What range and electric bikes really means to you (or at least us!)

Riding an electric bike is about freedom (the real kind), exhilaration, fitness, fun, and a host of other emotions/sensations.  Where does range and distance fit into this experience?

Having adequate range on an electric bike is about having NO LIMITS.  Whether you are cruising the open road, getting groceries, or exploring a vast wilderness area – we believe that you should stop riding when YOU want to, not when your E-bike runs out of battery power.

How far do you need to go?

We have given this question some serious consideration and designed the Optibike to perform according to what we believe is the right answer.  We have talked to E-bike owners(both of Optibikes and other brands) and we have logged thousands of miles ourselves in the quest to determine the answer.  The magic number that we came up with is 100 miles on a single charge.

Riding 100 miles (called a century) on a bike is a tremendous feat that most cyclists seek to attain at least once in their lives.  For us at Optibike, the first time we rode one was at the 2005 Tour De Sol in New York, when we rode 104 miles in 4 hours through the rolling hills of upstate New York.

That is an average of 26 mph for over 4 hours on a single charge- and since then, our batteries have vastly improved in both size, energy density (energy capacity per gram of battery), output capability, and lifespan (we warranty them for 3 years/30,000 miles.)

No other electric bicycle made can even come close to delivering this kind of performance.

How does the Optibike go so far, while every other bike leaves you wanting more?

The Optibike has a 20ah lithium battery and is ready to accommodate an additional Optibike Touring Package to double the capacity.  That is a total of 40ah at 36v.  No other electric bike offers this magnitude of capacity.

The Optibike 850XLi uses 23 amps of power continuously at 36v to get 850w, so with this battery capacity – you can ride for just under 2 hours at full speed, or about 5 hours in economy mode (a half power feature that comes standard on all Optibikes.)  Or, in the essence of full disclosure and truth in advertising- the 850XLi runs for just under an hour with the standard 20ah battery at full speed.

** Important note: The Optibikes Motorized Bottom Bracket (MBB), unlike our hub-motor driven ancestors, has the same efficiency on flat ground as it does climbing hills.  So the Optibike will run for an hour straight uphill, while a hub motor will die really quickly.

There are E-bikes out there with 1000w motors and only 9ah batteries.  How long will they run?

1000w = 27 amps of discharge current.  (1000/36volts)  So a 9ah battery will run for only 20 min!!!

That’s like riding in a car with a 1 gallon gas tank.

You get what you pay for and while good, big batteries are more of an investment upfront – you won’t feel limited when you want to go out and ride until YOU feel like stopping.