A test of it's range - lead-acid pack

40 degrees, sunny. It would be a cold day for a regular biker but the BugE protects against windchill so there was no need for gloves or chaps. Just regular street clothing & a helmet.

So, I started out.

2.6 miles from home to walmart, the streets were stop & go for 3 stop signs, then 40mph down a hilly boulevard. Kept up with traffic and even passed a few cars :) I stopped for around 10 minutes, got groceries. Then decided to visit the park. It's 3.8 miles from Walmart. To get there, 40mph down boulevard again, full throttle to climb a hill, then more stop-go back street driving. The majority of the journey, I maintained 30mph with light traffic. When I got there, I decided instead of stopping at the park, I would head home - which I realized was now around 3 miles away on a slight uphill grade! So, the return speed was kept to 28mph, then I slowed to 25mph with needle creeping lower each time as throttle was applied. By the last mile, the needle was completely limp when throttle was applied but I managed to maintain 15mph through downtown where I knew speeds could stay slow. I almost pulled over to let the batteries recover but parking wasn't favorable to that plan. What was really disturbing was in the last 1000 feet when the controller started to turn off, then on. I managed to make it home & do a last climb up the driveway.

I noticed at the last two stops, that turning the headlight off at traffic lights (but not brake light or turn signals) helped the needle creep back into the green zone until it went limp again when the throttle was used.

So, there it is, a variety of driving. I can't say I'm thrilled with the experience of my last mile but "resting" the pack and opportunity charging should allow me to safely stay under this tested range.

My Optimas D45s are now two years old (bought in spring of 2008) and they would spend months not connected to a charger during construction and refits. Plus, there was the shorting incident which took away even more performance. Since shorting two of the batteries, I've no longer been able to reach over 50mph even down hill with that pack. So, I did not expect full performance.