ride em cowboy

I'm waiting for another 7ah battery to turn my 24v pack into a 36v pack, so today I rode the 24v pack /350 rhino bike around the hood for maybe the last time. I plan to use that bike to run me over to the park for my morning walks, which I will be doing now that I'm not building all day everyday.

So what did I find out? The 350 watt 24v is an excellent helper motor. I pedaled the bike very little and it was very slow on the hills. I like slow to be honest. I got a chance to look around and satisfy my noisy bend. It did get slow enough about twice in a mile so that I could pedal a few yards.

After I came back from the warm up ride, I jumped on the 500 watt 36v bike which makes it actually 750 watts. Since I wasn't planning to stop, I ran it over the route to the walking path.

First of all I couldn't let the throttle all the way out anywhere much. The roads are just awful around the hood these days. I guess it is the budget thing. All that stimulus money didn't make it down to the hood. One thing I did notice there is absolutely no pedaling required or even possible for the most part with the big bike. It is still best to start off pedaling but only because the bike will toss you around if you start under power.

All in all I expect the 350 with 36v to be the bike I ride most. I raised the seat and let a little air out of the tire to get it just a smidgen lower. The seat was rubbing. It ran better of course with the drag gone.

The big bike has more drag. I think the chain is too tight. Or the tension on the tire is to much. Since I welded it in place, I will try letting some air out of the tire to lower the tension. Still it is faster than I really like, but it has that great hill climbing ability.

If I had a carport or some other kind of shelter I would probably ride the bikes more. Having to attach the trailer is a pain. Getting them in and out of the shop is easier since I hung the new door to swing out instead of in, but still not perfect.

It didn't rain after all so after dinner my wife and I took a ride to the marina. I rode my new bike and she drove the car just in case. I had her clock the bike on a flat stretch. She said it was close to 20 mph but bled off speed as I hit a hill. She said it might have gotten to around 15mph. Still a respectable speed for an ebike I built.

I thought it did very well indeed, even if I hadn't have her input.

I rode the rhino bike to the home depot for bolts just now. It rained all morning but the roads seemed dry. I had a little slip when I first started but otherwise the bike did great. I even ran with the traffic on main street. Okay they were only doing like twenty miles an hour but I was right there amongst'em. It was a fun ride.

Oh yeah here is a bit of irony. I bought a blaze orange tee shirt. Actually I bought bought four of them. So I put one on for the ride. In the home depot parking lot some woman in an suv turned right in front of me. I was on the brake hard to keep my bike from french kissing her suv.

I bought the tees as a bit of extra safety, no one have ever cut me off before so blatantly. Not only did the shirt not help, she must have thought I was some kind of giant flower is all i can figure.

Now both are possible. The bike that ran 20 on the flat was the 750 and I have yet to feel comfortable with that thing wide open. The roads around here are pretty rough these days. Yesterday I was trying to make some room so I scrapped out a bike that didn't work out. I switched out a 24" front suspension fork for the solid fork on the 350. I rode it to the park today and it did much better.

I would love to figure out a way to put the Rhino onto a full suspension bike. I would buy one if I could figure it out. It would have to be attached to the rear wheel section not to the seat post.

By the way I was up at six with my dog and her allergies. She had hay fever of all things. Spring and fall she is a miserable girl. She also makes life miserable for me and the wife.

I got in the third 7ah battery so now I have a 12ah 36v pack and a 7 hour 36v pack. That 350 watt motor run on 36v is really a nice little motor, if you don't mind some very light pedal work. It is like pedaling on the flat when I hit a hill.

My other complaint is those wide, but cheap, bell seats from Walmart are HARD. I can feel every pebble in the road with them. The best seats I had were off old cruiser bikes but somehow they all broke on me. Just old and rusty I guess. The idea of paying more for a seat than I did for the bike just seems rank.

Im going to take a look at that. I never ever considered it and the thrift store has several of them right beside the bikes. I should have at least looked at one of them. I will do that next time I stop in.

Son in law rode the big Rhino and liked it. Of course he had all these ideas to improve it. He wont do anything like that just tell me what he WOULD have done if he had built it.

I rode the big rhino bike on a real world long test run. I ran it to walmart and the thrift store where I buy my bikes. It ran great. On a long stretch of good road I managed to open it up. I love the way it ran. Yes the cars passed me but they didn't fly by.

I got some jeers on main street, but I also had a young man driving in the lane next to be tell me at a light that he had thought the bike was cool. He had never seen anything like it. I explained that unless he saw me again he probably would never see another one.

So far big rhino has done everything just right. I tried to test little rhino but the batteries drained before I could finish the test. Still even it seems to have more than enough power. Adding those 12 volts made a world of difference. If the little rhino gets better range, I will switch to it. It isn't about speed for me as much as convenience.