Well my 'big' (for me at least) bike ride to test the range of the battery went better then I thought it would. It was 11.5 km each way and I only used .87 of an amp on the way there and 2.24 on the way back! The trike was empty though so if I add 50kg of children I expect those figures would increase. However even if I double them that is still only about 6 amp hours for a round trip.
Though it is a hilly trip I was able to use the downhills to gather a fair amount of speed to tackle at least some of the next uphill. I have the Cycle Analyst set to a 23km/h speed limit and I found that this worked as a great 'cruise control' eg go down hills at around 30km/h then start going up the next one and as speed gradually dropped the motor would kick in around 23km/h and I could pedal in higher gears for most of the hill. After a while I could then kick down a few gears and pedal to match the gradually slower speed of the trike up the hill. By not maxing out the motor with this method the range seems to be quite impressive. The uphills are longer and steeper on the way back hence the higher use of the battery coming home.
I was not counting on the rain being as heavy as it was though! I guess this was a good test for the 'waterproofness' of the motor and all my wiring and it looks like it passed as no sparks flew!
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