Okay So after skimming through the Topics I really want to start this one early.
I want to hear about everyones choices when it comes to riding style, primarily in the concern of getting the most range out of your bike!
How ever this isn't a compliant for me, although I have never done a long, slow, boring ride just to see how far I could go I am very confindent that I could ride the bike 55 miles if need be.
(Yeah you guys are right as far as the Range hype, Vectrix recently adjusted the range to 55 miles down from 68). But the Tesla roadster has been going through this too.
So here is what I do when I want to ride for range... I will take all of these things into account when riding, or starting a ride:
Weight:
-Leave everything I don't need. Anything I bring has to be accelerated and in my case pulled up mountains.(For me this was a rear spring wrench, dirt, and excess water)
Drag:
-Wind:
--Wash and wax. When I leave on a trip, I will wash all the winter road grime off this cuts down on wind drag a lot more than you would think.
--Clothing, because of my current weather I have to bundle up to stay warm, but I try to pick the clothing that will cause the least drag.
--Use the wind screen. When I am absolutely going for range I will usually duck out of the wind at speeds 30 m.p.h. or higher.
-- I can't testify to this because I have never riden with my 3/4 helmet, but I imagine a full face offeres the least amount of drag.
-Tires: Higher tire pressure reduces rolling drag. Set atleast at the recomended and if you know your stuff take them higher. I am a novice motorcyclist however.
-Speed: I'll adress this more, but the faster you go the more effect drag has on you, increasing power consumption.
Throttle Control: (the most important obviosly)
-Don't let traffic influence your riding, unless it becomes unsafe. I imagine most people (I DO) ride faster and more aggressive when irritated at traffic. Don't let that happen.
- SPEED KILLS (your battery): Three reasons
-- You use more power to accelerate to that speed.
-- You use more power to maintian that speed due to drag.
-- You use a lot more power if you climb hills with speed, due to vertical acceleration and gravity.
-When riding for range I basically completely ignore traffic. When I rode 31 miles into the mountians the speed limit was 35-45 m.p.h. and I knew I would not make it to my destination if I rode with the pace of traffic. My average speed going up was probably 29-31. With min and max at 20-40. Estes park, about 31 miles from my home is at 7522 feet, while my home city, Loveland is at 4982. So that is quite a climb.
- Regenative Breaking... I am not clear on this but here is my practice:
- I use regenative braking as normal breaks, but I don't go out of my way to use the regen. I mean I don't maintain speed upto a red light ahead. I ride like i was trying to drive a car economicly, as in coast when possible, and the basics of reading traffic lights and rolling thru lights as they turn green, saving momentum...
That is a big question of mine is with the regen braking. What is the most efficient way to use and utilize this feature. If you use the regen in a different manner please make sure to explain since most of use are using the guess and check method...
Before I end up starting another thread, I experience pretty darn good range. I traveled 31 miles up into the mountians, with a climb of over 2500 ft. When I entered town i had 2 of 16 battery bars remaining. In town I found a plugin and proceded to enjoy the small tourist town. After about 3 hours I believe it was I had a full charge. I had a much faster, and more exciting ride down the mountian.
When I got home and even with all of my highly agressive, highspeed riding I still had about 33% battery left when I arrived home.
In my cold weather charging situation I seem to get recharge times dead on with specs.
Again looking for all experiences, tips and hints. Thanks!
Hi,
thanks for your report!
What is your approximate weight and height?
You can't leave that at home, I guess ;)
Mr. Mik
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
I don't know about the Vectrix, but the theory is you should use regen like brakes... as little as possible. Regen is better than dissipating energy as heat, but it is always best to not put more kinetic energy into the bike than you need. An interesting question would be if you have to use regen would it work better to use a little for a long way or a lot right before you want to stop. I'd think the controller would make better use of the first method, but that's just a guess.
You live in Loveland and have a Vectrix? I didn't think these were being distributed in Colorado. How'd you get it? (If you don't mind me asking.)
"we must be the change we wish to see in the world"
I agree with a lot of what you say.
I'd sum it up as "Any breaking is bad breaking" - if it is a result of unneccessary acceleration beforehand. That includes regen braking.
