By Robert "Bob" Bussey
I purchased a pedal assist e-bike about 5 years ago to keep up with the local young bucks. It made me feel 20 years younger, and at 70 years of age I needed that boost. My bike, a Trek Domane+ HP with a Bosch e-motor (Bosch Performance Speed motor) with a Bosch PowerTube 500Wh battery was good for 40 to 60 miles in the hilly terrain in my local area in Central Louisiana, and has the ability to assist the rider up to 28 mph.
However, I wanted more. I wanted to see if I could use the e-bike on a multi-day tour on flat land. (Hitting the mountains would be a different story.) At the age of 75, and almost 76, I decided to try out the bike on a multi-day bike tour from Ft. Myers to Key West, Florida. This is one of the van-assisted tours provided by ACA in the springtime.
The dates I selected were from March 21, 2026, to March 30, 2026. There would be layover days in Key Largo and in Key West. The mileage would vary from 37 miles to around 71 miles, depending on side trips. While the trip to Key West would be on flat land, with a few exceptions of short bridge crossings, I still had never used my pedal assist e-bike to go 71 some miles on a single charge.
Some currently sold e-bikes come with a throttle, so you do not have to pedal if you so desire. Mine is pedal assist and only works if you pedal. With pedal assist you also have the option of turning off the motor so that you are using your own power to move the bike just like a regular one. I use the “power off” mode to save battery power to stretch the mileage of any battery.
The Florida Keys multi-day trip was a good test. It was mainly flat but still taxed the battery system. In preparation for the trip, I decided to purchase a second battery that I would lug along on the bike so that I would have access to double the mileage if we hit any severe headwinds. Luckily, we did not. The winds in the springtime in the Keys of Florida are generally out of the east or northeast, and we were lucky to have those winds and no rain. It was almost perfect riding conditions and on most days we had a tailwind to assist our progress forwarder.
My Trek bike has four different levels of battery use: Economy (Eco), Tour, Sport and Turbo. In Louisiana around my town, Woodworth, there are some good hilly areas in the National Forest areas, and I can usually get from 40 to 65 miles or more out of the e-bike battery if I mainly use the Eco mode with some Tour mode for the longer hills. I rarely have to use Sport or Turbo mode. Those final two modes use up the battery at a very fast rate. On downhills or long flat areas I sometimes turn off the battery and just use my 75-year-old legs.
I traveled to Ft Myers one day before the tour was to begin. On that day, I was able to ride part of the first day’s mileage to get a feel for the terrain and how much battery life would be used up in the flat Florida terrain. So, I rode an “out anback” 10 miles, for a total of 20 miles during the off day. To my delight the ride hardly put a dent in the battery life.
Florida is known for being bicycle friendly. Ft. Myers roads fit that description. There are either bike lanes on the road or bike
paths running beside the roads in many instances. If you have to use a travel lane the motorists seem to recognize that a bike is also a moving vehicle and has the right to be on the roadway.
I set my bike up with an Ortlieb Bikepacking Handlebar Pack (Black) (15L) and a Revelate Designs Spinelock Seat Bag (Black) (16L). Since the Ft. Myers to Key West tour was van-assisted, I had the luxury of putting all my camping gear and clothes into a trailer each day. On my bike, I only had to carry a small first aid kit, a repair kit, an extra inner tube, a small tire pump, a cycling rain poncho, and some emergency toiletry items in case we could not find a bathroom to use. (We had no bathroom problems during this trip.) The extra Bosch battery that I decided to bring with me was carried each day in the Revelate bag. The extra weight did not affect the life of the active battery, and I barely noticed it when I turned the primary battery off at times. The Bosch cycling computer tells you how many miles of battery life you have in each mode.
To my amazement, with the flat terrain and general tailwinds that we had, the computer was constantly telling me that in Eco mode I could bicycle some 90 miles. With two batteries I had a possible mileage ability of 180 miles, more than enough to complete all of the rides on this multi-day tour.
First full day. 40 or 63 miles, depending on side trips. My bike computer ended up recording 41 miles from Ft. Myers to our first campsite just south of Naples, Florida. The ride between Ft. Myers and Naples is along the coast as you jump from barrier island to barrier island. There is no lack of businesses where you can stop to get a bite to eat, or have a relaxing meal. As you approach the northern part of Naples the traffic starts to increase. And, during the whole tour this is the only town I would avoid and label as not bike friendly. The main road into town turns into the three lane speedway in both directions. Your only alternative is to ride on the sidewalks. That is definitely better than on the road. But even the sidewalks are not bike friendly since the Naples government decided to put utility poles in the sidewalks making them narrow in many places. I am told that some side roads just off of the main road, but running parallel to it, did offer a more safe haven.
But let’s leave Naples behind. It was a very small portion of this tour. 99.9% of the tour was fantastic. Naples was a small glitch that can be overcome with some side roads, if you are told about them ahead of time.
There were fourteen of us on this particular bike tour. (Brielle, Todd, Jim, Myles, Ken, Truddy, Patty, Cindy, John, Daniel, Paul, Gerry, Peter, and myself). The routine we got into and one that became second nature was to get up around 6 am, coffee at 6:30; Breakfast at 7:00, make your lunch at 7:30, and start riding no later than 8:00 am each day. In the evening we would set up our individual tents when we got to camp. Dinner was from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Most of us were in our tents by 9:00 and sound asleep soon.
I normally write about poets and then those articles are published in this digital magazine, 318Central. But sometimes you just need to take a break. I’ve been bicycle touring for a long time. (From the early 1970’s to be exact.) This was a chance to get away from my usual routine, see new sights and meet new people. If you are interested in cycling touring, you can contact me at Rlbussey450@icloud.com. I’d love to introduce you to that world.
