Range experiences from Lithium Batteries with high power motors ?

[eHomer]

I have two electric bikes:

My 36v 250watt as "legal" as possible hybrid conversion, now running with it's new sine wave controller,

and,

My 48v 1000watt hard tail mountain bike conversion.

I have standardised my battery packs as two 36 volt 10ah lithium ion that fit in the carrier of the 250 watt bike, giving a range of about 50 miles.

To use them on my 1000w 48 volt motor, I modified the controller to run from 36 volts instead of 48 after receiving the very helpful advice on this forum.


Now at last, getting down to the point of this post,

I've been using the 1000 watt bike a lot more lately, (perhaps I should call it a 750w, as it's running on 75% voltage), and I'm surprised at the range I'm getting.

I haven't run one of the 36v 10ah packs down to cutoff point yet, but am already getting more than 12 miles. That seems very good to me, giving me at least 25 miles range on the two packs (equaling 20ah).

What Miles to Amp/hour range experience has anyone else been getting from high power direct drive hub motors ?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Endless-sphere.com • View topic - hypothetical range question..

 

[eHomer]

Thanks for the link Dave.

Lot's of info there to work through.

I've just got back from a longer test ride.

22 miles of flat terrain at an average of 18mph, and I was still on the first 10 ah battery !

I seem to be getting the same range as the 250w 36 volt geared motor, and at about 5mph more.

 

[Scimitar]

Two years ago I built my 36V 15Ah Konion battery pack and found the range to be nearly 30 miles driving a 750W hub. That wasn't throttle-only though, but a fair mixture of pedal and throttle.
Time is taking its toll and the range is dropping into the low 20 miles as the batteries age. There are two suspect packs in there I will replace fairly soon (one is two years older than the others, so started out with a deficit).

 

[103Alex1]

18mph on the flat is relatively undemanding for that motor. It's when you hit 22-23mph that consumption will rocket.

 

[eHomer]

Two years ago I built my 36V 15Ah Konion battery pack and found the range to be nearly 30 miles driving a 750W hub. That wasn't throttle-only though, but a fair mixture of pedal and throttle.
Time is taking its toll and the range is dropping into the low 20 miles as the batteries age. There are two suspect packs in there I will replace fairly soon (one is two years older than the others, so started out with a deficit).

That's very close to what I'm getting, allowing for each of my batteries being 2/3 of your battery's capacity, so it seems fairly constant then.

18mph on the flat is relatively undemanding for that motor. It's when you hit 22-23mph that consumption will rocket.

Yes, I can appreciate that. I've read about the wind resistance increasing rapidly above 15mph on an upright bike.

 

[eHomer]

18mph on the flat is relatively undemanding for that motor. It's when you hit 22-23mph that consumption will rocket.

After more testing I'd say that's dead right.

Holding the speed down to about 18mph, with just a little pedaling, I'm getting about 25 miles out of each of my 10ah 36v Lithium battery packs.

What started off as an experimental setup for me is now turning out to be my most used bike !

It's quite unobtrusive, with the nearly silent motor and the two batteries packed away in the small pannier bags, nice and low down, and well balanced.

I can easily maintain a nice steady 18mph up and down hill and look much fitter than my physique belies.