After my 20-mile ride yesterday, I didn't bother to recharge the battery on the e-bike. The digital display on the bike still showed a nearly full charge and I wanted to get a feeling for how far it will go on a charge.
I got my answer today.
I had to go to the Vehicle Licensing Store to renew the tabs for my truck, $133.00! I also needed to go up to the Cat Vet office and retrieve a bag of food, some treats and a small bottle of cat pills.
I determined that this is the perfect sort of errand to complete on the bike.
So, I headed out at about 10:30 into the bright sun-lit day. I made it to the Vehicle Licensing Store in about 15 minutes, waited about 10 for my turn to come up and was out of there $173.00 later. I purchased a Discovery Pass, which added $45.00 to the bill. I also renewed my Handicap Placard for another year.
Once done there, I continued my journey on up the South Hill. It did not occur to me to check the charge level on the battery, I mean, it's right there. I could have just looked. But I didn't.
I made it to the Vet and got the needed cat supplies. At that point, I checked the charge level. It was way down. I had two yellow bars on top of one red one. All the green bars were gone.
I had no idea what this meant for range, but I knew I was a good three miles from home. I reduced the assist level from 3 to 2 and I turned off the headlight.
My ride home was uneventful, and I got here with a charge still on the battery. The yellow bars were gone and all I had was the red one. I made it, but just barely.
So, 27 miles was the range I got out of this charge. That doesn't seem very good. As I expected, the battery indicator showed a full charge for a long time and then it fell off quickly as it ran oudown.
The charge time has typically been eight hours, so it looks like I'm done biking for today.
Or I could go for a ride on a partial charge and see how that works.
After two days of vigorous rides, I think I'll take the rest.
