Hi all,

 

I've been looking at getting one of the Cube pedelecs with the 500Ah Bosch power cells and 250w CX motors but I'm getting a bit confused by their range as I cannot seem to find any listing/estimations or clarification of how much power assistance the modes apply.

 

To clarify, I enjoy cycling even if it's just for the sake of cycling and I am mainly looking to acquire a pedelec as a way of decreasing my fatigue and thus increasing my range. I currently ride an upgraded Vulcan Carrera which is down to about 13.5KG which means moving to some of the bikes I have been looking at would be an extra 7-9KG weight which obviously I would notice if the motor was off, but I am unsure as to how much the various modes would boost performance.

 

Essentially, on short/normal trips I would like the power assistance to make it no harder than riding my current bike, and on longer trips I would like it to make it easier. I have no desire to make either feel effortless (no insult intended to those who do).

 

With that in mind could anyone give any estimates of which modes would be required for that? Could I use Eco mode for most riding and use Touring for boosting my endurance/range? Or would I need higher modes?

 

Thank you.

 

*EDIT*

 

If it factors in I weigh ~57KG

Edited April 6, 201610 yr by ubersonic

most miles i have got in turbo on the flat is 28 miles tho will go more than this if you use a lower setting and can put more effort in.

 

so if you are fit could prob get over 40 miles if left in eco mode but will depend how fit you are to how many miles you can get from 1 battery.

 

most i got up the forest was 32 miles using all modes and turbo for the steep stuff.

Thanks, hmm was hoping for a bit more than that.

the fitter you are the further you will go, i also have a dongle to remove the 15mph limit.

 

you will be best off having a test ride

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk37/necromunger666/20150818_1901031.jpg

was from my m8s bike last time we went to the forest.

Thanks Soundwave

 

Out of interest, if the bike runs out of power, does it then become as hard to pedal as any other bike weighing the same? Or will it be even harder due to the motor?

 

Also would it be a viable idea to buy a spare battery and carry that on a pannier so they can be swapped when one dies?

My fully charged 400Wh with Bosch CX usually shows 70 to 80 km range in Eco mode. I don't have a dongle, and I feel that for my riding it is actully useful (regarding range) that the assist ramps down after 25km/h, as on flat roads I usually can pedal a bit faster. Obviously it gets sweaty, but I'm all for that. =) If I'm in a hurry I'll just take the boring ol' car.

 

I consider the bike just as hard/easy to pedal as any other bike with the same weight. The drive doesn't add any resistance that I could detect. YMMV, of course. I enjoy riding it without power. The only thing I'd like is a lower low gear, but I'm on that (and having a thread here about it.)

Ubersonic I took my New Cube over the Pennines, using off road tracks and cycle paths, on Sunday. The journey was 34 miles each way with range still available at each end, I recharged before the return journey. This was my first journey on an eBike above a mile and I feel I went through a learning curve.

 

If you want to maximise your eBike range then think like you would for a conventional bike and use your assistance modes like gears. Use the higher settings for acceleration and hill climbing and lower settings for the flat. Aim to balance your stamina against the bikes. An eBike will effectively remove the need to climb hills and accelerate, so your effort is equivalent to riding a bike on the flat without having to slow down/stop. You just need to maintain a good cadence.

 

Bear in mind the bike will only assist (legally) to 15.5mph after that it is down to you to do all the work, but despite the weight it is relatively easy to maintain high teens on the flat as you are already doing 15.5mph before the assistance deserts you and by then the hard bit is already done - the accelerating. When you slow due to incline/headwind the motor steps back in so all you have to do is to shift gear to keep that cadence up and optimise the assistance.

 

That is my take on it, others may have differing opinions .

Hmm, thanks for the advice guys. I'm beginning to think I may have misunderstood pedelecs, I was hoping it would be a case of "if you have the stamina to ride X miles then you can now ride X + Y miles" but it seems to be it doesn't actually increase your range just makes it faster?

That would depend on your stamina. I could not have made the trip over the Pennines and back in the same day on a conventional bike but obviously others could.

 

For me it extends range, speed & load carrying ability. I am still hoping it will compliment my conventional bikes and not replace them.

I realised tonight I may have been over-thinking the issue of the added weight. I weighed my current 26" alloy HT MTB tonight with some bathroom scales and it was ~15KG, then I pulled out my old steel framed FS 20" MTB from the back of the garden and weighed that, it was ~19KG.

 

I never really had any issue rolling round on the old bike (had no idea it was 19KG lol, never cared about weight back then) so presumably a 19-20KG pedelec would perform the same with assistance turned off, that theoretically extends my potential range as I could ride out in off and then use the assist for the return trip.

Okay guys, I've narrowed my choices down to two I really like:

 

Cube Reaction Hybrid HPA Pro 500 27.5

Cube Suv Hybrid Pro 500 27.5

 

The main differences appear to be that the SUV costs £200 more, has hub gears instead of normal gears, and has Schwalbe Super Moto-X tyres. As I would want to replace the knobbly tyres on the reaction with slicker ones anyway that kind of reduces the price difference to ~£150, I am leaning towards the SUV but am unsure about the hub gears as never used them before. What people think?

You'll have loses at both ends with the Cube Suv Hybrid Pro 500 27.5, both the Alfine hub and Bosch motor will be taking some of your power. To be honest I'm not convinced an e-bike is going to be of any use for your requirements, although I don't think you've said how many miles it is that you want to ride?

