The Slice Lite: Utility Bike by VVOLT : Part 7 – The scoop on battery life, charging & pedal assist modes

If you have been shopping e bikes, it’s easy to start comparing things like you do a laptop purchase, battery size, time to charge, hub power… well what does that all mean in reality? I set out with a fresh mind to ride and see what happens with the Slice Lite utility bike.

Focusing in on battery, charging and pedal assist, the Slice Lite has different pedal assist modes that affect the battery life and the distance you can go between charges. I don’t want to charge my bike every day, so I started with the modes that give me the longest distance per battery charge, and I can use the boost throttle when I really need it.

First up, does it last as long as they say?

The Slice has a 500Wh (42v system x 12A) battery, which is pretty standard nowadays. Generally a larger battery means more range or distance, but bike designers face the tricky balance of an overly large heavy batteries that makes the bike overall less efficient or under-specifying a battery for a heavy bike in which it simply doesn’t have enough power. The 500Wh battery on a utility based 57lb bike makes sense here.
VVolt generally say you will get “20-55 miles for the average rider on average terrain” I understand why they say this generalized term, because usage patterns, terrain and temperatures can dramatically affect battery output. I decided to do a couple of my own test around Portland, Oregon and to get a feel for the power assist modes. Typically, I was riding flat in 40- 49 degree temps, with small ups and downs unless otherwise stated.

Eco Mode

The first time I tried it, I used Eco mode with about 20% assistance. When fully charged, it shows a range of 60 miles on the computer screen. The computer doesn’t display the remaining battery as a percentage like an iPhone does. Instead, it shows the range, which took a few seconds to adjust to after being used to iphone and laptops etc.

I juiced up fresh and tracked my rides with RWGPS and found I got 45.4 miles from a full charge down to a predicted 8miles remaining. That’s an around town pretty flat area, half the time I had the lights switched on, but that shouldn’t be a big current draw. Also worth noting, temps were rarely above 48 and I keep my bike in a concrete garage. 

My ride notes had me thinking that I was riding a 60lb bike with a 20% assist. that’s pretty minimal, but it also produces a really good ride feel. Given that I rode 45miles like this, it cannot be that bad.

Tour Mode

My second test was exclusivley using Tour Mode, which is roughly a 40% assist. At full battery charge the computer will show a predicted 52miles, I managed to get 39miles which included going up a few of the gentle slopes of Mount Tabor yesterday. So not too bad. A few quirky things did happen, the computer would flash red that the battery was empty and say 0miles remaining, but it still worked, then it might flick back to one bar of battery, then back to empty. In fact I managed to squeeze out another 5miles even when the range said Zero and the display flashed a red empty battery.

Sport Mode

I’m currently completed my third test which is Sport mode. In Sport mode you are getting roughly a 60% assist, which feels like a lot. Fully juiced the screen showed 42miles range. A riding sensation to note here This mode highlighted that this e bike has a single gear, if you are riding on flat and you are pedalling fast (70 rpm cadence) approx 22mph, you feel like you need a taller / harder gear to move faster.

Beyond Sport there are two more modes… Turbo that adds 80% and Boost which gives 100% additional assist. Given that I found Sport mode on flats to be a touch under geared, I certainly think Turbo and Boost would feel this way. Although my personal opinion would be unless you are carrying a 30lb load uphill, im not sure you would need these Turbo or Boost modes.

Given most battery technologies, your life will vary dramatically with temperature. So summer usage you will see higher millage. And also riding in freezing conditions is going to dramatically shorten your battery life.

Alongside all the pedal assist modes on the right hand side of the handlebar is Throttle. This is the variable kind and can add up to 80%. I found this useful if I was a little thoughtless / got stuck and hadn’t planned correctly pulling through and intersection or I needed a little boost up a hill.

