July 23-24, GreenDriveExpo, Madison WI

[bwilson4web]

Eric Powers, a friend and former GreenHybrid.com moderator, organizes this annual event:

Green Drive Expo - Madison

I have only gone once for 'booth duty' but enjoyed the crowd and meeting folks and enjoyed the drive up and back.

As I drove north, the calves got smaller and the corn taller. I drove up with 175/65R14s on the front and 175/70R14s on the rear. Before driving back, I swapped front and back and found the larger diameter tires improved straight-line stability, a lot.

GreenDriveExpo does have an 'open' car driving contest the day before but I have no idea about the scoring. Fortunately, the driving contest is not sponsored by any one company or dealership so it should be a hoot for those who want to compete.

When I was there, I order this electric bicycle:
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_ebike_010.jpg
I had to build my own charger but it still runs and is good for errands.

Bob Wilson

[bennelson]

Im going to have my Electro-Metro and my Electric Motorcycle at the event.

There's also going to be a reporter there from New York, who is specifically flying out to Green Drive Expo (Hybridfest) to do an article on ECOMODDING!

Any Ecomodders coming out, this guy would love to talk to you!

-Ben

[bennelson]

Here's a link to a local TV news story about the coming event.

It features my electric motorcycle. It was fun to be able to ride that right into a TV studio!

Green drive expo this weekend - WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

[bennelson]

Green Drive Expo was a blast!

I did a presentation on how I built my own electric car. I had both the Electro-Metro and the Electric Motorcycle on display at the show, and my friend Thomas was there showing off his 'Lectric Leopard! We were both promoting the brand new WISCONSIN ELECTRIC VEHICLE ASSOCIATION chapter of the EAA.

A journalist flew out special from New York City just to see the event and speak with me and a couple other Ecomodders!

I also went out in a Plug-In Prius test drive. Ecomodder member Daox was driving, and I was riding in the back seat with the video camera. So, expect to see a video test drive of that vehicle from me sometime soon.

Even more fun than that, I got to test ride a Zero model S electric motorcycle. What's really neat about that one is that it is an all electric street motorcycle with a belt-drive. It is SO quiet, and it just GOES! Still, I feel pretty proud of myself. Other than the chain noise and occasional chain slap I sometimes get on my cycle, performance, handling, etc were pretty similar between my homebuilt cycle and the commercially built one! (Other than, of course, the factory one having Lithium batteries....)

I think the big draw at the even this year WAS the Do-It-Yourself vehicles. Even though there were 4 Volts there, people seemed most interested in the home-built electrics, the DIY Ethanol Geo Tracker, and other one-man-custom-job vehicles.

Remember, Green Drive Expo has also expanded to a second location, so if you couldn't get to Madison, Wisconsin for this one, head out to San Francisco for the next Green Drive Expo on September 17th!










And... SHHHHHHHHSHHHH. We were NOT doing amatuer electric drag racing after the event....

[Daox]

I agree, it was great this year. There was much more DIY stuff than previous years which is always interesting to see.

The PHEV prius course was WAY better than last year (tiny cone corse). I almost didn't go just because of that, but ended up talking with a Toyota guy and he let me know the course was better. We actually got to go on the streets and get up to ~35 mph. I gotta say I like the PHEV Prius, but I need my scangauge to watch whats really happening. With my 14 mile daily commute (7 miles each way) the PHEV Prius makes a lot of sense for me.