bigger battery or spare battery ?

dobbyhasfriends

dobbyhasfriends

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so ive made up my mind and changed it again loads of times now.. definitely a Levo but..

go for a 2020 comple with 70wh battery or
get a discounted 2019 comp and then a spare battery

I plan on doing some pretty long rides and possibly camping on a one nighter round robin etc..

anyone made the choice on this basis - what would your preference be?
 
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Calculator, blu-tack and a pen.
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I'd go for the 700Wh option; no extra battery to manage/carry and the extra range is always there.
 
I'd go for the bigger battery. If you need a spare for a longer trip, you can probably rent one - my shop said they'll lend me one for free if I had a big trip to do.
 
dobbyhasfriends said:
so ive made up my mind and changed it again loads of times now.. definitely a Levo but..

go for a 2020 comple with 70wh battery or
get a discounted 2019 comp and then a spare battery

I plan on doing some pretty long rides and possibly camping on a one nighter round robin etc..

anyone made the choice on this basis - what would your preference be?
Click to expand...
700 gives you more practical range on a day to day basis because you wont want to carry another battery.

500 +500 gives you more overall range if you're carrying crap already for camping.
 
It depends on your 'daily' riding too... I prefer the lighter 504Wh which is enough for ~90% of my rides and carry a spare 2-3x a year for longer trips. Also, there are days when I have the spare in the car and going back to change it after a number of runs so I don't have to carry it and 1000Wh is plenty enough but the 700Wh would be limiting.
 
Me, I have a 2019 with the 504Wh - but purchased a 700Wh to give me more range when needed.
I use the smaller battery mostly and keep the 700Wh at 50-70% charge. When going for a longer ride I just top it up and swap.
Planning for a couple 2 day rides shortly I am going to courier the 504Wh battery with my clothes change to the lodge I will be staying at over night and will swap for the second day. They will courier the battery and my dirty clothes back with the label provided.

win - win
 
cheers all, I reckon the rides I have planned and mapped out - done em all before on the enduro bike... are all around the 70-90 mile mark but ive no idea what kind of range to expect from a 700wh battery, im a lumper at around 95-100kg
 
It's pretty difficult to estimate how far you can go on battery X,y,z . The type of terrain and how you ride can make a huge difference. Altitude climbed will eat into range.
 
dobbyhasfriends said:
cheers all, I reckon the rides I have planned and mapped out - done em all before on the enduro bike... are all around the 70-90 mile mark but ive no idea what kind of range to expect from a 700wh battery, im a lumper at around 95-100kg
Click to expand...

I debated the 500wh vs 700wh vs 2x 500wh batteries for a long time and in the end I bought a 2020 Kenevo comp and I’m starting with a single 500wh to see how I get on.

I can tell you now that you could ride on a flat road in eco mode with a tail wind while slipstreaming someone and you'll be lucky get 70+ miles at 95-100kg from a 700Wh contrary to what the range calculator may lead you to believe.

The range calculator says a rider weighing 100kg riding on a flat in eco should get...76 miles on the 500wh and 106 miles on the 700wh. I then changed only the terrain from flat to hills and the numbers are 39 miles for the 500wh and 55 miles on the 700wh.

I am floating around the 95-100kg mark myself and using a 500Wh the best I’ve managed on a a very flat trial ride in relatively dryish conditions was 22 miles with just over 50% battery left.

So based on the above I’ve done some very loose estimating based on 22 miles using about 50% of my 500wh battery:
250wh = 22 miles
500wh = 44 miles
750wh = 66 miles
However a 750wh doesn’t exist it’s 700wh and my estimations don’t factor in the additional weight.

I am now almost certainly going for 2x 500Wh batteries as not only a viable option to a 70+ mile ride but also as a cheaper option as the 700wh battiers are £1100 but you can get 500Wh for £500 at a few dealers.

I hope this came across as informative and not a rant because I bloody love my ebike :love: and I know this is based on my Kenevo rather than a Levo but it’s real world.
 
At that rider weight with a 700wh battery best I have managed is 39 miles pretty much nursing it the whole way. That was a fair bit of climbing, around 5000ft. Mileage needs to be balanced against the amount of climbing you will be doing.

The last 50% is not another double of your previous mileage as it drops off inversely as the voltage of the battery drops. Plus the assistance level drops below 20%.
 
Last edited:
Jay8Miller said:
I debated the 500wh vs 700wh vs 2x 500wh batteries for a long time and in the end I bought a 2020 Kenevo comp and I’m starting with a single 500wh to see how I get on.

I can tell you now that you could ride on a flat road in eco mode with a tail wind while slipstreaming someone and you'll be lucky get 70+ miles at 95-100kg from a 700Wh contrary to what the range calculator may lead you to believe.

The range calculator says a rider weighing 100kg riding on a flat in eco should get...76 miles on the 500wh and 106 miles on the 700wh. I then changed only the terrain from flat to hills and the numbers are 39 miles for the 500wh and 55 miles on the 700wh.

I am floating around the 95-100kg mark myself and using a 500Wh the best I’ve managed on a a very flat trial ride in relatively dryish conditions was 22 miles with just over 50% battery left.

So based on the above I’ve done some very loose estimating based on 22 miles using about 50% of my 500wh battery:
250wh = 22 miles
500wh = 44 miles
750wh = 66 miles
However a 750wh doesn’t exist it’s 700wh and my estimations don’t factor in the additional weight.

I am now almost certainly going for 2x 500Wh batteries as not only a viable option to a 70+ mile ride but also as a cheaper option as the 700wh battiers are £1100 but you can get 500Wh for £500 at a few dealers.

