Ridin the ebike fall/winter edition

I thought the cold killed batteries... If the cold is good for them, I will quit worrying about storing mine in the shop. I do try to keep them plugged up to a charger.

I know my body is about 60% worn out and mow I have time to enjoy life. However I refuse to admit that I'm worn out.

I built the gary fisher 20" today. I had a motor which just needed a couple of small alterations to work. I could have done it without any disturbing of the bike except for the addition of a throttle but I screwed up and broke the shifter control while trying to move it to a different handlebar setup. So I tried something and it works. I didn't really want to buy a shifter and cable so I put one of those cable stop brass fittings on the cable at the end of the sheath. I was able to align the derailleur to the gear I wanted to use for now. I can actually line up any gear I want. I can try out all the gears to see how I feel about replacing the shifter.

I had plans to set it at 24v and the other rhino at 48v but instead i set them both at 36 for now. Knowing that I can always use the technique to set up a two shifter mountain bike to work on the large front sprocket only. Just use the cable stop to hold the front sprocket guide in place. then use the other shifter to change gears six ways in the high range. It might be interesting.

Why bother you ask? Because the handle bar is way way to crowed with two shifters. The problem is the five speed doesn't have a high enough range. It needs that big front sprocket which it doesn't have.

Yesterday the weather was mild for winter. It was gray but mild and reasonably dry. The pavement was damp with spots of water standing but not bad for a rhino drive. So it was time to do the first tests on the new bike.

First I ran it with 24v in what would have been 2nd gear of the five choices. I could only pedal at the start of the ride and a little on turns. Away from stop signs was also doable. But at 24v the bike got pretty slow on hills. Even so I couldn't catch the freewheel.

So I move on to 4th gear and it was better I could catch the freewheel at the top of the hills. The bike was still going very slowly. It was impossible to pedal assist to keep the speed up going uphill.

I put the bike in the highest ratio of front to back sprockets and tried again. It did better but still wasn't high enough to maintain anything like even speeds. If the bike is a standard crank set, I'm going to swap the small front sprocket for a standard coaster one I think. The bike shop usually has an old used one laying around I can buy for a few bucks. I also need a shifter and cable set as well. I might as well go back to the bike shop and get a used fifteen speed and use my new cable stop trick to make room for a throttle on the it. I better not buy another one since my wife will know im on a buying binge again.

My wife and I buy each other very small things for Christmas and splurge on the kids and grand kids. To be honest at our place in life there is nothing we want that we dont just go buy. She paid for the newest bike so I darn well better keep it a while.

I test road the new to me Gary Fisher 20" bike with the rhino motor I was pulling some heavy 17ah batteries in 36v so heavy trailer. It did really well except I still couldn't catch the free wheels so I was about ready to go to the bike shop when I took one last look around. I found a three sprocket front end from a bike I stripped out last month. Thank goodness for some reason I saved the crank and chain ring. I took it apart and pulled the smaller gear off. I put the two larger ones on the Fisher crank set. The chain even worked. I rode it down the drive and it seems to stay together and has a much higher gear ration. Those front chainrings on the five speed were very very small.

It it proves to be too high a gear, I have ten combinations I can try to get just the right one. When it warms up just a little more, I am going to test ride it again.

I took the rhino with the 36vpower pack out for a test ride with the new gearing. I was just a great ride. The way those gears are setup, I can pedal the bike at almost any speed and get tension. The freewheel doesn't seem to exist, until I stop pedaling and the crank stops truning. It is just great. I can climb hills with as much or as little effort as I like. I am going to start range tests on the bike after the snow is cleared from the roads.

Yes there is a snowstorm headed this way tomorrow.

I think I have found something interesting. It has to do with riding the bike a set distance then letting the bike sit a while and hour or so maybe. The batteries even without a charger seem to strengthen. I'm not sure what the effect is but I would like to test it. ride till the batteries are weak, then measure the charge.

Ride it the same distance but stop about halfway and let the bike sit an hour or so and finish the ride. Then measure the charge to see if there is a significant difference. I should check on the net first to see if it has been tested before. I'm sure it has.

There is two inches of snow on the ground and I'm sorely tempted to ride the rhino to see what it will do in the snow. It ran on damp roads just fine, but would it run on the snow. It is tempting and I just might give it a try after I get truly bored.

Too bad that the snow comes with the cold air. By the time it is warm enough for me to ride, it will be melted to slushies.

Okay the day after the snow storm I rode the rhino bike to the office depot. round trip about three miles. The roads were everything from an inch of standing water to dry. So as most of you know the rhino drive is a rubber wheel set on top of another rubber wheel friction drive.

