One bike, one battery, one hundred miles

South Downs Way on a Scott e-Spark is a go this Thursday.

With the help of Scott and Exposure lights, I’m going to see if I can be the first to get an ebike from Winchester to Eastbourne on one charge inside 12 hours. The trails have dried out so quickly in the last week, so its time to give it a go. The battery is built-in so swapping it or recharging it is not really going to happen so when it runs out, I’ll be pushing. (good training for the hike-a-bike sections of the HTR550 in May).

I’ll be carrying my SPOT tracker https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0gEppCB0bKu3eM1WtLx5spZzUQoo0vFCL&fbclid=IwAR0OxCduaaL1zPEQyKr6ghbtqSBaGqASjolQDO1BwWAf4LcpkWhqxbJhz3s
so updates should be every 10 minutes.

Going to start at 0600 and a buddy is going to resupply me with food and water as I go and I’ll be doing it under the same rules as the SDW double double from a few years ago with regards to gates, but please come out and say hi – I know its not a weekend but this has been waiting for a weather window so its time to light it up.

Like all dumb ideas, this one got dreamt up in a pub last autumn and I tried to keep it under wraps through the winter incase somebody beat me to it.

Time to see how far an ebike can really get you on one charge!

You normally do all your rides with one cell – you’ll be fine!

I have an ebike and have ridden the SDW a few times (not on the ebike) furthest I have managed on one charge was about 40 miles,have you changed anything on the bike to try and eek a bit of extra range from the bike, I would think you will have to ride a good bit of the route with the motor switched off to do it on one charge

Are you trying to demonstrate how far you can get on battery power alone, or simply trying to ride the SDW on an e-bike?

Either way I don’t understand why you’d start pushing the bike once the battery runs out. Surely in the former case you’d have to admit defeat and in the latter you’d pedal.

Makes no sense to me either.
40 flat(ish) miles in Eco is about my estimate too.

I was a ebike user when I was ill.

don’t get the mentality of using one when you are fit and able.

Best advice I can offer is stick to the non alchoholic shandy from now on

Mentality doesn’t come into it Ton
they’re just fun to ride.
you don’t seem a very fun guy

I was a ebike user when I was ill.

don’t get the mentality of using one when you are fit and able.

You can do the same ride as normal but faster – which means you can do more laps (if you are at a trail centre for example). The rider puts the same amount of effort in as on a normal bike but you just go faster.

40 flat(ish) miles in Eco is about my estimate too.

So, with hills, it’ll maybe get as far as Cocking, then? And then a push from there to Eastbourne in the remaining 10 or so hours?

Ton wins the Internet for me today….

Hypermiling an ebike…. The fact some have ridden the SDW in a day’s under their own steam kinda makes this challenge a bit meh (from a non-biker perspective at least).

I’d be impressed if it was the west highland way he was doing…. But South downs way. Might as well be the a92 between Arbroath and Dundee.

Hell I’d be impressed if he got an egenius up the whw in 2 days never mind 12 hours.

from Winchester to Eastbourne

That might just leave you the last 20 miles and 3 decent climbs with no power. I’d be tempted to go the other way. The prevailing wind isn’t always as prevailing as many people seem to think and the last 20 to Winchester is easier than the last 20 to Eastbourne. Pick a day with a forecast for no wind or an easterly.

Good luck Rob 👍

I think your challenge should stop when the battery runs out, that’d set the benchmark for further endurance testing of ebike batteries, but I’m guessing the bit after a discharged battery is when YOUR challenge commences.

PS: if you could take the time to say “hi” & introduce yourself to my mate Andy @ the HT550 it’d go a long way. He’ll be the nervous oddball virgin on a Specialized Enduro 👍👍👍

Sounds fun. How can you make the battery last longer, is there a continuous range of adjustment that lets you just add a few watts? Or will you be having to turn it off regularly.

You can do the same ride as normal but faster – which means you can do more laps (if you are at a trail centre for example). The rider puts the same amount of effort in as on a normal bike but you just go faster.

I never understand this argument. If I have two hours free to ride, I do the same amount of riding on an ebike or a normal bike, ie two hours.

Anyway, is the OP doing this today?

Anyway, is the OP doing this today?

Did your battery run out halfway through his first sentence? 😉

I think the idea is that on an e-bike you spend more time doing the fun stuff and less time doing the character building stuff.

I never understand this argument. If I have two hours free to ride, I do the same amount of riding on an ebike or a normal bike, ie two hours.

Yes but you can do more distance therefore more fun – like i said at a trail centre you might get three laps instead of two in your two hour time window.

Yes but you can do more distance therefore more fun – like i said at a trail centre you might get three laps instead of two in your two hour time window.

Yes, but you had two hours of fun, and I had two hours of fun. Who had the most fun?

