DO THIS to Save the Battery on Your Electric Bike Rides: How To Extend Your EBike Battery Range

Hey, everyone. I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. And today I'm going to teach you how to effectively ride your electric bike to preserve the battery stick around.

All right. So today we're going to talk about how to effectively ride your e-bike to preserve the battery. But before I get into it, hit the subscribe button below, and stay in touch with us here at Sixthreezero. Be the first to know about all the new content we're putting out, giveaways we do, and of course, new product releases. Before I get into it, I've linked in our description a link to all the electric bikes on our website, sixthreezero.com, including these two models, which are our folding electric trike and our electric simple step-through e-bike. Two cool e-bikes are linked in the description. All right. So you've got a brand new and you want to know how to maximize the range and maybe the battery's dying sooner than you expected. So I'm going to go over a couple of things today. Also, if you have any thoughts and suggestions on how to prolong your battery in rides, put them in the comments.

Let's create a discussion and turn this into a place people can turn to, to find effective strategies to prolong their battery. All right, I've had an electric car too for about eight years and so I've learned that there are certain strategies involved in that. And a lot of the things I'm going to discuss are probably pretty intuitive, but we'll put them out there just so everyone understands that some of these simple things you can do will translate to much more range on your battery when you're riding. Okay. Number one, depending on the type of e-bike you have, whether it has a pedal assist and a throttle or just a pedal assist. Let's start with the pedal assist. So if you have a pedal-assist e-bike, to preserve the range, number one, if you have assistance levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, keeping it in the lower assistance levels is going to prolong your range.

Now, I know it seems pretty straightforward. So if you have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 5 is going to be using the most power from your battery to power your e-bike and if you're constantly running in level-5 assistance level, the battery's going to drain quicker. So if you keep it in levels 1, 2, and 3, those are going to be the most effective to prolong the range of your battery. Level 1 is going to give you the most range. Level 5 is going to give you the least range. Now, depending on the levels too is the speed. So if you go, you're cranking and you're trying to push the wattage up because as you are in level 5, the faster you're pedaling, you're increasing the wattage output of that motor. So even if you're in level 1 and you're at a cruising pace, that's going to be a better range than if you're in level 1 and trying to go as fast as possible.

Now, I know people talk about regenerative braking systems and motors. Most e-bikes don't have that, so we're also not going to talk about that today. But these motors do not have regenerative braking or any sort of regenerative, so you're never getting power back to the motor. The power you use is going to be gone, which is why it's so important to prolong it. Okay, now, that explains pedal assist, keeping it in the lower levels. Another key point with the pedal assist is going to the hills. Hills are going to be one of the largest drains on your e-bike batteries. Honestly, I've done hundreds of e-bike rides. You could go on flat ground for miles and get range like you've never experienced before. Then, all of a sudden you tackle a hill, let's say you had all five batteries showing on your display. Then, you come up to a huge hill and all of a sudden you put it in level 5 assistance and your battery drops by four bars.

It's not impossible depending on the grade and the steepness of the hill and what assistance level you are in, that could seriously, seriously drain your battery very quickly. So be mindful that if you're going to tackle hills and pedal assistance, think about how many more miles you have on the backside of that hill to accomplish. Because if you're a rider, let's say like me, I'm over 200 pounds. If you're over 200 pounds, you come up to a pretty steep hill and you put it in level 5, you're going to crush the battery. Now, I know the benefit of having an e-bike is obviously to get up these hills, but if you think you have a lot of miles left after the hill, one option is to try to make it up that hill in the lowest possible pedal assist mode you can or if you can do it manually or walk your bike or you can also travel with an extra battery, but that's not going to help you prolong your battery.

So my suggestion is to try to keep it at a lower assistance level. Also, shift your bike like these bikes both have seven speeds that function independently of the actual electrical components. The gears are just part of this bike, like a standard bike. So shift it into first gear, it's going to be the easiest to pedal, and it's going to make pedaling up that hill as easy as possible. Try to put it in level 1 and don't be impatient. I know level 5 is going to get you up that hill quicker, but if you can put it in level 1 assistance and gear one for the bike and still make it up the hill easily, you're going to prolong that battery for so much longer. Now, if you need to get up the hill for whatever reason, sure, put it in 5 and go for it, but just know you're going to drain the battery and the draining is going to be exponential, I'm telling you.

