An Honest 96 km
I hesitated between the BionX and Cervelo today, and finally went for the comfort and security of the BionX: it's heavy, but the first gear is adequate and there's always the motor if I overestimated my capabilities. (Note: you'll need Flash in order to view the map.)
Pretty uneventful run. Worth mention is the poor air quality which suffocated me on road 220 up to Alfred-Desrochers. Way too much traffic to enjoy the scenery as I approached Mont Orford. Calm after that, but I must've plunged at least 100 vertical metres from there to lake Bowker.Then a survivable uphill to Sainte-Anne-de-la-Rochelle. The 243 was busy until that road to Valcourt, then it was okay. The entire 243 was surprisingly flat, compared to the others anyway.
Word of caution: on road 243, there are no indications to identify road 222 when going North as I did. When I reached the next rang, I realized that I had passed the 222, turned around, and surely enough in the other direction, there are signs. I don't know what idiot decided that signs were not needed both ways, but it costed me 3-4 km I could've done without.
Lac Brompton is also at a very low altitude, so the first part of road 222 was a snap. Then a predictable uphill (with some spectacular parts).
I used about 50% of my battery today, which is good considering the wind and elevation changes that I encountered over this near-100km run. Easily half of this battery usage would not have been required on the Cervelo, thanks to its light weight in comparison. The reason the battery is useful for more than helping haul its own weight (which would be dumb) is steep uphills in excess of 10%. First gear on the Cervelo does not allow me to climb those with my current physical condition, unless I climbed them standing, but that drains me way before the top.
With that said, as the temperature drops from week to week, I think that my next long run will use the Cervelo, and I'll pack sneakers in a backpack, along with tons of food and water. I know that I can pull off 50 km in a row on it for sure, but I really wonder if I could match my range on the BionX. I'd probably need a much lower first gear for that.
Stay tuned. :)