Dave from Dorset

[Dave_the_B]

Hello there, I'm Dave from deepest darkest north Dorset. I've been an enthusiastic mountian biker for over twenty years now and only recently started riding road as well.
My wife has always had an MTB and when we lived in Poole would join me for short rides to the seaside, along the trailways and sometimes to the Purbecks, so long as the going was flat, dry and there was tea and cake to be had. Since moving to Shaftesbury, one of the hilliest parts of Dorset, her cycling has stopped...some of the hills around here are 10 to 15% and not fun for an occasional rider; until I bought her an Ebike!!!!
An 8FUN step through bike and she/we could not be more pleased

We have been out a couple of times together now and it has been brilliant, my wife zooming up the hills grinning her face off, me on my road bike trying to keep up and failing most of the time, but most of all cycling together. Good times

One little question if I may: the range is completely as I expected, 15 maybe 20 miles taking in a couple of largish hills, at some point we would like to go further so this means another battery...8FUN can supply me one of the same,Portapower 36v 9Ah, for a little under £300, but I have seen that BMS Battery do other types of battery with slightly higher Ah a lot cheaper. The Portapower unit on the back of the bike has the controller built in, how can i connect one of these 'cheaper' batteries to the bike?

Sorry if I waffled a bit and many thanks in advance
Dave and Aby

 

[Deleted member 4366]

For £300, you can get the BMSB 20ah 36v shrink-tube battery, but you'd need to make an enclosure for it. They do a range of alloy case batteries, some of which fix to a plate that bolts to any standard rack, but I don't think that any of the larger ones have a compartment for the controller. They sell a controller box that clamps to the srat tube, but it's normally a tight squeeze to get the controller and the connectors in. It depends which controller you have. You'd need to measure it.

 

[RobF]

Dave,

Battery range is very much a piece of string question, but 15-20 miles from 9ah is not very much.

Around three or four miles per ah is realistic starting point, giving a range for your battery of closer to 30 miles.

Modern batteries seem to give their full range almost from new, but you say you have only been out two or three times - range might improve a bit with a few more charge cycles.

Your wife's fitness will also improve, quickly to start with, then less so.

I don't know what range you seek, but it may be you will get closer to 30 miles after a few more rides due to wife and battery capacity improving.

 

[Croxden]

I have found the range increasing on my new machine, even more now the weather is improving, temperature wise, if only the wind would drop hitting me in the face.

 

[Dave_the_B]

Thank you for your replies.
We haven't been brave enough to do a ride where we run the battery completely flat yet, but today was 22 miles with the battery indicator showing 20% left so things are looking a lot better than my guesstimate of 15 to 20 miles.
I might even leave off rushing out for another battery for a while and see how things progress
Many thanks again
Dave