Almost One in Chicago

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

I have been told my bike is on it's way to Milwaukee, and should be there on Monday. Since Monday is a holiday, that works out great for me. I'll be calling the dealer first thing to confirm delivery, and once confirmed will begin the two hour trip up. The plan is to ride the bike the 110 miles back to the western 'burbs of Chicago. Weather is forecasted as upper 30s, with a couple hours of rain in the afternoon. I have proper gear, and my girlfriend will be leading the way with a custom GPS route to avoid interstates (mostly), and to hit a charging point half way (funny story on this later).

A few questions - what is the SOC of the delivered bike? The dealer will have a couple hours of me driving, and at least an hour of paperwork before I get a handshake and the keys, so I'm assuming even if they do not have a level II charger that they will be able to give me a fully charged bike if it is delivered to them with at least 60%. The next uncertainty is how much is the cold going to affect the range? My first stop is planned 65 miles from the dealer, and most of that will be at ~60mph on flat midwestern roads. Will I make it, or should I plan for another stop? There is a chance I'll want to stop and warm up anyway, but I'm curious what current owners think will happen.

I plan at stopping at Rosen Nissan in Gurney to charge. They are fine with me using their charger, but said their charger is for the Leaf. I'm hoping they mean J1772 and not CHAdeMO (the person I talked to wasn't sure...). If no J1772, it appears there's a Chargepoint station about a mile away. But I'd rather go show off my toy at the dealer (and there's a good pizza place right next door). Rosen wasn't my first choice, however. PlugShare shows Gary Lang Mitsubishi as having a public charger, but after talking to their sales person, they said they wouldn't take their sales vehicles off to let me have a charge. I am disappointed with this response, and sent them a email questioning their marketing of EVs after I confirmed Rosen would let me charge. I also added a comment to the PlugShare website so no one plans a trip through Gary Lang expecting a charge.

From Rosen I have 45 miles to my house, and I'm planning on all of that being slow Chicago interstates.

It's been 26 months since I placed my pre-order. I'm getting the 49th bike off the line, so at least I have a good story to tell! I can't wait!

[ttxgpfan]

The Empulse has a heater for the batteries to keep them warm, but I don't know the details.  Either way, you will have reduced range (10%?).  I think I would wait for a full charge.  Sounds like it's cutting it a bit close.  But that is just from reading peoples experience on here.

[CAT in HAWAII]

It's been 26 months since I placed my pre-order. I'm getting the 49th bike off the line, so at least I have a good story to tell! I can't wait!

Ok, if I already have my bike,, how would I know what # my bike is on the production cycle???

[Shinysideup]

I'd guess that 65 miles at 60 mph on a new battery in the cold is too close for comfort. There's a big difference if you can take a route that will keep your speed around 45 mph. Or just plan on charging sooner, which if the temps are low, would be my choice anyway.

Congratulations on the fruit of the long wait: you are gonna love this sweet machine!

[travel4nutin]

Hi SopFu,
It looks like our bikes are on the same shipment, #45 for me.  I also live in the western burbs of Chi town.  Unfortunately, I have to watch my kids on Monday.  Would have loved to have made it a group ride though.

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

Ok, if I already have my bike,, how would I know what # my bike is on the production cycle???

Look at your VIN.

Hi SopFu,
It looks like our bikes are on the same shipment, #45 for me.  I also live in the western burbs of Chi town.  Unfortunately, I have to watch my kids on Monday.  Would have loved to have made it a group ride though.

That's weird. Mark had your VIN like a week before he had mine. I heard you got to ride the pre-production demo at the IMS. We'll have to get together sometime! I'm in Wheaton, BTW.

[FreepZ]

Congratulations!

As you may know from reading my blog posts (planning-for-the-big-day and a-bike-odyssey), I did something fairly similar, except that the weather was a lot warmer and I wasn't trying to go 65 miles in one stretch (although I did skip one of my planned charging points and ended up doing about 60 miles, most of which was on a highway at 60 mph).

Here are my thoughts on what you are planning to do:

SOC at the dealer
Ideally, the dealership will finish everything the day before and have a full charge when you're ready to go. I don't think that Euro Cycles (my dealer in Tampa) started charging the bike until after they had finished repairing it, and they took it on a test ride to make sure it was fixed. They didn't have a level 2 charger, and they were happy to have me wait all day for the bike to charge with the supplied level 1 charger, but I knew that a level 2 charger was close by, so I took the bike with only 75% SOC. I presume the bike came mostly charged, since they were only plugged in for a few hours.
My advice: If the dealership has a level 2 charger, fill up before you go. If not and there's a level 2 charger somewhere nearby, fill up there. If you have no other choice, use the level 1 charger at the dealership to fill up. Whatever the case, be sure to fill up to 100% before you get on your way.

