Brave New Add. 9/6/2013. Transfers for Shirts and Business Cards. Ready in time for the Hardy "Junk 'N' Jam".

Well; this is it: Not holding back and putting it all on the line. That was Friday and Saturday the 7th we're doing Hardy's "Junk and Jam".

Hauling Wood and Brush. After a 5 mile ride pulling the big cart over a few steep hills I got to my friend's house and helped her clean up a fallen branch. We pulled some big loads. After she helped me by pushing the loaded cart off a squishy lawn onto the road; she got on too and I pulled her and the logs up to the wood pile. We repeated this 4 more times! Next we cleaned up the Brush. Should I call this work? No; it was too much fun!

Finally: What I've been fantasizing of! and at last I accomplished what I've been wanting to do for years! I never realized it, but the missing element was e-assist. With an electric motor on the bike; now it's possible to do the heavy hauling work..

From the top: Big EZE hooked up to the big cart and loaded with tree care tools. Pictures of various loads to be hauled to a compost pile at the back of the property. Last picture contrasting my cart and a pickup truck; loaded with the same tools.

A Bicycle Hay Ride; with electric assist.

This is the way I want to see it happening: That what I start; young people continue; like you see in these pictures. This is my thing right now but Alan is a good rider and he likes to pull the kids too. Then I hope when the kids grow up they will like to ride bikes too. On the evening of June 22 I pulled the newly designed; modular Bike Cart Trailer with the car to where we were doing the Bicycle Hay Ride. Sometimes a Hay Ride date is close and sometimes it's farther away and must be transported. I built this specially designed trailer; just for that purpose. Last night was the first time I tried the system and it worked fantastic for transporting bike, trailer and hay. I have all the tools I need too. Everyone had a great time and although it was hot and humid; it felt fine once we started moving through the air. Big EZE ran constantly around and around the 2 mile trail for an hour and a half and the battery never ran out. I took She on one last ride and when we turned around to ride back we could see the full Moon rising above the trees. Kids really like it and it's more fun than a regular Hay Ride because it's different and Kids love to do different things. Even when I was a kid I loved to give rides and now when I'm older it's no different and I become a kid again. Knowing that it's so much more environmental than a regular Hay Ride is great and there's no noise from an old tractor or typical pickup. Even a Horse drawn hay ride has been done before but with a Bike? That's New!

Hay for the Hay Ride. 6/18/2013

I was a bit nervous about doing it but I put my big cart behind Big EZE and went 10.5 miles to the Farm Store and got a bale of Hay for tonight's Hay Ride. I could have done it in my car and it would have cost about $2.00 for gas but I decided to do it with the ebike and it cost 20 cents for electricity and a few calories. It was a nice cool morning,85 degrees and fresh after the rain we had last night. There wasn't much traffic and I had no cars behind me when I was going the slowest; 8 mph up the steepest part of the half mile hill. Only one car got behind me on the main road to the highway and my speed was 12 at the slowest and 31 at the fastest. People were interested and the girl at the Farm Store said she would like to ride in it. On the way home I pulled over at the Ambulance Station and visited some paramedics who were taking a break and the guy said he had worked on electric cars and told me about it. The Woman went in and brought a friend out to see the bike and they took my picture. The first battery died at 16 miles so the second one got me home EZEly. It was fun and EZE to pull a 40lb trailer 10 miles to the Farm Store and haul a 60 lb hay bale back home 10 miles. The e-assist has taken me over 500 miles so far and today when I needed it to pull an extra load it performed superbly. Golden Motor Magic Pie 3 trials a perfect success so far. Charley

She's EZE Bike

It took a week to get the ebike kit we ordered for She's bike. Last one took several days to get going but this one; just a couple of hours. I still need to go back over it and repair and adjust a couple of things and make a permenant mount for the battery but the thing really works great and She has her first motorbike! It looks cool too!

Love Light World

This is a fantasy world that is perfect. It is a healthy, beautiful, sustainable World with Nature, Gardens, Peddal Powered Transportation and Sailboats for shipping. Once when I was on the Arkansas River Trail in Little Rock I came across a community garden at the end of the bike trail and I wondered if I had found my fantasy world. I need to go back there and see what it looks like in the growing season. Life has a funny way of giving us what we work for.

Mile Trial 6/3/2013

I started out around 9:45 am with the goal of doing as many miles as possible per battery and see how many miles I can ride. I made it from home in Cherokee Village to Salem and back 3 miles for 28 miles on the first battery. The next battery took me 34 miles through Hardy and almost to Bowman Hill. The 3rd battery got me the rest of the way to my destination; up a steep gravel road and then back home 12 miles. Coming back down the hill I used the regenerative brakes a lot and enjoyed going really slow down the hill as I generated power to the battery. Out on the highway; which is a main road with a lot of truck traffic; there's not always a good shoulder. Sometimes they come pretty close but this is something bicyclists have had to contend with since the two modes have had roads. Sometimes there's rumble strips; which are impossible to ride on with a small strip next to the side that's smooth. That's actually good because you don't want vehicles to get on the shoulder but the smooth strip is often too narrow. Thankfully there's good shoulders most of the way and when there isn't; motorists know how to pass. The ebike is faster than a regular bike and when I reach a narrow bridge I speed around it. My riding style, when trying to conserve battery, is not to exceed the speed or power of pedaling and use power only to make pedaling comfortable. Out on the main highway the hills aren't ever steep enough to slow me below 20 mph. On local roads; hills may be very steep and I may get down to 10 mph. On the worst ones 5 mph with hard pedaling. This bike weighs 100 lb with all the equipment. With camping gear and food that may be 35 lbs more. I haven't decided for sure that I'm going to take an epic journey but it's a possibility. When I thought about doing a long trip before the ebike I thought maybe I would be able to ride 30 miles a day until I got in shape. Now it's possible that I'll do 150 or more and these trials are getting me in shape. I had a great trip and the bike got a lot of attention. I also met some interesting people and one amazing Priestess! I think it's a viable form of transportation and I will continue to test it and make sure it's built well enough to depend on. So far I've ridden Big EZE 300 miles. A rain trial will be in the works but according to the experts; it can handle it. I'm a little tired today but I'm sure either I or Joel will get out and ride Big EZE a little. LL PS: One thing I need to do is take more pictures; especially of people I meet.