First off let me say the ride is great. Anytime you get out of the normal day to day grind and get on a bicycle and head out destination unknown, no reservations needed; it is going to be a great day. Whether it rains, snows, sleets, or hails... there is something about the freedom that comes with getting out and riding a bike. Now with the Super Monarch 1500 E-Bike from Ecells.com you are given a new lease on the hard part of the ride that can sometimes be overwhelming. As a Cross Country biker, having ridden from Boston to Seattle in 2012 pulling a trailer on a single speed coaster brake bike I know the grueling challenges that can come with climbing thousands of feet in elevation or trekking on bad roads with no suspension. I know well the pain of being rocked up and down on unmanaged road shoulders, and what it’s like to need to get out of the way of a Semi tractor trailer truck barreling down on you as you try to manage the bad road conditions and keep to the shoulder. The Super Monarch helps with this very much. It is an all wheel drive bike which means it has a motor on the front wheel and the back wheel to help you along. It has Full suspension which means an air ride shock absorber in the front and rear to help assist on bad road conditions. I cannot speak of that as of yet because my front fork is barreling down so I have had to lock it out until I reach a bike shop to have a look at it. But I can talk about the battery system which is quite amazing. Okay so everyone has heard of V=IR, yes? If not Voltage equals current (here in Amp Hours times Resistance). From this simple equation we can determine how many watts of power we can derive from a battery, and many other pieces of information. So I technically we could draw about 1700 watts of power from the two Lithium Ion batteries included. Lithium Ion is so much better than lead acid because they have no memory so you can run them down to almost zero and be able to get a full charge on them the next time. Conversely, you can plug in with 50 percent left and the battery won’t peak out and only charge half way over a long period of time.
So since leaving Pahrump, NV I have gotten about 60 miles on my two battery system, replaced with my spare one and received upwards of an additional 30 miles. Yesterday for example i rode 85 miles without having to recharge, and from Pahrump to Hoover Dam I had to stop and charge for about an hour but only because Google Maps tried to take me on roads I was not allowed to be on, so this added about 15 extra miles to the trip... Keep in mind the lower the Watt outage on the screen the longer the battery will last for example if I am only putting out 100 watts of power potentially I could ride for 17 hours on a single charge. This is unrealistic but you get the idea. Friction, Load, and condition all play a part. But if you consider my work put in by pedaling, along with climbing several steep mountain ranges, and pulling a trailer with at least 100 pounds of gear, I think you will agree Thais bike lives up to it’s name.
For the total trip of 1500 miles I am going to have to break it up into two parts. The destination for leg one is Scottsdale, AZ and when I return from my first deployment I will go from Scottsdale to Houston, TX. So for this trip we are riding about 400 miles which means we have about 1100 to do once we return. We will get a better idea then on how far we can ride on basic flat roads as we travel almost the entire distance of Texas 857 miles:-). But for now I can say this bike is everything it was meant to be and I am pleased with the purchase.
NOTE: This is not a motorcycle or a moped. If you sit on the throttle and try to max it out you may only get 20-30 minutes of a ride. I have spun the throttle out and the watts can go up to 2000 on the trip computer which means obviously less than an hour of power because there is only 1700 in the bank. Typically though it stays at around 1000 watts which could give you as stated about 20-30 minutes of peak power. That is not practical if you are trying to go cross country without pedaling. And I will one day go cross country on an Adventure Motor Bike, but this is a different ride. This bike is meant for people who are wanting to bike, stay fit, and get exercise while enjoying the great outdoors. It is a wonderful tool in your arsenal of outside adventure tools.
NOTE: I have ran the back battery out twice to total zero % and still went another 10 miles, and may have been able to go farther, but I was at my destination. This is because the front battery still had 2 green bars and is not listed on the trip computer, Also, if you see a red battery light on the left even after charging, do not be alarmed. It goes away once you get going back on the journey. It just takes the computer time to register that you are back up to 100% on the batteries.
Until Next time Enjoy the journey and get you an e-cells e-bike as soon as you can. Tell them Christopher sent you.
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