As for riding position: The only somewhat comfortable position out of the wind for myself (187cm) is chopper style, using the little hump on the seat as a sort of back rest. This seemed to improve the range, but my Vectrix died before I could do any decent controls using this "technique". You need small convex mirrors added to the standard mirrors so you can still see anything in them when you sit up straight at lights or when going very slow.
The speed which has the most efficient "feel" to it for me is around 50km/h; bejond that the wind resistance goes up drastically.
I believe cleaning and waxing is insignificant unless you have kilos of dirt hanging off your bike.
Similarly for the clothes, except for their weight, it's all behind the fairing except for the helmet, anyway.
My maximum range when driving like you desribed was 55km. That's driving very gently without hindering traffic too much, most of it at around 50km/h, maximum about 70km/h for short times, with 100m elevation difference on a round-course.
It was before I started to experiment with the chopper position.
I pretty much always ride with about 111kg on board.(88kg of "controller", and 23kg of clothes, backpack, heavy lock and chain etc.)
Maybe the temperature of around 28degC during most of my recent rides has a big impact on range, summer in the northern hemisphere will show if this is the case.
Maybe the higher temperature is also what makes the charging so much slower for my Vectrix.
Good to hear that other Vectrix' perform better than mine, that gives me hope that it might be due to something fixable......
Mr. Mik
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
I am about 6' and 135 lbs. (182.88 centimeter & 61.2 kg)
I had to import it via a pick up truck from Eco-Moto in SLC Utah. Although Abby at Vectrix has told me rumors about a Vectrix Flagship Store coming to Boulder, CO.
Mik, I totally agree about the mirrors. I am constantly playing with mine and usually have one for 'tucked' and upright riding postures.
Good sum up on braking.
As for cleaning and waxing, I have never tested this so much with the bike. I learned this from my Toyota Celica. With an inline 4 the car is pretty underpowered at highway speeds (110 kmph + ), one time I got on the interstate and could barely accelerate, had no power, the poor thing was almost floored. It was gutless. The next time I took it out on a trip i made sure to wash it. This made an incredible difference.
While it probably doesn't make a huge difference I didn't want to take the chance when I knew I was embarking on a pretty risky trip 31 miles or about 50 km into the mountains. The last thing I wanted was to knock on some run down mountain home asking if I could barrow their plug-in.
Since I have only had this in the winter can't comment on temp effects yet...
I would say get rid of all the weight you can though. I ride the bike practically naked, with probably less than a kilo of weight past my own 61 kg (plus clothes & helmet)
I have only carried a passenger once, but when I did, I had to crank on that throttle.
Judging by the load your bike moves, it doesn't seem that your bike is too far below what mine gets. Speeds are about the same, so really I dont have many ideas past all the additional weight.
Some one said something about sweetspots... Even with wind drag my bike has a nice one in the mid 40's (mph) and right above 25 mph. Like some car engines, the bike just likes to cruise at some speeds better than others...
Thanks for everyones input. Unfortantly I wont be modding my bike anytime soon, maybe after its out of warrenty ;) ...
Hey here is a question...
When the Regen braking produces a charge where does it go?
I just had to do a full cycle to complete the firmware/software update on my bike and I payed attention to the behavior of acceleration after regen braking on dead battery...
Is it possible that regen charges a bunch of capacitors which are then quickly drained upon acceleration?
I noticed this after regen braking and then accelerating hard on a low battery. Initially there is a surge of power avaible before the power falls back down to low battery levels. Yet if I didn't regen brake i didn't experience this.
I have only basic understandings of electronics ans such, but I also noticed that it took hardly any regen braking to 'fill' these possible capacitors.
If this is true where does the rest of the charge go, say when I brake from 40m.p.h to 0?
Any one else noticed similair behavior with their bike?
Hi,
good to hear you have your bike back!
I have not tested this, but I had to stop and wait for half a minute or so several times when the battery was too low to get up my driveway.
There is quite an increase in power even with just waiting a short time.
It does not last long, of course.
If you were regen-braking to stop at a traffic light, then the waiting for the light to turn green might have increased the available power even if you had not used the regen brake.
To test your hypothesis you would need to use regen braking to stop and immediately start again, then compare it to what happens when you stop using disc brakes and immediately start again.
Mr. Mik
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!