QUESTION ABOUT RANGE

If I have 2 cyclone(headline) motors and I run one on a 24v30ah ping and run the other on a 36v20ah ping, is it correct that both bikes will achieve the same range as there both using 720wh batterys.

24 x 30 = 720
36 x 20 = 720

Logically, they should do about the same distance, if you run them side by side. Only, one will be able to go 33% faster, to do about 66% of the distance.

so the 36v would go 33% faster but would only have 66% of the range (2/3)?

I thought 36v would be 50% faster than 24v?


Sorry if im being a proper noob here but I just cant get my head around this.

If you go the same speed with both, they will have about the same range.

To make the math easy, lets pretend the 24 volt battery will go 10mph for 30 miles range. The 36 volt battery will go 15mph for 20 miles. But if you slow the 36 volt bike down to only travel at 10mph, then you will also be able to go 30 miles range.

The faster you go, the shorter your range will be.

so it could be 50% faster with 50% of the range. or 10% faster and 90% range. hmm thats interesting. Pretty much depends how you choose to discharge the available watt hours in your battery.

Thanks drunkskunk, starting to make a bit more sense now.

Drunkskunk said:

The faster you go, the shorter your range will be.

Click to expand...

And to make it more complex, it's not linear, either, since the faster you go the worse the air resistance is and the more power you must use to overcome it, by a lot more each MPH than the last.

amberwolf said:

Drunkskunk said:

The faster you go, the shorter your range will be.

Click to expand...

And to make it more complex, it's not linear, either, since the faster you go the worse the air resistance is and the more power you must use to overcome it, by a lot more each MPH than the last.

Click to expand...

True. The power/speed relationship is approximately a cube law, double the speed and you use 8 times the power. This is the reason that slowing cruise speed slightly in a car (say from 70mph to 60mph) makes such a massive difference to mpg.

Here's some examples taken from an online calculator of some power figures for a typical heavy bike on MTB type tyres, ridden on the flat with no wind and a fairly upright riding position:

10mph = 81 watts

15mph = 168 watts

20mph = 311 watts

25mph = 529 watts

30mph = 839 watts

35mph = 1261 watts

These figures should be fairly close to the sort of power needed to do these speeds on an ebike. You'll use a fair bit less power if you ride crouched on aeros. For example, switching from upright to aeros at 30mph reduces the power needed for this example from 839 watts to 520watts.

Jeremy