Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Recycling Wednesday. Ecological EBike. On Big EZE.

To make it more fun and Environmental I decided to take our Recycling in with Big EZE; my Ebike. Shelia Usually takes it in when she goes to work but she is off for the Summer so I decided to make a statement and take it in with an EBike. So we loaded it up and I rode to Town Center where I thought it was and found out that they had moved it out by the South Entrance of The Village. From Town Center it's about 5 miles and up some very long and steep hills so I debated it and decided to go ahead and take it to the new place. Up the hills I went; sometimes getting down to less than 10 mph with impatient cars and trucks wanting to pass. It was going to close in 35 minutes but I made it with time to spare. They unloaded me and I had someone take a picture but didn't get much reaction from the guys. I decided to take some backroads home; where no one lives but all went well. I haven't been using the gears but some of the hills were really steep; with hairpin turns and it was good to see how well it worked. Left with about 58 volts and got back home with 52. Total Miles since I got Big EZE: 193: cost; about $1.25. I ride way more now because it's fun and practical. When I'm on Big EZE; it feels like I'm doing something Good and it makes me feel Good. I like to feel the wind and smell the fragrance of Spring and I don't want to drive my car anymore. eze

Friday, May 24, 2013

Love Light EZE Bikes For Sale

These are the new business cards I made; front and back. I might as well hand out cards to people who are curious about my Super Bike. I just realized that; since people are just beginning to get interested in Electric Vehicles; E Bikes are a perfect low cost way to buy your first one. They're cheap compared to Electric Cars and they're actually the most efficient EV because of their light weight and pedaling. Since I bought a E Bike Kit and took the path to sales; I've been on a steep learning curve. Because of the snafu at the beginning; not knowing that the charger was set on the wrong voltage; I unnecessarily took my battery appart and tested it so now I know about batteries and testing. I've put my bike through some good trials to see how it performs and now I believe that Golden Motor Magic Pie has the best value on ebike kits. I plan to test the Magic Pie 2; as well. The Motors are very heavy duty; with good torque and I really like the cruise control and regenerative brakes. The LiFePo4 Battery looks good and holds a good charge for how light it is. When I did a mileage test on the battery it went an amazing 40 miles on a single charge (25 cents)! I live in a very hilly area and I can set the cruise and go up the steepest hills with only moderate pedaling. Going down the steepest hills is safe thanks to regenerative braking. The distance I can ride without charging is only limited by how many batteries I can carry. There are 4 big towns close enough to make it to on 2 Batteries; so I'm going to order at least one more. Ebikes are safer than regular bikes too. That's because: 1. They're faster and come closer to keeping up with traffic. 2. Larger tires put more rubber on the road for more traction and they're stronger; eliminating blowouts and making flats unlikely. 3. Regenerative Brakes make coming down steep hills safe with shorter stopping distances. Besides being safer; they're easier to ride and are more fun. If you're out of shape you can get on and ride into the fresh air and sunshine; then get into shape at your own speed. Anyone will want to go further and Commuters can arrive without a sweat. Families who want to use Cargo Bikes can carry their Kids and do their shopping too. The potential is also there for hauling what you need for a business. It's great and it's just the beginning! I'm excited because now I'm a part of a Creative Revolution! Love Light EZE Bike! 5/26/2013: Yesterday I put a few miles on visiting people and today I rode to the store to get some groceries and more bike lights and it is still work when I'm trying to conserve power. Then today when I was on my way home from the store with frozen food I suddenly realized I don't have to conserve and I gave it full power and rode the rest of the way home at over 30 mph. Gosh was it fun! I think I'll ride like that all the time; except when I'm trying to go as far as I can on a charge. eze

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Bicycle Propelled Tree Service; History and Quest.

Yesterday was a historic day in recent Work Bike experiments because I hauled my equipment to a real job; but I actually did my first successful work; running a Bicycle Propelled Tree Service 18 years ago in Germantown Tennissee. That was an experiment too; but I have no doubt that I could have sold my truck and chipper and started a successful Bicycle Propelled Tree Service then; had not other priorities taken front stage. So now 18 years later I'm experimenting again: First with a regular bike, then with a cargo bike and now with Electric Assist. Yesterday was the first time I actually hauled the equipment to a job and I could have done the whole job except for the fact that I had to haul the brush. I started the job with the equipment I brought with the Bike but because of the hauling I had to go back to using my car and trailer. What is so amazing is that 17 years ago I invented a very small chipper that only weighed 160 lb and it was designed to be be pulled by a Bicycle! You can see it in the 1996 picture. It turned out to be too loud and maintainance was too much so I turned to burning brush; which is so much more natural and peaceful. I can't burn the brush on every job so I have to load it on a trailer and haul it to a burn sight and this is impractical with a bike. So I need to invent one more thing; a brush burning trailer for my bike. As rediculous as that sounds; it is perfectly feasable and should be cheap to make. With this; a Bicycle Propelled Tree Service will be a Reality. PS: I want to say something about the electric assist that makes it possible to do what I'm doing with my Bicycle. There is no way it would work with all these hills. My Golden Motor; Magic Pie 3 has adequate power but it has another really important feature that makes it safe; Regenerative Braking. I have it set at 50% but I'm planning to set it at 100%. Not only does it help immensly to control downhill speed and stopping but it also puts power back into the battery. This makes so much sense! It also has cruise control and I use it to conserve battery power. I set it at a minimum; just enough so I can still help pedal. Today I'm going to see if I can make a round trip of 22 miles to the store and back. LL

