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Originally Posted by Frank
Do you have flashing lights on the back?
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I have one flashing red LED light on the back. It is placed on top of the turtledeck.
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Maybe consider a programmable light show that would really grab driver's attention. Maybe that would be a bad thing though.
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I intend to eventually have that as part of a running lights feature for both day and night riding, as well as a permanently integrated headlight, brake light, and turn signals.
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Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
Thanks for posting this!
My PEBL is not nearly as efficient or as fast - or as stable in turns, etc. But is a bit easier to get in and out of, I imagine, and has m0re storage capacity, and has a roof, and is possibly warmer in the winter.
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A roof and windshield are going to soon be installed for riding in the rain. The outboard wheels splash water and road grime into my face between 7 mph and 18 mph.
The PEBL is a heavy thing. How hard is it to pedal with the motor turned off or with a dead battery?
Mine is the way it is to allow operation independent of the electric drive. If the battery is ever run dead or an electrical component necessary to drive the vehicle fails, I can still do 20+ mph on flat ground for an effort that could be maintained for hours at a time and sprint to 35+ mph for brief periods, even with the motor's additional mass and cogging losses slowing me down.
In the long run, I plan to build a 100 lb "car" inspired by Electrathon racers that can be similarly operated, except that the rider will be able to add pedal input at all operable speeds including what may be a top speed of 100+ mph, but will still be able to turn everything off and hopefully the machine will be efficient enough to pull sub 4-hour century rides or sprints to 40+ mph on human power alone. The plan is to make a full suspension roll cage on wheels that uses light-duty DOT 16" motorcycle rims on all 3 wheels with Mitas MC2 low rolling resistance tires, hydraulic brakes, and a Schlumpf HS drive on the pedal crank with a sufficiently wide gear range to allow anything from slogging up steep hills at 3 mph with a 60 rpm cadence to careening down the highway at 100 mph with a 140 rpm cadence, and everything in between. Having both a human power drivetrain as well as an electric hub motor will also greatly reduce the risk of ever being left stranded. I think a 100 mile range @ 70 mph and 300 miles range @ 30 mph is possible in such a thing with a very modest 1.5-2 kWh battery pack. Performance would only be limited by downforce/lift and the type of hubmotors available on the market. There are no synchronous reluctance or synchronous reactance hub motors of appropriate size with bicycle cassette/freewheel compatibility on the market, but a 7 lb motor of this sort could make 50 horsepower peak and 6-8 horsepower continuous if it were made, which would allow Tesla-like acceleration. In such a low mass vehicle, it would be difficult to design it for stability at much of anything over 100 mph, so that would be a good end point for ultimate top speed, no matter the peak power. Given the state of the ebike hub motors available on the market being behind the technology by a decade, I have to make due with a cheap Chinese Leafbike 1000W or 1500W PMDC that can make about 10 horsepower peak and 2-3 horsepower continuous. A Leafbike motor should be good for 0-60 mph ~ 10 seconds and a cruising speed until drained battery of 90 mph if set up properly, without overheating. Throw some solar panels on it and it would be a very versatile vehicle. If tiny microturbine generators of < 2 lbs or diesel fuel cells ever become affordable/available, it will become even more versatile still, and get the equivalent of thousands of miles per gallon when running on these things. There's also the tantalizing prospect of solid state batteries of 500+ wh/kg that could turn that 100 mile range @ 70 mph into 200 miles, and allow a design that will last longer than the operator without major/expensive repairs.
With improving technology, so many interesting design possibilities are opening up...