Emtb questions? Taking on trip and cold weather...??

Francine said:

Hello,
New to the Emtb thing and have a few questions that may or may not have been answered here on this forum but unable to locate.
1. Can you travel within the USA with your bike in a bike bag and put on plane? EVOC bag? Maybe remove battery and take in carry on?
2. Live in Pa where it gets cold in winter. Does the cold affect battery? Can I ride in the cold? I keep bike in garage that is not heated..is that OK?
Thanks for any info you can give me.

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These topics come up from time to time.

I can’t speak to issue #1.

Re issue #2, it’s easy to get bad advice on it. As with everything else at this forum, it’s helpful to hear a little about one’s credentials so as to be able to assess the veracity of their claims.

I, together with my daughter, got over 50 legit mountain rides in last winter in temps dropping as low as minus 30 Celsius. We stored our bikes in an uninsulated, unheated garage that got as low as minus 20 Celsius. For 5 months straight, our bikes were rarely in temps above freezing (while stored, being charged, or riding).

The bikes are 2021 Norco Bigfoot VLT 1s with Shimano STEPS E8000 motors and in tube, unremovable 630 Wh batteries.

Charging (not storing or riding) these batteries when they are at a temp below freezing can harm them. For the bikes we have, the chargers are “smart”. They sense when the batteries are below freezing and immediately stop charging (the light goes from green, to red for a second or two, and then back to green, indicating that they are not charging). It’s a built in safety mechanism to prevent you from unintentionally hurting the batteries by charging them when they are too cold.

I bought two car battery blankets for about $45 CDN each that I wrap around the downtubes after each ride. The heat from them is very gentle. They have worked flawlessly. The batteries in the down tubes are sufficiently warmed within a half hour at the most, following which charging can occur.

Before I got the battery blankets, I used hot water bottles. Those worked flawlessly as well.

I also bought a $25 power bar to manage the 2 chargers and 2 battery blankets.

As for riding in extreme cold, there may have been some battery degradation but I didn’t notice much, if there was any. Others may. We didn’t. We did countless lengthy night rides lasting several hours in very cold temps (as low as minus 20 C), where there were no issues with either bike. We generally rode in ECO and Trail modes, although on some fire roads we ripped them for stretches in Turbo mode.

By way of comparison, we did a 4.5 hour ride a couple of months ago in plus 20 C temps to test out our new shifters, rear Ds and some other upgrades. I noticed no difference in battery power/duration compared to winter temps.

If your battery is easily removable, bring it inside to charge. Otherwise, a battery blanket or a hot water bottle is an easy workaround. Don’t worry about riding in the cold. It’s a non-issue battery-wise, at least for us.