Electric bike batteries: Everything you need to know
There's a lot to know about ebike batteries now if I'm gonna make it over a mountain to the beach and make it back on the same charge I'm gonna have to use every trick in the book you might come in a variety of types all with different features and strengths in fact if you
Want to know about all the different types of ebikes there are check out my last video I'll put the link in the description for this lengthy trip vintage electric was kind enough to lend me this sweet tractor evite it's a huge
Step up from the e-bot I normally ride but a batteries a battery and the same best practices can extend the Ragin lifecycle of any ebike battery I'll be going over some pretty significant Hills making my way from the San Fernando
Valley all the way to the beach this bike also has what's called brace mode which enables it to go 36 miles per hour and it kind of terrified but I'm not gonna not try it so stick around to the end of the video for that there's a lot
More to getting the most out of your battery even the way you ride your D bike I had to start preparing for this trip a day in advance here's what I did first we all die at some point and eat bike batteries are no different but your
Battery can live a long and full life if you charge it correctly you shouldn't always charge to a hundred percent after every ride I'll spare you the technical babble about how electrolyte oxidize and cons plating mostly because I don't even
Understand what I just said but I do know that by fully charging you increase the range degrades over time your charger may already prevent itself from fully charging the battery so it's important to read the bike's manual for
Proper charging instructions but that said you should fully charge your battery every few weeks to balance the cells think of it as giving your battery exercise so its muscles don't get actually feed over time and again
Batteries and their Chargers vary from brand to brand so consult your manuals next make sure your bike is in tip-top shape some basic maintenance that you should do on any bike electric or not will go a long way towards extending the
Batteries right before you drive make sure you inflate your tires to the recommended pressure level indicated on the side and lubricate your bike's chain every few weeks now that I'm all charged up and
Ready to go how far I make it on this trip is gonna depend on how much pedal assist I use when I'm not going uphill I'm gonna keep it at around a level of two or three because that's how I normally write EE bikes plus I'm not
Athletic enough to make it the length of a trip like this with little to no assist and that's why I love riding Eve ice I'm about to write uphill through the
Santa Monica Mountains which is about a 500 foot climb over a couple of miles I'm gonna be raising the assist to about a four or five to make it easier to pedal uphill but I assure you it's still gonna require an effort on my part this
Climb will pay off though because as soon as I get to the top it's pretty much all downhill to the beach and that's where my battery will actually see some return
all right I made it to the top the hard works done now it's time for it all to pay offs many e-bikes this one included have what's called regenerative braking what that means is
When you come to a slow and steady stop the friction creates energy that charges the battery keep in mind though I still have to go over that same mountain pass to go home so hopefully I can calculate this well enough to not get stranded too
Far from my apartment with a deadiy bike all right after about 17 miles I've made it to the beach I've about four out of five bars a battery left on the indicator I am starting to notice a
Slight dip in performance it just doesn't get up to speed as quickly I'm gonna start heading back now and hopefully I can make it close without the battery dying
So I made it back to the top which is actually slightly more appeal of it on the way there that's because I was starting from about ocean level now batteries are their most efficient when they're fully charged after the voltage
Starts to drop the performance starts to give a little as I was coming back up this hill I realized that the battery indicator was at four bars and then three and then two that's because the battery indicator is not a measurement
Of how much further you can get on that battery but the state of charge so as your battery starting to lose power that battery indicator will drop faster and faster well I'm just about home the battery
Indicator shows it at about two bars left which again doesn't have anything to do with how much further I can go on this battery you should try to avoid fully discharging your battery before every charge but once every couple
Months go ahead and do that just like you would balance the battery by charging it fully huge thanks to Joseph Kaminsky who gave me a lot of great battery tips and has written some really excellent articles
On cnn.com what battery tips did I miss dropping down in the comments now promised erased mode so here we go wish me luck you