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[Richard230]

An article written by Jim Gorzelany of CTW Features, and published in my newspaper today, reports that "AAA put three different electric vehicles (didn't say which ones and the sample is pretty small) through their paces under controlled circumstances to gauge how well their batteries fared in stop-and-go-traffic under cold, moderate and hot operating conditions."  According to the results, the three cars averaged 105 miles on a charge at an ambient temperature of 75 degrees F.  However, the vehicles range dropped to just 43 miles at an air temperature of 20 degrees F and to 69 miles when it was 95 degrees F.  They note that all of the vehicles had provisions to either warm or cool the batteries via liquid or forced-air heating/cooling methods.  Needless to say operating the AC and heater had an effect on the range, unfortunately the article didn't say if these systems were off or on during the test.  Not very scientific, but better than nothing, I guess.

[Burton]

Guess they didn't test a motorcycle. Never had a problem with my AC / Heating taking up resources on my bike >_<

[Burton]

Where is the zombie icon at? Raising this one from the dead as I have some data to share though it isn't as nice as it could be.

I have been keeping track of watts used per trip, the range of the trip, and the temperature. I need to start tracking speed but I don't have a good way to do that yet.

I have attached  ~25 trip chart showing mostly my commuting time with one or two trips out running fast on back roads. I was also originally maintaining about 60mph when I first rode the bike, then 65. But lately I have added my GPS to my bike and found the speedo is off by +3 mph so now I am running a real 65mph on average and peak at 70 or slightly higher.

The one outlying mark around 73 degrees F I was out on a local loop running at crazy speeds and averaged 150 watts / mile

[Burton]

Nearly a month later and I have more data points and some odd observations to report. (2nd image attached)

I have noticed a number which keeps popping up. 160.41 Watts / Mile @ 60mph

I have got this at least 4 or 5 times now while going into work in the morning at 60mph. It is significant because the temperatures ranged from 35F - 66F which to me makes me think it shouldn't have happened. (1st image attached)

While my bike isn't stock I feel this is a trend even though I don't have more cases to compare it to. My afternoon usage looks a little different than my morning numbers even if it is in the same temp range. I think this is because of the traffic itself and not the riding conditions or it is windier ... idk yet and I am not tracking wind / gusts ... something I should likely do.

Keeping in mind my bike is modified from stock, has a size 6 controller which has modified programming, has no fairings, has no windshield, and has a top case on the passenger seat holding 30-40lbs a trip. This bike will be streamlined and the programming modified and at that time I will start a new spreadsheet.