Monday, May 20, 2013

Ahhh.... All the recent blogging has made me think back on history with Bikes and Family and want to get the old pictures out. It also spured me to try the scanner; which is much easier than I thought. Someone on R Evolutions commented on how kids started out on bikes will ride later and to show you proof a generation down the road; is my family. And here is my Bike and Family Legacy. Some of it. LL

Sunday, May 19, 2013

We think a little bit differently about Walmart here in Arkansas because Walmart's from here. Apologizing to anyone who thinks Walmart's monopolizing the World; but it's where we shop. Anyway it's been a goal of mine to some day ride to it and buy groceries. Before I left I called the store to arrange for a plug where I could charge my battery and after a bit of checking the assistant manager said he could accommodate me. Finally; after so much anticipation, I headed out in the afternoon on the ezebike and rode there. It took only half an hour to ride the 11 miles. The hard part on a bicycle is getting up the half mile hill from where we live; up to Highland but now it's not hard. From there it's rolling hills with some traffic but it's no problem, because the cars were careful and I was going pretty fast. I plugged in to an outside plug at the store and went shopping. When I was done I came out, stowed my groceries in the side bags and disconnected the charger. The bike got a lot of attention and at one point there were about 9 mechanics around the bike asking me questions. It was heavier with about 15 lb of groceries but I was still able to ride the 11 miles home in half an hour for an average speed of 22 mph. The technique I use to make it more effecient is to use only as much power as I need to pedal fast and not use more power than I need to get up hills with moderate effort. I'm confident that if I use this technique I can probably go 25 - 40 miles on one fully charged battery but I'll have to devise a test to check that. My kids came over for supper and we rode the bike afterwards. They had a lot of fun and now my son wants to take it out and ride it today. PS: Do you think it was a coincidence that Joel saw the most incredable Shooting Star of his life, last night when he was out back on the deck; or was it a sign? He's out on my ezebike at this very moment. PPS: There was a big hiatus in my bike riding from when I turned 16 until I was 40 in 1989. Then for some reason I got back into it with a passion! (Not from peer pressure in Arkansas; that's for sure!) I bought a bike for myself and then traded that one for a better Mongoose (before they became a department store bike) and then ones for my Wife and all my kids. I built a rack for a trailer so we could haul 6 bikes on vacations. By now; I guess I've bought about two dozen bikes and given them to various family members. Four of my kids still ride and me and my She ride. My real goal is to get rid of my car but something always seems to get in the way of that. I've done lots of experiments with the goal of practical cycling and doing my Tree Business with a bike as far back as 1995. I got back into that aspect of it and now with an ebike. It's really encouraging that there's such a resurgance in bikes for transportation and I know now that I wasn't wierd; I was just ahead of my time. Charley

Thursday, May 16, 2013

People reading this blog may not know but 12 days ago I got a 48v 1000w ebike kit with a 48v 10ah battery from Golden Motor to put on my Giant Superbike. 3 or 4 days later it was on but it wasn't charging up and kept dieing. I notified my rep and went online to Endless Sphere and at the recommendation of the rep I took the battery apart, bought a multi meter and tested all the cells to check for a dead cell and was having fits and not having fun generally. So this Monday my rep talked to one of their engineers and he wanted me to take pictures of the charger. It was from a picture of the end of the charger that he realized the switch was in the 230 volt position and not the 115 volt. I didn't even know that it had a switch! So I switched it and instead of only going up to 50 volts, like before; it went up to almost 58 volts! Evidently; they were starting a big Holiday in China and the worker who shipped it was in a hurry to get out the door and forgot to switch it correctly for the US. So I had to put the battery back together; which wasn't that easy and put it on the bike and went for a test ride. During the test ride it died 3 times but yesterday I felt confident enough to try taking it for a ride to town. I wasn't sure how it would go but I set off about 2:30 in the afternoon and rode 5 miles through the hills into Hardy from Cherokee Village. I'm happy to report that it didn't die once. On the way into town I was really easy on the throttle and only used about 1/3 and put it on cruise and pedaled hard up the hills in high gear. I was real glad to get to my friend's welding shop and I charged it up while I visited. Charging took about 25 minutes. From there I rode the rest of the way into town; using River Road to avoid traffic. I just put it on full throttle cruise for the 1/2 mile along the river and it was going about 25 mph I think. Then I turned and crossed the bridge over Spring River. My friend who owns a store wasn't there but I visited the lady who was there. Then I went to the Gazebo at Loberg Park and plugged in the charger and visited some people while it charged. The green light came on after about 15 minutes and I headed home. I don't think it took me more than 15 minutes to get there. A big long hill out of Hardy was my first challenge but at full throttle and pedaling hard I made it up and turned off to Cherokee Village. There were 4 more big hills after that but it went up just fine with hard pedaling. When I got home I checked the voltage and it was 52.5v. The battery holds 57.5v and 10ah so I only used 5 volts and maybe 3.5 amp hours. Now I'm starting to like this machine. I got a post from Bill Nye the science guy this morning and he said that the chemicals are getting organized when the battery is new and the battery keeps getting better and better. He also said that a full charge is only 25 cents and this bike kit is really good quality and will last 6 years. I'm stoked and I want to ride but it's threatening rain and I'm not sure about riding it in the rain yet. It's probably ok but I don't want to take chances when I'm just starting to have fun. So; thank you Golden Motor for making a good machine and I'll do some more testing and report back to my peeps. eze