So dry pavement it is a beautiful ride.

Damp pavement it is still a good ride with just a little more help.

On a road soaked with water or standing water it is a nightmare almost. I can pedal it up the hills after hitting a puddle, except for the largest and steepest hills, but it is work. I actually ran out of air and had to push it up one hill. It did come home though on it's own.

I think wet roads are out but damp ones the day after a rain are fine. It's the standing water that kills it. It wasn't just a patch of water that I could ride off. It was the sections of the road that were soaked from the runoff.

So another lesson learned the hard way. Today I miss my pusher wheel it was chain driven. With no real weight on it, I doubt that it would have been really effective either.

I stripped the chain drive from the bike today. It ran like shinola in a can. It also burned up a supply wire before it got to the fuse. The Rhino drive skips when it gets in a big strain, the chain drive just over heated. So much for improvements. Improve it till it wont run at all, I guess.

I put the rhino on the front wheel this time. I tried it once before but for some reason it didn't work well. I'm going to give it another chance. I won't have a chance to try it until saturday I expect. The weather is going to be bad here tomorrow.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Since my wife went to a Christmas Eve Church service and I am a heathen, I finished repairing the bike. It now has a rhino drive on the front wheel and it works. I am looking forward to giving a a test ride the next time the weather is nice. The good thing is the drive can be easily reconfigured for the rear wheel if it proves to be too much of a balance issue. I don't think it will but I won't know till I ride it.

I am again trying a rhino motor on the front wheel of a bike. I would love to be able to do this routinely. I eliminates the need to change the braking or gearing system of the stock bike. That would be a big plus I think. The bike is massively off balance sitting still. I might have to work on that somehow. I hope that goes away when it is moving.

My first test ride will be later on today. I'll keep you posted.

I rode the bike and it does okay with the front wheel. It is a bit hard to steer since it is off balance from the motor hanging over the side. For a front wheel drive I need to reconfigure the motor, but for now it is doable. It slips and skips when it is over burdened which makes it much easier to deal with than the direct chain drive I tried last.

I put the rhino drive on the front wheel of a bike and rode it today. It is a mutha to control at first but it hums. Not only that but it absolutely will not interfere with any part of the bike's controls. you still have your shifting ability and your brakes. You can use any size motor to control how much help you get from the drive. I rode mine like a motorcycle today for only a mile since I'm still doing the basic tests now.

I have one bike with the drive on the front wheel which is really what a rhino looks like, and one on the rear wheel. The rear wheel model is easier to control at slow speeds or just pedal power, so it would be my preference except that the front wheel design is easier to maneuver around the shop when not running. The rear wheel is light with no drive on it and the front wheel will rotate making it easier to move around. I am going to ride both for a while before I decide which is best all around.

Ridin' the ebike winter edition is mostly about the COLD. I am on my after Christmas diet& exercise plan. I threw out all the sugar last night, so today is the withdrawal and walking day.

As I have said over and over I live within three miles of everything a man needs. The mall where I walk in the winter is one mile each direction. I waited until the temperature was 39 degrees before I rolled the old bike with the big basket and rear rhino out. I got it all rigged up and took off. The bike has 3 12ah and 3 7ah batteries all hooked in parallel and then in series to make a 19ah 36v pack.

I had to keep the bike on a low speed because of the wind chill. it must have been below thirty as the bike silently zipped along. I made it down and walked three miles inside the mall. That is three laps top and bottom.

Walking at the mall is easier because I can cut the walk short anytime I want. Walking at the mall is harder because I can cut the walk short anytime I want. I had to really push myself to keep going this morning. Not only is it good exercise, it is also a good exercise in discipline. I really wanted to stop after two miles.

When I sat on the bench to put on my riding gear my back really did hurt some. Then I had the cold ride home. When I got to the last stop sign before the house, I motioned the car behind me around. He had followed me at least a block maybe more. I knew he had plenty of room to pass me, but he waited until I waved him by me.

Now a man my age with white hair on a bike is usually a drunken bum and everybody avoids eye contract. This young oriental man, who had followed me a while, knew that it was an e bike, so he gave me a thumbs up as he passed. It made my day, I swear. Such a simple thing and I really felt good about the bike.

yeah most people are too busy to care about us old codgers. I always speak to everyone I meet when I'm walking at the mall.

I spoke to a younger woman today and she looked terrified until the words sank in. I met her walking toward me and said. One of us is going the wrong way." I said nothing else and by the time I was passing her she was smiling. I met her on the next lap and she was smiling ear to ear at me. I smiled back and walked on by.

