crunchysteve

Over the last week I’ve done 3 more rides about the length of my shakedown run, a 28km, mostly downhill, cross-city trip, a lap of beach road and return to the tune of 30km on Tuesday and close-matching the Frankston Railway line to Mordiallloc (for coffee with a mate) and return. The e-Bike is still allowing me to enjoy riding while also still keeping me honest.

Melbourne’s bayside south is mostly roads built on the undulance of sand dunes. It was grassland when Batman and Faulkner first invaded Naam, so there are only a few, short, true hills, but the undulations give riders a controlled workout. I normally avoid Beach Rd, not because of the recent automobile murder attempts on cyclists, but because, to paraphrase George Thorogood, I ride alone, yeah, with nobody else. Riding is my escape hatch into a quiet brain and other riders whizzing past, especially on beach road, tend to distract me from my riding meditation. However, it provides a good, predictable route for trying out what I and my new, robotic “tandem partner” can do. Apparently, I can ride like a 40 year old again. (I’m 60+ and saying that still feels weird!)

I’m riding at a mode of 25km/h, +/- 5, on level ground and averaging 20+km/h for the finished ride. Two of these rides have come out of a single charge with 80% of the charge remaining, according to the battery state meter on the “dashboard.” I haven’t felt over taxed and have been active on the days between rides. Today I have a gut upset but I reckon that’s utterly unrelated to yesterday’s ride. Battery meters are rarely linear, but another 30km would be doable on the current charge in “the tank.” If I can rebuild my endurance, a return to 100km per day touring adventures, with the only hinderance being the need to factor in battery charging. You can’t charge an e-bike off an automotive type 2 charging station and they tend to be 300km apart and on main roads. I need a dirty old standard power outlet. Or a bayonet cap light socket, which is a cheeky mod I’ve already made to a spare europower mains cable I have. Basically made it with a pendant lamp plug.

Those charging logistics are the biggest disadvantage for me. I did some research for a cycle tour of my old home state - ferry across the strait, 5 days riding to Hobart (it’s a bit hillier than Victoria in Tassy) and I could charge my battery for certain in 2 places for the whole trip. If I can shrink it to 3 days, a hard ask with the hills, there’s one caravan park along the way where I can guarantee a charge without begging to use a power point or sneakily pulling a light bulb in a public facility. Assuming I could open the light fitting.

Some readers are asking, “Why not solar?” Well, I could carry a solar panel but the largest I could carry on a loaded touring bike would require 10 hours of direct sunlight to recharge my 540Wh battery and you can’t charge while riding. I could swap out the 540Wh for a pair of 360Wh batteries, which would charge in 7 hours of direct sunshine, so the charged one could provide power, while the flat one could be charged as I ride, however, that still requires good, continuous, unobstructed sunshine. Much of the time on the road, considering the panel would have to be on the rear of my bike, that might work going to Hobart, but coming back, I’d be casting a shadow on it. Or, I’d have to mount it on the front of the bike and that makes the panel vulnerable in a fall and a danger to me if I "off.” Traversing the Bass Hwy would require the panel to be on the side of the bike. Victoria is more doable in this context, but I’d still be at the mercy of shop keepers and others for charging at the end of each day. These are fully flat charging rates and times and I’d rarely run the battery that flat, but also factored on full sunshine, which is infrequent in much of SE Australia. Two 360Wh batteries also weigh 5kg, as opposed to 3.5 for the single 540Wh pile.

In short, the old wings are still a little clipped by logistics.

This article shows how to setup solar charging on an e-bike and, while the author says you can charge on the go, most of what I’ve read suggests “parasitic loads” while charging can shorten battery life.

I can probably figure out a solution, but I’m not fully back on the road yet. I’m crossing town, I can build my fitness and endurance, it may well be a year, at least, before I can cycle tour. Baby steps, the first step was a giant leap, the whole journey may require baby steps. We’ll see how things go. It’s all part of living forever or going out in a blaze of glory trying for immortality.

Supplementally, I just had an afterthought. Rethinking travel times, a cycle 2 is 6 hours of riding each day, give or take, depending on conditions. I used to work in radio, so I’m no stranger to early starts. If I rose at 5am, for a 6am start, or even earlier, I could knock over half the day in 3 hours on the battery that was fully charged the day before, swap it for the battery that was charging on the back, and put the spent battery on the solar charger, then have breakfast, then ride on to my next destination.