hitekrdnk
01-08-2007, 11:03 PM
Because of a recent move from rural Amerika to Goth'ham I have been much more cognizent of using my bike as a way to keep out of my vehicle and off the gas tit. And also I notice that there are a few others out there with the same idea which is a good thing. Anyway here is a pic of my Town bike.
13853
I use it for all the errand type stuff and during a recent remodel of our new/old home I was able to procure quite a few goods on it and it was a real eye opener to the beyond actually.
Back a few years ago when the price of gas started to double, before it tripled and I lived 7 miles from town instead of 7 minutes I did some experimenting with different assist motors on a few different bikes. Had a 2 stroke set up first that ran a direct rub off the crankshaft on the rear tire. Fast, but too loud and shtincky. Good mileage per gallon however, roughly 125 or so at around 7500' in elevation in up and down terrain.
One of the best rides I took on that bike was in Grand Junction, CO when I rode over the Monument in to Fruita and back as a trial to see what it would do over the open road with some more serious hills. Had it mounted on the backend of an old Diamond Back Overdrive with some 2.1 Nanoraptors on it and it was grin inducing for sure. But the one thing that unit taught me was that the motor was only there as an assist, the real deal was still how much effort I was willing to put in to the pedals. Albeit in the big ring. I said it was fast, right?
So in my quest to cheapen the 7 mile drive to town without a weedwacker on wheels situation I gravitated towards an electric setup. Got a model that was a Currie system and fit it up on a 700c wheeled DB Overdrive I had in the garage. It would go to town and back on a charge easily and average about 20 mph with some big ring spinning on my part. Quiet and effective. The biggest draw to this system was the power on tap it had off the line. Crossing streets/intersections was fast and fast is safe in those conditions I found out.
Then I found out about brushless hub motor and thought I could up the average speed a bit with one of those but only got a bit more top end out of it and less on the bottom end so it was a wash. The Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) batteries were the main problem with them both as they deflated easily, especially in cold weather and were heavy.
One of the big problems was that it pretty much took a dedicated bike to have a motor on. Which wasn't too big a deal as I had more than one bike in the shed. However the extra weight of the motor(s), where they mounted and the batteries did little for the handling of the bike.
So then I found out about the small Honda 4 stroke engines and rather than mounting one on a bike I mounted one on a kid's trail a bike. My goal was to get a system that I could cruise to the trailhead, unhook the motor, ride the goods, hook back up, go to Safeway, and then return home. Well it worked out but once again the bike handling was compromised somewhat but not as badly.
The one thing that I found with all the systems was that although the motor was going I rarely stopped pedaling. Mainly because if I stopped pedaling I would start to slow down and what fun is that? However with the motor assist you could crank the big ring and get right up to the edge of a sweat and stay there pretty much until the juice ran out. Which was the grin inducing factor because uphill and down you were more than likely going much faster than you normally would have. Kind of like riding a tandem with someone like Lance as the stoker putting out all their effort in a constant manner.
So now that I am in a larger metropolis and seeing all the people in their cages riding solo around and around I am wondering what it will take to get them out and about on a bike? Just how many miles a day do they rack up and time do they waste even trying to find a parking space? How many would bite the apple if there was some forbiddenness to the fruit? To that end I am going to do some more research on the current line of electric motors available and see what looks good and get ahold of one and do some trials.
So anyone else out there on this vibe that wants to share some of their info?
13853
I use it for all the errand type stuff and during a recent remodel of our new/old home I was able to procure quite a few goods on it and it was a real eye opener to the beyond actually.
Back a few years ago when the price of gas started to double, before it tripled and I lived 7 miles from town instead of 7 minutes I did some experimenting with different assist motors on a few different bikes. Had a 2 stroke set up first that ran a direct rub off the crankshaft on the rear tire. Fast, but too loud and shtincky. Good mileage per gallon however, roughly 125 or so at around 7500' in elevation in up and down terrain.
One of the best rides I took on that bike was in Grand Junction, CO when I rode over the Monument in to Fruita and back as a trial to see what it would do over the open road with some more serious hills. Had it mounted on the backend of an old Diamond Back Overdrive with some 2.1 Nanoraptors on it and it was grin inducing for sure. But the one thing that unit taught me was that the motor was only there as an assist, the real deal was still how much effort I was willing to put in to the pedals. Albeit in the big ring. I said it was fast, right?
So in my quest to cheapen the 7 mile drive to town without a weedwacker on wheels situation I gravitated towards an electric setup. Got a model that was a Currie system and fit it up on a 700c wheeled DB Overdrive I had in the garage. It would go to town and back on a charge easily and average about 20 mph with some big ring spinning on my part. Quiet and effective. The biggest draw to this system was the power on tap it had off the line. Crossing streets/intersections was fast and fast is safe in those conditions I found out.
Then I found out about brushless hub motor and thought I could up the average speed a bit with one of those but only got a bit more top end out of it and less on the bottom end so it was a wash. The Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) batteries were the main problem with them both as they deflated easily, especially in cold weather and were heavy.
One of the big problems was that it pretty much took a dedicated bike to have a motor on. Which wasn't too big a deal as I had more than one bike in the shed. However the extra weight of the motor(s), where they mounted and the batteries did little for the handling of the bike.
So then I found out about the small Honda 4 stroke engines and rather than mounting one on a bike I mounted one on a kid's trail a bike. My goal was to get a system that I could cruise to the trailhead, unhook the motor, ride the goods, hook back up, go to Safeway, and then return home. Well it worked out but once again the bike handling was compromised somewhat but not as badly.
The one thing that I found with all the systems was that although the motor was going I rarely stopped pedaling. Mainly because if I stopped pedaling I would start to slow down and what fun is that? However with the motor assist you could crank the big ring and get right up to the edge of a sweat and stay there pretty much until the juice ran out. Which was the grin inducing factor because uphill and down you were more than likely going much faster than you normally would have. Kind of like riding a tandem with someone like Lance as the stoker putting out all their effort in a constant manner.
So now that I am in a larger metropolis and seeing all the people in their cages riding solo around and around I am wondering what it will take to get them out and about on a bike? Just how many miles a day do they rack up and time do they waste even trying to find a parking space? How many would bite the apple if there was some forbiddenness to the fruit? To that end I am going to do some more research on the current line of electric motors available and see what looks good and get ahold of one and do some trials.
So anyone else out there on this vibe that wants to share some of their info?