If you're in level 1 and you have it in gear one and you get up that hill, you may not even burn one bar off. But if you put it in level 5 and you're in gear three or something and you're cooking up that hill, you're going to possibly reduce your battery by two to three bars off the display. So, that is a key tip to preserve your batteries on the ride is how you strategically take on these hills. With that said, if you have a throttle on your e-bike, do not throttle only up a hill. Now, I know it's fun. And again, this is just if you want to preserve the battery, if you have a massive battery and you're confident that you don't need to preserve the battery or you have an extra battery, by all means, go for it.

But if you also take on a hill with just the throttle and you're over 200 pounds and you go up that hill, you are going to decimate your battery life. I know from firsthand experience, that major, major hills with throttle only are not going to be a good thing. And again, it could be one of those things where you made it from miles and miles and miles on flat ground without reducing your battery at all. Now, you take on a really large hill, throttle only, cruise up the hill, you get to the top and you're like, "Why did my battery drop to one?" Well, you just really pushed that thing to max capacity. You drove the wattage of the battery. You made it work hard and it just really, really drained the battery. Okay, so hills and how you effectively take them on, avoid the throttle, keep it in low pedal assist, don't be impatient. That's going to help you preserve the batteries on your ride.

Now, if you can do flat ground or if you do flat ground, you're going to get great range. The other thing I was going to say is you can mix in the battery on and off. Now, I know a lot of people want to keep the battery on all the time, but if you're going let's say, 10 miles out, 10 miles back, try to manually do it for the first few miles. The longer you can make it again, will prolong the battery. Try to keep that battery with as much juice as long as possible till you need it, and you can save it for the return trip on the way back. And again, we're just talking about preservation strategies here. If you have a large enough battery or extra batteries, don't worry about preserving anything at all.

Okay, the other thing is when you're on flat ground and you're using the throttle just like a car. If you've ever driven an electric car, the more you accelerate, you'll usually see some bar indicating to you that you are in a red zone in terms of how much battery you're draining. Just like that with a throttle on an e-bike, if you're accelerating fast, you're utilizing more energy from that battery to create that surge in power and you're going to drain the battery quicker. So if you use the throttle, a nice gradual increase is great, and also, like cruise control, keeping your thumb in the same position and not doing a lot of fluctuation. The more you go from zero to full throttle and back, that's going to drain the battery quickly. It'd be better off if you held the throttle at a nice medium pace and you don't do a lot of fast acceleration here and there. So that's important to know.

Using the throttle is a ton of fun. I definitely advocate it for certain situations, but the throttle can be an absolute battery drain if you get careless with how you accelerate and how often you accelerate. The other thing is taking on hills from dead stops. If you're starting a ride and going straight up a hill, don't use the throttle. I know we talked about hills, but even worse is going to be if you are stopped and go up that hill and try to use the throttle to get you up. You're going to drain the battery so quickly. So when you're on flat ground as well, if you can maintain a pace and you're in pedal assist and you leave it in 2 or 3 and you can create a nice cadence with your pedaling, you're going to get tons of range.

It's the same thing though. If you put it in 5 and all of a sudden, you're slowing down, then you're going real fast, then you're slowing down, then you're going real fast, you're going to drain that battery very quickly. Anytime you put it in 5. Now, if you put it in 5 and you're cruising at 20 miles an hour max and you're going for miles, yeah, that's going to drain the battery faster obviously than if you were in level 1. But also, that acceleration and deceleration, acceleration and deceleration. So that may be fun at times, but if you're trying to preserve the battery, try to keep a nice constant pace, even if you're in level 5 and you just keep a good pace going, that's still going to drain the battery quickly, but it's going to be better for the motor and the battery overall to just keep a consistent pace as you ride.

And if you're also doing a lot of rolling hills and constant up and down, if there's a lot of that, that's going to drain the battery very quickly. So my suggestion is to keep it in 1 on the pedal assist and keep it in your low gear on the bike too in level 1, which will make it easy to pedal and you can reduce your needs around using the motor as much as possible. And I think the big thing too is level 1 will still get you uphill. Like I said, it's just not going to get you uphill quite as fast. The other thing too is downhills. Now again, there's no regenerative braking on these e-bikes, some may have it. But downhills, just like in a car, take your foot off the gas, and I find this with electric cars as well. When I'm coming downhills, a lot of times I'll take my foot off the gas in the electric car just to preserve that. I don't need to gas it. Even if you're just giving it a little bit of gas, you're still draining that battery, whether in your car or your bike.

