motor can actually produce a burst of power at circa 33kw so can ride like a bike with 3 times the power, and due to having circa 100Nm of torque (different motors have different torque) can move the weight of the bike and the person far more 'comfortably'.

The downside, is the cost, currently electric motorbikes are expensive and a decent 11kw electric motorbike will set you back £7-10k so you might as well do your full bike license and buy a full power ICE motorbike or a full power electric...


Ive been looking at options for my commute too

[rastapasta]

Thank you all for the input. To be honest I think its a non runner. The distance is too great and those who point out that a motorbike would make more sense are right, except Ive a very young family. I think Ill just get a plug installed at home and buy a phev Golf or something.

thanks again!!

[boyse7en]

rastapasta said:

Thank you all for the input. To be honest I think its a non runner. The distance is too great and those who point out that a motorbike would make more sense are right, except Ive a very young family. I think Ill just get a plug installed at home and buy a phev Golf or something.

thanks again!!

I bought a motorbike to commute when i had a young family! It made sense for the missus to have the car to ferry the kids around and a scooter was a) cheap, b) over 100mpg c) had storage for emergency shopping or waterproofs and d) insurance was under £100 and tax was (from memory) £30. Even the Mot is cheap at £27 and there's not much to go wrong on them.

[Donbot]

I wouldn't have thought a fast e-bike would be much safer than a motorbike (unless you were planning to cycle in full motorbike kit). The bigger problem with motorbikes is being sensible

[rastapasta]

Donbot said:

I wouldn't have thought a fast e-bike would be much safer than a motorbike (unless you were planning to cycle in full motorbike kit). The bigger problem with motorbikes is being sensible

Odd you mention this, I recall post Uni getting myself a repsol paint job NSR 125 which spat me of one morning when i gassed it coming off a roundabout in the cold. I lost my bottle after that. I did mention to my wife that I could get her ducati monster in the garage out, dusted off and serviced and use it, shes agreed to the first two suggestions on the premise that, rather than me use it, she sells it!!

[Amateurish]

I reckon even with a chipped ebike, you will average around 30 kmph, so likely a 2 hour trip each way. 55 km range is doable as long as you don't keep it in turbo the whole time. Although I'm not sure how many full discharge cycles these ebike batteries are capable of.