Battery Extended life and End of life

New ish science has told us charging batteries to 80% extends the overall service life of Li Ion batteries by up to 4x. If you haven’t already check out the new settings in your phone or laptop for optimization. Currently there isn’t an option for selecting Optimization on VVolt, but I have been told its being investigated as there is a tricky balance between range and optimization and VVolt want to make sure they are offering the correct features.
End of Life – VVolt kindly include the cost for Li Battery recycling in your purchase of the bike. PrePaid -They don’t make a point of advertising this, but what a great aspect to encourage. They hook you up with a service called Call2Reycle

Charging

Charging – the bike comes with a large brick of a charger, (42V 2A) think Dell laptop supply from 20years ago :-) , one status LED and a plug in cable.

While charging the LED light on the power brick changes from green to red and back to green upon completion – there is no indication on the computer screen or info about how long it’s going to take. A full (100%) charge takes 6hr 45min not bad at all.

The charging port on the bike is located on the main tube of the frame and it needs improvement. To make the connection, each time I have to pry the cover open with a key or sharp object. It’s certainly not easy and given the marring on the plastic it’s also not something I see as durable. Part of the reason for this difficulty is the waterproofing nature of a tight seal, but there could be design to achieve ease of use and proper seal.
This is a bit of a disappointment because I’m at least going to be interacting with this once a week to charge the bike. I expect some folks will need to charge it more frequently. And there’s no consumer fix for this, – I’m hoping vvolt will specify a better designed port and take care of this.

Alternatively I can remove the locked battery from the frame and charge it that way, it’s not hard to do, just an extra step, an extra key to find.  Giving the benefit of doubt, maybe the charging has been primarily designed to remove the battery, I find that to be a short sighted move, plugging the connector into the frame should be an easier experience and pretty logical.

The computer (display) design

The specific relevant content for this request, if necessary, delimited with characters: Computer / screen is pretty nice on many fronts, with high contrast color, simple design that shows the basics. You toggle through the power assist modes with an up and down at the handlebar. There is also a central button that changes the info displayed on the screen. 1) Total time ridden 2) Machine Watts 3) Human Watts 4) Range 5) Avg Speed 6) Max Speed 7) Cadence. I’m a roadie so of course I was always looking at Cadence :-) jk aside I left it on Range as I like to know when to charge the battery. One of my pet peeves with the display is it doesn’t show the time. I rely on looking at the time a lot when on the bike, so it was a little bit of an inconvenience to always be pulling out my phone.

The computer automatically turns off, but you power it up with the Screen Mode button. (the middle button on the control) There is also a separate switch for the lights, which you can either have in Auto sense, On or Off.

Pros

• The modes are easy to select and colour coded for easy viewing
• The ride feel on Eco and Tour are really nice, pedal assist is well balanced and feels like a “bike”.
• The Range prediction is useful and usable, even though not 100% accurate it provides you with enough info to plan when to charge.
• The delivery of power is natural, the electronic controllers do an great job at smoothing out power bumps and delivering power when you need it.

Cons

• The charging port is difficult to use. The lack of design around the plug in makes it hard and frustrating to use.
• Computer doesn’t remember your last mode used, and defaults back to Eco between uses.
• Lack of clock
• The ride feel on Sport Mode or above can feel a touch under geared.

Summary

The power assist modes are fantastic, seriously the hardware sensors and software do a great job balancing ride feel with assist to deliver the right power at the wheels – the Slice Lite uses a torque, cadence and speed sensor along with software algorithms. It’s not a lesser expensive cadence only system.
The charging could be more intelligent, indicating charge time, maybe allowing for Li optimisation. The real downside is the design of the chargeport.
Battery Life is working well, my go to would be Tour mode and with that I can have 39Miles between charges, which is a lot of around town trips.

The future: With all the advancements in intelligence and machine learning, we would hope the computer could learn your ride style, optimize power and adjust Range predictions and battery charging cycles within user selected parameter.

Stay tuned for Part 8, coming soon in the links below… and final review in the future

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