a day in the life

well a little of it. I fed the dogs then took a ride over to the mall to walk a couple of miles. As usual I ran a stop light, because the bike is too light in the arse to trip the turn signal switch. I took off in a cloud of 36v dust. When I got to the mall, I parked in a space beside an air conditioner unit. It hides the bike from view a little.

So as I approached the mall, I saw the police car reflected in the tinted glass of the mall door. I am not sure if he was there because he saw me run the light, because I wasn't wearing a helmet of any kind when I did it, or because he was looking for a new night stick. Whatever the reason he drove by very slowly. I just went on into the mall and began to walk. Since I didn't see him again, I figure he didn't really want to bug me.

I for sure didn't want to bug him. I had the sla battery pack and the nimh hooked up piggy back. On the way home a wire on the sla pack got loose so for a few feet the bike was running only on the nimh pack. It tried to climb the big hill I was on at the time but couldn't do it. I don't figure those camera batteries will do much, unless I carry about ten thousand of them. I'm still tinkering though.

For some reason I do not understand, the bike runs better with both packs hooked on it. I'm not sure I can ever quantify the difference though. I wonder if there are extra amps available somehow. It doesn't make much sense since the sla give up huge amounts of amps.

I am also trying to decide what if anything I want to do with the rhino bike. Since I downgraded it the bike is a dog. When I went down to the 350 (@ 24v) watt motor and 25 max amp controller it runs like a three legged dog. It did okay with the 350 watt motor at 36v with the 30 amp max controller but it got way worse with the 25amp controller. If I want to ride the bike again, I might have to spring for a more powerful controller at least. I can always put the 600 watt @24v motor back on it. Heck I have two of them. I am also thinking I might give the 600 watt motor with the coaster brake sprocket welded on it a try. I have a wheel with a rag sprocket laying around I can try with it.

Anyway thats my day between 8am and 1pm . I am on the computer while my batteries charge.

My big adventure today was, while I rode along with my wife to a doctors appointment I spotted one of those radar trailers that the police set up to warn you how fast you are going. I stopped at Lowes to pick up a new analogue multi meter. I probably should not have gone old school on that since I really need to measure in tenths of a volt. but alas I can use it for continuity in battery building.

After the meter purchase I got the bike and headed for the quiet street to check out the top speed of my bike. I have been wondering since I built it. I used the wheel and motor off a mongoose 20 in trail bike. I souped up the controller and battery pack so I wanted to test it. In its original configuration the bike was rated at 10 to 15 mph with a hundred pound kid riding it. I am more than twice that size.

The bike now has two twenty inch wheels bolted to a 26" mountain bike frame. It pulls a heavy steel trailer with scooter tires and a plastic milk carton filled with batteries. I have 3 12v 17ah sla batteries in series to make 36v plus a whole bunch of nimh aa cells configured to make 36v about 22ah set up as a parallel battery pack. The motor is a geared 450 watt at 24v rig. I had to work out my own mount for it but it does work.

Okay so what were the results. The bike with my fat butt and all that heavy battery trailer and the small rear wheel did 19mph on the flat. A very respectable speed.

I have no plans to soup up the speed any more. It also climbs hills like a mountain goat.