Zen & pp/e bike

My hub motor should come tomorrow.. I am like a kid on christmas eve waiting for that new bike... Wish my dad was here to put it together for me. Or just to see it, when I'm finished.

I have the friction drive up and running just like I predicted. All it took was spending all that money on the hub for the old noodle to come up with a way to make the drive stay on.

I rode a couple of short rides on it yesterday. I'm saving the new batteries for the hub so, I'm running around on the set from my grand daughter's scooter. They won't hold a change so I get the mile done but by then I'm limping home. Still I can ride a mile without being on the verge of exhaustion. It's the old not quite efficient heart lung thing.... Too many heart attacks and too many cigarettes before I quit.

Still it is nice to move around some.

I passed a guy on a regular bike yesterday. Yes he was old and it was on an uphill stretch but still I did it on a bike I built.

I'm not really used to the slower speeds yet, but I do love being able to see exactly what my neighbors are up to. Also in the cold the wind isn't hitting me at ground speed plus 20mph.

I ride without a helmet at the moment since I'm doing less than a young guy on a ten speed would be doing. If I do go back to a helmet, it will be a bike helmet not the required motorcycle helmet. I have one of course, but I think it is just overkill. Or maybe I will have that put on my tombstone lol.

Here lies Charlie Gurkin
who said a motorcycle helmet was overkill...
He was wrong... the knit cap was just plain kill...

This is the bike I bought for 7bucks but it is after I customized it for my special needs. It is the platform for my new hub motor kit. It is going to be sufficiently strange looking I think.


and yes the pedals have only about two inches of ground clearance.

the ride with the hub motor begins. first of all let me give you some comparisons between a 250 hub motor and a 300 watt friction drive. Both run 24 volts so it's a pretty fair comparison.

These are just first impressions. Things may change later.

Quiet... The hub motor beats the friction all to death.
Ride... Again the hub has it all over the friction
Efficiency,,, the hub again. The energy consumption was just a little better. I will know more when I make a longer ride. I need shorter pedals for that.

There is very little difference in the weight of the two bikes, Handling is very similar. As for ease of pedaling if you lift the friction from the wheel there would probably be no difference at all.

The pac (pedal assist control) is pretty much useless on the bike for me since I am running a twenty inch rear wheel.

Cost wise the friction drive has the hubba bubba beat all to heck. I can put together a 500 watt friction drive for about 150 plus the bike. My very low power bike comes in at a whopping 350 plus bike. Ease of assembly I like the friction once you get the parts working right.

I enjoyed my first ride on the hub bike and I think I will enjoy it over all once i get some shorter pedal arms on it. I don't know that it will totally replace the friction drive bike but it is very very similar performance wise and seems to have a slight edge.

the Zen hub bike is complete now I THINK..

Here are a couple of pictures.. Yes it represents my universe. Junkyard and pieced together.



Yes I am going to do something different with the controller.

the battery pack with my homemade mount.
and shoes cover

I took the new hub motor bike for another ride today. That makes three one mile trips I made to test it out. I really do like this bike a lot. 250 watts on 24volts is plenty with the hub engine. No I'm not going to set the world on fire, but it moves me along fast enough.

While out I spoke to a kid on the side of the road, and waved at a neighbor as he pullout of his drive. I need to put the rear view mirror back on the bike now that I am happy with it. I might want to see what is behind me. It isn't as big a deal with this bike as it was with the china 2stroke. I can actually hear a car on this bike. I could not hear a train on the 2stroke.

I had planned to make the last ride a couple of miles but I got hit by a rain drop. It seemed like a good time to stop for the day.

You are absolutely right.... They have a niche... Just as the motorized bike is not suitable for travel on the interstate highway, the ebike is limited in its uses.

My needs are such that the ebike it exactly what I do need at this time in my life, but I'm not sure that would be true for many or any others. The first bikes I built were ebikes, then I moved up to a China 2stroke kit, then to weedwhackers, now back to Ebikes.

When I had the China kit bike, I never ventured more than six miles from home. I wish the land here had fewer hills but it's doable and I do need the exercise.

There is a certain amount of and calm in not having to pay attention every second. On an Ebike I can day dream a little. Just have to be sure to give the little old ladies in there medical scooter room to pass me.

