Today, Sunday, the beach town of Santa Cruz was forecast to be sunny and 71 degrees, so I decided to spend the day there. I just had to cross a 3100 ft mountain range 43 miles each way. It was not my first range-anxiety trip, but it was the first time in 2.5 years I had to commit to charging somewhere other than home.
I threw it in ECO mode at 11 am and headed up Stevens Canyon, Redwood Gulch, and Hwy 9, then took the Hwy 35 ridge road south to beautiful tiny Zayante Rd down to Felton, and finally Graham Hill Rd to Ocean St, arriving straight away at the location of a recently-installed 120V plug that someone kindly indicated on PlugShare, on the side of a pay parking kiosk in the main boardwalk parking area.
SOC was still an amazing 46% after 45 miles indicated (extra 4% distance is probably because my tires are shot!) To achieve that, I took it slow the whole time, which is still exciting on some of the beautiful single-lane goat roads through the woods. That extrapolates to around 80 mile range INCLUDING a vertical mile for the '16 FX 5.7.
I left the bike plugged in for 3.5 hours while I walked around the pier and boardwalk indulging in fish & chips and ice cream. Nobody had molested the power cord and it was at 83% when I returned.
After hitting the local 24 Hour Fitness for a workout and a 1 km swim, and the 7-Eleven on Ocean St for a giant icee, I returned home via Graham Hill and Hwy 9 all the way back to Redwood Gulch. After reaching the top of the hill, it was clear that I could partake of the heated vest and grips. Going down was free, 28% the whole way with occasional blips to 29%. When I rolled in at 8 pm, SOC was 17% with 91 miles on the meter. It looks like I could have gotten away with my choice of: one less hour of charging, or sport mode!
