I know this should post since it was the third entry I tried to post and it did post before.
I started research on the idea of alternative transportation last year and was doing some playing around but never made it anywhere since I kept running into one stumbling block that I think I may have overcome now in the past few days. I'm back looking into the idea once again since I'm about to go carless come the end of the month. No sense in trying to do any upkeep on my car anymore. I'm the original owner and it has 313,000 miles on it. Not bad considering the lack of any major work that has been done to the car in the years I've owned it.
I'm back investigating the idea of converting bike tires over into a trike, for better balance at stops without having to put the feet down. I would then like to go ahead and power it with either gas or electric, tending toward eletric. The problem is I don't understand why you guys are getting such horrible mileage on your electric bikes. I can understand the lack of speed due to restrictions placed by the law but the sucky mileage makes no sense at all.
Last year in doing my research I stumbled into the idea of Electrathon vehicles. It's a cluster of high schools and colleges throughout the country that build up electric vehicles from scratch and race them each spring at tracks around the country. They have some simple requirements they must meet to be able to compete, the big one being the battery requirement:
No more than 67 pounds of SLA batteries...err 1Kw.
There is also one major race requirement as well:
No recharging batteries during the race unless using solar cells placed on the car.
Back in 2006 they managed to have a race at New Hampshire International Speedway and the winner ended up being a private entry from Portland, ME. He won the 1-hour race by going 53+ miles. He broke his own record this past summer at a special invitational event at the Ford Proving Grounds in Dearborn, MI. He upped his mark to 62.05 miles in one hour...using 1Kw of battery power.
evmaine.org/html/worldrecord.html
Why is it you guys are getting such crummy mileage from your set ups. Michael isn't using much in the way of electricity and he is still getting 60+ miles on one recharge while going highway speeds. I can understand the extra aerodynamic drag from the bike but the bike has the benefit of less rolling resistance at the same time, again it makes no sense.
I'm not sure what to think right now. I have thought about playing around with electric weedeater engines since everybody is always looking to get rid of them for free. I remember last year reading that it wasn't a smart idea to use old car starter engines since they are built for continuous use like something along the lines of weedeater would. Before I start playing around I would love to find first though why the mileage difference is so great between what Michael and quite a few other Electrathon competitors have gotten and what you guys are getting. I would love to avoid the problems you guys are having.
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I started research on the idea of alternative transportation last year and was doing some playing around but never made it anywhere since I kept running into one stumbling block that I think I may have overcome now in the past few days. I'm back looking into the idea once again since I'm about to go carless come the end of the month. No sense in trying to do any upkeep on my car anymore. I'm the original owner and it has 313,000 miles on it. Not bad considering the lack of any major work that has been done to the car in the years I've owned it.
I'm back investigating the idea of converting bike tires over into a trike, for better balance at stops without having to put the feet down. I would then like to go ahead and power it with either gas or electric, tending toward eletric. The problem is I don't understand why you guys are getting such horrible mileage on your electric bikes. I can understand the lack of speed due to restrictions placed by the law but the sucky mileage makes no sense at all.
Last year in doing my research I stumbled into the idea of Electrathon vehicles. It's a cluster of high schools and colleges throughout the country that build up electric vehicles from scratch and race them each spring at tracks around the country. They have some simple requirements they must meet to be able to compete, the big one being the battery requirement:
No more than 67 pounds of SLA batteries...err 1Kw.
There is also one major race requirement as well:
No recharging batteries during the race unless using solar cells placed on the car.
Back in 2006 they managed to have a race at New Hampshire International Speedway and the winner ended up being a private entry from Portland, ME. He won the 1-hour race by going 53+ miles. He broke his own record this past summer at a special invitational event at the Ford Proving Grounds in Dearborn, MI. He upped his mark to 62.05 miles in one hour...using 1Kw of battery power.
evmaine.org/html/worldrecord.html
Why is it you guys are getting such crummy mileage from your set ups. Michael isn't using much in the way of electricity and he is still getting 60+ miles on one recharge while going highway speeds. I can understand the extra aerodynamic drag from the bike but the bike has the benefit of less rolling resistance at the same time, again it makes no sense.
I'm not sure what to think right now. I have thought about playing around with electric weedeater engines since everybody is always looking to get rid of them for free. I remember last year reading that it wasn't a smart idea to use old car starter engines since they are built for continuous use like something along the lines of weedeater would. Before I start playing around I would love to find first though why the mileage difference is so great between what Michael and quite a few other Electrathon competitors have gotten and what you guys are getting. I would love to avoid the problems you guys are having.
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