Just enjoy the downhill. You may want to go as fast as possible, I get it. But if you're looking to prolong the battery, just let the hill take you as fast as it's going to take you, let off. You can even turn your motor off for the time that you're cruising down the hill if it's a very large hill. If it's a short hill, just pull off. And you can shift it to zero to make sure you don't use any power. And then when you come off the backside of the hill, don't use the motor. Use the momentum of the hill to propel you. Just shift your gear into the highest gear you have because when you're coming off that hill, you'll have a lot of momentum. Put it into seven. If you have 21, put it in 21 because you can cruise for a while, building off the momentum, and the power that the hill gives you. So that's another key thing. Use the momentum of the hills to your favor on the downhills and don't let them kill you on the uphills. And that's it.

Those are some of my basic tips. Just use it effectively. Try not to do a bunch of starting and stopping. If you can avoid using the throttle or you don't have to, don't, it'll preserve the battery. Use as much of the manual element of the bike as possible and you'll be able to get lots of miles. I've seen the ranges of my batteries go from as little as 10 miles to as much as 80 miles, and I'm not joking at all. It's just come down to how effectively I've been riding it. The last thing I'll say is tire pressure. Tire pressure will pay some roll. If you have low tires, there's going to be more drag on the bike. So pump your tires up all the way. Make sure they're good and to the correct PSI because that's going to reduce the drag on the bike and preserve your motor as well.

One other thing I would say is to try to ride with the wind, the least amount of resistance against you. Now, if you're going there and back, you're going to have to go into the wind at some point, but just be aware of it. If you're riding into the wind, it's going to create resistance. You're probably going to want more power for the bike. Maybe you could be mindful of that. If you're fighting the wind on the way out on your ride, try not to use your bike as much as possible. Preserve that battery, and keep it in level 1. Just don't be impatient. If you know you're fighting the wind and you're like, "Why am I only going 10 miles an hour?" Just realize that it's because you're going into the wind. If you start to get impatient, put this in 5 and you're fighting the wind, you're going to drain that battery much quicker.

The last suggestion or thing to be mindful of with your battery drain is your body weight. And just like me, I'm over 200 pounds. If I weighed 130 pounds, I'm going to get much more range out of my battery and that is going to be a massively effective thing to extend the range of any battery. And I'm not just talking about the rider, but it could just be reducing the load period. If you have 50 pounds in a basket, that's going to drain the battery quicker. So if you're looking to get a really good amount of range on a ride, try to lighten your load. If it's a shorter ride to the grocery store and you don't care about draining the battery, you can put as much as you want in there. But I know, I'm 220 pounds. I've ridden with friends who are 110 pounds, and 150 pounds, and every single time they have more battery left than me because my motor's working harder, which is requiring more energy from my battery to power me versus them.

Lastly, keep it on the pavement. If you ride your e-bike on pavement, again, less drag, it'll roll smoother, you'll preserve the battery. Anytime you go off-road, hard pack trails, things where the battery has to work harder, or where there's more drag on the tires, it's going to drain the battery much, much quicker. So if you're looking for range and long rides, stay on good, smooth pavement, stay off gravel, stay off hard-packed trails, and things like that.

All right. That covers most of the tips and tricks I have for extending the range of your battery. If you guys have any suggestions, please comment below, I'd love to hear them, or you can email us at TheTeam@sixthreezero.com or call us at 310-982-2877. In addition to that, you'll find all of our e-bikes linked in a description below, including these two. We have a huge selection of different types of riders. Also, we have a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you don't love your e-bike in the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. In addition to that, we'll warranty all e-bikes for one year. And lastly, we have thousands of happy riders in our Facebook Pedalers group. If you're interested in an e-bike or a Sixthreezero bike, join that group before you purchase. Ask them questions. Get comfortable before you jump in and make a purchase. Then, once you have an e-bike and a Sixthreezero bike, post photos, and make new friends. It's tons of fun. So thank you for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience, enjoy the ride.