Day 28 of my recumbent ebike build: first test ride! Quick ride down the street and back. Still found a couple things to tune up.
There’s a clicking sound from the front wheel area when it’s moving under load. Didn’t show up running the motor on a stand. I wonder if the motor cable isn’t secured as well as it should be?
The pedal assist needs to be dialed in some. It wasn’t detecting much power from me.
Even so, it went great! Everything else in that 0.1 mile ride worked!
If your EVs aren't selling maybe that's because you're making giant fucking trucks and SUVs and hyper-expensive luxury sedans and the kind of people who want EVs mostly just want a compact car for getting to work and running errands.
@tess The affordable, efficient, small #EV most people want is an #eBike and/or #cargoBikes which use 1/100th the amount of #lithium and other #carbon-intensive resources, costs less to own two #eBikes than one year of car expenses, don't have to give up your old gas car yet, no worries for #parking or grid-scale crisis about charging infrastructure. All we need are #transportation Engineers who don't fruitlessly waste every inch of city streets on cars, and some transit priority lanes instead.
"As currently written, HB 4103:
...would restrict some of the most affordable #eBike styles to [16yo and up]
...[allows localities to] ban the use of certain e-bikes from accessing multi-use paths and trails
...Enforcement based on e-bike class will be highly subjective and confusing for users
...Misses the mark on providing a clear definition... [cargo / 4 wheels, bigger motors]"
If you support walkability and safe streets but only if zero drivers perceive themselves to be inconvenienced by the infrastructure, then you don't support walkability or safe streets.
alt text: crying feels guy meme: "I... have to drive around the block and pay to park here!?", the driver's tears flow into protected bike lanes across the bottom of the image with happy children and financially secure adults enjoying the wind in their hair and a livable city with plentiful #transit as they ride to errands and other short trips in the neighborhood on comfortable upright bikes, #eBikes and #cargoBikes. #BanCars#BikeTooter
Day 9: Static tests of the suspension with a rear-mounted battery: with me sitting in the seat, there’s about 0.5 inch (1.2 cm) of vertical travel available. This corresponds to about 30 lbs (133 N, or 13 kg-force) of force. That doesn’t feel like enough of a buffer.
So, instead, I’ll be mounting the battery on top of the rear rack. As a future upgrade, I’ll mount it under the frame, just in front of the rear wheel. (1/2)
Day 10: I made the extension cables for the throttle and brake. These use standard JST-SM plus, yay open standards! Each cable is multiple wires all in heat shrink tubing for cable management reasons.
After, I installed these on the bike, along with the battery <-> motor controller. I slid them into some spiral wrap, which looks quite nice! 😊
Day 11: I installed T-Nuts to the rear retaining bracket for the battery mount, and I started to build the front retaining bracket for the battery mount. Which are fancy words for "things which go just under the rear rack, to hold the battery mount to the rear rack".
I also started designing a housing for the cycle analyst (front display) & all its connectors. The front light will also be mounted to that housing. It's very boxy right now, which I'll fix before printing it.
Day 12 of my recumbent ebike build: Refined the display housing. Much less boxy, and should be fairly easy to assemble once printed. That said, it's not terribly printable: requires supports, has to be printed at an angle to fit on the build plate, and will take ages (2.5 days at my desired layer height). I'll do a test print at 0.3mm layer height before I commit to a 2.5 day print job. This test print will still take 17 hours to finish. 😭
Day 13 of my recumbent ebike build: Back to working on the battery mount. Sadly, I think I've learned all I can from this... let's call it the prototype. I managed to get the prototype secured to the bike rack. But in doing so, I had to cut into the mount enough such that the battery isn't able to be attached to the mount. 🤦🏻♀️
Oh well, I learned a lot, and making the second version should go much smoother.
Day 14 of my recumbent ebike build: prototype for the display housing finished printing. I removed the supports, and went about trying to assemble it. Immediately noticed that the display is too wide to fit! D’oh! I continued to test the part and make notes on it, including mounting it to the bike. Where it looks pretty great.
I’ll definitely be making another prototype part before I make the final part.
Now that's what I call a Cargo Bike - this CaGo from Denmark is now available here - if #ebikes are the future for #urban travel, then this must make a strong showing for the #delivery part of that idea.
Upgrading my recumbent to electric night 1: motor is installed! Still some tweaking to do - re-aligning the brake pads, namely. But, that’s a good start.
Yes, I did spend extra on a black motor with black spokes. I also got a black motor controller. I need the color scheme to match.
Day 2: spent a couple hours trying and failing to adjust the disk brake. I'll get it... I hope.
Also removed the cranks, bottom bracket, and so forth to install the torque sensor (which replaces the bottom bracket). Unfortunately, I don't have a chainring that'll fit this setup, and I forgot to order one earlier, so more wait...
I also modeled up a way to mount the display near the front of the bike.
hi #BikeTooter - what electric bike (if any) would you recommend to an adult who learned to ride fairly recently? Lives in an urban setting, looking to do leisure/fitness riding mostly for now. Fairly cautious rider. #EBikes
Lots of errands today, finishing with full panniers from grocery shopping topped off with a case of wine. 🍷 (UPS missed me a couple times, so I had them hold it at a nearby store)
Can everyone on #BikeTooter agree whether we're using the plural form or the singular form for hashtags? Or can Mastodon core give us a feature that enables smooshing hashtags together if one is the plural form of the other?