July 14 - ride to work (gasoline $2.60/gal)

Well, tonight is the first night back to work after 16 days of vacation. We did a couple of interesting things, we house sat for my sister-in-law in Bangor Maine (Maine is Vacation Land!) and visited some touristy sites, we ate a lot of lobster meat, saw two movies (movies are a lot cheaper in Maine than they are here near New York City - I paid $4.50 for Adult tickets!), we kayaked, swam, and on the way home we went to the antique fair in Brimfield MA.

While in Maine, one day the Bangor Daily News had an article on this guy who is eBike commuting on a converted mountain bike and using NiMH batteries - way cool.

Last night I charged up my battery pack, and today had a very pleasant 30 minute ride to work. Seeing I haven't eBike commuted since June 23rd there were a few creeks and growns from the bottom bracket that I haven't heard before. It looks like I might need to replace some bearings - I'll lube them first, but I don't have a good feeling about this.

I am still thinking that a new purpose-built eBike is better than a conversion because I now have to deal with all the little anoyances you have with a 10-year old bike in addition to making the conversion and keeping that running too.

Gasoline is $2.60 per gallon. I bet we will see $3.00 per gallon by the end of the year. As long as I keep riding the bike, I can go 2 months without filling up the truck, 1 month without filling the minivan, and 2 weeks without topping off the VW. Basically, my gasoline expenses remain the same but my miles drivin drops. If gasoline goes above $3.00 per gallon, I will convert my delta trike to be an eTrike.

June 21 - On ride to work, "E" passes "E"

It happened today! I was 2/10 of a mile from the office and I couldn't believe what I saw... an eScooter!

It took me a minute to understand what I was seeing, but as soon as I saw it I knew it was different. This guy was on a Razor-style scooter, he was an adult wearing a helmet, and he was coasting uphill. Uphill? Then I saw how thick the deck was on the thing. No way! An eScooter!

I was lost for words, here I was in the middle of an intersection less than 20 feet from the guy and all I could say was "wow, cool, your "E"". His reply was "I see your fat hub motor too". We continued our separate ways like two ships passing. Will this ever happen again? Will I ever see another "E"? Perhaps this is just the begining, and maybe I will start to see more? I hope so.

June 21 - Ride Home

A little chilly this morning. I made the trip in 35 minutes. I cranked up the last hill with no problem. I read somewhere the hub motor smooths the hills, well it does.

I am starting to think of how I would design an eBike if I were given a blank sheet of paper. The two criteria I think are most important are 1) light weight, and 2) bomb-proof. More on this later.

Why don't more people ride eBikes?

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.

Last Week

Last week the new charger arrived from Wilderness Energy. I was on-call so I had the Company truck all week so it really didn't matter much. Two days were above 105 with bad ozone so I didn't attempt to ride. One day I was in New York City first thing for a meeting, another day I reported to a service center too far away to ride (40 miles) to for a 7:00 AM presentation, and then one day I pulled an all-nighter cleaning up an oil spill from a lightening strike that took out an oil filled pole-mount transformer (what a mess).

There was little time for riding until Friday. I used the e-bike to run errands Friday afternoon. I hooked the Burley trailer to the e-bike to haul the groceries. The trip was under 4 miles so I motored most of the way.

Saturday, the girls had their softball championship playoff game (they won - undefeated all season) and due to some logistical issues I ended up riding my 7 year old to the game in the trailer. Most of the trip was downhill but the motor helped on the uphills. I don't think it took us any longer to go the 3 miles on the e-bike as it would have by car because we pretty much paced traffic the whole way. After the game we went to Dudley's, a local bar with some o.k. food on a pier in the harbor - the fries are good for feeding the seagulls. After a "barge burger" and a pitcher of beer I peddled home - mostly uphill. The motor really helped here, but I did notice the batteries were not putting out as much by the time we got home. I figure round trip was 7 miles and the total weight with me, bike w/motor and batter, and trailer with 7 year old was about 400+ pounds. So, considering the amount of uphill, less than sober condition of me, all the weight, and the amount of throttle I used, 7 miles is not too bad a range for the 12 Amp Hr 36 volt battery pack.

