Bob and I smiling about the future.
My new ride! Check out my Scion XB which is headed to Los Angeles to be converted to full electric. www.acpropulsion.com
As my wife Deirdre noticed, the fates have been busy.
After the weekend in Sebastapol introducing folks to electric bicycles and all of the challenges we are facing with battery management, controllers etc. I came home and cruised through the listing of bicycles on Craigslist. Lo and behold, my new ride appeared. The seller, Bob had put the bike together with the intention of riding across country with his brother!! The ride didn't happen and Bob didn't have room to keep the bike so he sold it to me.
I went over to Half Moon Bay this afternoon, hung out with Bob for about an hour and a half and came home with a bike that will work to get us across the country. It's a mid drive system which means that the motor is attached to the frame and is connected to the pedal powered drive train. The advantages that I have noticed are 1) the bicycle gearing connects with the motor optimizing the ability of the motor to help on any terrain and 2) losing the weight of the motor in the hub makes the bicycle much more manageable as a bicycle. I tested the bike without using the motor just to get used to it and it was surprisingly easy.
I feel like the almost insurmountable technical challenge surrounding the Green Ride has evaporated thanks to Bob and the bike he put together. Michael had set the deadline of getting the bike technology sorted out by the end of the summer and after today, I feel like we're ahead of schedule. There's lots of details about why this bike will work that I won't bother to explain. The bottom line is that the bike has the potential for a 100 mile range and weighs less than 75 pounds.
The weight of the bike is key to its success as a long range vehicle. And the fairing doesn't hurt either!! If this bike performs as presented, charging batteries and battery management are both idiot proof. Plug it in . . . wait . . . unplug . . . ride! I love it!!
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Good luck on your adventure. Your bike looks a lot like my EX Rider Gold Rush, even the fairing. Did you get it from Karl at ZZip? Do you have the aerodynamic trunk?
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Have you compared your electric bike with the extra weight of the motor to a similar bike without. In other words, how do you quantify the advantage of adding 75 pounds of load?
Paul