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Old 04-11-2013, 02:00 AM   #81 (permalink)
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It's defo fun, that's for sure lol - I'm using a bit of everything most of the time, I'm still learning how to ride the thing so I've yet to refine a method... but generally it's pedal & electric for gentle maneuvering like the paths, turn arounds, lots & just rollin' down the road with pedaling & both the electric motor & four stroke engine for hard take offs like intersections or hill assistance to maintain speed, ICE alone for upper cruise.

It's gonna be a little while before I can get ya some numbers, I'm still breaking in the four stroke & dialing in the alignment - both factor heavily in fuel efficiency, while I haven't bothered figuring mileage yet I have noticed a significant drop in consumption already, the first runs she was hungry lol & now she's become quite a bit more demure in her appetite anyway

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Old 04-11-2013, 09:01 AM   #82 (permalink)
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Right, obviously, you have a lot of factors to balance out.

If you use the electric to launch, and boost the pedaling up hills, and for regen(?) - pedal only whenever you can, and save the ICE for long distance constant speeds, and after/if the batter drains - seems to be the ideal, maybe?
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Old 04-30-2013, 04:13 AM   #83 (permalink)
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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
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Old 04-30-2013, 05:54 AM   #84 (permalink)
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It will be interesting to see your total energy consumption average on a long trip. Is there any site to log data on like fuelly but for plug in hybrids?
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Old 05-02-2013, 05:19 AM   #85 (permalink)
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"A site to log data on but for plug in hybrids?" I've no idea - I joined ecomodder for babblin' efficiency stuff, I should probably search around a bit, though I've a suspicion that it's gonna be a challenge finding an equivalent class *shrug*

I think I'm getting roughly around 80mpg at the moment, tough to tell during the testing phase though as I've only guestimated & it's still in the break in period with a lot of idling, revving, doing doughnuts in the parking lot ("testing" srsly, ferealz lol) & other factors messing up the numbers... ofc just pedaling/electric I can "cheat" and make the MPG whatever I please... In all honesty I can't wait for some real, averaged stats though.
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Old 05-02-2013, 05:50 AM   #86 (permalink)
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The only way to know the contribution of the peddling would be to add a power sensing crank. Too expensive to bother with. That much of your power is essentially free as you are going to eat anyway.
You can use a Killawatt meter to keep track of the electrical usage from the wall and add this to the fuel consumption by converting everything to Watts and then back to gallons of gas. The Chevy Volt logging sites for example, allow you to enter the fuel and electric consumption side by side and combine them automatically.
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Old 05-02-2013, 12:49 PM   #87 (permalink)
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i love this thing!

ive popped into this thread on a few occasions during the build but now that my daily commute is by 2smoke powered mountain bike i dream of bigger/better/faster/comfier things, and you seem to have all of them down pat!

Heres my beast, the tiny luggage tray on the back is fine for small weekly food trips but not much more so a trailer is on the cards, any pointers for building my trailer from your recent experiences?
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Old 05-05-2013, 04:51 AM   #88 (permalink)
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sendler - I was planning on getting a Cycle Analyst at some point, for both my ebike commuter & the tad project... the toy budget is a touch strained at the moment though, I can't imagine why lol *innocent look*



Quote:
Originally Posted by bobo333 View Post
i love this thing!

ive popped into this thread on a few occasions during the build but now that my daily commute is by 2smoke powered mountain bike i dream of bigger/better/faster/comfier things, and you seem to have all of them down pat!

Heres my beast, the tiny luggage tray on the back is fine for small weekly food trips but not much more so a trailer is on the cards, any pointers for building my trailer from your recent experiences?
Thanks bobo333 - Nice bike man, I started out w/one very similar & it served me well for years! I dunno if I'd call that rack "tiny" heh, it's bigger than I have on my ebike, the one I use for grocery runs... but I tend to put the foodstuffs in a duffel & sling it on my back, letting the rack support the weight. That way I can load down with far more than the rack alone could hold & anything that doesn't fit can still get strapped down.