Regarding Reaction, are you sure you don't want the better parts that Race level offers? The XT 11-42 cassette alone is worth 80€ if you feel like upgrading later, and also the Race's RockShox Recon Silver with air spring (vs Suntour and coil of Pro) is a nice upgrade.

Cube SUV hybrid has a Suntour XCR air fork. I am over the moon with my SUV hybrid 500 and it is proving to be the ideal eBike for my requirements.

 

The Alfine 8 speed hub gears are great for cycle tracks and road, with the motor assistance they haven't left me wanting. I thought I had a hub gear problem, detailed in another thread, but it wasn't. I will update that thread shortly. I even had a bit of singletrack fun with it when I did my Transpennine run. No worries about the chain coming off and the chain line is always perfect ): .

and the chain line is always perfect ): .

 

How do you adjust the tension?

How do you adjust the tension?

 

Both chain stays have an adjuster thread on them, just as you would expect on a factory designed single speed/hub geared bike. Not had to adjust it yet but all looks very straightforward.

Both chain stays have an adjuster thread on them, just as you would expect on a factory designed single speed/hub geared bike. Not had to adjust it yet but all looks very straightforward.

 

That's good then, my KTM just has horizontal drop-outs, which just isn't good enough given how often I have to adjust my chain.

If you regularly ride at +15 mph on the flat then the bike will increase your range. My bh,s had three settings 20 years younger(Eco) 20 years old(mid) and liar(top power or turbo)

If the bike is geared right and easy to pedal without the power then Eco mode will smooth the hills a little turbo will eat them.

So if you used to do x miles ride the same effort and their will be magically less hills. So your range will increase. Unless you get lazy.

On my current setup I did my first 10 mile run today. It used 1 Ah from the battery, so a 15ah battery would equate to 150 mile range!

Further than I have ever done in a day. Most on unassisted was 120 miles. So for me I would expect to get that range. Mind you there would be some chocolate and a roast dinner in there too. Got to avoid the bonk.

Thanks for the feedback guys

 

 

You'll have loses at both ends with the Cube Suv Hybrid Pro 500 27.5, both the Alfine hub and Bosch motor will be taking some of your power.

 

I thought the Bosch Active Cruise was supposed to be more efficient than the Bosch Performance CX? lower torque so less performance in each level of assistance but better range. Or is that only the one with the NuVinci hub that had the increased range? :S

 

 

I am over the moon with my SUV hybrid 500 and it is proving to be the ideal eBike for my requirements.

 

The Alfine 8 speed hub gears are great for cycle tracks and road, with the motor assistance they haven't left me wanting.

 

Sounds like a glowing endorsement. With regards to the 8 speed hub, does it have a range like the 12-36 the reaction has? I can't seem to find any info on it other than it having eight speeds.

I thought the Bosch Active Cruise was supposed to be more efficient than the Bosch Performance CX? lower torque so less performance in each level of assistance but better range.

Sounds like a glowing endorsement. With regards to the 8 speed hub, does it have a range like the 12-36 the reaction has? I can't seem to find any info on it other than it having eight speeds.[/QUOTE]

 

Efficient is the wrong word, I'd like to think that a motor producing less power and torque will indeed use less energy and therefore give more range. So just lower powered.

 

The hub may eat into some of those savings though, perhaps it negates them all. My comments were more about you pedalling with the motor turned off, there are more gears to turn in those newer Bosch motors, and it has to be taking some of your power.

 

Nexus 8 on here, same gears as the Alfine, I like my Nexus 8 overall, living in a hilly area I'd prefer just a little more range, but it just about suits me perfectly. and it's easy to adjust the range up or down on the chart with a simple sprocket change.

 

http://www.cyclelicio.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/N360_GearInchCard_500px.gif

Down hill I can't peddle faster than 27mph and I climbed Windle Edge which has a maximum gradient of 15.9 with relative ease in Turbo mode.

 

The gaps between gears might be a bit wider than a conventional cyclist would like but the Bosch motor masks that.

Down hill I can't peddle faster than 27mph and I climbed Windle Edge which has a maximum gradient of 15.9 with relative ease in Turbo mode.

 

The gaps between gears might be a bit wider than a conventional cyclist would like but the Bosch motor masks that.

 

I've had mine as high as pedalling at 38 mph and still getting up Winnats Pass, I'm running lower gearing currently, so all hills can be tackled in Tour with relative ease.

500wh is enough to take an average ebiker over average journeys to a distance of approximately 45 miles. If you pedal harder than an average ebiker, you'll go further, obviously. A fit guy, like a regular cyclist should manage at least 70 miles. On the other hand, if you let the motor do the work, or you have a lot of hills, it'll be a lot less.

 

It's very difficult to give meaningful info about range because evry cyclist is different and has different types of journeys. I've had 70 miles out of a 350w battery because it was switched off for 40 of them.

 

from my experience of testing many typres of bike and motor, often with measured data. I found out that there's no magic formula or special bike that can get more range than another. How far you go over any given journey in the same conditions depends on how many watt-hours in the battery and how hard you pedal. Lightweight hibrid and road bikes with thin tyres and low air resistance go a lot further and are easier to pedal, which is also pretty obvious. When I ride my road bike, the effort and speed are about the same as my electric MTB on level 1 power (60w).