This bike is the first e-assist I have ever taken on a tour, and I have some observations for those of you who are interested in this kind of thing. There are 2,960 miles on the unit so far, and the performance and reliability have been great.  One of the first things I did after installation was purchase a golf cart voltmeter that reads 0 to 60vDC to have a reliable "gas guage".  The battery condition read out on the control unit does not provide a very accurate reading of the charge remaining in the battery.  For a quick glance, it is fine, but as the charge drops below 44 volts, a more accurate indicator is a big help, because when the voltage drops to 40, the unit shuts down automatically.

The Bafang 48 volt batteries acutally charge to 54.4 to 54.6 volts full charge.  On tour, half charge is 45 to 46 volts and when the battery gets down to 44 volts, it becomes anemic.  However, with the e-assist unit set up as a true mid-drive, I have found that moving the chain to the small chainring on the front crank helps when operating below 44 volts.  The torque sensor in the motor provides assist according to how much effort is applied.  In the low voltage situations, the chain on the small chainring provides a bit more torque and removes the "anemic" feel.  My bike has three separate batteries:  two 14.25 Amp hour 13s 5p units (that I built myself with some help from friends) in the wooden battery box and one 11.6 Amp hour battery that came with the kit, so, around 40 Amp hours of capacity total.  One day while traveling down river on the Katy Trail, I had noticed the battery seemed to be running down quicker than previously, because at about 40 miles of travel, it was time to switch.  As I was within a few miles of my destination, it was easiest to switch from the main battery (14.25Ah)  to the reserve (11.6Ah).  Come to find out, I had been running on the reserve battery!  Granted, I was riding down river on the Katy Trail and puttering along in e-assist level 1 at about 10 mph, but 40 miles was good! 

When traveling along on the Katy Trail, I do not like to go much faster than 12 mph, what with the erosion grooves, limbs, acorns, tree galls, rocks and such, it is too easy to miss something and all of a sudden:  BUMP! Besides, gamboling down the Katy Trail at 14 or 15 mph, like I have seen some riders doing (and while wearing ear buds to boot), you miss seeing things. On straight stretches that are out in open sunlight where you can see a ways down the trail, I do not hesitate to move a bit faster.  But in shady areas, where there are leaves, twigs, frogs, toads and turtles on the trail, I am not interested in a quicker pace.

Going down river, one big battery (14.25Ah) is good for about 50 miles at level 1 carrying me, my gear and the bike itself. On crushed rock, that is not bad. When I had to detour thru Klondike park to get around bridge construction, there was a significant climb at the start.  That put a big dent in the battery, and I think I only got 44 or 45 miles out of that battery because of the climb.  It was probably a 7 percent grade for about 100 yards.  The chain was on the small chainring on the crank, and it was in climbing gear on the back.  I punched in level 2 on the assist and spun up the hill.

Any time I am on pavement, I usually have the unit in level 2 assist.  On the trip between Montezuma and Newton, I could get about 65 miles out of one of the 14.25 Ah batteries at e-assist level 2, just depending on the wind. With the e-assist on level 2 on pavement, it is fairly easy to average 12, 13 or even 14 mph over the course of 60 to 70 miles.  My best average speed so far was between Newton, KS and Emporia, KS: 15.53mph, but, that was because I had a direct tailwind for some 22 miles and was decending in elevation.  I anticipate the batteries not lasting so long on the return trip.  My average speed on the Katy Trail has been around 10 mph.  Going up river, the batteries have to work a bit harder, and so far, the 14.25 Ah batteries are good for about 40 miles.  So, if I rode the bike with touring load upriver on the Katy Trail until the batteries ran out, I could probably get 110 miles..........but I would have run out of gas long before that! When I was in St. Charles, there were some hills I had to climb just to get to my motel.  I did not pay any attention to how long the battery lasted on any particular day, because I was not riding that far and would be putting the charger on at the end of the day.  The e-assist made repeated trips up and down hills a snap.  On the brick streets, I left the assist level at 1 and kept my speed below 7 mph, because I did not want my gizzard and eye teeth rattled.

All told, I am very happy with the Bafang e-assist unit, and am glad to have it on my bike on tour.  As I mentioned previously, it makes me feel like a young man again.  This is the only way I will ever do a credit card bike tour again. When I rode from Hermann to Jefferson City yesterday, I had just switched to the reserve battery before I got to the North Jefferson Trailhead.  Was I glad I did.  Getting to my motel for the evening was a round-about course, which took me near downtown, thru a greenway and some residential areas.  The residential areas were the tough spots, because they had some hills! One of them was long enough and steep enough that even with e-assist and the chain on the small chainring up front, I was a bit winded when I got to the top of that climb.

Update on Sept 27 after the ride from Boonville to Windsor. 

It was mostly uphill and into the wind today.  The 14.25 Ah battery got me 35 miles up the trail and the reserve battery got me 20 miles up the trail.  Both were showing 42 volts at the end of the ride.  This ride was on crushed rock, but even with all the trees along the trail, there was no difficulty feeling the wind blowing thru the trees.