I hope this came across as informative and not a rant because I bloody love my ebike :love: and I know this is based on my Kenevo rather than a Levo but it’s real world.
Click to expand...

thanks man, well useful info there..
Berkshire have a great deal on the 2019 carbon comp right now so im off there tomorrow... 500w battery but ill be buying a spare when I can
 
I just checked the only ride I’ve tracked on Mission control/Strava and the stats are below:

18.72 Miles
2:01 Duration
9.27 Average speed
2746ft Elevation gained
434wh Consumption (86% battery used)
222.19% Average support level

Most of the above doesn't mean much to me and I used a percentage calculator to work out the battery usage :ROFLMAO: and from what I recall of the ride I used trail until 60% battery then moved to eco to nurse it home, I climbed multiple hills and it was super sloppy and wet.

Based on the stats of this ride, a 500wh battery would do 22 miles in a mix of modes.

I just checked the range calculator but chose the full ride in Trail mode rather than the split I actually did and it says 29 miles and 2592 ft climb so it is close but very optimistic.

I will record more rides to give real world mileage.

I bought from Berkshire cycles, highly recommended (y) in fact my Avatar is me outside their shop.
 
Jay8Miller said:
I just checked the only ride I’ve tracked on Mission control/Strava and the stats are below:

18.72 Miles
2:01 Duration
9.27 Average speed
2746ft Elevation gained
434wh Consumption (86% battery used)
222.19% Average support level

Most of the above doesn't mean much to me and I used a percentage calculator to work out the battery usage :ROFLMAO: and from what I recall of the ride I used trail until 60% battery then moved to eco to nurse it home, I climbed multiple hills and it was super sloppy and wet.

Based on the stats of this ride, a 500wh battery would do 22 miles in a mix of modes.

I just checked the range calculator but chose the full ride in Trail mode rather than the split I actually did and it says 29 miles and 2592 ft climb so it is close but very optimistic.

I will record more rides to give real world mileage.

I bought from Berkshire cycles, highly recommended (y) in fact my Avatar is me outside their shop.
Click to expand...
My daily rides are similar. This is where the BLEvo app shines; when using Smartmode, a ride like the above I will use 40% of my 500wh battery. If I were to use eco mode primarily and trail mode for climbs, I would use around 30%.
 
I went with a 700 and a spare 500. Best of both worlds. I got myself an Evoc backpack and the battery just about fits in.
 
While I would always choose a bigger battery, the returns are not that great. By my own rough estimate based on my range/weight/trails, a 700Wh battery would give me just over an hour of extra riding time (or 16 miles).

An hour more fun is good, but it does not turn the bike in to an all-day ride.

I'm considering the 2020 Haibikes or Orbea, both have 625Wh in the frame plus can carry a ugly Bosch powerpack on the frame.

So, with the option of over 1KWh, that's my all day trail bike...
 
Swissrider said:
You might want to consider a trailwatts range extender- look up the thread for more info
Click to expand...

I looked into the Trail watts kit for my 2020 Kenevo but its £500 for 252Wh yet I can get a genuine spare 500Wh battery from Specialized for the same price :eek:

I might be missing the point as the Trail watts stuff is more portable so potentially increasing your range to 752wh but at that price i'm happy to ride back to my car and swap out my battery.
 
Hopefully Specialized develop a bottle-based extra battery system like they have on the Creo for future Levos. Having a 700wh in the frame and say a 350 in a bottle form, means for a big trip you could put 1050 on the bike and perhaps carry another 350 in a back pack. That would give me a range 80-100km with some decent climbing (I clean out a 500wh in about 40k)
 
davarello said:
Hopefully Specialized develop a bottle-based extra battery system like they have on the Creo for future Levos. Having a 700wh in the frame and say a 350 in a bottle form, means for a big trip you could put 1050 on the bike and perhaps carry another 350 in a back pack. That would give me a range 80-100km with some decent climbing (I clean out a 500wh in about 40k)
Click to expand...

On this subject..its not a Specialized one but there is another thread I am part of about an interesting product called E-Booz that is a Trailwatts style battery tube that plugs into the Specialized connector to extend the battery range, looks really decent but the guy that started the thread is having delivery issues, worth looking into i'd say.
 
dobbyhasfriends said:
cheers all, I reckon the rides I have planned and mapped out - done em all before on the enduro bike... are all around the 70-90 mile mark but ive no idea what kind of range to expect from a 700wh battery, im a lumper at around 95-100kg
Click to expand...

Elevation is the key multiplier with these batteries. Relatively flat riding will give you good range, hills are the challenge.
I'm 85kgs (dressed, shoes, pack around 92kgs) and my average ride is around 40kms/1300ms elevation and I use around 50% of a 700why battery, using Eco setting 25/30. If I extrapolate this I would hope to get around 75 - 80 kms and 2000-2200ms on a full charge. The TCU starts to taper assistance from around 9% left, therefore the reason you can't double up exactly.
 
cheers guys... well i rode it today (first ride) forgot to turn strava on so i am guessing a small part of the ride but around 24 miles across the beacons with 2000ft of climbing. I completely drained the battery with that ride and I never even used turbo and for the road sections I had the motor off..
 
With a spare battery there are the option not to always carry it. If the ride is a loop type or if it is possible to leave it in advance in a convenient location.
 
Chubba said:
Elevation is the key multiplier with these batteries. Relatively flat riding will give you good range, hills are the challenge.
I'm 85kgs (dressed, shoes, pack around 92kgs) and my average ride is around 40kms/1300ms elevation and I use around 50% of a 700why battery, using Eco setting 25/30. If I extrapolate this I would hope to get around 75 - 80 kms and 2000-2200ms on a full charge. The TCU starts to taper assistance from around 9% left, therefore the reason you can't double up exactly.
Click to expand...
Gradient is a major factor too - climbs you can only get up in Turbo blow through the power pretty quickly
 
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