Long Distance Cycle Routes

[Caph]

Has anyone done any long distance cycles on their ebike stopping over along the way for recharges?

Having clocked up over 1k miles in all types of weather and recently completed a long (for me anyway!) distance 40 mile trip on a single charge, I now feel confident enough to attempt a long distance trip such as one of the sustrans routes as per Long distance bicycle touring in the UK. The Pennine Cycleway and the Lochs and Glens routes look particularly attractive.

Any advice or experience would be appreciated. I was thinking it may be possible to get away with a single battery and charge up over lunch at a friendly pub although that may be a bit too cheeky. Hopefully 60 miles per day would be achievable or I am I being hopelessy optimistic? I never seem to find the time to cycle on consecutive days, does it take a lot out of you?

Quite possibly this will remain a pipe dream of mine (it certainly wouldn't be the first!) but hopefully I'll give it a shot one summer.

 

[Saddlesore]

Hi Caph I'm surprised that you've had no response regarding your query as there are so many knowledgeable people on this site.
I don't know what bike you have and if that is the one you would intend to use. Personally I'd go for the new type of lightweight bikes coming out with either the bottle type battery or a stacking system as I would want the reassurance of a back up battery which you could rotate daily and did not weigh too much.
Of course you could use something like the Ezee or Wisper and use a trailer to carry the rather larger batteries they have plus your luggage etc rather than use panniers.
I've had no experience of this sort of long distance touring but reckon it would be a lot of fun if nothing else - I'd give it a crack weather permitting!!

 

[frank9755]

I missed the initial post as I was on holiday, but in the last year we've done three tours of about a hundred miles each, which I've posted about on here. Great fun!
Here are the accounts.

London to Eastbourne & Reading to Bristol

Belgium

Frank

 

[Caph]

Hi Saddlesore, I've got a Galileo electric mountain bike and that would be the one I'd use. It's all branded parts and it's got an aluminium alloy frame which is quite light and I regularly ride it without battery power so I think I should be OK on it.

I went out this weekend and attempted the Nottingham circular route from Stewart Thompson's Mountain Bike Guide. It's 37 miles 73% off-road and should take 6.5 hours. I got lost so many times (including in the middle of a forest!) that I ended up clocking up over 50 miles and it took me 7.5 hours. I actually switched the battery off for about a third of the journey (the bit which is nearly all downhill!!!) but boy was I glad to switch it back on for those last 15 miles. I'm 35 and reasonably fit but I think the battery makes the difference between an enjoyable long distance ride and a hard slog. I'm more into the former! I hadn't actually realised how much time you spend consulting maps and figuring out where to go next. Presumably the sustrans routes are well labelled which should cut this down considerably?

Frank, those are exactly the sort of accounts I was looking for, thanks. It's good to know that you found it easy to top on the road. To be honest, I think I'm probably fit enough to get by on a single charge (about 40 pedal assisted miles on my bike) a day but I can imagine eating my words if the weather takes a turn for the worse and a gale starts blowing in my face when I've still got 20 uphill miles to go before the next stop-over point!

 

[frank9755]

In my experience, while the Sustrans routes may not be perfect, they are extremely well signposted, meaning you hardly ever have to stop to look at a map. If you do the map reading is made easier as many of the routes are marked on OS maps.

 

[Hooligooner]

This is definitely something I'd like to go for in the future and I have been investigating possible routes, which I find almost as much fun as riding them.

My current bike is a Currie CB26 based model, which I doubt would have anywhere near the range to try this, but the Infineum looks very interesting with it's stacking battery arrangement. I am very much looking forward to some real world tests of the bike to see how it copes.

Of course the Currie motor could then, perhaps, be used in a home built trailer for carting a tent and other gear about.

As far as mapping goes, I've been using a piece of software for my phone called Viewranger with an aftermarket GPS receiver. This has been an excellent investment at £20 for around 8000 square miles of OS 1:50000 maps.

I think next summer may be quite fun.

 

[Caph]

Thanks for the GPS tip Hooligooner, I'll look into that one. I too use a smartphone with a separate GPS unit (the freedom keyring unit) which has saved my bacon many a time, especially with Route66 installed.

I've been using GPS Utilities by Efficasoft which is only about 10 quid but allows you to load in any map which is to scale e.g. a google earth screenshot, or a few ordnance survey screenshots stitched together, and then specify two grid co-ordinates, then hey presto, it will follow you around the map as you move around. It's great for loading in google earth aerial maps. I even once took a photo of a "you are here" map on a street corner, then entered two coordinates by using the "use my current GPS coordinates" feature as I walked around. It still worked!

 

[Megaptera]

I found I could use my car GPS by buying a bicycle bracket for it.
Battery life is a bit of a problem but by turning down the brightness I can get 2.5 hours.

 

[frank9755]

I've got a pda with GPS (Mitac Mio), and I've got a bike mount for it.

I have TomTom on it which I use in the car. I also have Memory Map, which I use when I'm cycling. I tend to print out the map and use the GPS as a back-up (ie when I get lost!), although on shorter rides the GPS alone has been fine. If I turn the backlight off, which is fine on a sunny day, I can get a couple of hours of battery.

TomTom works ok as an emergency navigation - ie to find where you are when you're not sure. I used this this summer in France when I didn't have a memory map installed.

Frank