I wish I could help with the trailer, but from what I've seen it's a compromise - a trailer that isn't quite right or just making one yourself, particularly with the greater weights hauled & the speeds of a motorized bike. Don't get me wrong, there's some nice trailers out there... it's just none of them were quite what I had in mind, some of the better ones have utterly astronomical prices that are hard to justify w/such a simple unit.

The single-sided axle mount hitches are a touch dicey with our application, the axle & it's fasteners already under more strain than intended by the motorization. While they put up w/it, it's getting close to the edge as you've prolly discovered w/the shift kit. That freewheel bearing in the three piece pedal crank is right on the edge of what it can deal with if you've gotten the motor sorted (even if you've the 'Diamond' bearing) so when you get a trailer, take her easy w/it - I've gone through three on my shifter gas bike, but that's my "racing" bike so stuff happens lol

There's trailer designs with a two-point mount & yoke, far stronger & more stable than the single offset like this for example: Amazon.com: Frugah Steel Bicycle Cargo Trailer

...but while that particular trailer has some horrible reviews, it might be something to consider for parts (to build your own) or to get & use, knowing that it's cheese, but cheese that can be modified & upgraded. Only catch is with that design it can only lean if it's left a single wheel & I needed a dual wheel trailer for the weight & stability *shrug* Just some thoughts




On the other hand, while I don't much like the thing I got I've enough trinkets I've picked up along the way to finagle something with this trailer - a small example is this lil setup I threw together just to jam out while setting up the tent;



& I've two of the solar panels so far & I figure two of those SLAs could be mounted under the trailer deck (lowering center of mass), I'd like to match the taddy's electric drive voltage just in case of an emergency & I've enough SLAs, but they're just too heavy & there's no way the little panels could hope to make a dent in the taddy's consumption - but for basic LED lighting & tunes while camping, recharging the unphone & the assorted AA, D & camera batteries (I've the 12v chargers for that) it's perfect, the tiny inverter is handy for things I haven't a 12v charger for but like all inverters it's hungry too lol


...and here's some shots of the tent itself if ya'll are wondering, it isn't as big as it looks in the pics ofc but it's tall enough to stand in & plenty big enough for an extended stay wherever the urge strikes, I've got the trailer in it too & while it's nice that it also fits, while testing the tent setup I realized it'd be better to fold in the hitch & bring it inside the main section as it also makes a perfect desk... maybe even a better desk then trailer heh;



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Old 05-05-2013, 08:50 AM   #89 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BarelyAWake View Post
a small example is this lil setup I threw together just to jam out while setting up the tent;
Ok. Now I am really jealous! You can travel with a sub/ sat system. I just spent hours online shopping yesterday for a portable micro speaker system to use with my phone and will probably try something like these:
.
Amazon.com: Philips SBA3210/37 SoundShooter Portable Speaker: MP3 Players & Accessories
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Old 05-06-2013, 03:57 AM   #90 (permalink)
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Those seem to be pretty sweet lil speakers sendler, TBH I've not found anything I'm really happy with insofar as sound (low tone/bass). The above are simply inexpensive PC speakers ($25 I think?), the annoying thing is they're 9v AC - which is a touch odd & unfortunately means while they've very low power demands I still need an inverter to power them, which ofc means a loss of efficiency.

I've had very similar PC speakers that were 12v DC (wall adapter), but I've been unable to find them again - I'm sure they're still commonplace but they never print on the box what the actual voltage requirements are, so I've stopped looking for now & will most likely remove the internal amplifier from the above speakers (I've two sets) and power them with this instead: LP-2020A Lepai Tripath Class-T Hi-Fi Audio Mini Amplifier ...which while extremely inexpensive is actually quite good for what it is, it's no powerhouse - but it hasn't any perceivable signal distortion and is quite tolerant of over driving with a self-resetting breaker, RCA and/or 3.5mm (headphone jack/MP3) inputs with separate bass, treble & volume controls.

The only catch? I've not yet found a crossover wee enough for such a system... the one for the PC speakers is built into the board ofc, but it's a project in progress lol

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