65 miles at 60 mph in cold weather
That's going to be cutting it very close. I don't think "new battery" is an issue since batteries carry the most energy when they are new. The cold will affect the battery a bit. I was out in 54 degrees last night and although I was freezing, my battery didn't seem too affected. 30 degrees is a lot colder, so you may see some affect.
My advice: Start off a bit slower, like 55 mph or less, and keep your eye on the SOC. If you are doing better than expected (i.e. you're at 1/4 of your trip but only at 78% SOC), then pick it up a bit. If you're doing worse that expected, then slow down. The bike will go very far if you go slow enough, but don't expect to do another 30 miles with only 10% SOC, no matter how slow you go.
Also, you'll notice that the range estimator will bounce around a lot. 28 miles, then 87 miles, then 43 miles... Don't worry about that too much, as long as your SOC is where it should be.

Dress warm
Make sure that you really dress warm. The bike has no fairings at all, and you'll be getting that arctic blast right in your chest for a few hours. It's brutal.

Have a backup plan
There's a very real possibility that you won't make it 65 miles (although, if you go slow enough, you certainly will be able to), so try to plan for that. Happily, in Central Florida, there were plenty of public level 2 charging stations, so I had lots of fallback options. I don't know about where you are. At worst, there's always the level 1 option. It's slow, but a lot quicker than pushing the bike!

Have fun!

[BrammoBrian]

Congrats on the almost delivery.  Thanks for sticking with us. 

I actually think you'll be fine on the trip with your plan.  The bike does ship with a mostly full SOC (around 70% I believe), but the dealer IS required to do a test ride as part of the pre-delivery inspection (PDI in dealer talk).  The bike will have 14-15 miles on it from the dyno test and factory test ride, so expect to see around 20 miles or so on the clock when you receive it. 

The best thing the dealer can do for you to prepare for your journey is to keep the bike plugged in and inside a warm shop so the batteries can stay nice and cozy.  At 30 degrees, they'll probably cool during the ride, which means you'll receive a "cold battery" warning on the display.  The battery heaters will try to maintain a minimum temperature and discharging the battery does create heat as well, so they will probably warm themselves during the trip and that message will go away.

I'm guessing the Leaf dealer has a Level 2 charger as it would be very expensive for them to install a Chademo.   

I like FreepZ suggestion of starting slow and picking up speed as you see that you'll be fine on range.  I predict success, although it might be nerve wracking dealing with a brand new bike and range anxiety in the first ride.

[travel4nutin]

That's weird. Mark had your VIN like a week before he had mine. I heard you got to ride the pre-production demo at the IMS. We'll have to get together sometime! I'm in Wheaton, BTW.

You're right I was originally told that my bike came in with the demo unit for the dealership and I did have a great opportunity of an indoor test drive at the IMS in Rosemont.  It might have been the setting but the bike seems quieter than what I've seen from the videos.  Nevertheless, you will be please.

When I spoke to Mark last Thursday he told me the bike was on it's way and arriving on Monday.   I didn't push the issue since I figured he was confused.  Plus I'm not in too much of a rush to take possession of the bike until the weather gets a little better.  One day we'll have to swap buying experience stories over a brew.

I live in Naperville BTW.  Congratulations and good luck on Monday.

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

Thanks, everyone. I used to buy large batteries for a living (1million+ amp hours, they went into vehicles of the sinking type), so I am familiar with battery quirks. It does surprise me that the heaters will be on if I'm actively riding the bike, though. I plan on riding through downtown Milwaukee, so the first part of the first leg will be quite a bit slower. There is a stretch of ~40 miles with no level II chargers between Milwaukee and the far northern suburbs of Chicago.

The problem is my dealer is expecting the truck with my bike to arrive on Monday, and if so, I will be taking it the same day. If it's delivered with 70% and they are taking it for a short spin I may have an issue (which is more of a "time away from charging" issue than discharging since PDI shouldn't be more than 2 or 3 miles). If the bike doesn't come tomorrow I'll have to trailer it home since the weather is supposed to be awful for the rest of the week.

It looks like one of the hotels by their airport has a level II, so if I don't get a fully charged bike I could split the ride into a 23 mile stretch, and a 43 mile stretch. My girlfriend will be following, with tie downs in case we need a uHaul to finish the trip. I guess we'll see how things pan out. Wish me luck!

[skadamo]

Congrats! First bike gathering you go to pm me. I'm in Elgin, work in oak brook. Want to check it out!

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

Congrats! First bike gathering you go to pm me. I'm in Elgin, work in oak brook. Want to check it out!

You don't happen to teach for NIU's MSP?

[skadamo]

No, I don't.

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

The dealer still hasn't seen the bike. It's too bad because it's in the 50s, and still not really raining here. It would have been the perfect day to ride home! The high tomorrow is 20, and we're supposed to get 3 to 5 inches by Friday. 

[travel4nutin]

Sorry to hear that.  Sometimes I think it would be best not to contact us until the bikes are actually in.  If information is going to be given about the process it should be complete.  From the time it is on the assembly line to delivery not this maybe it will be in on Monday stuff.