June 6 - Nice ride home.

Less than 45 minutes - nice ride home (I rode the EZ-3 AX Trike). The last hill has tough - I bonked - should have eaten something before riding home.

I slept all day and got up feeling like road kill. This early in the season, and considering in what horrible shape I am in, taking the day off is a good thing. I'll ride a few more times this week.

Now that it is lighter earlier in the day I am seeing more cyclists during my morning commute - it's nice to have company. I am really enjoying the fairing too. I hear more of the bike than I am use to, but that is good. Flying down hills is a blast.

$15.42

$15.42, the amount of money I did not spent this week because I commuted by bike/trike.

Because the charger pooped-out on the ebike, tonight I commuted on the EZ-3.

Because my commute is about 60% rolling coastal hills and 40% flat, 30% of the trip is down hill and awesome to fly down on a faired trike. I still get the "silly-bike" looks, but I know I am leaving a green tread mark.

Scary moment happened on the ride in. At a intersection in the middle of Larchmont, NY, between the Starbucks and the Gormet coffee shop that are next to the deli where the "real people" buy their coffee, a young women driving a larger than large SUV was trying to make an unlawful u-turn ("ill eagle" is a sick bird - so say my daughters). Well she saw me, let me pass, but as I was right in front of her - inches from her bumper - she hits the gas peddle! I shouted "hey lady", and in her cute little suburban voice said "oh, I would never hit you" - Yeh right! I guess perspective is every thing [she should be driving a twike].

I have set my bike-commute goals for the summer (through September). I am scheduled to work 60 days between now and then. My goal is to bike commute 70% of the time (or better), or 42+ days. I have already bike commuted 6 days. I am at 14.3% of my goal.

June 4 - Charger not working

Can't believe it.... The Wilderness Energy (WE) battery charger crapped out. I contacted WE and they are sending a new one, but it sidelines the e-bike for a week. Tommorrow I am back to the EZ-3 AL trike. I can't believe I know have to pull out the soldering iron and take the charger a part to fix it before the new one arrives.

I am pricing the difference between my conversion vs. a new Tidalforce S750x.

June 3 - Still working night shift.

The ride home at 6:00 AM today was quick, 35 minutes. I didn't peddle too hard and there weren't too many cars on the road. The battery kept powering all the way home (7.5 miles). The last hill I hit with full throttle and I still pushed a pretty high gear, it took about half the time to get up the hill - a great boost.

The thumb throttle really started to hurt my thumb. I cut a 3/4 inch length of stout dowel and taped it to the thumb pad on the throttle, in effect moving the lever closer to my thumb - this was easier than flopping it to the other side of the handle bar.

The ride to work tonight was a blast - 30 minutes. I spun fast and actually overspun the top gear on a couple of the flats and all down hills - I should replace my chain ring with a larger ring set it will improve my travel time. I am still trying to find the limits to the battery pack, but tonight didn't even come close to draining them - they still should full charge by the time I got to work. I am thinking if I get a bigger chain ring, replace the rear wheel with a 40 spoke tandem wheel, and reshod the wheels with high pressure low rolling resistant AirFree tires I will probably get my travel time to 25 minutes [it takes 20 minutes to drive]. With all the tinkering, I can see the value in the Wavecrest powered bikes http://www.tidalforce.com/.

I have to keep reminding myself, this is an e-bike, this bike has a motor, the bike has a battery pack, this bike is beefy (almost 75 pounds), and this bike is much better than the moped I use to ride in 1980's.

Today I heard gasoline prices are likely to rise another $0.08 per gallon because the EPA is demanding oxygenated gasoline still be sold in New York State. I'll keep peddling.

Adding the dowel to the thumb throttle lever took a lot of stress off my thumb. I am thinking I will try a little longer piece of dowling - but this seems to be the solution.