Day two of the diet/exercise/after Christmas plan... It was 34 degrees and 28 wind chill factor standing by the bike. On the bike at about 15mpm it must have been about wind chill 20 degrees. However it was doable.

I rode the front wheel drive and found that the weight is still making me a little crazy. I think that thing needs a major rethink. It did the job quite well however all things considered.

The battery pack on this one is three 17ah batteries in series. The pack I used yesterday is a combination of six batteries making a pack of 19ah. It is an older pack of batteries by the way.

So I rode the exact same route, with almost the exact same rest time on the batteries. The remaining battery charge was different though. The 19ah old set had 38.7 volts left on the charge. The 17ah new batteries had 38.2 That is a significant difference.

There is a variable though which I have to test tomorrow. The 19ah batteries were charged with a different charger and might have started with a slightly higher charge. I will recharge the battery pack with the same charger I used on the 17ah pack tonight and ride it tomorrow the same way. Then I will have a definitive answer.

As to the walk itself, I made it 2.5 miles today. I realized after I stopped that I forgot to walk the top half of the mall on my last round. I was exhausted anyway so it was no big deal, I hope.

The people who walk at the mall are much different than those on the trail. For one thing they are older. I'm no spring chicken so they might be my age but they carry themselves differently. They seem almost apologetic in demeanor. Maybe that is just perception but those on the trail seem happier and more in your face in a good way. The mall people walk in pairs and there seems less of a "we are in this together" attitude.

I wonder if the mall walkers have more health issues, than those who walk outside. Either way I do it because after that cold ride, I don't want to walk three more miles in the cold, then climb back on that bike to ride in the cold yet again.

Well that was day two at the mall.

I spent the day today moving the motor on the front wheel drive bike. I hung over the side at first. That is how they are setup in the rear wheel version. The rear wheel version so far is the best. I did want to try to front wheel drive setup because it seems that it would be easier to make the bike more self contained one day.

So I moved the motor from hanging on the side to sitting on top of the wheel. The change wasn't all that difficult but I spent most of the day trying to make the bike stop throwing the chain off. I kept thinking the motor was solid enough until I finally did get it mounted solid enough. Once I did that I realized how much movement must have been in the mounts earlier.

Anyway with a little luck, I will be able to test ride it tomorrow.

The problem with running my two similar but somewhat different bikes is it is almost impossible to compare them because there are so many variable.

Today's unanswered question is this, Since there is a significant difference in the power reading of the batter packs after the same ride, what is causing it.

First of all what is the same about the bikes.

They are both on twenty inch frames...

they both have a front and rear brake.

I have been riding them power on all the time no pedal assist except on hill and very little of that.

The tension on the wheels should be similar since the tension rods are just to keep the motor in place. They were set with the motor under only the tension of its own weight.

They have the same drive motor. both are turning the same wheel with the same sprocket ratios (I think)

Both perform well over the two mile test ride.

There is about a half volt difference in the reading when they arrive back at my shop.

Now for the differences. Bike A is the one with the best reading... Bike B is the lesser performer.

Bike a has a well used 6 battery pack made of 3 7ah batteries and 3 12 ah batteries hooked up in series and parallel to make 36v 19ah...Bike B had 3 17ah batteries but they are new..

Bike A has a trailer with 16" bike wheels... bike b has a small trailer with 12" scooter wheels. Both sets of wheels have bearings and are well lubed I think.

Bike a had a rear wheel mount and bike b has a front wheel mount but that happened later so I don't know how to count that yet. I need to do a test ride on it tomorrow.

So my question is could it be the fact that there are multiple batteries in one pack?
could it be that the 2ah difference in the packs makes that much difference?
Could it be the size of the trailer wheels?

Those are the variables I find most likely. Actually I like the big trailer a lot. Not only can I get the multi battery pack, but there is also room for a couple of bags of groceries or I can put the second battery pack in for really long rides.

So any guesses out there...

could keep the chain on the front wheel drive motor after I tried to balance the wheel better. Since the balance was off so far, I put it back on the rear wheel. I threw the trailer about twenty feet across the road, than god there was no traffic. I have been thinking that I need a safety chain on both trailers. Looks like a good time to invent something.

The bike did run good though. I think I'm going to resign myself to the bike being rear wheel drive.

I have been secretly wondering how a 26" big mountain bike would look with twenty inch wheels and of course a chain ring from a twenty inch bike. Would it look like a mini stretch.

I could do that with a couple of thrift store bikes for peanuts.