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[benswing]

I took advantage of a 3 day weekend to ride from NYC to DC on my Zero carrying 2 Elcon 2500W chargers.  I planned out my stops so I could travel at highway speeds and charge using Chargepoint stations, which allow me to track the charging status.  Overall I traveled 487.4 miles through NJ, DE, MD and DC.  Weather was mid-60's during the day, upper 50's at night.

Average Speed - 55mi/hr
Charging - 1.5 hrs per stop

Battery life
From NYC to DC: 7.4mi/battery bar (consistent wind at my back)
From DC to NYC: 6.1mi/battery bar (consistent wind in my face, average speed slightly higher, like )

Approx 4.5hr riding time
Approx 4.5hr charging time
Total: 9hr traveling

The whole trip was beautiful since it is autumn and I caught up on some phone conversations while waiting.  For those who are new, my setup is:

2012 Zero S ZF9 with a Size6 controller and 2 Elcon 2500W chargers strapped to the side.  Will try to post photos soon.

[protomech]

4.5 hours riding each direction, I assume?

500 miles is a pretty solid motorcycle ride. 18 hours is probably not reasonable to do in a single day, but that can easily be done in two days. Fully maxing out J1772 is the baseline that a touring bike needs.

An Empulse owner traveled 1000 miles over 7 days. Shinysideup did a fantastic job documenting his trip.
http://brammoforum.com/index.php?topic=2155.msg17183#msg17183

With his smaller onboard 3kW charger, his charge times were quite a bit longer (and he aimed for 35 mph backroads as well).

Entering the new charge times into the latest version of Streets & Trips, based on aiming for a 35 mph speed, on back roads (except for one segment on the freeway at 60 mph), my trip now entails 11 hours of drive time, 23 hours of charging time, for a total of 34 hours. With staying in motels 2 nights, the total trip, one way, will be 415 miles in 2 days, 5 hours, 16 minutes.

[benswing]

Yes, 4.5 hours riding each direction.  Thanks for the link, that is quite a write up!  I would like to write something up, but don't have much time.  Will try to post photos and storyline soon.  Basically I stayed on I-95 going 55mph the whole way.  Would have been more fun to take back roads, but I wanted to get as close to a "regular trip" as possible. 

When I got to DC I went swing dancing at night, slept, then went to brunch with a friend at Founding Farmer's in Foggy Bottom.  I'd like to try a 24 hour ride for distance, but that will probably have to wait until next spring when the weather warms up and I have some time.

I planned out the stops using plugshare ahead of time and called the guy who has a charger in his home in Delaware. 

Here are the legs of my trip:
Montclair to Rutgers EcoComplex - 69.4mi - 6.5kWh
Rutgers EcoComplex to Delaware home - 60.8mi - 6.4kWh (estimate)
Delaware home to White Marsh Park and Ride (Baltimore) - 58mi - 6.4kWh
White Marsh Park and Ride (Baltimore) to DC destination - 52.6mi

All the electricity was free except in DC where I paid $15 for parking and $3.00 for the charge. 

[Doctorbass]

Great review!.. I see you follow the traces of Terry !

You would really appreciate having a cahrger like mine ( wich charge at 6.6kW and is as small as a shoes box!

(Sorry,  french version)


Doc

[NoiseBoy]

Nice one Ben, I wonder if the size 6 improves efficiency by anything significant. Maybe a couple of percentage points?

Good to see the classic Benswing selfies have made an appearance too!

[benswing]

Doctorbass, I want one, will message you about that.  Cutting off 30 minutes from each of my 3 stops would be awesome!

Noiseboy, yes I have admired Terry for quite some time and I have always loved road trips.  Now that I have taken a cross country trip and a weekend trip I am hooked on 2-wheeled road trips!

[Justin Andrews]

Thats pretty inspirational stuff!

[BSDThw]

Photos of my first Testride with my Meanwells in my side-case

[benswing]

BSDThw, how fast can you charge with them?

[BSDThw]

I have 3 RSP 1000 24V. This stack charge 45A, the on-board + a second Delta-q in the other box have 24A my third Delta-q was never mounted since I have the Meanwell tested.

I charge ~ 1 to 1,5 hour! The 45A will be reduce current at ~73,8V to 74,3V at the moment my protection circuit is not installed so I am conservative. If I start with a full battery and charge after 60Km it takes 30 minute to reach 74,8V Battery. The 11 bars are full but my first bar will be only 3-6Km normally it is 10-12Km. I have only tested it 4 times now it is disassembled and wait for the rest of my modification.

[WindRider]

Very cool guys.

Nice post Ben.

[benswing]

Thanks BDSThw.  That sounds almost exactly like my setup.  It is set to cut off conservatively and I get about the same distance from that first bar. 

Right now it looks like Doctorbass has the ideal setup.  Most public charging stations can charge at a maximum of 6.6kW (I think), so there isn't much to be gained beyond what his charger does now.  That gives about a 1hr charge time to full as the theoretical limit using J1772 chargers.  The new Chargepoint chargers go up to 7.2kW, so that wouldn't make a major difference (although every bit helps). 

Here are a couple more photos from the trip.

[BSDThw]

Doc has the smalls set but for me not ideal.

1) I have 2 + 1 on-board Delta-q since 1 year.
2) we have 230V 16A standard and I can use this set where ever I need to charge.

The 3xRSP will draw more than 16A especially when the voltage drop a bit.

We have a  “Kraftstrom” (three-phase electric power) this actually means we have 3 times 230V with a phase shift of 120°. The phase are named L1 L2 L3 so I use L3 for 2xRSP;  L2 for one RSP1000 and L1 for my three Delta-q's. I can also switch the RSP1000 at L2 to the L1 -> now if I disconnect one ore two Delta-q I can use 2 standard 230V outlets if each is fused with 16A. Very important I have to check the Neutral and plug in both 230V connectors correct to Phase and neutral. And the power line (Neutral) need to run 2x the current!! You should not do thinks like this if you are not skilled!
In addition you have to know how the outlets use the ground fault interrupter!

[benswing]

I am jealous of countries that use 220V as their standard for electricity.  If we did that in the US it would make things so much easier!  Thanks for the detailed explanation!

[protomech]

Most J1772 charging stations are limited to 30A, at whatever voltage they supply. 208V 30A stations can supply 6.2 kW AC, 240V 30A stations can supply 7.2 kW AC.

Add an extra 120V 15A circuit for an extra 1.8 kW AC and you can draw up to 9 kW (Mission Motorcycles, for example, claims charging at up to 9 kW .. I'm not sure how they plan to use J1772 and 120V at the same time and fully utilize their two chargers? It would be pretty amazing if one of their chargers could accept both 240V and 120V input at the same time).