Are you trying to say climbing is as much fun as descending?

Mentality doesn’t come into it Ton
they’re just fun to ride.
you don’t seem a very fun guy

fun is a very subjective word mate.
my type of fun is not your type of fun.
a bit like bum sex, some enjoy it, others don’t…………. ;o)

Are you trying to say climbing is as much fun as descending?

Yes.

Who had the most fun?

The one that was actually riding rather than arguing on the internet…

Yes

Fair enough, but do you accept that many don’t feel the same way?

I never understand this argument. If I have two hours free to ride, I do the same amount of riding on an ebike or a normal bike, ie two hours.

It’s not an argument and it’s really not that difficult to understand.

On my “normal” bike I’ll spend roughly 40mins climbing per 5mins descending
On my Eeb I’ll spend roughly 20minutes climbing for that same 5 mins descending. and the climbing isn’t as rubbish as it’s almost all done at at least double the speed.
Plus I don’t need a rest at the top of a long climb to be able to enjoy the descent “fresh”

I can only assume you either like climbing as much as decending or don’t live/ride anywhere particualrly hilly

4000ft of climbing is about all one battery will manage on a full charge so they’re limited to that more than distance.

Yes.

you really are missing out then.

The Ebike can climb twice as much in your two hour window as well.
not only that. it’s actually more engaging climbing at double the speed.

Enjoy Rob!
Can we have a classic photo please? The bibs outside jersey one from the double double thread was legendary.

a bit like bum sex, some enjoy it, others don’t…………. ;o)

Hmm… so this is why you never seem happy?

every day’s a Skool day

😉

I’m still trying to catch up with the OP’s challenge.

He’s riding an eBike that might get 40-50 miles of assistance pedalling with all the hills etc.
Then he is to ride the rest of the way with no assistance.

Or is it a case of the bike many actually do 100 miles on a charge?

The faster you ride an e bike ie the more effort YOU put in the quicker the battery gets used up ( assuming on minimum setting all the time) – as the thing torque senses so the harder you push the pedals the harder the motor works.

so the only way to hypermile an ebike is to do it very very slowly.

Seems like an utterly pointless challenge. We know Rob Colliver (The Rob Colliver 😃) can easily do the SDW in that time on a proper bike, however heavy. So it bloody obvious that he could do it on a heavy bike with a motor and battery in it.

Can’t see what there is to prove here.

Sounds like a really interesting challenge. To me, the suggestion is that Rob thinks that correctly managed the battery could potentially make the 100 miles.

so the only way to hypermile an ebike is to do it very very slowly.

I’ve never ridden an e-bike, so excuse me if I’m confused about how they work. Surely you can turn the motor off and just ride it like a regular bike to save the battery if you need to. If that’s the case, you would then plan to ride the flatter sections without any assist and save the battery for the steepest sections, especially near the end when you are tired. Burning through the battery on flat stuff early on and then having to struggle on climbs at the end doesn’t make sense to me.

Like a few others I’m confused about the nature of the challenge. Surely

Time to see how far an ebike can really get you on one charge

means stopping when the battery is depleted? In that case you’d want the lightest possible bike and rider, carrying nothing, freewheeling down any hills and going up them as slowly as possible without the motor using much power. As is the nature of these things it would bare little resemblance to normal usage. So, fun maybe (of a sort) but otherwise irrelevant to the majority.

Hope the weather is kind, temperatures are high and you have a stonking tailwind!

so the only way to hypermile an ebike is to do it very very slowly

Or do whatever you want till the battery runs out and then just use muscle power.

Going back to your point then, all he needs to do is choose whichever ebike has the lowest non zero power setting.
Great

Oh TJ you’re talking absolute rubbish about a motor you’ve never ridden.
Yes. The faster you go (especially up hill) the faster you’ll use the battery. Doh… no shit? but the E8000 on the bike in question will use least battery if ridden in Eco at a cadence of around 50rpm. Higher cadence (but lower torque) will use more battery than higher pedal torque but lower cadence. There is science and figures behind the theory (not mine) but rather than blindly believe someone else’s sums I actually tested this fairly thoroughly.

Weight (rider/kit & bike), Terrain, tyres and conditions will also make a big difference to range.

@Mattyoutabouty Unless he’s incredibly light there’s no way the OP will manage 60miles with the bike assisting all the way using a 500wh battery. I don’t “get” the challenge either.

Only way to really find out how long a battery charge lasts, is to ride it.

SDW is an ideal day out on one. Doubt he’ll arrive a Cocking even with any charge left, but he hasn’t said he won’t recharge it when it runs out has he..

So, he could be doing it with two/three charges.

Anyway, post up how it goes.. and where the battery runs out.

he hasn’t said he won’t recharge it when it runs out has he

Er… yes, he has.