Day 1 - 7.5 miles in 35 minutes to work

I am working the overnight shift. I rode my hybrid ped-electric e-bike. The battery is charging as I work. Note: I need to flip the thumb throttle and place it on the other side of the handlebar to reduce stress on my thumb and carple tunnel.

Today's was a pleasant ride. I noticed I made better time going through down-town areas than did the cars and trucks I passed along my route. I noticed a little road rage when one driver expressed discussed that I passed her for a fourth time (slow and steady rules!).

Even thought today was humid, I peddled the entire way using the electric on flats and up hills, and with the electric assist I didn't break too much of a sweat. My motor is "brushed", meaning there is a mechanical contection between the motor and the axle which is a source of internal drag. The drag is quite noticeable on the flats and up hills, but I find sending a bit of current through the motor eliminates the sensation of drag, and it makes peddling way easy. Essentially, the motor is on continuously except for going down hills.

I am still trying to get a sense of how long/far a battery charge lasts. So far, the farthest between charge distance has been 10 miles and there has been plenty of charge to get me back up to the top of the hill I live on.

Hybrid ebikes are awesome. Mine started life 15 years ago as a Canandale mountain bike that was a raffle prize from a local beer distributor. The frame has "Bud-Lite" stickers all over it. The bike served as my station bike for years until last week when my Wilderness Electric conversion kit came with a 1000 Watt hub motor and 36 volt 12 amp hour battery pack. My commute time is back to where it was when I rode the same distance on my Trek 400 road bike (that was 60 pounds ago), and I was way-less sweaty.

Why ped-electric hybrid? 1) I can. 2) This week gasoline prices are $2.25 per gallon. 3) I believe it makes a difference.

A note on the conversion process: I have found most local bike shops (LBS) don't really care much for do it yourselfers (d-i-y) like myself, and none of the dozen or so local shops I went to was knowledgeable or helpful with my conversion. My conversion required some work on the fork. I had the work done at a local custom motorcycle shop - they can relate to motors and two wheels.

My wish list includes a beefier 40-spoke rear wheel - perhaps one built for a tandem, up the voltage to 48 volts, lower the batteries - to lower the center of gravity, changes the batteries from sealed lead-acid to NiMH to reduce weight, extend range, and increase the lifespan of the battery, and puncture-proof AirFree tires.

The blog starts - why

I am a forty-two year old Environmental Scientist, father of two, and husband to one. I have travelled far, but home has always been within a three mile radius of Pelham Manor, NY in southern Westchester County, approximately 20 miles from the center of New York City.

During the past 20 years I have worked in the port and highway construction, and utility industries assuring companies and workers be safe and comply with environmental regualtions.

(Trying) to practice what I preach and leave a green foot print on our planet, from 1987 to 1995 my primary mode of commuting was by bicycle. Children, work location, and many other stressors relating to getting older and being burdened with more responsibilities limited my bike commuting to a few cerimonious times a year. So, between mid-1995 until the spring of 2004 my bikes got dusty, my kids got older, I gained almost 60 pound, and grew 10 inches rounder.

2004 was a banner year, the price of gasoline rose past $2.00 per gallon and our nation was at war because of how our energy policies have comprimised our national security. In an act of civil disobedience, last summer I resumed bicycle commuting and averaged bicycling to work 1 day a week [There is a little more to this than meets the eye because I have an alternative schedule where I work a rotating 12 hour shift schedule reducing the number of days I work per year to about 180, or only 1/2 a year].

My Ambitions for 2005 are higher (as are gasoline prices - locally $2.25 per gallon). I have invested in a fairing for my recumbent to help on the not so nice days, and I have converted my mountain bike into a hybred urban commuting machine. I have 56 work days between now and October 1st where I can bike to work. My goal is to bike commute 75% of those days (42 days).

So, here starts my Google bike commuting blog to document (log) and share my bike commuting experience(s). A previous log can be found here: http://www.easyracers.com/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1160