Seems to be Neil but it's interesting that I'm starting to use only the electric more & more w/the four stroke just idling... I
think that's 'cause my ebike has spoiled me with it's quiet, smooth ride - then again the taddy isn't that loud & the ride is smooth as silk, so I dunno lol
Been a bit busy lately, but I've been tinkerin' away the little stuff & riding when I can - it's all down to detail work & fine tuning now, stuff like making this spring loaded chain tensioner out of some scrap aluminum, a chunk of StarBoard (fancy name for cutting board plastic) & a spring stolen out of a squeeze clamp.
I've only put about twenty miles on the tensioner but it seems to be working out well, I may replace the ramp with a wheel at some point just because I can hear it "ticking" as the links pass over it *shrug* then again I might just get used to it lol
I also made an inner heat shield for the right side saddlebag, as that's the side with the exhaust system. It was a gamble but it's also the only place I can really put any cargo carrying so I had to give it a shot. Putting a metal guard over the pipe was easy, but it wouldn't be enough so a took a bit of heavy fiberglass mat, trimmed it 1/2" smaller than the back of the bag & stuck it to a sheet of self-adhesive heat guard material (auto parts), sticking the thing to the saddlebag I then sealed the edges with vinyl sealant to make sure it stays put, adding tie downs to the bottom of the bags while I was at it.
I worried it'd not be enough to protect the bag & it's contents from the hot exhaust pipe, which other than that metal guard it's in direct contact with. Yet as it turns out the inside of the bag doesn't even get to body temperature no matter if it's sitting there idling or screaming around near redline, it worked out far better than expected, a relief as a bag on fire would be bad news lol;
...& more testing, this time the main reason why I built the thing.
I was planning to build myself a custom trailer, but time's pressing with spring finally here & I'll save that lil project for another time. So, I just bought a cheap one instead:
Amazon.com: Aosom Wanderer Bicycle Bike Cargo / Luggage Trailer - Black: Sports & Outdoors
...which may have been a mistake as it's a total piece of junk. The welds are shoddy, the tubing insanely thin, the wheels were a bad joke & the offset on the hitch arm was way too long putting the trailer offset, out in traffic naturally. The whole thing is so poorly designed with no thought given to any actual use, even aside from it's low quality it's just silly with a ton of wasted space for the "convenience" of being able to fold it up to not much smaller at all - needless to say I don't recommend it.
Anyway, it gave me something to work with & after a couple of sessions in the shop I've fixed some of the issues and it'll do well enough for now. The first test run with it was with Mongo the ebike & the weekly bachelor chow run. Pulling it empty is exciting to say the least - unsuspended it bounces all over the place with every little bump & pothole, but it does seem inclined to stay upright, even so I'll prolly relocate the axles to lower the center of mass as it just seems sketchy.
I hadn't ever had or used a bike trailer before and it's dang odd but laden with a week's worth of munchies it was far better behaved, trundling along behind the ebike like it's supposed to... interestingly it doesn't have that much an effect on the ebike's preformance, about the same as the difference between knobby tires & semi-slicks (3mph), even with it's load of foodstuffs I only lost 4mph on the flats - not bad at all really, I expected worse.
That's not why I got it though, heck I've been getting groceries with motorized bikes rain, snow or shine for years now and I've never needed or wanted a trailer for such mundane tasks as that - nope, I need a trailer for far more interesting stuff, namely the long-distance wanderabouts & camping trips I built the taddy for.
With that in mind I loaded up the trailer with a bunch of random heavy stuff & my honkin' big tent - bigger than I wanted but it was on sale, it's tall enough for me to stand up in & best yet, the screened section is just big enough to park the taddy in, keepin' it safe from the elements & lookie-loos... so I ended up with a "two room cabin w/an attached garage" instead of the little pup tent I meant to get lol;
Amazon.com: Coleman WeatherMaster Screened 6 Tent: Sports & Outdoors
Anyhoo, the taddy pulled it with ease - so much so it's a bit freaky as I can't even tell it's there, no matter the fact it was overloaded for testing with a lot of heavy tools I'd never need to bring, a bag of books & a bunch of stuff that was just in it for the weight. I chose a rough, pothole riddled dirt road nearby to see if I could break it - I didn't go crazy as the taddy itself is a street machine but it went quite well. I stripped an axle nut, but I'd done that earlier when attaching the hitch and it only served to remind me to replace the cheesium alloy with some quality marine grade fasteners I had but forgot about lol;
In review, it seems the thought of a four stroke/electric hybrid for torque was exactly what's needed - I could have built a much faster two smoker, but it's plenty fast enough & far better yet, consistent. It seems no matter the hill or trailer weight, it just keeps truckin' along - crazy steep incline from a dead stop? Trailer with a hundred pounds of crap? NP - drop a gear range & away we go just to see what's around the next bend
