With 35 miles of estimated range, a pair of pro-transit enthusiasts tested the limits of Bay Wheels ebikes, taking two from SF to SJ … with at least a 16-mile range discrepancy in tow.
San Francisco is an epicenter for the nation’s micromobility movement — set inside a region that’s changing and defining the future of car-free travel. Cargo bikes are becoming the new minivans across the seven-by-seven; ebike sales continue skyrocketing in the San Francisco Bay Area as people shift their primary means of transportation away from steering wheels and onto handlebars; Bay Wheels, the region’s primary bikeshare force, is growing more popular every year, with new stations coming online at a welcome pace.
For those already privy to the Lyf-owned bikeshare, its most recent ebike model, released in 2024, boasts a laundry list of improvements, enhancing power, stability, and ease of use. Most notably, a Bay Wheels Ebike now has a maximum riding distance of about 35 miles. For context, it means you could, theoretically, lattice SF just shy of five times before needing to dock it.
But what if you, say, put caution to the wind, rode on mostly flat ground, and pedaled conservatively? Could you make it to a San Jose docking station nearly 52 miles away?
Perhaps. Maybe.
For a pair of pro-transit X users known for their unabashed takes on car-dependent infrastructure, they set out earlier this week from San Francisco to test that hypothesis.
14 miles pic.twitter.com/ro5qZKbl40
— Mehran Jalali (@mehran__jalali) February 4, 2026
“Today, [at]rtwlz and I will be the first people to ride Bay Wheels e-bikes from San Francisco to San Jose,” writes Mehran Jalali on X. A self-professed “doer of things,” which includes a recent project LiDAR scanning swaths of Mesoamerican forests to find lost civilizations, Jalali and Walz set off from one of SF’s southern-most Bay Wheels biking stations to make the trip as feasibly successfull.
Even from there, the span was daunting.
“The distance is 54 miles, while the e-bikes have a nominal range of 35,” Jalai continues. “Cutting it very, very close, but we should make it.”
Your unemployed friend on a Wednesday https://t.co/rmTggb4nSB pic.twitter.com/qUylgrSfyC
— Riley Walz (@rtwlz) February 5, 2026
After four hours and 51.72 miles, Walz and Jalali arrived at San Jose’s closest Bay Wheels station, successfully docking the ebikes with only a single mile left of estimated range… and becoming the first documented people to ride Bay Wheels ebikes from San Francisco to San Jose.
Each mile of range ≈ 1.7 miles of distancehttps://t.co/kOVF4Ru4w1
— Mehran Jalali (@mehran__jalali) February 5, 2026
Walz celebrated the achievement by posting a screenshot of the ride, sheepishly captioning it with “your unemployed friend on a Wednesday.” Walz credits the ride’s relative flatness and lack of stops as crucial to Jalali and his success. Jalali, who also documented the ride and showed just how gorgeous the route is from SF, found that each mile of displayed range correlated to roughly 1.7 miles of real-world range — again, when the bikes travel in near-optical conditions (read: flat terrain with little to no stops).
Suffice it to say, range anxiety be damned. And if you mistakenly hop on a Bay Wheels ebike running low on electrons, there’s still a solid chance you can make it to your destination miles away. Just maybe not try to head down the Peninsula on that exact bike.
Feature image: Courtesy of X via [at]mehran__jalali
