Bosch Gen 5 efficiency?

[nickf]

I've a question for any Bosch gen 5 owners about their experience of its efficiency and battery consumption.

I just test rode a Santa Cruz Vala for the day with the Bosch gen 5 motor and 600Wh battery. I rode a collection of steep natural rocky trails and did a 30km and +700m circuit at which point I had to call it a day because the battery was showing only 1 red bar on the controller display (12% remaining on the app). I had fully charged it before setting out, but the display fairly quickly dropped to 4 bars + 1 white bar (i,e 90%) so I presume it was only around 95% charged at the start. That would mean I used 80% of the 600Wh capacity, which seemed a lot to me.

I compared my ride stats from a previous ride of more or less the same circuit on my 2022 Trek Rail. This has the pre-smart system gen 4 motor and a 625Wh battery. Although the off-road circuit was more or less the same, on this occasion I had ridden to and from the start point by road which added another 15km to the total, and my battery usage was also more or less 80%. So that means 45km on the Rail compared to 30km on the Vala for more or less the same battery consumption.

I can imagine some inaccuracy in my estimation of the Rail's consumption, especially since the original Purion display only shows battery state in 20% increments, and it may have been colder by a few degrees C on the the day I rode the Vala which could affect battery usage. (Also my Rail has 25Wh more than the Vala.) Nevertheless, even taking these factors into account it does seem to me as if the range was considerably poorer with the gen 5 Vala then my old gen 4 Rail.

Am I mistaken? What do other gen 5 owners say? Thanks.

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

I've a question for any Bosch gen 5 owners about their experience of its efficiency and battery consumption.

I just test rode a Santa Cruz Vala for the day with the Bosch gen 5 motor and 600Wh battery. I rode a collection of steep natural rocky trails and did a 30km and +700m circuit at which point I had to call it a day because the battery was showing only 1 red bar on the controller display (12% remaining on the app). I had fully charged it before setting out, but the display fairly quickly dropped to 4 bars + 1 white bar (i,e 90%) so I presume it was only around 95% charged at the start. That would mean I used 80% of the 600Wh capacity, which seemed a lot to me.

I compared my ride stats from a previous ride of more or less the same circuit on my 2022 Trek Rail. This has the pre-smart system gen 4 motor and a 625Wh battery. Although the off-road circuit was more or less the same, on this occasion I had ridden to and from the start point by road which added another 15km to the total, and my battery usage was also more or less 80%. So that means 45km on the Rail compared to 30km on the Vala for more or less the same battery consumption.

I can imagine some inaccuracy in my estimation of the Rail's consumption, especially since the original Purion display only shows battery state in 20% increments, and it may have been colder by a few degrees C on the the day I rode the Vala which could affect battery usage. (Also my Rail has 25Wh more than the Vala.) Nevertheless, even taking these factors into account it does seem to me as if the range was considerably poorer with the gen 5 Vala then my old gen 4 Rail.

Am I mistaken? What do other gen 5 owners say? Thanks.

What was the temperature outside on the Vala vs the Rail?

In my experience the range is very similar

 

[nickf]

It was around 10C with the Vala. I rode the Rail on that same circuit a week ago and can't honestly recall the temperature then, but it couldn't have been more than 14C at best. Could a 4-5C difference in ambient temperature make that much impact? I really feel the cold intensely, and never go out if it's less than 6 or 7C outside, so I have not noticed any temperature effects on my battery when riding the Rail.

FYI the Vala was wearing the magic Mary radials which I had set at 18 PSI, compared to an Assegai/DHR2 combo on my Rail which I run at 16 PSI front, 18 rear. Yes, pretty low I know, but comparable pressures for the radials.

I wouldn't normally have commented on the difference in battery usage except it was so dramatic in this case.