June 20 - Ride to work.

With the batteries newly charged and a mindset to peddle as much as possible in as high a gear as possible, I made the trip in 30 minutes include one stop at the post office. I am confident that I will make it home on a single charge so I left the charger at home (it saves weight and I found out the "hard" watt that it is fragile).

I need to focus on the front wheel. It sounds like the spokes aren't tight enough - probably sloppy construction - I suspect the wheel was machine laced, not hand-built. I also need to tighten up the brakes.

It is amazing how heavy the bike has become with the motor and batteries. I notice the handling doesn't suffer, but the ride is harder. My plan still includes swapping the rear wheel with a 26" tandem wheel with beefier spokes. I should also swap from knobby tires to high pressure slicks.

I want to lower the battery weight and I think mounting them in panniers would be better than having them on top of the rear rack. However, 36 volts is 3-12 volt batteries or 6-6 volt batteries. The 6-6 volts will be too much weight, and the 3-12 volts will cause an imbalance, so I think 48 volts (4-12 volts, 2 in each pannier) is the way to go, but now I need to start thinking about a new controller and charger ($$$$$). I may be better off just buying a new Tidalforce S-750 X and spend more time riding and less time tinkering.