I have never been able to make a trip of that kind. I envy you. when I was young there was just never an opportunity and now my health prohibits it. When I was a kid in high school long before easy rider, I read a book about two friends who traveled a huge part of the Western USA on Vespas. They camped along the way and seemed to have a great time. I was a kid and poor as dirt but it sounded like a great adventure.

Have fun on your trip an be careful.

The truly sad this is that even if I built a bike that could do it, my body would never hold out. But like the man said what a great dream.



Now here is a zen question. What has no purpose but you would like to take on such a journey. I will have to think about it myself.

I finally got everything together enough to ride my friction drive bike today. I used my trailer to carry the batteries and the nut came off about 3/4 of a mile into the ride. I brought it home and moved the batteries to over the rear wheel. I was able to keep my rear brake since I had put a lower bracket on for it.

During the ride I again noticed the slower pace, the quieter ride, and the warmer air. I rode up almost ten feet behind a woman pushing her baby stroller before she noticed me. We exchanged greetings. The temperature is like 45 degrees so both she and the baby were all bundled up. It was interesting that I noticed such things I never would have on the gas bike.

I should have done this at the last post. This is a shot of my diy friction drive ebike.... I also have a hub drive that I will be showing in a day or two. I have a new power cable on the way for it. The hub motor is also a slow bike which I wanted.

I got my cable in to replace the one I screwed up for the hub bike. I will be riding just as soon as the weather cooperates. I am soooooo happy.

I have two bikes that will run now. Just waiting on the weather to cooperate.

I know I have said this a dozen times but I'm amazed at the lack of impact of these ebikes. Today I rode four miles to test the range of the bike and that's about it. While I was out I passed a guy two blocks over setting a mailbox post. He was using a garden scoop to pour sacrete brand concrete mix around the post. He also had a blue pail of water to pour in the hole when he had it filled.

I rode past him and he didn't even know I was there. I came back later since i rode in a circular course doing laps for the test. He and a neighbor who had sold me a junked up mountain bike were talking. I caught just a few words as I passed.

On my third pass the neighbor who had sold me the old mountain bike asked. You not riding motor bikes anymore. I laughed and explained it was electric. That is quite an endorsement for the quiet of these bikes.

It's slow but I don't have a schedule anymore.

Re: E-Travels

Michigan Mike said:

Hey Decon,
I'm still enjoying your E-Chronicles. Makes being snowbound in Michigan a little easier. Just for reference, do you have any numbers yet on how fast and how far your two pp/e bikes will go?
.

Click to expand...

I am doing the range tests now. The pp/ebike is about like a regular bike rider could do but its a heck of a lot easier. I expect about ten to twelve mph.

The range test is in another post at the moment.

Today is supposed to be rainy, so I hurried out to make my range test before the rain happened. It was a bit chilly at 40 degrees with no sun, so I wore my knit cap and no helmet.

My rear view mirror popped off while I'm getting the bike out of the shop. I didn't bother to put it back since I can hear the cars come up on me. Also it was threatening to rain.

So off I go tooling around the two blocks I use as my test track. I passed the Sunday morning church bus with its driver in shirt and tie, which you never see on a real school bus. He pulled around a corner went a couple of houses and stopped. A Caucasian kid, with a big smile, about twelve years old got off the bus and called to a black child about ten who came running from the house. So much for racial cowardliness.

Later I was tooling down the road when i heard the roar of a car's tires. I looked over my shoulder in time to see the car start by. I got a chance to read his sticker. POLICE.. ah oh, no helmet and on a power bike. You are in trouble now, I thought.

The Police Officer didn't seem to realize that I was on anything other than a regular bike, which does not require a helmet. I LOVE my ebike sometimes.

When I got home I was a little unsteady on my feet from the long morning ride. Still it was worth it.

I took the friction bike out for a spin today. I did a mile and the chain came off twice. It was to loose and of course I didn't have a wrench. I rode it home with the motor pulling it most of the way. I was really glad that I had kept that rear hand brake since the coaster brake isn't much good without a chain.

I also switched out the pedals for those pegs I make these days. It took a little work but I got it done. I am still probably going to have to go with a 20" crankset one day. But in the meantime, I'm going to put the friction drive in mothballs. I want to double up on the battery packs for the hubber bubber.

The hub is a little more efficient. I think that I will keep the friction ready to go just in case I break the hubber bubber.