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Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr
A friend of mine who died last year used to commute by bicycle, but the city where he was living didn't have such an extreme weather in the winter.
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Sorry to hear it, man. I've lost a couple of friends this year, and I didn't expect this to be happening until we all got older.
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What accessories are not working? Is there any feature that you would be OK getting rid of for the sake of weight reduction? Anyway, since you use it mostly in bad weather, fitting it with LED lighting all around would be useful to decrease the electric load and allowing you to eventually run the alternator with an underdrive pulley to decrease its drag. I'm just not sure if a smaller battery would be so suitable due to the cold-starting routine.
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Let's see -- the chief ones are the air conditioner and CD player in the radio. A couple years ago, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to pull the fuse to the AC compressor to save energy, and despite replacing the fuse, it hasn't clutched in since. Biking to work in the spring/summer/fall, the AC isn't really missed unless I have to take a road trip somewhere.
The CD player isn't really missed. The radio still works.
LED lighting is a good idea... I replaced one of the fog lights yesterday, and it consumes 55W all by itself.
As for the battery/alternator, it was 6°F when I drove to work this morning, and we're supposed to see temperatures under 0 in the next few days. I replace car batteries often enough that I'll probably keep the full-size battery and alternator. I do plan to use the block heater and trickle-charge the battery more often this winter, though!
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Originally Posted by RAV4 EV
Hi Scott,
Welcome aboard. Loved to hear about your rediscovering of the bicycle  It sure is as green as it can be. It is nice to hear that you have been applying the knowledge you've read here on your vehicle for some mpg benefits . |
Thanks!
